Who doesn’t love a delicious pizza to celebrate the weekend and share with friends and family?
Pizza is a favorite food among both adults and kids, but its nutritional content often leaves a lot to be desired. Here are some suggestions for how to still enjoy this tasty treat without the guilt or ruining your diet and commitment to living more naturally.
Ways to Make Your Pizza Healthier
The great thing about pizza is that you can put whatever you like on it and make it as healthy as you like. To make your pizza lower in calories and fat, reduce the amount of cheese it has or eliminate the cheese altogether. Focus your pizza on the ingredients rather than the crust to reduce your intake of empty carbs. The sauce you choose for your pizza also has a big health impact, so opt for tomato-based and other vegetable-based sauces rather than creamy or buttery ones. Alternatively, choose pizza with an extra virgin olive oil base rather than traditional sauce for a dose of healthy fats rather than unhealthy ones. It’s always a good idea to load your pizza up with vegetables and lean sources of protein, such as seafood.
Healthy and Natural Pizza Ingredients
Forget overly processed cheeses and questionable, greasy meat products. There are lots of different ingredients that you can experiment with to make your homemade pizza healthier and packed with whole, natural foods. Here are a few of our favorite pizza ingredients for inspiration.
- Whole wheat pizza dough
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Garlic
- Mushrooms
- Cherry tomatoes
- Bell peppers
- Broccoli
- Spinach
- Pineapple
Healthier DIY Pizza Recipes
Whether you want to stick to lean proteins or all veggies, here are a couple pizza recipes to try at home next time you’re craving pizza.
Classic Homemade Vegetarian Pizza
INGREDIENTS:
- Whole wheat pizza dough
- 10-ounce container of tomato-based pizza sauce
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 2 cups spinach, chopped
- ½ red onion
- 1 tomato, thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic
- ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ¼ cup low-fat mozzarella cheese
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
- Spray the pizza pan with olive oil cooking spray
- Spread out the pizza dough on the pan
- Top with sauce
- Add mozzarella cheese
- Add garlic, peppers, onions, and tomatoes
- Then add spinach and Parmesan
- Bake for about 10 minutes or until crust and cheese are golden brown
- Serve and enjoy
Shrimp, Tomato, and Feta Pizza
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 pound peeled and de-veined shrimp
- ¼ extra virgin olive oil
- 1 red onion, sliced
- Salt and pepper to taste
- ½ dried basil
- 1 pound whole wheat pizza dough
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- 1/3 cup feta cheese crumbles
- 2 tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
DIRECTIONS:
- Grill shrimp and onion in a skillet on the stove top with the basil, salt, and pepper
- Stretch pizza dough onto the grill and brush with olive oil
- Grill dough for about 3 minutes
- Add shrimp and onion mixture on top of dough
- Add tomatoes and feta and cook until cheese is soft and dough is cooked all the way through
- Move pizza from the grill to a cutting board
- Cut into slices and sprinkle with cilantro
- Serve and enjoy