Making Your Own (Healthy!) Pizza...A How-To Guide...

Lucky for me, I usually have at least one day during the week where I don't have to work. Because the grocery stores are usually a pain during the weekends, I like to do my grocery shopping on that allotted day off. This week, I didn't have to work today (Monday) so I made my way to Trader Joe's for my weekly grocery shopping trip.

Like most people, I have my usual items I buy, but then, being into food and nutrition and working in the industry, I like to be a little adventurous and try new things from time to time. Today I came across a product I had seen before but never purchased, Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. I had always wanted to try to make my own pizza. Ideally, I would make the ENTIRE pizza from scratch, but I figured if I bought this dough and made the rest from scratch, it could still be considerably healthy...and delicious!

So this Trader Joe Whole Wheat Pizza Dough, to be clear, is not perfect. They do use unbleached white flour, which to be clear, is just simply not as white as bleached. So while this dough may not be perfect, I can pronounce all the other ingredients and I am not gluten intolerant, so I decide to try it. I was also concerned about the dough not having quite the amount of fiber I would want in it, (2 grams per serving...I was hoping for at least 3 or 4!) I added a few spoonfuls of flaxseed meal into the dough. For the record, flaxseed won't do much to change the taste unless you add a lot of it, but it does add Omega-3 essential fatty acids and as I mentioned before, fiber.

Next, I looked online for a decent and easy recipe for pizza sauce from scratch. I found this recipe, which will now be my go to pizza sauce, because it turned out delicious. Using real tomatoes makes the pizza much more hearty and much less salty! I can't believe I never tried this before.

Being someone who doesn't eat pizza too often, I am not a fan of your usual cheesy pizza with pepperoni pieces. I am a fan pizza with more non-traditional ingredients. I decided I wanted to use fresh parmesan, arugula and mushrooms. I used more sauce for my pizza and less cheese, because especially in the United States, pizza from restaurants use WAYYYY too much cheese, leaving you feeling heavy and gross after eating a pizza. I like Parmesan because if you buy the real stuff, it is quality enough that you don't have to use a lot to taste it in food, which is how it is supposed to be. Arugula is a fun pizza ingredient because it is not typically used on a pizza, but it gives a kind of peppery flavor to the pizza. Plus, this way we get to consume more leafy greens and anyone who knows me knows I am a fan of that!

My pseudo-healthy pizza...looks good right?

Arugula Parmesan Pizza

-2 ounces of Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough, or dough of choice (if you are gluten-free, Bob's Red Mill makes a gluten-free pizza crust mix)

-Home-made pizza sauce (or pre-made sauce of choice)

-2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal (optional)

-1/4 cup real Parmesan cheese

-1 cup organic arugula

-1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

Stretch the dough by hand or with a rolling pin into the desired shape. Top with the sauce and toppings and bake on a cookie sheet in the oven at 450F for 8-12 minutes.

ENJOY!