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Eight different ways with one pizza.

Sure, you can buy frozen pizzas loaded with toppings, but what if you live in an area where plain and pepperoni are your only choices? How about picky eaters? My own kids always find at least one thing on those pre-made pies that they just don't want. They'll sit there and systematically pick their slice to pieces and then claim that they don't like it.

Delivery and take-out pizza can get expensive as well, so I pick up plain frozen pizzas and we top them off at home  with fixings that everybody likes. I also make my own pizza, and we all prefer that, but frozen is great for activity- filled evenings when dinnertime can quickly get lost in the shuffle. The kids really enjoy choosing and adding toppings  to their own section of pizza.

We've had a lot of trial and error, though and I wanted to pass on what I know works.

Cheese - There's already cheese there, but a little extra sprinkled over the toppings acts like a glue to keep them put  while baking, and especially after. Using milder cheeses like Monterey Jack and Mozzarella is best when you're adding  other toppings. If you're doing extra-cheese, cheddar, Parmesan, bleu, goat and the like are tasty and different ways  to top your pizza.

Meat and seafood needs to be cooked before adding to a pizza. Smaller chunks cook faster and are less likely to pull  off mid-bite than larger slices. Anchovies, bacon, beef, ground beef, Canadian bacon, chicken, ham, salami, sausage,  shrimp, pepperoni and others are all great on pizza. One of our favorites is chicken tossed with barbecue sauce.

Most vegetables are fine uncooked, but some can turn the pie into a watery mess. Things like peppers and broccoli  should be cooked lightly and drained well before being added. Pineapple is awesome, but also needs to be drained very  well. Mushrooms are great, but can also benefit from a quick toss in a pan prior to going on to the pizza. Onions,  peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, dried tomatoes, plum tomatoes, olives, zucchini, eggplant ... the list goes on ... these  are all delicious on pizza.

Here are a few of the favorite combos we had going on tonight.

• Ham, pineapple, green pepper and black olives.
• Broccoli, red pepper, black and green olives.
• Ham, red pepper and black olives.
• Double olive.
• Extra cheese.
• Anchovy stuffed olives. This is a two-for-one deal that my husband loves. Goya sells cans of these online.
• Pepperoni.
• Chicken with barbecue sauce and green peppers.

The possibilities are pretty much endless and many items are already cut up in the produce aisle or salad bars at local groceries.
There isn't much that doesn't work as long as everything is roughly the same size so it cooks at the same rate.

Whichever combo you come up with, it doesn't take long at all and the result is very satisfying.