Friday night Pizza

I'm not a chicken nuggets and mac and cheese for dinner type of mom so, on Friday nights, I like to make dinner a little more fun and kid friendly. We eat dinner in the living room and watch a movie. Most of the time Patrick picks pizza for Friday night dinner. There are a couple of non-dairy frozen pizzas on the market. Amy's is one that I always have in my freezer for emergencies. It's about the size of a personal pizza so it's perfect for my boys to split if Matt and I are going out or eating something they won't or can't eat. This pizza is also gluten free. Tofurkey makes a larger size non-dairy pizza. They also have more flavors, pepperoni and supreme, that I can think of. These are meat substitutes, but very good. These are not the flavors of pizza we want to eat each week so I've started making our pizza. If I am in a hurry I use Pillsbury pizza dough in a can. It does not have any dairy in it and is very convenient. Recently I've been trying to learn to make bread. Someone told me making pizza dough was a good way to get used to using yeast. So I tried it and it was very easy and so tasty. Here's the recipe I use:

1 1/3 cups warm water
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1 Tbsp honey
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (if you want to be healthier you can substitute whole wheat flour)

Put water, yeast, and honey in the bowl of mixer. Let sit until foamy. Add flour. Turn mixer on low, with bread hook attachment. As dough forms increase speed to medium. When ingredients are completely combined and dough starts to cover dough hook it is ready. Place dough on greased baking sheet. With greased hands spread dough out to desired shape and thickness.

From here you just cover it with what you want. I make sauce sometimes, use leftover spaghetti sauce or use jarred (making sure it is dairy free of course.) Then we use the Daiya mozzarella and out toppings. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes and then broil for 3 minutes (this helps the Daiya have a more cheese like texture for my husband and me.) Let it rest for about 5 minutes before you cut it.