Pizza night is one of my favorite nights! Curling up with one of our favorite movies and that warm cheesy goodness is one of the best things ever! We found a way to put a little twist on our regular pizza night and turn it into a unique date night without spending too much money or getting too extravagant. If you’re up for a little friendly competition, this date night is for you! It’s fun, yummy, relaxing and perfect for a night at home after the kids are in bed.
Build Your Own Pizza At Home Date Idea
The Date
Preparation
You could involve the kids in this preparation or make a little date outside of the house before your at home date starts. Head to the grocery store and pick up everything you might need to make your own pizza at home. Pick up crust ingredients, sauce options, every topping you could possibly want on your pizza, and lots of cheese.
When you’re ready for your date to start, pull out all of your toppings and get them set up on your pizza building space. Put out a variety of sauces, cheeses, meats and vegetables. We also like to have our pizza dough made, rolled out and ready to go. To minimize clean up, you can put your dough on a tin-foil lined baking sheet and spray the foil to keep it from sticking. Now you’re ready for a friendly little competition and a delicious date.
Competition
When we had a pizza competition for date night the first time, we each picked toppings that we thought would make a good pizza and used those to make our individual pizzas. When it came time to eat, we ate the pizzas we’d made but tried a slice of each other’s so we could determine who’d done the best job with their creation. You could also make a bunch of personal sized pizzas, each a different combination of toppings and flavors, and create a sort of buffet of pizzas to try and find your favorite. You could make it a family affair and have the kids taste your pizza creations, then vote on their favorites before they head off to bed. Make the prize something fun like winner chooses dessert or gets a foot massage during the movie!
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The Pizza
The Crust
There are a few different options when it comes to pizza crust. You could make your own at home using a dough recipe you find online, a family favorite, or with zucchini or cauliflower for a healthier option. If you aren’t feeling that ambitious, you could pick up scone or pizza dough from the grocery store and roll it out or pick up a pre-rolled crust from your local take-n-bake shop. If you want to take an even easier route and use something like a pita, tortilla, English muffin or pre-made crust instead.
My favorite thing to use for pizza dough for date night is thawed frozen roll dough. One or two rolls combined makes the perfect sized personal pizza when you roll them out. Don’t let the roll dough rise too much after it’s thawed or you’ll get more pizza crust than you bargained for.
Topping Combinations
I used to work at a pizza shop, so I have a few favorite combinations that I’ve come up with over the years. These are just a few ideas to help start you off, but the sky’s the limit.
Classic Italian - I love to start this pizza with marinara or a combination of olive oil and Italian seasonings. If you have fresh mozzarella on hand, add slices of it to the top, but regular shredded mozzarella will do as well. I top my pizza with basil (fresh or dried), tomatoes (cherry, roma or marinated), and sometimes chicken.
Extra Hawaiian - We love the classic ham and pineapple, but this pizza takes it a step further. Marinara sauce, mozzarella, ham, pineapple, bacon bits and sliced olives make one of our favorite pizzas.
The Best Barbecue - Is there anyone who doesn’t love barbecue pizza? I know we do! My favorite barbecue pizza has lots of mozzarella, diced chicken marinated in barbecue sauce and red onions. We also love to replace red onions with pineapple, bacon, diced tomatoes, olives and fresh green onions.
Garlic Chicken - This is one of my favorites! I use garlic butter and minced garlic as the base, lots of mozzarella cheese, diced cooked chicken, tomatoes, and mushrooms. After it’s baked, I add green onion for a little zing and crunch. Just be sure to have lots of gum on hand if you plan on making out after you eat this pizza!
All the Meats - This isn’t a combination that we usually go for at our house, but we know plenty of people who love this! The idea is to cover your pizza in sauce, cheese and every meat imaginable. Ham, pepperoni, bacon, sausage, hamburger, chicken, etc.
Another idea might be to take your favorite type of food and make it into a pizza. Mexican, Thai, Asian, Barbecue, American, etc. could all make some fun pizzas!
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Partner link: Joe got me this pizza peel and rocking pizza cutter for Christmas and it is my new favorite pizza night accessory. Click here to grab yours!
You can find even more ideas for your next pizza date night in this post from Somewhat Simple! The most important thing is to not forget to have fun and enjoy your time together!
Photography by Sadie Banks Photography
