In my first Crowd-Pleasers post, I highlighted the challenge of cooking for a diverse crowd that may include someone who is gluten-free, a vegan, a vegetarian, and someone who has doctor’s orders not to eat too much salt.  In this post, I want to highlight the fun option of a Build-Your-Own Pizza Party.

You can have a fun party with little cooking and clean-up effort by purchasing frozen or unbaked fresh cheese pizzas. Buy regular cheese pizzas for those who will want them, and also gluten-free, dairy-free or vegan pizzas for those who prefer. Then offer your guests a variety of options for adding their favorite toppings.

If you want to enhance the cooking experience, you can purchase pizza dough, or even make your own dough, so people can have fun rolling their pizza dough to their desired thickness and adding their own sauce and cheese. The attached recipe has ingredients and instructions for making your own crust from scratch and an option to make a flavorful pizza sauce.

This will be a casual party because guests will eat as their pizzas finish baking rather than all sitting around a table for a formal mealtime.

What will your guests create? Here is what my family made last Sunday.

Also check out Crowd Pleasers I: Flavorful Stews. https://vivisimoforyourlife.com/2026/03/19/crowd-pleasers-flavorful-stews/