Making pizza healthy

When you think of healthy, nutritious foods, pizza is probably not on the list. But when most Americans think pizza, they think of those grease soaked pies covered in 5 different meats, with the only vegetables being soggy mushrooms and black olives.

But, pizza can be quite nutritious! It's so easy to make it at home, from scratch. Yesterday we had some minor construction done in our house, with my DH and my dad doing the work. Around 10:30 I started making the dough.

At 11, I realized I forgot to add yeast. Whoops. Not a big deal. I tried adding it to the breadmaker at that point, but it wasn't incorporating the yeast very well, so I decided to knead it in by hand. It only took a few minutes and then I popped it back in the breadmaker to knead for a few more minutes. It had an hour left on the timer and I didn't have that kind of time at that point, so I took it out and did a "quick rise" in the microwave.

To do a quick rise, take a microwave safe bowl and lightly coat with cooking spray. Place the dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Fill a cup with some water and place both the dough and water in the microwave. Set your microwave to 20 or 30 % power and microwave for 2 minutes. Allow it to sit for a few minutes and repeat until the dough has risen adequately.

Here's my sister's recipe for pizza dough. I use freshly ground white wheat. I simply place all the ingredients in the breadmaker and add more flour if necessary. I start by adding about 2 cups flour then adding the rest. To bake, I always preheat the pizza stone and just before adding the pizza, I sprinkle on a little cornmeal so it won't stick. I really like the taste of the cornmeal on the bottom of the pizza, too. My sister has instructions for handmixing:

1 c. warm water

1/2 t. salt

2 t. olive oil

About 1/4 c. vital wheat gluten (If you’re going to use whole wheat flour)

2 1/2- 3 1/2 c. flour (I use freshly ground white wheat flour)

1 pkg instant yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

Mix warm water, salt, olive oil and about a cup of flour. Mix on high for one minute. Add yeast. Mix on high for one more minute. Add enough flour to make a nice dough that’s not too sticky. Knead for about 9 minutes. Let it sit for a few minutes while you’re finishing chopping up all your toppings. Put it on your pizza stone or pan or whatever, put on your sauce, toppings and cheese and bake for about 15-20 minutes at 450. If you let it sit for about 10 minutes before you bake it, it rises really nicely.

I also made a really easy pizza sauce that I will be using again and again. I used to use spaghetti sauce, but this is way cheaper and very simple. All I do is take one 15 ounce can of tomato sauce. To it, I add about 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon onion flakes, 1/4 teaspoon onion powder, a heavy pinch of salt, a few grinds of pepper, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. Adjust as necessary, it isn't an exact science! In fact I just dumped them in and when it tasted right, I was done. That simple!

And of course toppings are the really fun part. The healthiest thing to do would be to cut up loads of vegetables to top your pizza with, and use meat and lowfat mozzarella sparingly. Of course, with the crust being whole grain, it's a lot easier to justify double peperoni!