One of my favorite dishes to cook with Isaiah is pizza. I will admit there were many a time, when I really relied on the telephone to call a local pizza house to deliver. Like most working parents this is the easiest and fastest way to get a meal at your table. I did know the the importance of eating a well balanced meal and the implications fast food has had on our my child, but when time is your enemy, Pizza Hut is your best friend at that moment. I now have kept myself on a strict rule of not touching the phone and make my own.

My mother has constantly reminded me to save for a rainy day. Most of the time I don't listen, but on that rare occasion when I do. I have found  that this advice can be easily followed in the preparation of weekly meals for my family. If I can, I  try make a huge quantity of pizza dough and freeze it. Then all that needs to be done is take it out of the fridge before work, cover it, then roll it out once you get home. But if you really aren't the most daring of cooks, I will suggest to ask your local baker if they sell frozen pizza dough.

For the toppings I would like to hence that I am not making a gourmet Italian pizza here. My pizza's usually consist of left over dishes that have been in my fridge for a couple of days. Our last pizza had a  Mediterranean taste because of the left over roasted vegetables and homemade beef kebabs. So look in that fridge and see what is on it's last leg put it on top of your pizza add some cheese and bake!!

When we make our own pizza it gets extremely messy and creative.This is also one of those dish's that a child can almost make completely on their own. Which is fantastic!! Just don't rely on the same enthusiasm for clean up.

Homemade Pizza Dough

Homemade Pizza Dough
Prep time: 2 1/2 hours
Cook time : 30 mins
Ingredients
4 cups of bread flour
1tbs of sugar or honey
2tsp salt
2 tsp of dried yeast (not quick-acting yeast)
11/4 cups of warm water
Preparation

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar/honey. Let the liquid rest in a warm place for 10 minutes,until it turns bubbly and smells yeasty.
• Add salt,olive oil and then slowly proceed to add the flour until the dough comes together into a blob. The texture should be soft and slightly sticky to the touch. I would like to mention that you might not need all 4 cups of the flour. Please rely on your judgement the texture of the dough. If it is to dry you have added to much flour. Also remember that when kneading the dough on the counter you need to sprinkle extra flour on the counter. So if the dough still feels to sticky while you knead just add the extra flour that is left. 
• The dough must be kneaded gently for 10 minutes.
• Grease a large (if you have ceramic) bowl with olive oil. Place the dough in a bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Let it rise until double it's volume. This could be 11/2 to 2 hours.
• When dough has risen roll dough flat and shape cut to the sizes of your choice. You can make one large pizza or many small pizzas. 
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Add your toppings of choice and bake for 15 minutes.

The last time we made pizza instead of the typical tomato sauce, I blended our left over roasted vegetables and used that as a sauce over the pizza dough. I have also used the same sauce for spread on sandwiches and pasta. It is wonderful to make a dish that can be so versatile. 

Here is a picture of the vegetables we used for the roasted vegetable sauce.It consisted of zucchini, roma tomatoes, 4 bulbs of garlic,eggplant and 2 sprigs of rosemary and olive oil,salt and pepper. I tossed all the veggies together added olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I then baked it in a preheated oven (350 degrees) for a good 30-40 minutes or until the vegetables look caramelized . Any choice of hearty vegetable will make great roast vegetables.