Make Your Own "Diet" Pizza

I adore, adore, adore, crave, love, need, want, adore PIZZA! I even go a little demented when there's some cooking program in Italy and they make the authentic stuff with olive oil and basil and fresh mozzarella. OMIGOSH!

I think this took root in the Bronx, where one of the very few foods we ate out of the house--remember, way back then, folks ate the vast majority of their meals at home, especially poor folk like us, immigrants to boot--was pizza. Yummy, authentic, gooey, crispy, saucey, hot as can be, by the slice NEW YORK PIZZA. It's almost worth dying of a heart attack for those babies.

Yes, pizza is a big weakness.

And ordering it in is usually big trouble, capital B for BINGE.

There's an alternative.

The Grumpy Chair Dieter does it, and so do I, when I'm not lazy to the max and when I'm eating right, instead of picking up the phone and calling the local family-owned pizza place. She makes her own tasty, healthier pizza.

Here's how she does it.

I follow a very similar process, only I like to use Dei Fratelli pizza sauce, smear some on the pre-toasted bread. I use whole wheat pita (Daily Bread brand locally) or whole wheat flatbread. Even Ezekiel Bread does it in a pinch. I use part-skim mozzarella (fat free sucks). And I also like fresh tomatoes on top, plus green peppers and mushrooms and black olives, when I have them in the fridge. I also add garlic powder and basil (fresh or dried) and oregano. I like it HERBALLY!

It's very easy, but it's a matter of having the stuff on hand and taking the 10 minutes to chop and toast and smear and pile on and finish toasting. But it is worth it. I'll admit it. Especially since the delivery man bringing a gooey pie is just bringing a bunch of fat-on-ye-belly-and-hips.

Which means I need to put the stuff on my shopping list: pita, part skim mozzarella, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, herbs, and sauce.

I love healthful, calcium-rich, lycopene-loaded, fiberful, flavor-bursting pizza!