It’s Saturday, which means we’re having PIZZA! In my home growing up, we had takeout pizza nearly once a week, always on a Friday or Saturday when Mom didn’t feel like cooking. Even though the pizza featured above was not delivery and therefore required cooking, it was so simple, it almost doesn’t count! With frozen pizza dough so readily available at the grocery store, and the existence of vegan “mozzarella” shredded cheese (I used Daiya), it’s amazingly easy for us vegans and imperfect vegans to get our Italian comfort food fix with a warm crusty homemade pizza.

The dough had to be defrosted during the day, so I took it out of the freezer when we were cleaning up breakfast and left it in a (lightly greased) bowl with a kitchen towel draped over it for the next several hours. It was totally defrosted by 6pm. I also took out some frozen green and red pepper strips that I had cut up and frozen during a food prep session a few weeks back, and a package of frozen spinach. I was using most of the spinach to make and freeze my veganish lasagna recipe for busy weeknights, but figured there would also be a bit leftover to top my pizza. 

Once I started to feel peckish for dinner, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and removed the defrosted dough from its bowl and placed it on a floured surface. With a lightly floured rolling pin, I rolled out the dough until it was about 1/4 inch thick and just smaller than the size of my baking sheet (9×13″ I think). Then I transferred the rolled out dough to the baking sheet and topped it with pasta sauce, vegan mozzarella shreds (half was topped with full dairy mozzarella shredded cheese for hubby), pepper slices, spinach, Italian seasoning or dried oregano + parsley + basil , crushed red pepper, and garlic powder. It went in the oven for about 20 minutes and out came a delicious, crusty, melty, aromatic, veggie pizza. The perfect end to a Saturday. 

(Note: I should’ve brushed the exposed crust with olive oil to give it a more golden brown color. Next time!)

1 package of frozen pizza dough

1/2 jar red sauce

1/2 cup Daiya vegan mozzarella shreds

1/2 green pepper, sliced

1/2 red pepper, sliced

Some spinach, cooked

Sprinkle Italian seasoning, garlic powder, crushed red pepper

Olive oil for brushing the crust (optional)

Serves 2-3

And a video to explain the title of the post….Enjoy the laughs!