It’s not delivery and it's not DiGiorno either … it’s a vegan homemade pizza!

Although there are a handful of restaurants that sell delicious vegan pizzas that give traditional cheese pizza a run for its money, my boyfriend and I decided to make our own and choose the toppings to our vegan hearts’ content! Well, almost. I would've loved to have added mushrooms and black olives, but they happen to be the two ingredients my boyfriend doesn’t like.

Ingredients:

• Mama Mary’s Pizza Crust (for an even healthier option, you can make a vegan cauliflower pizza crust)
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 Field Roast Vegan Italian Sausage, sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic (and if you love garlic, the more the merrier!)
• ½ yellow onion, diced
• ½ bag of Daiya Mozzarella Cheese
• ¾ jar of marinara
• Earth Balance vegan butter
• 1 ½ tsp dried basil
• 1 ½ tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp Himalayan salt
• 1 tsp pepper (or more if you like it spicy)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Melt some butter and lightly grease a pizza pan or baking sheet, and place the pizza crust on it. Then brush melted butter onto the crust.
2. Chop up all the veggies and set aside. Or to enhance the flavors of the veggies, which we ended up doing the second time we made this pizza, season and sauté them in a pan for about 3 minutes. Set aside.
3. Now comes the fun part (‘cause it makes you feel fancy, like a real chef): Pour marinara into a ladle and slowly pour the sauce onto the center of the crust. Using the bottom of the ladle, lightly spread the marinara in a spiral motion, working your way from the center and out. Add more marinara until the crust is covered. Or you can stop just short of the edge so you have an end crust--totally up to you.
4. Next, scoop the sautéed veggies with a spatula fork and shake the ingredient toppings evenly onto the crust. Then carefully place the sausage slices onto the pizza. Keep in mind that you want to get a little bit of it with each bite.
5. Get a handful of vegan cheese and sprinkle it over the entire pizza. We used about half of a bag, but if you like it cheesier, by all means, use the whole bag.
6. Place the pizza in the oven and bake for about 8-10 minutes. Oven temperatures vary, so it’s better to just keep checking on it after 8 minutes. It also depends on how crispy you want the crust. If you’re using a gluten-free crust, you have to be careful that it doesn’t end up like a cracker crust.
7. Once it’s out of the oven, carefully slide it onto a cutting board, slice it up with a pizza cutter and serve. Mama mia Mary, that’s delicious!