The cost of feeding my family of six continues to grow as the littles’ appetites now surpass mine. My oldest can down his own pizza, no problem. And then there’s fighting over the toppings. Forget it. We’ve decided pizza night in is the way to go.
My favorite time for homemade pizza is spring and early summer when we’re starting to get produce from our garden. My favorite is a margherita pizza with fresh basil and tomato. But we’ve been known to throw squash, broccoli, and pretty much anything we’ve harvested on a pizza.
We’ve made some pretty tasty pizza dough which isn’t difficult, but having a few store-bought crusts around makes homemade pizza a go-to meal we can do in a crunch with little cleanup. The kids love the personal size crust for their personal request. Tonight it was two bacon and one cheese only.
By the way, cooking a pound of bacon for meal prep has become a pretty normal thing. Great for breakfast sandwiches, salads, BLTs, and pizza.
Typically my husband and I split a pizza, but lately we’ve been making our own and having leftovers for lunch. I’m more of a cheese or veggie type, and he likes meat and all things spicy. If we try to compromise, no one ends up happy.
Today I went with sliced tomato, kalamata olive halves, artichokes, and topped with fresh basal. Our basil leaves are GIGANTIC this year which I don’t hate. I forgot this time but have learned to add these about 1/2 to 3/4 the way through cooking to prevent them from burning.
Nick is more of an experimenter. Tonight he went with bacon, pineapple, tomato, feta, sliced basil, and pesto sauce mixed with red.
We always grate our cheese instead of buying the shredded bags, because honestly it just taste better. The wax used to keep shredded cheese from sticking changes the texture when it’s melted. Sometimes we’ll cook them on the grill instead of the oven. I’d love to put in an outdoor pizza oven one day! But tonight, these just went in the oven.
One final pro tip… the “secret” ingredient I picked up from Pizza Revolution… a drizzle of honey on top. Trust me, this gives a whole new meaning to sweet and savory. Absolutely delicious!
Forget going out for pizza, have a pizza night in and I promise it won’t disappoint.
