Pizza has always been extremely tasty in my opinion, but after traveling to Italy, pizza stole my heart! You may be thinking, "How does a Dietitian love pizza?" The truth about pizza is it doesn’t have to be unhealthy – in fact, it can actually make for quite the healthy dish.

If you break down the components of pizza, you will find it to be healthy ingredients. Pizza consists of crust, sauce, cheese, meat, and the occasional pizza will have vegetables on it. All these ingredients can be healthy if chosen with care.

Dough can be made of wheat flour and flattened to make a less starchy crust. Marinara sauce is made mainly of vegetables, especially if made at home where ingredients can be controlled and hardly any sugar is added. The type of cheese used can be a reduced fat shredded cheese, which will be tasty regardless. The fat from meat can be cut down tremendously if using turkey pepperoni, turkey sausage, or Canadian bacon. As for the vegetables, well, those are just healthy in general! 

Pizza is an all-time American favorite cuisine, although it didn’t quite start in America. Regardless, it’s popular for many occasions, and most people enjoy kicking back and having a few slices. The issue with pizza is never the taste, but the high amount of calories per slice.

Most pizza restaurants have a tendency to make their pizza extra fatty and starchy, but what if you could make your pizza at home with half the calories and quite the flavor? Being that I enjoy the occasional pizza, I had to find a way to enjoy the pizza experience while keeping my calories under control.

By making your pizza at home, you have the control over what type of crust, how much sauce, and you get to pick your own build of meat and vegetables. If you need to cut time, you can always use an Ole Tortilla wrap for the crust rather than making homemade pizza dough.

You can cut down time when needing a quick pizza sauce as well, although a homemade pizza sauce is mouthwatering and will make your house smell like the streets of Italy!

Quick, Healthy Pepperoni Pizza

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Ole Tortilla Wrap (14g carbohydrates) 
• ¼ cup Hunts Tomato Sauce (4g carbohydrates) 
• ½ cup pineapple chunks (12g carbohydrates) 
•  ¼ cup reduced fat mozzerella cheese (8g Protein and 4.5g Fat) 
• Turkey pepperoni (I use Hormel brand- 5g Protein and 2.4g Fat) - you can also use 4oz baked chicken for a higher protein option (28g Protein)
• 1 tsp Olive Oil (5g Fat) 
• Seasonings of choice- I mix garlic powder, onion powder, and oregano for additional seasonings to the tomato sauce for flavoring

DIRECTIONS

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. While oven is pre-heating, take 1 tortilla wrap and coat edges with olive oil for crispness and flavor.
3. Mix tomato sauce and seasonings in a bowl, then spread pizza sauce over the tortilla until it’s coated (you can leave a bit of sauce on the side for additional dipping after pizza is cooked).
4. Place pineapple chunks and pepperonis over sauce then sprinkle with cheese.
5. Bake pizza for 10-15 minutes or until cheese becomes a golden brown. 

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

30g Total Carbohydrates, 11g Total Fat, 13g Total Protein if using Turkey Pepperonis or 36g Total Protein if using Chicken 

I recommend serving with a side salad consisting of 2 cups of vegetable mix topped with oil/vinegar and seasonings for flavor. If using chicken for the meat, to save time you can purchase a rotisserie chicken at your local grocery store that has already been cooked and ready to eat. I would suggest removing the skin from your chicken before eating to eliminate extra fat.

Enjoy!