Jillian Gomez | On July 31, 2015
Had a long day? Feeling tired? Want to eat something delicious without feeling guilt afterwards?
On these days, I opt for a homemade pizza. Now, I know what you are thinking, “homemade pizza?! That sounds like a Sunday afternoon amount of work!
” But hear me out. I have mastered the quick and health-conscious homemade pizza: use store bought ingredients! Oh me, oh my—a cardinal sin in the online healthy recipe world, right? Well, we are throwing out the book because honestly, who wrote that thing, anyway?Another trick is just use what you have in the fridge. If you don’t have corn, who cares? If you want to throw some jalapenos on it, more power to you. Want zucchini instead of broccoli? Great! The point of homemade pizza is to customize it, so just get in there and give some different combinations a try.
Ingredients:
- Pizza Dough (I use Whole Wheat Pizza Dough from Trader Joe’s)
- Pizza Sauce (or whatever red sauce you have on hand)
- Light Mozzarella (buy it pre-shredded to save time)
- Broccoli
- Corn
- Bell Pepper
- Kale
- Hot Italian Sausage
- Cornmeal or Flour
P&B Tips:
- Try cut-up red potatoes as a topping to make the pizza a tad less healthy but so incredibly delicious.
- If you decide to make pizza before dinner rolls around, consider using shredded chicken as a protein. Cook your chicken breast(s) in a slow cooker at either three hours on high or six hours on low. When they are cooked through, they will be so easy to shred with two forks. Or, if you are lucky enough to have a KitchenAid, you can shred three chicken breasts in less than 20 seconds.
Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 415 degrees.
- Remove the sausages from their casings and break them up into bite sized pieces. I use my hands for this, but you could also just break the sausage up with a spatula. Cook on medium-low in a greased or nonstick pan until they are cooked through—about five minutes. Remember to stir every few minutes.
- While your protein is cooking, prep your veggies. Again, you can use whatever veggies you have on hand, just make sure to cut them into bite sized pieces so you don’t get the long-bite-of-despair that pulls off all of your cheese.
- Put your veggies in a separate pan and cook on medium-low for about five minutes. Stir every few minutes. Don’t worry too much about these. The magic is, they are going to continue cooking in the oven.
- Roll out your dough. I prefer to use cornmeal instead of flour to lessen the stickiness factor, but flour will work just as well.
- Once your dough is rolled out to whatever shape you desire, poke the dough a few times with a fork to prevent big crust bubbles.
- Put your dough on a large baking pan or pizza stone.
- Use a large spoon or spatula to spread your pizza sauce evenly.
- Add your sausage and veggies and then pile on the cheese.
- Place in oven for 18 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
Enjoy! If you tried out different ingredients, we would love to hear about them in the comments!