Eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to give up family pizza night! Check out these ideas for a healthy, frugal pizza night that your family will love!
Guest post by Dawn of Reveal Natural Health
Let’s take away the unhealthy reputation pizza has and learn how to make pizza night healthier! Having a regular pizza night is a fun way to create lasting family memories. Our family enjoys pizza for dinner with a family movie in our living room most Friday nights.
That being said, ordering pizza out gets expensive and frozen pizza, while convenient, is far from healthy. Making homemade pizza is the best way to save money and provide a healthier meal while still enjoying family pizza nights.
Once you get the hang of how to make pizza at home, your family will enjoy the special touches you add that make pizza night extra special.
1. Start with homemade pizza crust
Store bought pizza crusts and mixes are easy to use, but loaded with chemical preservatives. Instead, make your own pizza crust! This doesn’t mean you have to make a yeast crust and wait for the dough to rise. My go-to pizza crust recipe is a whole wheat pizza crust made with Greek yogurt that rises using baking soda and baking powder.
2. Use simple ingredients
Forget the store bought pizza sauce. Using basic ingredients is much healthier. I simply spread tomato paste on the pre-baked crust and top with a couple of different seasonings. Oregano and onion powder go well on most pizzas.
Don’t forget to take into account preparation of ingredients. Sausage will need to be pre-cooked and drained. Ham, green peppers, onion, and mushrooms will need to be chopped.
3. Have fun with toppings
I often ask my family what they would like me to include on a pizza. My 3-year-old daughter once suggested macaroni and cheese as a topping, so I tried it! My 8-year-old son likes when I add crushed pineapple (be sure to drain well!). For my husband, the more meat the better.
A couple of my favorite flavor combinations have been cream cheese & ham and garlic & avocado. I also like to make breakfast pizza for something different on a Sunday morning.
4. Shred your own cheese
I buy 8-ounce blocks of cheese at Aldi and freshly shred a block of mozzarella cheese to use on a pizza. This eliminates all the added fillers that pre-shredded cheese needs in order to keep the pieces separated.
5. Assemble your pizza
Now you have everything you need to assemble your pizza. Here are the basic steps to pull everything together:
- Find a pizza crust recipe you enjoy and prepare.
- Pre-bake the crust according to instructions.
- Add your desired sauce, seasonings, toppings and cheese.
- Bake at 425°F for 15-18 minutes (or follow directions for recipe you are using).
6. Include healthier sides
Instead of opening up a bag of frozen French fries or ordering cheesy garlic bread to go with your carry out pizza, you could opt for healthier, homemade sides. You could even search Pinterest for recipes to make your own homemade potato wedges or garlic bread. The result would be healthier because you control what ingredients you use.
Fresh fruit and salads are wonderful sides to serve with pizza. By keeping lettuce or spinach on hand and some carrots for shredding, you can easily throw together a quick side salad. You can also make a fruit salad by simply mixing Greek yogurt, honey and whatever chopped fruit you have on hand. Strawberries, blueberries, apples, bananas and pineapple all work well.
What is your favorite way to make pizza night healthier?
Dawn is a work-at-home mom who enjoys preparing home cooked meals to reduce processed ingredients in her family’s meals. She shares tips on healthy eating, family, skin care and natural health solutions on her blog, Reveal Natural Health.
Bren
Great tips, Dawn! I agree homemade it much healthier and affordable. I’ll have to try the tomato paste sauce. I love making my own pizza for pizza night. If you like bread sticks with your pizza here’s my go to recipe: http://brendid.com/homemade-pizza-house-breadsticks-recipe-pizza-dough-homemade-pizza-sauce/
Dawn @ Reveal Natural Health
Thanks Bren! My mom always made homemade pizza when I as growing up and she used tomato paste and seasonings for the pizza sauce. As I got older I didn’t understand the benefit of store bought pizza sauce because my mom’s way seemed so easy that buying pre-made pizza sauce seemed unnecessary. (And that was way before I started thinking about the unnatural preservatives and flavorings of processed foods as being harmful.)
I need a good bread stick recipe! Thanks for sharing. I will definitely pin your recipe to try 🙂
Dawn @ Reveal Natural Health
Erin, thank you so much for letting me guest post on your blog. I am looking forward to pizza night with my family tonight. It sounds like the kids might want to watch the Cardinal’s baseball game with dinner tonight instead of a family movie 🙂
Stacey
Great post! 95% of the time our pizza is homemade. Sometimes with freshly ground flour, other times just white flour. Always homemade sauce too. I think today I will have to try adding more veggies and maybe less cheese. We need a good healthy pizza night!
Dawn @ Reveal Natural Health
That’s great Stacey! With as much as my family eats pizza, it has to be homemade. Adding salads along side the pizza will help make the meal healthier overall too.
Ashley
My family loves Italian sausage on their pizzza. So trying to find healthier ways to have sausage I begin grinding up pork loin and adding spices to it. Takes a little more time, but whenever pork loins go on sale I buy a bunch and grind them for different sausages. After about an hour or hour and half I have lots of fresh sausage for the freezer.
Dawn @ Reveal Natural Health
Hi Ashley. I like that idea! I have never tried grinding my own sausage.
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup
We use all of your suggestions to make our pizza nights both frugal and healthy.
One thing I love to do is bake up and freeze a bunch of pizza crusts ahead of time just in case I’m short on time or extra tired. I find that frozen homemade pizza crusts still taste delicious. I love cooking them in my cast iron skillet (recipe on my blog) for a unique texture.
Thanks for sharing your tips, Dawn!
Dawn @ Reveal Natural Health
Thanks Heather! I like your skillet pizza crust idea. I’m thinking my family would love it if I made personal pan pizzas using that method!
Susanna
We almost always make our own pizza. My husband prefers a lightly cooked pizza sauce, so we start with crushed tomatoes, garlic, a bit of finely diced onion, oregano and basil. It cooks for about 5 minutes and any leftovers go in the freezer.i have been using a crust recipe from Tightwad Gazette for years! I have tweaked it just a bit for oupersonal tastes. Hubby prefers deli pepperoni, I love mushrooms! But when you make pizza at home, everyone gets what they want!