Do you have a regular pizza night in your house? In our family, we have pizza and watch a movie every Friday night. It’s one of those traditions that I hope my kids will remember even as they grow into adults. It’s definitely important to them now! We take turns choosing the movie and they never forget whose turn it is to pick. Over the years, we have figured out our “go-to” pizza preferences, whether it be homemade, semi-homemade or takeout.
National Pizza Day is February 9, so what better time to start a new tradition, or just a new recipe or pizza place? You can check out the National Pizza Day page on the National Today website here. There are some fun facts on the history of pizza and some interesting statistics about favorites, pizza sales, and more! Let’s get right to it:
Homemade Pizza Dough
You can’t beat homemade pizza, so if you have an hour or two to get the dough ready, it’s 
totally worth it! This is one of our favorite dough recipes. It will make two big medium pizzas.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. yeast
1 1/3 cups warm water
1 tsp. sugar
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. honey
4-5 cups of flour (start with 4 and add more as necessary)
Mix the first three ingredients together in a bowl and let rise until it is doubled and foamy. Add the mixture and the rest of the ingredients to a mixer and blend for 5-6 minutes. Let the dough rise in an oiled bowl until doubled in size (usually about 45 min-1 hour for us).
Heat oven to 450 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, put it in when the oven is cold and let it heat up with the oven.
Divide the dough into two equal pizzas and roll out each piece into a circle on a floured surface. Brush on sauce (tomato, pizza, pasta, BBQ, whatever is your favorite). Add cheese and toppings. Bake for about 10-12 minutes until the cheese is bubbly.
Our favorite toppings:
For the kids, it’s always cheese or ham & pineapple.
For the grownups, we love BBQ chicken pizza.
- Use BBQ sauce instead of tomato or pasta sauce.
- A rotisserie chicken makes it super quick and easy, plus red onion and cilantro (and some pineapple is really yummy, too! My husband likes to add Gouda cheese to make it extra fancy.)
Semi-Homemade Pizza
Trader Joe’s pre-made dough
My favorite way to make semi-homemade pizza is to get Trader Joe’s premade dough in the refrigerated section by the produce. At $1.29 for traditional and $1.99 for garlic herb dough, you can’t beat it for a mostly homemade taste! I buy 6-8 at a time, flatten and stack in my freezer. It thaws in only a couple of hours! We also love to use it to roll out and make breadsticks as a side for another meal.
French bread pizzas
This was a classic when I was growing up. All you need is the long loaves of French bread from the bakery of the grocery store (about $1-2). Slice them lengthwise and everyone can have a section to make their own. Add some sauce, cheese and toppings, and bake at 375 for 10-12!
Bagels & Naan Bread
When I need a quick and easy dinner I have used bagels or the mini Naan bread dippers from Costco. These can be put under the broiler and ready to go in just a few minutes.
Takeout
Two of our favorite “fast” pizza places are Firo in McKinney and MOD pizza (many locations around Collin County). We almost always do build-your-own to get exactly what we want. And a little tip, if your kids like maybe only one topping (e.g., pineapple), a cheese pizza from the restaurant is usually cheaper and then you can just add the ingredient they want at home.
If you’re looking for a little more upscale pizza in Collin County, we also love Fireside Pies in the Shops at Legacy and North Italia in Legacy West in Plano. We usually save those for a parents-only pizza night!
With pandemic life, young kids, and being dead tired by Friday night, we don’t venture far to try new pizza places right now, so we stick to our tried-and-true homemade, semi-homemade, or take-out pizza shops.
More pizza places in Collin County here!
Let us know your favorite way to make or get pizza in the comments!
