If you thought there was a way to make that Twinkie you’re snarfing a little less dangerous, I have a short answer for you–no. If this is a little too close for comfort, how about pizza? You like pizza, don’t you?
I don’t think I’ve met anyone who doesn’t love pizza (if you’re the one in the over 50,000 subscribers here that doesn’t, please don’t email me and let me know). I’ll take your word for it! 😉 For the rest of us humans, pizza is a part of our own personal food pyramid. We order it on Fridays or another night of the week when we’ve blown our prep time for making dinner–any of this sound familiar? Anyone feeling guilty yet?
It’s not my intention to ratchet up guilt–I’ll leave that to your mother. My intention is to bring you over to the healthy side of pizza and to leave that yucky old take-out stuff to the cretins who know no different. YOU can have your pizza and eat it, too! And, it can be a healthy food!
You’ve already heard me spout about lycopene, the wonderfully potent phytochemical found in tomato sauce. So it goes without saying, that the sauce is already quite healthy. And calcium? Well, a nice low-fat mozzarella is full of it–just go easy. The crust? Now let me tell you white flour and water makes….play doh. Do you want THAT in your colon for the next 50 years? I have a solution to that one…keep reading.
That leaves the toppings. Pepperoni and sausage aren’t exactly the poster children of good health, so top your pizza with tons of veggies, fresh basil, some ground turkey seasoned with fennel, and oregano…you get the picture, it can be done.
Now for recipes. If you think pizza needs to be difficult, get over yourself! Pizza is easy…it only looks intimidating when you watch the guy at the pizzeria tossing the dough. No one says you have to TOSS the dough. All he’s doing is getting the gluten (in the wheat) to stretch–it’s a form of kneading, LOL. If you’re smart, you’ll merely knead it on the counter. If you have children with relatively clean hands, you can get your kids to do it or if your children’s hands are completely untrustworthy (like my son’s), you’ll want to use your Cuisinart or another reasonable facsimile thereof.
Here are the recipes and this time I mean it:
Kneadless Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 2 teaspoons yeast
- 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a measuring cup, add yeast, warm water and 1 teaspoon of the honey. Mix well and let sit for 5 minutes.
- In the meantime, in a food processor bowl, add flour, oil, salt and remaining honey. Pulse to blend. Now keep the food processor running, and slowly add the yeasty water through the feed tube. Let the machine run for about a minute (this is the fake kneading part). Dough should be smooth when it’s done, if not, add more flour or more water depending. Now let that dough rest about 5 minutes. You’d need a good 5 minute rest too, if you were violently spinning around a food processor for a minute.
- Divide the dough in half and roll out and use according to your recipe.
Roasted Garlic Pizza Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 bulb roasted garlic — squeeze roasted garlic to taste see recipe in Notes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 28-oz. can plum tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon honey
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a saucepan, crush tomatoes with a potato masher, add remaining ingredients and bring to a low boil. Let simmer on low for about 20 minutes.
Notes
1 teaspoon olive oil Slice off the tip top of the garlic head to expose garlic. Don’t slice too much off! Sit the garlic on it’s root end in a casserole dish. Drizzle olive oil on the top. Cover with a lid. Bake about an hour at 375 degrees. The heavenly scent of roasted garlic will waft all over the house. Let cool. When you want to use it, pick it up and squeeze the soft, buttery contents out into whatever you’re making–pizza sauce, garlic bread, mashed potatoes, whatever. Not good with chocolate.