Homemade Pizza

If you're like us, you have your favorite pizza joint on speed dial, ready to call at a moment's notice (or a last minute dinner on a Friday night.) Have you ever thought about making your own pizza, at home? Sure, the thought may be a bit overwhelming, but I promise this recipe does not require you to spin the dough in the air. That is optional.

This is a fun dinner to make with the whole family! Making a homemade pizza inspires creativity and imagination, as the toppings you have to choose from are literally endless.

The first step in making a homemade pizza is, of course, the dough. Follow this simple recipe (which makes enough dough for two 12 inch pizzas) to get the perfect pizza dough, every time:

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) of active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups flour
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

In a large bowl (I use my mixer) pour in the warm water, and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let sit 5 minutes, and if needed, stir to dissolve. Mix in the olive oil, flour, salt and sugar on low speed for about a minute. Attach the dough hook to your mixer and knead the dough on low to medium speed for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth. If you don't have a mixer, you can absolutely knead the dough with your hands! You can always add a little more flour if the dough seems too wet. Take your dough ball and coat it with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, with your bottom rack (or pizza stone) near the bottom of the oven.

Take the dough and split it into two balls, each in its own bowl, cover them with plastic wrap and let sit for about 10 minutes. Flatten your dough by kneading it with your fists. Flatten the dough until it will not flatten anymore, and is about 12 inches in diameter. Lightly brush the dough with olive oil.

Now, for the fun part: Adding your toppings!
Start with a coating of sauce (we use marinara) all over the top of the pizza, followed by your choice of cheese (we love mozzarella- and a generous amount of it!) and whatever toppings your heart desires! This is where the creativity and imagination really comes in to play! Get creative, get daring, and think outside the box. We made a half and half pizza, with one half covered in sun dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts, and the other half in salami, bell peppers and artichoke hearts.
Place your masterpiece in the oven (straight onto the rack) using a pizza peel or baking sheet (we used a cutting board and the pizza slid right into the oven) and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the cheese has melted.

You just made homemade pizza!
Buon appetito!

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.

Autumn is here, and with it comes the world's obsession with pumpkins. There is no escaping it: pumpkins are everywhere! Pumpkin Spice Lattes are all over blogs and Instagram feeds, pumpkin patch visits have begun, pumpkin pancakes and cookies and soups are being made- it's inescapable! And so, we figured, alright then, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Thus, we are here today to share a fresh pumpkin recipe with you, our pumpkin-loving friends! We shopped for our pumpkin at Lucky Supermarket (our favorite place for all of our #FreshFinds) and came home and searched for a great recipe to make. When we saw this Alton Brown pumpkin bread recipe, we knew we had to try it.

We decided instead of bread, though, we wanted to make muffins, because muffins are to bread what cupcakes are to cake, and are just more fun in general. You understand. And thus, our delicious fresh pumpkin muffin recipe was born. I've transcribed it below, and tweaked it just a wee bit, in case you want to try it out for yourself!

Pumpkin Muffins

Yields about 24 muffins.

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups shredded fresh pumpkin

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Oil (2) muffin tins generously.
Mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.
In a separate bowl (I used my mixer), mix the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla.
Combine both mixtures and fold in the shredded pumpkin.
Pour well-incorporated mixture into muffin tins, using an ice cream scoop.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out nearly clean, rotating halfway through.
Cool completely and remove from tins.
Eat two immediately. Errr.. that's what we did. ;)

Voila! What's your favorite use for pumpkins?
Do you prefer bread or muffins?

Check out Lucky Supermarkets on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and on their website!

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.

Heart health is something that is very important in our house. We have seen a few of our loved ones go through some scary health scares and thus are always trying to be as healthy and smart about our food decisions and exercise as we can be. Of course, this can't guarantee a bill of perfect health every time, but we know the importance of living well and nourishing our bodies. For this reason, we love buying fresh produce and delicious food that make us feel good! Food is the fuel that our body uses to move and thrive, so we like to feed our bodies the best fuel we can. We went shopping at Lucky Supermarket the other day and picked up some awesome fresh finds, including Organic Girl lettuce, raspberries, walnuts, feta cheese, and avocados. We love the fresh produce selection at Lucky and frequent the store. They work with local farmers to guarantee the best fruits and vegetables around, which is why we love it so much! We combined the food we bought for a delicious, easy and of course healthy recipe! And now we're going to share it with you. It's only fair.

Raspberry Salad Recipe

Ingredients:
Raspberries
Organic Girl salad mix (we used 50/50 for this one- we also love spinach!)
Walnuts
Feta Cheese
Avocado, cut into chunks
Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Eat and enjoy and feel good knowing that you are nourishing your body!

See our shopping trip on Google Plus here and follow hashtag #FreshFinds on social networks to see more recipes!

This recipe has moved to my new food blog, over at The Broke Chef