Pizza!

keke7133

I’m dying for pizza! My favorite is white pizza! I’m trying to find the healthiest (low calorie) way to make it. So I’m about to attempt making cauliflower pizza crust, then top it with olive oil, garlic powder, spinach, and part skim shredded mozzarella. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Megan_smartiepants1970

I am keto ...so I make a cheese crust ....topped with keto garlic parmesan sauce ...chicken and ham ...so its a Chicken Cordon Bleu pizza (it is very good ) ... I love cauliflower but something about making it out of crust is not good ...Hope it turns out for you

janejellyroll

If you share what "healthy" means for you, you may get some better suggestions. For some, this is going to come down to "low calories," while others want to reduce carbohydrates, increase fiber/vegetables, or maybe make it low sodium.

For me, I like a cheeseless pizza with a thin crust and lots of vegetables and sauce. This helps me balance my calorie goals (no cheese, not a lot of crust) with how good I feel when I eat lots of vegetables. I had pizza at least once a month while I was losing weight and still have it a lot now.

keke7133

Edited to add Low Calorie pizza! Thanks!

Dogmom1978

Personally, rather than ruining something I love, I will eat one slice of pizza OR exercise more that day so I can eat 2 slices and stay within my calorie goal.

I have tried a variety of “low cal” pizza options and have found that none are as good as the real thing, so I changed my mindset and found ways to work the real thing in and still lose weight.

LMK if you find a really good low cal pizza though as I’m willing to try anything yummy 😋

TeaBea

Dogmom1978 wrote: »

Personally, rather than ruining something I love, I will eat one slice of pizza OR exercise more that day so I can eat 2 slices and stay within my calorie goal.

I have tried a variety of “low cal” pizza options and have found that none are as good as the real thing, so I changed my mindset and found ways to work the real thing in and still lose weight.

LMK if you find a really good low cal pizza though as I’m willing to try anything yummy 😋

I'll do this. ^ But you can do a lot from scratch.

I make my own crust and roll it really thin. For regular pizza, turkey pepperoni has great flavor for 70% less fat. Red sauce is low calorie. 2% mozarella cheese (fat- free is disgusting) and lots of veggies.

For white pizza, look for a low-fat alfredo sauce. Garlic chicken breast would be a good addition or perhaps turkey bacon to bump up the protein.

Cauliflower, cheese and eggs don't make anything that has a texture like a pizza crust. But I'm sure they are tastey with such a high fat content.

springlering62

“Fresh” mozarella, the kind that comes packed in water as a big ball or marble sized balls has fewer calories than the shredded stuff in bags.

Tomato paste that comes in a squeeze tube is more controllable for portions and richer flavor than sauce in a can.

springlering62

I’ve been making mini pizzas on homemade Naan bread. You can make a giant batch for way less than one pack of four from the store.

My next plan is try try out some lavash bread in lieu of a pizza crust.

Diatonic12

I've been making all kinds of things with Birchbender's, including pizza. No cauliflower involved unless you want it for a topping. Not me. Nuh huh. You could incorporate springlering62's ideas, too.

https://recipes.birchbenders.com/recipe/paleo-pizza/


https://recipes.birchbenders.com/recipe/classic-pizza/



3/4 cup
Birch Benders Classic Recipe Pancake Mix
1 1/2 cups
Bread Flour
1/4 ounces
Active Dry Yeast
1 tsp
Olive Oil
3/4 cup
Warm Water
16 ounces
Pizza Sauce
2 cups
Cheese
Toppings of Your Choice

ALZ14

I eat pizza on average of once a week.

For me, this won’t work if I’m miserable and feel like I can’t eat what I want, so I build room into my day/week for ice cream, pizza, or whatever treat sounds good.

The change is that I eat 2 pieces of pizza instead of 5 or I take an extra long walk to “earn” some more calories, or I eat a really light lunch. This shouldn’t be all or nothing!

HeidiCooksSupper

I've made a pizza-like substance with a spinach crust. It was good. It was not pizza. We get a DiGiorno's Rising Crust pizza and I still eat half of it but I log the calories and figure it's one of those "OVER" days where I'm not going to lose weight. We haven't gotten a pizza from any of our favorite local purveyors since before the pandemic.
Sigh. Pizza is a special treat not a regular part of our meal cycle like it used to be.

StargazerB

I either do homemade pizza so I can control what exactly is going into it or I get thin crust if we order out. I eat pizza about once a week, not something I'm willing to give up.

NovusDies

Other than choosing thin crust pizza is on my no compromise list.

I have tried cauliflower pizza and I was surprised at how good it was but it was not an alternative for when I want pizza it is just a different dish. Also the calories for the cauliflower pizza were only about 150 less than a thin crust. Since then I have tried 2 other brands of caulpizza and I could not make it past the first slice. It was not worth the calories.

From the various threads here of people making caul crusts it appears to take multiple attempts a good deal of the time to get it right (by personal standards).

kshama2001

NovusDies wrote: »

Other than choosing thin crust pizza is on my no compromise list.

I have tried cauliflower pizza and I was surprised at how good it was but it was not an alternative for when I want pizza it is just a different dish. Also the calories for the cauliflower pizza were only about 150 less than a thin crust. Since then I have tried 2 other brands of caulpizza and I could not make it past the first slice. It was not worth the calories.

