The history of cheese is full of holes, but it’s interesting in its own whey. And a grate way to use cheese is of course on pizza. 🙂 Welcome to this edition of cooking with Liquid. 😀
DIY pizza is always fun, especially when you have guests over. So today I’d like to share how to create your own 12 inch pizza in about 15 minutes, for only $4. The secret is to buy a pizza kit that comes with a crust and tomato paste so we don’t have to make our own dough and sauce from scratch. 🙂 If you don’t know where to buy a pizza kit I’ll leave some details about that later in the post.
Easy Pizza Recipe 🍕 (serves 2 people)
Ingredients:
- 1 pizza crust and tomato sauce package
- cheese
- mushrooms
- pepperoni/sausage
Cooking Instructions:
- Spread tomato sauce evenly on the pizza crust
- Slice toppings and place onto the pizza (you could also grate the cheese instead)
- Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 400°F.
Eh Voila! It’s done. The medium size pizza is ready to eat. Just slice and serve. 🍕
The best part is you can control the toppings and put anything you want on it. Have fun. 🙂
Pizza kits can be found in stores like Walmart, Loblaws, and Costco. The package I used for this recipe was from Costco. For $8.49 it comes with 4 pizza crusts and 4 tomato sauce packets. That’s $2.12 per pizza. I like how the pizza crust is already cooked so it won’t taste doughy even if you under-cook it.
The piece of cheese I used cost about $1 from a larger block. The combined mushrooms and sausage cost is roughly $0.90 for the portions used. So overall the pizza cost about $4 to make. Receipt is below. (click to enlarge)
Making your own pizza can be really fun, but it can be difficult to do for those who do not have opposable thumbs so if you are a cat and reading this blog here’s a tutorial just for you. 😉
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Random Useless Fact:
On average, Canadians households visit a restaurant for a meal or snack 520 times every year according to Statistics Canada. Fellow blogger Stephen recently created an extensive guide to save money while eating out.
I love homemade pizza. My parents always bought frozen. I’m now 25 and happy to report I’ve never bought a frozen pizza – and I never will! I even make my own crust (no-knead) and it only takes maybe 5-10 more minutes than putting it a nasty frozen ‘za.
Smart thinking to use block cheese. Makes the pizza look classier (haha but true) and it’s cheaper than buying shredded (or easier than shredding your own)!
I only wish cheese around here weren’t so expensive. I sometimes travel to the U.S. to buy my cheese and milk lol.
Thanks for sharing my ultimate guide to saving money eating out. Great tip on the semi-DIY pizza. You get most of the hard work done for you with the crust and kit, but still save quite a bit of money over buying a frozen pizza, a U-Bake, or takeout. Nicely done!
It’s a great article you put together. 🙂 Learning how to stretch a dollar can really come in handy for people with tight budgets.
I love homemade pizza but we typically make our own pizza dough. Not sure what the cost is but probably something similar to your home-made pizza.
It’s probably cheaper to make your own dough and you’ll know exactly what ingredients you use for it. If only there was an easy and cost effective way to make home made pizza sauce though.
Looks mighty yummy! Always cooking on the money sense side 🙂
Sometimes, Safeway has Monday deals for pizza and 2 L pop for cheap I think under $4.
Thanks for the suggestion. That’s a great deal. It takes me several days to finish a 2 L pop so it would be money well spent. 🙂
Looks like a manly pizza to me! 🙂 Each week, before making my trip to the grocery store, I’d also try to empty my fridge by putting together a nontraditional dish. Sometimes I got a little bit of meat or veggie here and there, I’ll just make soup or fried rice.
Some people don’t include left overs in their original meal plan so it’s kind of like free food in a way. 🙂 And cleaning out the fridge regularly is good for sanitation.
Is it worth getting costco membership for a bachelor?
Approximate $55 membership cost, plus tax, is all you have to recover annually to break even. It is a planet-wide membership, allowing you to buy from any location on Earth. You must also remember you are buying bulk quantities, and selection is fairly limited to a few popular or national brands, and lineups are the norm at checkout, so it is not a “milk run” type of store. I have found it is not economical as a grocery store for a single person, but if you have friends or family and are willing to shop together or split goods after purchase, YES to savings that can be had. They also have a fast food snack bar that is very inexpensive, if not healthy. Bonus points to Costco for non-perishable food items, clothing, eyeglasses, pharmacy, seasonal sporting and household items. Big bonus if you have a vehicle – most Costco locations now have gas bar with average 4 to 6 cents / litre less than local stations. You may also purchase products online from a larger catalogue of products than is available in store. Check them out online, or go to warehouse location – they allow you to enter as a… Read more »
I share the cost with my dad so it helps. He gets one card and I get the other. It’s a good thing Costco allows for two people to use one membership. I might not shop at Costco anymore though if I had to pay the full price myself.
You can also do this with pita bread from the grocery store. Those are usually $1-$2 for a pack. Get the greek kind that’s a bit thicker. Works wonderfully too.
Great idea. 😀 I like flat bread pizzas too.
How many grams are the sauce packets in yours? I just bought the Hand Stretched Puro at a Costco in BC and the packets were smaller with a thinner plastic and the sauce was more watery!! The packet says 4 X 250 g crusts and 4 x 130 g sauce packets but I don’t have the old packaging of course to compare. I used to buy these pizza’s but why are they shrinking their products? UPC 059949052007
Good question. Sorry, I don’t remember how many grams were in the sauce packets, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s less now than it was before. They actually stopped selling this product in the Costco I shop at. Unfortunately shrinkflation is a common occurrence these days in both grocery stores as well as restaurants. General price levels of goods per unit weight is going up, with a corresponding reduction in the weight or size of the item sold. Maybe I should start growing my own food haha.
Good point, thanks for your reply! I just wanted to rant because I was upset when I found out and see if anyone else had noticed. Shrinkage that doesn’t affect the quality isn’t quite as bad but I do agree it is bs and unethical. If they had to increase the price a bit I wouldn’t mind – they are a Canadian company and would have wanted to support them but now that it sucks well, I have no choice but to make my own.
Indeed it’s the simplest way to make delicious Pizza. I will try it soon and will tell you about my experience. My mouth is watering already.