Easy Peasy Pizza

Want an inexpensive, quick dinner for those busy days, and maybe eating out isn’t an option? Try my Easy Peasy Pizza. The basic ingredients are ones that, if you don’t keep them on hand, you really should so that you can always have a cheap, tasty dinner that’s also popular with kids. And you can even dress it up with various leftovers you need to use up.

Preheat oven to lowest setting (about 170 degrees F.)

Pizza Dough

2 1/2 cups flour

1 T. yeast

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 T. oil

1 cup hot water

Mix all ingredients and knead for about one minute (really, that’s all). Place dough in oil-coated bowl and turn over so all of dough gets coated and place in warmed oven. Turn off the heat and leave the oven door ajar. Let rise for 20 minutes. When you take the dough out, start preheating the oven to 450 degrees F. Then use your fingers to spread the dough out in a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet that’s about 15 x 10 inches and coated with cooking spray. Don’t stretch the dough because you’ll get holes in it. Just gently press it outwards from the middle till it fills the pan. It won’t seem like it, but this dough really will fill the whole pan. Top with pizza sauce.

Pizza Sauce

3 oz. tomato paste

3 oz. water

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. oregano

Mix all ingredients together and cover top of pizza dough. Top with 8-oz. package of shredded Mozzarella cheese and bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

The basic pizza is yummy enough, but here’s where you can have some fun. Raid the fridge for goodies you can add to personalize your pizza. You can do pepperoni, sausage (cook first), olives, onions. I did one we loved that included thin-sliced zucchini, Roma tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese in addition to the Mozzarella. For another one I used some shredded chicken seasoned with garlic powder and oregano. The one pictured above has julienne-cut ham and red, green, and yellow peppers on it. It’s a great way to use up leftovers you don’t want to throw away but which there are not enough of to serve your family. Bon appetit!