We had our neighbors over to watch the Super Bowl and I wanted something easy, so we could all focus on the game (and the commercials!), and didn’t require lots of time in the kitchen for me. Plus, it had to be adaptable and appealing to both adults and teenage boys. I came up with a make your own pizza bar and it worked out great!

I like the idea of switching up the food each quarter so we started off the first quarter with a delicious (and super healthy) cauliflower dip with veggies and chips and salsa. Our neighbors brought over chicken wings with dipping sauces, so that brought us through the second quarter. During half-time (in that short time before the end of the quarter and when Coldplay took the stage) everyone assembled their pizzas. The pizzas were ready during the third quarter, although I must admit, they took much longer than I expected them to so, if I use this idea again, I’d go with pre-made crusts to cut down on the cooking time (and reduce the time spent rolling out each individual pizza). Finally, we rounded out the fourth quarter with brownies!

This menu was quite easy to execute, especially with a little work done ahead of time to prepare the toppings, so I’d love to try this idea again in the future, perhaps with a different crust. It was fun for everyone to customize their own pizzas as well!

Menu Planning: Super Bowl Pizza Party

Appetizer

Creamy Cauliflower Dip

Make Your Own Pizza Bar

I purchased one gluten free crust to accommodate a gluten intolerance, but used a prepared pizza dough, portioned in to smaller individual pizzas, for the other pizzas.

The toppings included the following:

• Roasted tomato puree (which I had canned over the summer)
• Pesto sauce (purchased from Trader Joe’s)
• Pepperoni
• Shredded pizza cheese
• Mini mozzarella balls, sliced in half
• Goat cheese
• Sliced black olives
• Caramelized onions
• Italian sausage

The only real work I did that morning for the toppings was to cook the sausage and then I caramelized the onions in a little bacon fat – which added a great taste and smell to them! I laid out all the toppings, rolled out the individual pizzas and everyone topped their own.

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Dessert

I purchased a boxed mix of gluten-free chocolate chip brownies from Trader Joe’s. I typically am not a boxed dessert mix kind of gal, but figured it was worth a shot as I wanted an easy dessert, that didn’t require too much research to find a good gluten-free recipe. A major plus for these brownies was that everything on the ingredient list was pronounceable (rare for a boxed mix) and they turned out very moist and fudgy.