What's for dinner? Homemade Pizza!

Let me preface this post by saying that this meal is NOT diet friendly! Unless you are a person who is satisfied by eating one piece of pizza. But, this is a quick and easy meal to make for a family and is way more fun than driving to the local pizza place to pick one up :)

Here's what you will need:
1 loaf of frozen bread dough
Spaghetti sauce (or pizza sauce but spaghetti sauce is great and cheaper!)
Shredded Cheese (2-4 cups)- I like Mozzarella and Cheddar
Toppings of choice
2 tbsp butter, margarine, or cooking spray
Canola or Olive oil

1) The first thing you will need to do is thaw the bread dough and let it rise. To do this, just coat the dough lightly in oil (I like canola) and place it in a pan, covered with plastic wrap (ensure that the piece is large enough so the dough may expand without being exposed to air - if your dough is exposed to air while rising you will get large air bubbles in the dough!)

2) Prepare a round pizza pan by coating with melted butter (for a buttery crust) or spray with cooking spray.

3)The dough will rise in about 4-5 hours to be double the size it began. At this point you can begin to try to stretch the dough to cover the bottom of the pizza pan. This will take time, be patient! You will need to stretch the dough and give it time to relax between - just walk away for a minute and come back to it, stretch it, then walk away again!

4) Once stretched, cover the dough with sauce, then cheese, then any other toppings you wish. I have, in the past, coated the crust with dried herbs which is quite nice. Broccoli is one of my favorite pizza toppings, I would highly recommend it. If you do choose to make a broccoli pizza, put the broccoli under the cheese as if it is on top it will burn. This is a really fun activity for kids - they can dress up their part of the pizza as they want!

5) Once pizza is topped as you wish, place it in a 375 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes. Check back on it frequently once it nears the 20 minute point - you want it to be golden brown with a slight browning of the cheese.

6) Let the pizza set for about 5 minutes before cutting. Then cut and enjoy!