Every Day is a Good Day For Pizza

Recipe Redux day!  The theme for the January is Pizza Party.  If you type "pizza recipes" into Google, it finds 99,400,000 results.  Did you know that pizza is a $32 billion industry?  $32 BILLION!!  That's crazy.  Pizza is a $32 billion industry and you can't find a fat free pizza {I actually found a company that mail orders fat free pizza and I have contacted them to see if I can't review their product for you.  I'll keep you updated}  

I love pizza.  I love to eat it and I love to make it.  It's a blank slate that you can customize as much - or as little- ask you'd like.  You never have to eat the same pizza twice.  I watch alot of cooking shows and read alot of cooking blogs so, I've seen quite a few pizza combinations. But, really there are 4 main components to a pizza.  The crust, the sauce, the toppings and the cheese.  Here are just a few options for pizza:

Sauce
Alfredo
Tomato
Pesto
Minced garlic/garlic paste

Vegetable Toppings (honestly most vegetables work on a pizza)
Mushrooms
Onions
Olives
Green Peppers
Spinach
Jalapenos
Banana Peppers
Tomatoes
  
Protein Toppings
Pepperoni
Sausage
Chicken
Ground Beef

Cheese 
Mozzarella
Cheddar
Feta
Ricotta
Any hard cheese that you can grate


There are many ways to put these pizza parts together.  There's a traditional pizza, deep dish, a stromboli {basically a rolled pizza}, and a calzone {a folded over pizza}

I have many many pizzas {pizza night is a monthly thing in our house} and I have eaten many pizzas.  Ken's favorite when we were living in Virginia was a white pizza from Reynolds Street Bar and Grill in Alexandria.  CLICK HERE for a link to their website.  I've never actually had a favorite place for pizza but, before I became the Fat Free Queen my favorite pizza was a Barbecue Chicken Pizza.  {Which you can actually make VERY low fat using vegan chick'n}  

With 5 people in the house it's hard to decide on pizza toppings.  Luckily, we can all agree on mushrooms and onions.  On the days that we have time I like to let everyone make their own personal pizza.  A couple Fridays ago I had a serious craving for pizza.  Friday is one of our eat-on-the-run days.  We have to be at cheer AND swim at 5:00 so dinner is eaten in the car.  

Pizza isn't really a car food.  I made calzones so  that the mess would be minimized. Everyone in the house enjoys BFD (Breakfast For Dinner) so I made breakfast calzones.  Scrambled eggs, melty cheese, sauteed mushrooms and onions, vegetarian sausage and tomato sauces wrapped in crunchy, yet soft pizza dough.  Perfection!

Breakfast Calzones
Serves 5
Calories: 455
Total Fat: 1 gram
Cholesterol: 10 grams
Sodium: 1,053
Carbs: 70 grams
Fiber: 7.6 grams
Protein: 39 grams


Ingredients
10 egg whites (or equivalent egg substitute)
5-10 slices of fat free cheese
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
2 onions, sliced
1 recipe for your favorite pizza dough
1.25 c tomato sauces/pizza sauce/pasta sauce
5-10 oz vegetarian sausage (I used light life)



Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Saute onions until soft and translucent (7-10 minutes)
3. Saute mushrooms 5-7 minutes
4. Divide pizza dough into 5 portions and roll out into circles
5. Cook eggs
6. On one half of the dough layer: .25 cup sauce, eggs, cheese, sausage, mushrooms, and onions.  Fold other side over filling, crimp closed, cut 2-3 slits in the top (so it can vent), spray top with a bit of pan spray
7. Place on a greased sheet pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown

With the Super Bowl coming soon you could even make these mini and serve them as an appetizer!