From the various threads here of people making caul crusts it appears to take multiple attempts a good deal of the time to get it right (by personal standards).

Back when samples were still a thing, I had a cauliflower pizza sample at the supermarket. While edible, I wouldn't call it pizza.

I have more vegetables and less pizza these days, so I wouldn't be opposed to having cauliflower on the side to fill me up, plus pizza, just less of it.

Jacq_qui

Home made pizza's here. Mostly (I did have a shop made one the other week to be fair) but home made tends to be often just as nice - fresh mozarella, rocket, parma ham, peppers and sweetcorn are my faves.

keke7133

Ok, cauliflower crust was a huge fail. Lol I expected it to be crispy, but it wasn’t. I think I screwed up somewhere haha. Totally going to take the advice above and just have me some good ol’ thin crust white pizza next time I’m craving it. I can give up cheese and pepperoni no problem, but my white pizza with mozzarella, onion, spinach, and garlic is a must have! So so good.

LenGray

Have you tried tortilla pizzas yet? They're really good and crispy (plus perfect for lazy days!) MFP loaded up a pretty good 'base' recipe for them on the blog the other day: https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/easy-five-ingredient-tortilla-pizzas/

tinkerbellang83

I am another "no compromiser" it's proper pizza or nothing for me.

When I was losing weight, I would factor in pizza once every couple of weeks and just get a small one. I look at my calories over the week rather than the day, so it's not hard to spread them in a way that makes it work.

As someone else mentioned above, you will never stick to a way of eating if it's miserable. Unless you forsee a world where you never get to eat normal pizza again being the status quo, you can usually find a way to make it fit, whether it be "banking calories", planning it for a more active day, changing meal frequencies for that day (on weekends I'd sometimes have a light brunch so I could have a little more room for eating out) or eating smaller portions.

bmeadows380

I've had good success using a low calorie pita for my crust, then topping with shredded grilled chicken, mushrooms, black olives, onion, green pepper, spinach, sometimes pineapple, and mozzarella cheese. I make my own alfredo sauce from this recipe but adapting it to knock down the parm just a little and using unsweetened cashew milk:

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/low-cal-fettuccine-alfredo-recipe-2118317

sometimes, though, I just want the real deal, so like others have said, I either just log it and move on that day or save up some calories from extra exercise or a lower cal breakfast or lunch, then work hard to make sure I limit myself to 2 or 3 slices. Or I get a personal pan from Pizza Hut so its automatically limited for me.

mylittlerainbow

I make my own cauliflower crust (bought one once and it was awful) or I use flatbread. Tonight I'm going to cut a huge eggplant into disks and make "pizza" on those.

nanastaci2020

I eat pizza often. I also factor it into my calories. There is a certain amount of trust involved when ordering pizza from a restaurant that if they supply nutritional information, that they are serving the pizza to match. No guarantee on that. Do they overtop on cheese? Easy to do, even though I imagine major chains have checks & balance procedures in place to keep that level otherwise it would eat into their profits.

I pick up pizza from a small chain place most Mondays because of a great carry out deal. A single topping 16" pizza for $9.95. For a family of 6, I can get 2-3 and we're good for dinner and possibly leftovers. The info they publish is that a slice of pepperoni is a little under 400 calories. (The 16" is cut into 8 slices.) I can't really know if the toppings are right. So I tend to log extra. This past Monday I ate 1.5 slices and logged 2. The week before, I think I had one slice and logged 1.25.

I worked part time at Dominos for a LONG time and I trust my local Dominos to be fairly accurate on toppings. (Because I know the manager and know first hand he is pretty good at what he does.) So if I get food from there, I log according to what it should be. I may have half of a small handtossed pizza or half of a medium thin crust. Either scenario is about 600-700 calories depending on specifics. That would typically be a Saturday where I'm particularly active, and that # of calories works for me. If not, I'd have a smaller portion and balance it out with a salad.

I do often preplan my days - so on MOnday when I added the extra 1/2 slice I knew I had the calories for it.

If I make pizza at home, I usually buy a thin crust. And use regular sauce, cheese, toppings. Just weigh each out and log.

HeidiCooksSupper

After watching Clara make her pizza, it's all I can do to keep from heading into the kitchen and starting some bread dough!

hipari

I’m eating pizza literally right now. I haven’t done the calorie math yet, but I specifically chose low-calorie toppings: shrimp, mushroom, cherry tomatoes, and some fresh mozzarella and a little bit of pesto, all on tomato sauce.

springlering62

My lavash experiment was even better than expected!

I bought giant rounds of super thin bread, similar to lavash (I couldn’t understand the name of it) at a middle eastern market. Each piece was about 24” round.

I folded them in half (figured it would be easier to separate that way than cutting them) , “buttered” them with tomato paste, sprinkled on some Victoria Taylor pizza seasoning, and dressed them with a leftover half ball of mozarella and some typical shredded mozarella.

Broiled it on my Lodge cast iron pizza pan.

My side has less toppings. 593 calories and it covered my dinner plate and hung over the side. It was delicious! The crust that hung out browned nicely and was like a cracker pizza crust.

Only thing I would do different next time is broil the bread briefly by itself, then flip and dress the pizza and broil the second side til the cheese melts. The second layer underneath was chewy. The top layer was absolutely perfect.

I might try this for a lunch with some veggies.