{Food Wars} Pizza Friday

Happy Friday Everyone!

My daughter was the first to come down the stairs this morning and after our morning hugs and kisses, I told her it was Friday and asked her what that meant.  In this house there’s only two possible answers:  trash man or pizza.  Which answer do you think she gave?  Well, you only have to know my daughter for a brief five minutes before guessing her obvious answer:

I’m going to go ahead and apologize for making your mouth water at such an early hour.  And yes, it DOES taste as good as it looks.

We make our own pizza every Friday.  The first reaction most people have to that statement?  “Wow… you, um…  make your own pizza?  Even the dough?  Um… isn’t that a lot of work?  Isn’t that expensive?”  I can’t help but laugh, because not only do we make our own dough (and sauce), but for us, pizza night is a fun family activity, certainly not a chore.  We truly enjoy making the whole pie from scratch and it tastes SO much better than any delivery place around here.  My husband and I each have our “jobs” in the process and our kids LOVE to run into the kitchen and sneak pepperoni’s while Daddy is putting them on the pizza!

There’s a long and entertaining story about the history of our pizza-making, but I’ll save that post for a different rainy day.   After much research (and trial and error), here’s the basics of our pizza and the cost break down.  All prices are from Amazon.com unless otherwise stated, and are adjusted to the cost of one pizza night:

• Dough:  bread flour, $0.25 (Costco); semolina flour, $0.32; yeast, $0.05 (Costco); sugar, $0.02; salt, $0.004 = $0.644
• Sauce:  Italian tomatoes, $1.12 and basil, $1 = $2.12
• Cheese:  Fresh mozzarella (from Costco) = $3.45
• Pepperoni:  3oz of our favorite brand = $2.50

TOTAL = $8.72 for two 15″ pies, or $4.36 each

Wow!  A homemade-from-scratch, nearly-authentic NY style pie for under $5?!  Yeppers!  Here’s what we’d pay if we ordered from a local pizza place:

• Dominos 16″ Brooklyn-Style Pizza = $21.49 delivered
• Pizza Hut Medium Thin ‘N Crispy Pepperoni Lovers = $14.28 delivered
• Papa Murphy’s Medium Signature Pepperoni = $8.99 (take-n-bake)

Do you want to know some other benefits of making your own pizza?  Because all of our ingredients are fresh and not processed (except the pepperoni), we have yet to experience any of the traditional side effects you get when you gorge on eat pizza, i.e. bloating, indigestion, heartburn, etc.  I can also tell you every single ingredient on our pizzas.  Do you know what’s on the traditional delivery pie?  Here’s Pizza Hut’s “ingredient statements.”  Strange, but I couldn’t find their “cheese” listed.  Did you ever hear that rumor that it was made of silicone?  Hmmm…  Here’s the ingredient list for Domino’s.  They changed their recipe in 2009 to include “the freshest ingredients available.”  Should it concern us that they use to not put the freshest ingredients on their pizza, and that they thought that was ok?   Here’s the ingredient list for Papa Murphy’s.  Given the poor reputation (at least in our house) of take-out pizza, I need to give props to Papa Murphy’s for using real ingredients.

May I encourage you to truly consider what you’re eating for dinner?  You’re definitely paying for convenience at each of these take-out stores, but why not save money and turn dinner into a family event at the same time?!  Yes, it takes a little more time to prepare the dough, and a few minutes to hit the button on your blender and slice some cheese, but it is SO worth it!  Try it for yourself – I invite you to prove me wrong!