Pre-made pizza dough is one of the best things in the grocery store. You can find it in the freezer or refrigerated section, it’s usually sold in 16- or 20-ounce balls, and the flavor is generally pretty reliable. For a few bucks, you can take home a versatile yeast dough and make things like cheater cinnamon rolls , easy donuts , or pretzel bites . But you really have to stretch your dough (hehe) and make four personal pizzas from one ball.

I know four days isn’t exactly a normal work week, but it’s pretty close (for some nurses, that’s more than a pizza work week). Buy a ball of pre-made pizza dough. This is probably from the grocery store, but sometimes pizza places will sell you dough. I buy a frozen 20-ounce ball and refrigerate it on Sunday. By lunchtime on Monday, the dough will be thawed. Lightly flour your counter and turn the pizza dough out onto the flour. Use a knife or sharp dough scraper to cut the dough into quarters.

Just like pie crust or any other dough you want to roll out or stretch, the shape you start with is the shape you end up with. If you stretch this odd triangle of dough, you’ll end up with an oddly triangular pizza. It’s not the end of the world, but the rest of your dough pieces are going to be slowly rising in the fridge over the next few days and a round pan with a crust will help that rise. Round off your dough balls and place them seam-side down on a lightly floured surface. (Watch my bread-shaping 101 video to learn how to roll sturdy dough balls.)

Turn the dough balls over in some excess flour on the counter and wrap three of the balls loosely in a plastic bag or two so that they are not touching each other. I usually put them in repurposed produce bags that I bought from the store. Seal the bags and refrigerate the rest. Over the course of the week, you will notice that the bread balls will slowly rise and even develop a little flavor during this time.