Anti-Fast Food: Homemade Pizza

One of the biggest budget killers for us has always been that last minute run through the drive thru.  With three growing girls to feed, this can be very expensive.  Busy days and evenings make it hard on us moms.  Last Thursday, we had one of those days.  No left overs in the fridge and we were all tired and ill.  Yikes.

What to do?  I threw together some pizza dough (recipe from the Big Chicken roll up dough).  My kitchen aid mixer has been getting a workout here lately.  I highly recommend using your mixer and dough hook if you have one. 

 This time, I modified the recipe by adding a little more olive oil, Italian seasonings and some garlic salt.  This will make enough dough for two pizzas on my PC small round baking stone.

After giving the dough about 20 minutes to “rest” I divided it in half and rolled it out on my stone.  I baked it for about 5 minutes.  For sauce, I opened a jar of Prego that was in the pantry and used some turkey peperoni that was in the freezer.  Shredded cheese is a stable for us. (I can’t hold a block of cheese with the right hand and grate it any more.  And, I’m afraid I’ll lose a finger if I try that grater leftie.)  Bake for about 7-9 minutes or until it is as brown as you want.

 

In just a few minutes, I had a homemade pepperoni pizza in the oven.  It might not have been pizza hut, but it didn’t last long either.  As soon as it was scarfed down, I threw together another one. 

No, I didn’t sneak any veggies in this one, although I’m sure I could figure something out.  And since I had all of the ingredients in the pantry, we saved a whole lot of money.  Total Cost for two pizzas:  Maybe about $5.00.  We used ½ package of turkey pepperoni ($1.50), 1 bag of cheese ($1.66), and ½ jar of Prego ($.85). 

Grand total not including flour: $4.01. Now that is my kind of fast food!