Home made pizza is wonderful. If you struggle with or don't have time to make the dough, baguette or ciabatta pizza is a great cheat. The trick is with pizza (or any Italian food tbh) to not go overboard. Use high quality ingredients that can speak for themselves. Make a very simple ragu sauce - blitzed/smoothed tomatoes, a bit of garlic, a few herbs such as oregano, bay, etc, maybe a small touch of very very finely chopped onion if you want. Use proper mozzarella that hasn't been pre grated etc, it loses a lot of flavour. Use whatever other toppings you want pretty much, but keeping it simple is usually best.
For hearty stews, I recommend the ultimate meat and potato stew that I developed in my student days, which other veg could easily be added into. I use a packet of good quality diced beef, six chopped up thin Cumberland sausages, and six rashers of streaky smoked bacon. Seal the beef in a big saucepan, then add the sausage and bacon. To this once the meat's all been sealed, add three good sized potatoes that have been choppeup in a mix of very small bits and bigger chunks. The reason for this is to let most of the potato dissolve into the broth. Cover the meat and potatoes with boiling water, and add a chicken stock cube (yes, chicken stock). Season with garlic in whatever is your preferred form (even garlic granules is ok), and a mix of herbs (I like oregano and rosemary). Leave to simmer on the stove on a low heat for about two hours, adding extra water if necessary. I can get three large bowls of stew from these quantites.