Happy Insides

Pizza is one of our all time favorite foods! We could eat it almost every night and not get sick of it. Our quest to be more healthy eaters hasn't made us give up on pizza, but we have had to make some changes to our recipes. By using homemade sauce, whole wheat crust, loading it with vegetables and going light on the cheese you come out with a delicious, but healthy alternative to your normal take out. Also pizza is easy! It does take some planning because you need to allow the dough to rise, but the steps involved aren't too difficult. OK Let's get this started with the dough.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 packet active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 t.)
1 t. sugar
1 c. warm water divided
1 t. salt
3 T. olive oil plus more for greasing

Combine a 1/4 c. of the warm water with the sugar. Make sure sugar is dissolved. Pour the yeast on top of the water mixture and let sit for 1 minute. Stir the yeast into the water/sugar mix and then let rise for 10 minutes. Combine the yeast mixture with the flour, salt, olive oil, and remaining water. Knead dough for about 10 minutes (a stand mixer with a dough hook is a great help for this step). Press dough into the bottom of a bowl lightly greased with olive oil. Turn over and cover in bowl and let rise for 90 minutes.

This will make enough dough for about 2 medium pizzas.

About 30 minutes before the dough is done rising you will want to start making the sauce and toppings for the pizza. When we make sauce it tends to be a "little of this, little of that" process, but here is the basic recipe. You can adjust the seasonings to fit your taste.

Tomato Sauce
2-3 c. canned crushed tomatoes
1 T. olive oil
2-4 cloves garlic minced or crushed
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
1 t. oregano
1 t. basil
salt and pepper to taste (I usually don't add to much to keep the dish low in sodium).

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes to the oil and let cook for about 1 minute until fragrant. Add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer for about 15-20 minutes.

At this time you should also pre heat the oven to 450 degrees.

Toppings
6 oz. of cheese
3 c. fresh spinach (washed and dried)
1 c. diced onions
1 large tomato seeded and chopped.

To assemble the pizzas you will first need to divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Use non-stick canola spray and spray your 2 pizza pans. Roll each part into a large thin circle to fit your pizza pan. The dough should hang over the edge of the pan. Roll the edges to create a crust. Poke holes in the dough with a fork to keep the crust from bubbling up. Top the dough with as much or as little sauce as you want. Add the vegetable toppings divided among the two pizzas. Cover with 3 oz. of cheese per pizza.

Bake pizzas in oven for about 16 minutes. Switch positions (from bottom to top rack and top to bottom) of pizza about half way through to make sure both get cooked evenly. The cheese should be light brown and bubbly. Slice pizzas into 8 slices.

Each slice of pizza has 132 calories.