Homemade Pizza

I’m really bad at picking favorites. It kind of stresses me out because I’m pretty multi-passionate and love a lot of things!

But hands down, homemade pizza is definitely one of my favorite foods. Growing up, we made pizza almost every Friday night and I loved it.

When Zach and I were planning our wedding, I knew a bread machine was going on our registry just so we could use it to make pizza dough! I’m so glad we did because we’ve been using it ever since.

Pizza is a relatively quick and easy meal that also provides a lot of leftovers (at least if there are only two of you and you make two whole 16-inch pizzas like we do).

I LOVE leftover pizza for breakfast or lunch—pretty much whenever!

Recipe notes:

• This recipe makes 2 x 16-inch pizzas or 16 slices.
• The pizza dough will take ~1 ½ hours in the bread machine, so plan ahead. You can make the dough several hours before you plan to make the pizza.
• Need something quicker? Try pita pizza or pizza pockets!
• If you don’t have a bread machine, you can also use pre-made pizza dough or crust.

Fueling notes:

• Per slice, this recipe packs 25 g of carbs, 18 g of protein, and 15 g of fat, and 2 g of fiber.
• Pre-workout: have at least 2 hours before your session to give you enough time to digest.
• Post-workout: ideally you’d pair each slice with an additional 20 grams of carbs (garlic bread, a frozen fruit bar for dessert, etc) for a 3-4:1 ratio of carbs to protein within 1-2 hours of your session.

The stuff

For the dough:

• 4 cups flour
• 2 cups water
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons (or 1 package) of yeast
• 1 teaspoon of salt

For the pizzas:

• ~1 cup of tomato sauce (can also use BBQ sauce or ranch) divided between the pizzas
• 1 lb of shredded mozzarella (1/2 lb on each pizza)
• Toppings! See below for inspo

Toppings:

• Veggies:
  • Onions, green onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, fresh garlic, spinach, olives, peppers, broccoli
• Protein:
  • Cooked chicken (pro tip: put under the cheese so it doesn’t dry out)
  • Sausage (chicken or regular)
  • Ham or bacon (turkey or regular)
  • Shrimp
• Extras:
  • Bleu or goat cheese (SO freakin good)
  • Dollops of ricotta cheese
  • Spices like onion or garlic powder and red pepper flakes

The steps

1. Put all dough ingredients into a bread machine and select the dough cycle (you can do this several hours before you plan to make the pizza or right before)
2. While you’re waiting, you can grease two 16-inch pizza pans with a little vegetable oil and prep your toppings
3. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Arrange the racks so you have one near the top of the oven and the other near the bottom
4. Once the dough is ready, flour a large surface and dump out your dough. Use a knife to divide dough into two pieces and, one at a time, roll out using a rolling pin (a drinking glass or smooth jar can work as well!)
5. Transfer dough to the pizza pans
6. Add sauce of choice, cheese, and toppings
7. Place pans in the oven (with one on the top rack and one on the bottom) and bake for 10 minutes
8. Rotate pans (moving top pan to the bottom rack and vice versa) and bake for 10 more minutes
9. Remove from the oven and let cool for a couple of minutes
10. Then slice and enjoy!

Did you make it? I’d love to see how it turned out! Tag @climbingdietitian on instagram.

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