versatile, cheap, and fulfilling! Homemade pizza!

Since I started cooking from scratch, I've found that one of the best meals we have is homemade pizza. It's cheap. It's very, very filling. And it's SO versatile. And it's EASY! I have about six different crust recipes, four different sauce recipes, and plus all the toppings... different cheeses, meats, veggies. All that jazz. We never have the same pizza twice (unless it's pepperoni... that's a pretty common one). I use the bread machine's dough cycle to make the crust, which makes it much easier. I just pop in the ingredients and wait, then roll it out and add stuff and throw it in the oven! It turns out wonderful every time.

Recipe for parmesean pizza crust and cost breakdown:
(Note: prices are estimates and based on Aldi prices)
3 cups whole wheat flour (.20/cup, $.60 total)
1 1/2 cups water (free)
1 pkg of wheat yeast ($.37)
1/2 tsp salt ($.05)
1/2 tsp sugar ($.05)
1 1/2 tbsp oil ($.05)
1/2 cup parmesean ($.20)

Toppings:
Sauce ($.50)
2 cup Mozzarella cheese ($1.90)
Pepperoni ($.50)
Chopped onion ($.10)

If you're not using a bread machine: Proof yeast. Add in other ingredients and mix until dough forms. Let rise about an hour, punch down, let rest about 15 minutes. Roll out. Stick with fork numerous times to allow 'airholes' through crust and make sauce stick better. Add toppings. Bake at about 350 until cheese is turning gold and crust is golden.


Total for the pizza, not including energy usage to oven-bake: Less than $5
If you make your own mozzarella or buy in bulk, it could easily be less than $3 per pizza.

The way I do it is I make sure the crust is thick so it'll fluff up really nice (and it does... the pizza in the picture ended up being almost half an inch thick after baking!). That way we get 'full' with the cheap stuff (the crust!) and the toppings are 90% for flavor.
Ben takes a few slices to work the next day and he says it's just as good, if not better, reheated.

And I meant to take a picture of the pizza after baking, but, well, it was gone too fast. ;) Even Mori had a slice!