Who doesn't love pizza. Bread, tomato sauce, cheese, veggies, tofu, vegetarian meat....did I go too far??
I was in the mood for pizza last night and I think Karel craves pizza at least once a week. We rarely order out (maybe once every 1 1/2 - 2 months) but when we do I usually get thin crust, 1/2 veggies and 1/2 meat (for Karel). And I always make a big salad as the entree to the pizza. Instead of pizza with salad we like to have salad with a side of pizza.
Since I love making my own versions of restaurant/fast food items I like to make my own pizza's. I have made wrap pizzas w/ an open low-carb wheat wrap, sauce, veggies and cheese. Sometimes we buy a thin crust frozen cheese pizza (low in calories and price) at the grocery and then load it up with our own fresh toppings like corn, peppers, veggie meat, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, etc. and lots of spices. When we have a little more time, Karel buys fresh dough and he makes his own pizza. Although not thin crust to save on calories, I feel super healthy eating something that is all home-made.
I didn't work at the shop last night because I had a lot of work to do (mostly studying) but I wanted to go to Wal-mart to get some groceries. We are going through fruit like crazy here in our house and with blueberries and stawberries in season, I find myself going to the store at least once a week for a berry-run.
As I am driving to the store I am thinking what to make for dinner. Since it has been a while since we have had pizza, I thought I'd make my own. I contemplated about taco wraps and pizza for a while but since I entertained Kate with my meat-free tacos a few weeks ago, I thought I'd put the wraps back on the shelf. As usual, I made my way to the bread area and I just wasn't pleased with my selection. Nothing that would really make my pizza taste like a pizza. I headed to the fresh bread/bakery area and decided I would make French Bread pizza. Since I know how to save calories when I cook, I wasn't concerned about the big, white bread loaf.
I gathered a few other things for my pizza which we also eat regularly....
Mushrooms
Canned Tomatoes w/ spicy peppers
Firm Tofu
Meat-free sausage
Onions
Frozen Corn
Green Jalapeno Pepper
Nuts
Mexican shredded cheese (regular)
First I heated two pans, one for my sauce and one for the toppings.
The sauce consisted of 1/2 can of the tomatoes w/ onions and mushrooms.
The toppings took a little longer to cook because the corn was frozen. I chopped up the tofu, pepper and veggie sausage and used a small portion of each. I also chopped up some nuts and added a small handful to the veggies for a little crunch.
Once the toppings and sauce were cooked, I turned off the burners and covered the pans with a lid to stay warm. I turned the oven on to 400 degrees for the bread.
I try to save calories when it comes to bread so I cut off a 10-12" portion of bread for both Karel and I. I needed to make 3 portions of the bread, 1 for me and 2 for Karel. I cut the bread horizontally into 3rds. I picked out a little of the dough from the inside of the two outside pieces so that I would have room to layer in the sauce and toppings. Plus, the best part of pizza is the crunchy crust so we didn't need all the extra dough (and calories) in the bread. I put the pieces in the oven for a few minutes until they were a little golden on top.
I sprinkled a little cheese on the bread and spiced it up with some chille flakes. I prepared my plate and I let Karel finish off however much he wanted. I'm not big in serving people nor do I like to be served. You never know if someone is super hungry or just a little hungry and if everyone can recognize how much food they needed in terms of calories, it is a lot more healthy to just serve yourself. I know, you have to be polite sometimes and hopefully in that case, you just eat until you are satisfied and not until you are finished with the plate.
I turned off the oven and put the bread w/ the cheese into the oven for a minute or two until the cheese melted. Then it was time to pile on the sauce and finish off my plate with the veggies. Karel and I both ended up topping our pizza's with the veggies but I wanted to put my veggies on the side of the plate to make my eyes think that I was eating a lot rather than just putting a small portion of veggies on the pizza and leaving half my plate empty.
My dad use to make me and my brother french bread pizza when we were younger and I think with my new healthy twists (yes, the tofu and vegetarian sausage tasted REALLY good, even according to Karel) I think you will love this pizza!
My dinner took me less than 20 minutes to make and when watching the Tour on TV, this was one GOOD meal.
Enjoy!
