Happy Friday to all! I don’t think I could have made it another day without the weekend arriving…it has been a long and fast-paced week.  For the past seven days my life has been consumed by the excitement and work that goes along with moving. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to move into a larger house, which is conveniently located next door to where we were living. Cabinet space, a mudroom, and wood stove are among the highlights, not to mention more than twice the amount of house for us and a bigger fenced-in yard for Jade. Each night after work I have been deep cleaning the old house, and last night I finally finished! So now we are officially moved and can work on organizing and putting things away this weekend. Meals have been on the fly this week, squeezed in between working til 5 and cleaning until it’s dark. I realized tonight that four out of the past five days we have eaten elk, and tonight a Friday night pizza night sounded perfect to me, although I didn’t know if I was up to the effort of making a homemade one. So I compromised–although I have a good pizza crust recipe, I decided to lessen the work and prep time involved by buying a Jiffy pizza crust (for .86 cents!). It’s the first time I have ever bought a crust, and I must say it was worth it. I already had veggies and elk sausage on hand, so the assembly was a piece of cake.

Supreme-ly Good Elk Sausage Pizza

Serves 3

• 1 Jiffy Pizza Crust
• 1/2 c warm water
• 2 slices bacon, diced
• 3/4 cup cooked elk breakfast sausage, crumbled
• 1/2 c marinated artichoke hearts, chopped into pieces
• 1/2 c Italian style diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup black olives
• 1/4 cup sweet onion
• 2 Tbsp. Sun-dried Tomato Pesto
• 1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. Cook bacon. I cooked mine in the oven on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil to prevent bacon grease splatter from frying.

3. While bacon is cooking, make pizza crust according to directions: add 1/2 cup warm water to the crust mix in a bowl and stir to combine.

4.  Allow to sit in warm place for 5 minutes. I set mine on the stove top while the bacon was cooking inside.

5. Flour a cutting board or hard surface and knead dough until smooth and elastic.

6. Meanwhile, cook the elk sausage in a frying pan on medium heat. Set aside.

7. When bacon is done, wash off the cookie sheet, pat dry, and spray with cooking spray. Wipe off excess with a paper towel.

8. Chop vegetables.

9. Next, form crust into a round pizza shape on the cookie sheet.

10. Spread a thin layer of pesto on the crust along with the tomatoes and a little of the juice from the can.

11. Pre-bake the pizza for 3-4 minutes BEFORE adding remaining ingredients.

12. Add remaining veggie and meat toppings.

Then sprinkle evenly with the  mozzarella cheese.

13. Cook for 15 minutes on 425, or until crust is golden brown.

Cut yourself a slice or two and enjoy.