Pizza night is an exciting time around most houses with children, and, even husbands for that matter, but how can you make pizza night healthy when the average serving of pizzeria/delivered pizza is over 1000 calories? You make it yourself. The best way to control the quality of your food, is to make it yourself. Now, before you say “Yeah, right!” and close the screen, I promise this is easy! I have a recipe for you for pizza dough, it’s an easy recipe and once mastered can be a go to on those nights you are too tired to think.
What did I do tonight? I used the pizza dough recipe in the whole wheat form (nothing like sticking a little extra fiber and protein in there when they aren’t looking) and topped it with pizza sauce (yes, from a jar), some low-fat cheese and turkey pepperoni. What a hit! Is there a vegetarian in the house? Top it with all veggies, some olive oil or sauce and enjoy. The whole idea of pizza night is to be creative and since you made the dough, there is no reason you can’t divide the dough up and have everyone make their own!
I am a firm believer of a kid in the kitchen creates a healthy eater for life. Get them involved, and, yes, let them make a little mess-after all aren’t they worth it?
Home-Made Pizza Dough
Dissolve a 1/2 t. yeast (or 1/2 a packet) into 1 1/2 c. warm water. Add 1 c. white flour and mix for one full minute. Add another cup of white flour and mix for another full minute. This is to develop the gluten. Let sit and rise for one to three hours, depending on how long you have.
Add 1 t. salt and 2 T. olive oil. Mix thoroughly. Add 2 c. flour (white for white dough; whole wheat for whole wheat dough) a half a cup at a time. Take out and knead for ten minutes. Allow to rise in an oiled bowl for three hours.
Knead dough and shape. Dimple it, brush with oil and sprinkle with a little salt. Top with desired toppings and bake at 350 for 10-15 mintues, or until the desired doneness for your family.
I hope this is as big of a hit in your house as it was in mine! And, as always thank you for having Dinner at The Hampton’s. We’ll see you around the table next time!
2 responses so far ↓
Ellen Meister // April 29, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Thanks for making pizza dough seem less intimidating!
xo
kitchenconfidence // May 13, 2008 at 1:21 pm
We love to make pizza on the grill in the summertime so that it doesn’t heat up the kitchen. From reading your other posts, I see that the grill isn’t in your present cooking equipment. I’m planning a post on this soon. Let’s do trade blogroll links!