Pizza: A mindset

Most of us think of pizza as an easy meal. You come home late from work, exhausted & starving. A quick call to Pizza Hut and you crash on the couch with the remote control waiting for the magical delivery man to arrive with the gooey, cheesy yumminess.

I, certainly, am no different than this. And my morphing into the pizza girl I currently am has been a very slow morph. But after a long battle, I'm happy with the new me that doesn't order expensive pizza anymore. Expensive both to my pocket book & my waist line.

The first move I made was to give up pizza. That mindset lasted about 1 month & was not at all a good plan. That was 8-9 years ago. Obviously, I like pizza. Maybe even addicted to it. I'm American, after all. How long should I really be forced to give up pizza?

My next move was to have a Lean Cuisine French Bread supreme pizza whenever everyone else ordered pizza. This is relatively inexpensive & quite satisfying. I still do this in a pinch. Especially when they go on sale for $1.75 & I have a coupon. Hard to beat that. The negative is they are just white flour & the veggies are a little weird and they can be hard to cook so the edges aren't strangely crunchy. But overall, they are pretty good when you need a pizza fix in a rush. I have some in my freezer right now. I like knowing they are there. But it isn't really a family pizza fix.

The second move I made was to thin & crispy crusts at pizza joints. Pizza Hut came out with Fit N' Delicious which truly is delish. They also have a natural line that you can get in a personal pizza. They are yummy and can be ordered on line & delivered to your front door. I did this for a long time & my family loved it because they could get stuffed crust meat lovers while I got my healthy pizza. The negatives are money. It's expensive to do this. And I felt kind of guilty about all the grease my family was eating with my blessing. Plus, the next day I found it VERY hard to resist the stuffed crust meat lovers pizza that was leftover in the fridge.

Then two things happened: We started budgeting our money & a Donatos came to town. Donatos has a pizza called Founders Favorite which is pepperoni, ham, sausage, and banana peppers on a thin crust. It is the best pizza known to man. If we were going to spend the money to order pizza, it was going to be from Donatos. We also got a Little Caesar's. In a pinch I could go to Little Caesar's on my way home from grocery shopping & feed my family for under $10.00.

The negatives to this arrangement are: it isn't at all light. Neither option. And Donatos is expensive for a weekly fix.

So, it was back to the drawing board. My dad loves to make pizza. And he is good at it. But, it is not healthy. Far from it. One of his most popular pizzas is buffalo wing pizza which has ranch dressing as the sauce. And not light ranch dressing. So I pondered how much work it would be to recreate my beloved Donatos Founders Favorite in a healthier way and got to work trying.

I succeeded, I believe. It's really yummy, though it does taste healthier, I'll be honest. It's not a perfect match but it is darn tootin' close for being cheap & lower cal.

But before I give you the recipe I have to tell you about the mindset, cause it is a little difficult.

Pizza is no longer my "easy meal." I save it for the weekend when I have at least 2 hours at home & at least a half hour of work time. The good news is my recipe makes twice what we need so I freeze the second half and later in the week have a super easy meal where I say, "Honey, will you throw pizza in the oven?" as I lay on the couch. But we save a bunch of money, a bunch of calories, and get to have pizza twice a week most weeks. I haven't ordered a pizza in 6 months & that was only because I was at Disney World. And really, who makes pizza at Disney World? Heck, that's the reason I'm saving money to begin with! So I can give it all to Mickey Mouse.

So, without further long winded explanation (yeah, right) here is my pizza:

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

1 tbsp (or 1 pkt) yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 tbsp honey
1 cup white flour

Wisk this together & let sit about 5 minutes until frothy.

Then add:
1 tbsp oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbsp Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning (or salt & italian seasoning to taste)

Beat this all with your dough hook in your Kitchenaid or mix in your food processor. Keep adding more whole wheat flour (about 1 cup more) until the sides of the bowl are clean & dough forms a soft ball. Pizza dough should be slightly sticky. Beat a few minutes more. Spray with non stick spray & let rest about 30 minutes to an hour until double in size.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

OK, this is the point that I could do without. Spreading the pizza dough out. It is so irritating. Divide it in half & roll it out one & let it rest while you roll out the other one & then go back to the first one. It keeps shrinking. But if you have patience, it will eventually lay in the pan correctly. It only takes about 5 minutes, but it seems longer. Then I lift it (one half at a time) & toss cornmeal on the pan. Or spread olive oil. Don't forget this step or your pizza will stick for sure. And if you get tired of rolling it out & having it shrink, just let it be a weird shape. That makes it look more authentic. But don't forget the cornmeal/oil step as it really will stick to the pan & be a big mess.

Bake crusts for 5 minutes.


While that is happening work on toppings. Here are mine:

5 turkey sausage links
1 pouch Hormel Turkey Pepperoni
light ham, chopped
hot peppers
Hunt's tomato sauce (no corn syrup)
4 cups part skim mozzarella



And sometimes peppers, onions, mushrooms, black olives, etc. But just the meats & peppers makes the Founders Favorite.

Chop the ham & sausage small while the pizza crusts are baking.

Pull out the pizza crust & divide the can of sauce in half. Spread out & top with more italian seasonings. Then put on the pepperoni. Turkey pepperoni needs to be UNDER the cheese. Otherwise it gets weird as it doesn't have enough fat. The cheese keeps it soft & pepperoni-ish.

Then add 2 cups of cheese to each pizza. It doesn't look like enough, but it is.

Then add the rest of your toppings.

Then bake. My oven is pretty hot & it takes under 10 minutes but ovens are very different you should watch yours carefully the first time.

Let cool about 5 minutes, cut & enjoy.

1/8th of this recipe is 9 points. But I cannot eat that much pizza. 1/4 of a jelly roll pan of pizza is a A LOT of pizza. Here is what it looks like on a plate & missing from the pan so you get an idea:



I usually eat 6 points worth of this. I cut each pizza into 16 pieces. So this recipe makes 32 big pieces of pizza. So that is 2.25 points per yummy slice.

Also, the Hormel Turkey Pepperoni can be expensive but it freezes great. So look for coupons and when it goes on sale, stock up. It's regular price is almost $4.00 but I generall can get it for just over $2.00. Right now I have 10 packets in my freezer. This is very good for me because I also like it with Laughing Cow cheese & whole wheat pita chips. But that is another story...