Meals & Holiday Traditions

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Hillshire Brands Company®. All opinions are entirely my own. 
Holiday traditions are my favorite. I love the feeling of the season, and the business of spending time with my family. My mom makes Christmas cookies and so other yummy treats. While my mom’s family has always been bakers, my dad’s family has made some other things. There’s just something about meals & holiday traditions, on both sides of my family.

When my dad was a kid, his family used to always make homemade pizza for Christmas Eve. In the past few years when my family has gone to Christmas Eve mass in the late afternoon, coming home and having pizza was a nice, but low-key, thing to make and eat.
The nice thing about pizza is that it’s really easy to make, and you can get creative. Thankfully, you can get everything you need to make your own homemade pizza at Walmart.
Personally, sausage is one of my favorite pizza toppings, so making a sausage pizza was super easy.

Ingredients you need:

On the Pizza

–Jimmy Dean® Sausage
-Great Value Mozzarella Cheese
-Great Value Pizza Sauce (if you choose not to make your own sauce)
-Any other pizza toppings you want (be sure to pick them up from Walmart)

For the Dough

-2 1/2 cups flour
-1 teaspoon Yeast
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup oil

For the Sauce

-8 ounce can of Tomato Sauce
-1 teaspoon of sugar
-1 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning
-1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
-1 teaspoon of onion powder
-1 teaspoon of olive oil

For making the pizza, we’ll start with the dough.

1. In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Mix the water and the yeast in a separate bowl and let the water absorb the yeast.
3. Add the water (with the absorbed yeast) into the bowl and mix.
4. Mix all the ingredients until you have doughy ball in the middle of the bowl.
5. Using your hands, knead the dough about 10-12 times, then from it into a ball. Place the ball on the pizza pan (or stone).
6. Use your hands and/or a rolling pin to press the dough out onto the pan. The dough will need to rest for at least 5 minutes. While it rests, you can begin preparing the sausage and the sauce.

For the sausage, you’ll throw it into a frying pan and cook it over the stove top until it reaches 170F. Let it defrost before you begin breaking it up.
One of my family traditions during the holidays is sharing some fun meals. Click To Tweet
The sauce:
In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix until you have a thick consistency.
When your sauce and toppings are ready, spread the sauce on the pizza crust. Add about 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese, and then add your toppings (including your Jimmy Dean Sausage).
Bake your pizza at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes, let it cool for five minutes, and enjoy!

Once the pizza was done, the family sat down (with my grandpa, too!) and enjoyed a dinner together. Dinner at my home is always loud, but funny, and gathering over pizza is great because it’s a meal we all enjoy.
I really do feel so lucky that my family still makes it a priority to have dinner together, not just on the holidays, but every night. I always tell people, in my house, if you’re home when dinner is placed on the table, you’re eating.
If pizza isn’t your thing, you can find other great holiday recipes at joytothemeal.com and search #joy2themeal to find them on social media.
What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?