Fun Friday! Homemade Pizza Night!

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    Well, I've been having so much fun on this Fun Friday that the blog is going up a little late, but hey, you can still have fun all weekend long! 
    Yesterday I posted about the fresh pesto that I made without pine nuts out of the basil in my garden and I promised you a recipe to use it in.  So, today I am showing you a variety of recipes that you can make for a family pizza night, one of which is a Pesto-Goat Cheese Chicken Pizza! That is the great thing about DIY pizza, you can put whatever toppings on them that you want and personalize them to fit your taste.  
​     We like to use our favorite pizza dough recipe that I shared on this post long ago.  Or, if you are worried about gluten or anything like that, you can make or purchase a cauliflower crust.  Lindsey shared a recipe on this post. 

Pizza Pans and Stones:

    We have a few choices at our house.  

• We have a round metal pizza pan like this one, which works just fine. I usually spray it with cooking spray and sprinkle a little corn meal on the bottom. 
• I have the Pampered Chef rectangular stone.  I love it.  Pampered Chef also carries a round stone, in various sizes. 
• I have a couple of that I don't remember where I got them, but here are some similar ones. 
• We have had birthday parties where everyone was able to make their own personal pizza.  We used pie pans or cookie sheets as well.

Lots of Topping Choices:

    I know that some people just hate the idea of pineapple on pizza, but I love a good Canadian Bacon pizza with pineapple on it.  Here are some other topping ideas, apart from the normal pepperoni and cheese! 

• I got the Chicken-Pesto-Goat Cheese PIzza idea from Everyday Reading.  I just used my own crust and way of doing the toppings. 

   First, I prepared my dough and let it rest and rise while I cooked the chicken and prepared my toppings. 

​   I used my grill pan to prepare the chicken. I used olive oil, salt, pepper, dried oregano, dried basil and garlic to season it.  I used chicken tenders that cooked quickly.  When they were all cooked, I chopped the chicken into bite-sized pieces. 

   As toppings, I prepared cheese, shredded carrots, broccoli, chopped tomatoes...You get the idea, you can use as many toppings as you would like.  For the Chicken-Pesto-Goat Cheese PIzza, I did the following:

• Pull, push or roll your dough out on your prepared pizza pan.  
• Mix together 5 ozs. of goat cheese with 2 T. of pesto.  (or according to your taste.)
• Spread the Pesto-Goat Cheese mixture on the crust. 
• Sprinkle good Parmesan Cheese over the Pesto mixture.
• Sprinkle on Mozzerella Cheese.
• Top with chopped tomatoes, a few shredded carrots and the chicken. 
• Bake at 450 degrees F. for 15-20 minutes. 

prebaked

    I also made Maddy a vegan personal pizza.  

• My crust is vegan, so I used it. 
• I spread some vegan ranch dressing over the crust. 
• I topped it with carrots, broccoli, tomatoes and onions. 
• I sprinkled on nutritional yeast to take the place of cheese. 
• Bake it in a 450 degree oven for 15-20 min. 

prebaked

    If you want to use a traditional red tomato pizza sauce, you can use themarinara recipe I posted here.  You can use an immersion blender to make it smooth if you like. 
     Cooking is more fun for me when I am making things that I grew or created myself.  We made the dough from scratch, I made the pesto, I grew the basil and the tomatoes!  It all tastes so good!  Next, I am going to try making my own mozzarella! What are your favorite pizza toppings? Do you like pineapple on your pizza?  I'd love to hear!