My kids have never been big eaters, so I’m often looking for ways to get them interested in meal time. I don’t mean getting them interested in eating more vegetables or developing a more adventuresome palate…I mean getting them to just sit down and eat. I consider pizza kind of a victory, since it can hit on a fair number of food groups, and even pizza can be a tough sell. But not when we have family pizza night and they are involved in the process. When it’s just the kids I go relatively simple with store-bought crusts and limited ingredients, but we’ve also done this with our adult friends and added in rolling out the dough and more sophisticated and varied ingredients, to make it a fun night at home.

Kerry: Gap sweater, pants and socks | hand-knit scarf from my mom
Ella: Gap dress, pants and socks
Taylor: Gap shirt, pants and socks
(Note: I wasn’t actually attempting to look like an amateur Gap family ad, but it happens around holiday sales time. Tough to resist the 40% off)

You’ll need: Store-bought pizza dough/crusts, pizza sauce (I like to give them each their own bowl – cuts down on the mess), and ingredients of your choosing. Having the pizza shears works well for when your daughter insists that she wants her pizza shaped like a heart. Taylor watched the pizza patiently. Meanwhile… Reality Check. Okay, so I included the green peppers in the ingredients because I thought it would add some nice color to the photograph. Much to my surprise Ella wanted to put them on her pizza. Not to my surprise, she was not a fan once out of the oven. To be specific, she took one bite and said “this tastes like cow.” I’m not sure exactly what that means, but it can’t be good.