Home-made Pizza

As you can tell from the date that I started this post, it's been a busy past couple of weeks. But fortunately, even when life is busy, there is still time to make pizza. On the recommendation of a friend, I recently tried Bob's Red Mill's Gluten Free Pizza Crust mix. This mix makes a great crust, even better than the frozen gluten-free pizza dough I was buying, and a lot more convenient since you don't have to defrost it overnight before using it. The mix is pretty economical, too, as far as gluten-free mixes go. One Bob's Red Mill package makes two 12-inch pizzas. Since the girls are still little, one 12-inch pizza is enough for all of us, but I can see the day coming when I will need to make two pizzas for dinner. Michael and the girls like the pizza so much that I think it might need to go into my regular meal rotation.

Pizza
1 12-inch pizza, which serves 2 to 3 adults, or 2 adults and 2 small children

Ingredients:

• 1/2 of the package of Bob's Red Mill's Gluten Free Pizza Crust (and 1/2 of the yeast packet)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  
• 1 8-ounce can of tomato sauce. Make sure that it doesn't contain soybean oil or corn syrup.
• dried or fresh basil
• dried or fresh oregano
• onion powder
• 1 3.8-ounce can of Lindsay Naturals slice black olives. Most canned olives contain ferrous gluconate, which could come from corn. The only canned olives I have found that do not have it are Lindsay Naturals olives, which contain only water, olives, and salt. You could also use whole olives found at the deli or salad bar of a supermarket, if you can check the ingredient list.
  
• mozzarella cheese for Michael's side of the pizza. Buy the cheese as a block, not pre-grated, and make sure to buy one that does not contain any vinegar, which probably comes from corn.
• feta cheese for Laura, Sabrina, and Naomi's side of the pizza. You can buy the feta as a block or crumbled, but make sure that it does not contain any cornstarch or other corn products, just in case any of it touches Michael's side of the pizza. Or you could buy a block of cheddar goat cheese and grate it.

Instructions:

Follow the instructions on the package for making the pizza crust and baking it. In my oven I needed to bake the crust for 8 minutes. Then spread the tomato sauce over the crust, leaving 1/2 inch around the edge free of sauce. Sprinkle the basil, oregano, and onion powder on top of the sauce, using as much as you would like. Drain the olives and then sprinkle them over the sauce. Grate the mozzarella cheese and sprinkle over Michael's side of the pizza. If you have a block of Parmesan cheese, you could grate some of that onto Michael's side as well. Sprinkle feta cheese (or grated hard goat cheese) over the side for me and the girls. Bake according to the instructions on the pizza mix, watching after 15 minutes to make sure that the cheese does not get too brown. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.