Homemade, Healthy Pizza

We’re back! After a long weekend with friends, and a fair amount of relaxation, we’re back in the training/eating-as-healthy-as-possible groove. We kicked it off with a very warm (by San Diego standards) 4-mile run yesterday afternoon. It was just the jump-start we needed, and reminded us why we normally run in the early morning or early evening. Wow!

We capped off the evening by renting “Now You See Me” – an excellent movie choice; we were captivated the entire time – and G’s homemade, healthy pizza. The pizza is normally our Sunday night tradition, but pizza and a movie just sounded right last night! We’ve been meaning to share this recipe for a while, so here you go:

Homemade, Healthy Pizza

Ingredients: 

1 whole-wheat pizza crust (sometimes we get the dough from the Whole Foods bakery and roll it our ourselves)

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup pizza sauce (we like Enrico’s All-Natural Pizza Sauce – also found at Whole Foods)

Turkey pepperoni

Mozzarella cheese (or whatever cheese combination you like)

Bacon bits (just a sprinkle of the real deal – not the fake, processed kind)

Oregano

 

Preparation:

In case you’ve never made your own pizza before, pre-packaged crusts don’t need to be heated or prepped before adding the toppings, and can be cooked on a nonstick pizza pan. If you choose to buy the raw dough from Whole Foods or another store, it has to rise for several hours (essentially double in size) before you roll it out and cook it on a pizza stone. If you choose this method, be sure to spray your rolling pin with cooking spray before rolling out the dough. Pre-heat your oven per the package or pizza stone instructions.

Once your crust is prepared, spread the pizza sauce over the crust, leaving about a 1/2 inch uncovered around the edge. Then add your toppings, cheese, and oregano, and pop in the oven. Cooking times can vary based on whether you’re using a prepared crust on a pizza pan, or raw dough on a pizza stone. Our best advice is to watch the pizza closely; we normally start a timer for 6 or 7 minutes and then go from there.

We used a pizza stone a couple of weeks ago, and the finished product was so delicious!

We cut each pizza into 8 slices (4 slices per person equals a serving), and though nutritional values will vary based on the toppings used, here’s how our version breaks down per serving:

Calories: 452

Fat: 11 g

Protein: 11 g

Carbs: 66 g

We’re testing out new versions, including a pesto base and adding chicken to increase the protein value. If you have favorite homemade pizza combinations, we’d love to hear about them!

Take care,

GnC