Pizza is a weakness.
I’m not the only one that feels this way. We don’t really order take out because I’m going to want to eat the whole thing. No amount of lifestyle change has made an impact on how I feel about pizza.
I’ve talked about my own struggles with food and there are events in my history that my eating can be linked to – these are times of high stress, times my PTSD is triggered, times of anxiety. For me, like many people I’ve spoken to and worked with, removal of an item can be helpful, but it doesn’t necessarily teach us how to behave around that food.
One way I’ve learned how to behave and treat certain foods is to keep them around in moderation and make some of them on my own. Pizza is one of those foods.
This is easy and completely from scratch, so let’s get started with the dough.
Do you like a classic, standard crust or do you prefer a thinner crust? Choose your crust below.
Classic Crust
What You’ll Need
- 3/4 cup +1 and 1/2 tablespoons of flour
- 1/3 tablespoon of salt
- 3/4 teaspoon of sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 3/4 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1/3 cup of warm water (around 110 degrees)
Directions
- In a medium sized bowl combine flour and salt until blended well. Then make a well.
- Warm the water to 110 degree to active the yeast. Too cold or too hot can prevent the yeast from working. I used a cooking thermometer to determine exact temperature.
- Add water to the well and dump in yeast and sugar. Let is sit for about 10 minute until bubbly.
- Add olive oil to the well mix with a fork until most of the dough has formed a ball.
- Then using your hand kneed the rest of the flour and dough pieces into the dough ball.
- Let the dough rest in a greased bowl with a cover for about two hours so it can rise.
- On a counter or large flat surface, sprinkle some flour down so that your dough doesn’t stick.
- Wipe some flour on a rolling pin and roll your dough out to a 1/4 inch thickness.
- If you’re using a pizza stone, prep your pizza stone as necessary. I used a metal pizza tray, which I sprayed with cooking spray.
- Lay your rolled out dough on the baking stone or sheet.
This nutrition of the whole crust is 482 calories, 4.5g of fat, 84g of carbohydrates and 15g of protein.
Thin Crust
What You’ll Need
- 1 cup of flour
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1/3 teaspoon baking powder (I used 1/4 teaspoon and 1/8 teaspoon)
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/3 cup of water
Directions
- In a medium sized bowl combine dry ingredients until blended well.
- Add olive oil and water to flour mixture and mix with a fork until most of the dough has formed a ball.
- Then using your hand kneed the rest of the flour and dough pieces into the dough ball.
- Let the dough rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
- On a counter or large flat surface, sprinkle some flour down so that your dough doesn’t stick.
- Wipe some flour on a rolling pin and roll your dough out to a 1/4 inch thickness.
- If you’re using a pizza stone, prep your pizza stone as necessary. I used a metal pizza tray, which I sprayed with cooking spray.
- Lay your rolled out dough on the baking stone or sheet.
This nutrition of the whole crust is 620 calories, 20g of fat, 92g of carbohydrates and 16g of protein.
Now for toppings. This is where nutritional value can really change.
Pick your sauce. Pick your toppings and just be mindful.
Philly Cheeseteak Pizza
We went thin crust and sauceless because we made Philly Cheesesteak Pizza and felt that it had enough flavor that we wouldn’t be missing anything by not having sauce.
What You’ll Need:
- 8 ounces top sirloin, sliced and pan-fried
- 1 medium bell pepper – about 150 to 200g, sliced into strips
- 1 small red onion – about 75g sliced into strips
- 4 large mushrooms – 50g sliced
- 56g of mozzarella provolone shredded cheese blend
- 28g of Parmesan Romano shredded cheese blend
Directions
- Pre-heat your oven 425 degrees so it can warm up while you get your toppings ready.
- Trim excess fat off your steak and slice it into 1/4 inch thick strips, ours were about an inch or two long as well.
- Cook steak in a medium sized pan. You will use this pan for the veggies as well, so a medium to large pan is necessary. You can use olive oil or cooking spray if you think you’ll have issues with the meat sticking to the pan. We used a little bit of olive oil wiped with a paper towel.
- Cook steak about half way before removing it from the pan. It’ll continue to cook in the oven and no one likes dry steak. Spread evenly onto your crust.
- Using the same pan, add sliced veggies and sautee in the steak juices until tender. You can skip this step if you prefer crunchy veggies on your pizza.
- While your veggies cook, in a small bowl mix your shredded cheese.
- Sprinkle a small handful of cheese over the steak already on the crust.
- Add your cooked veggies to the crust. Try to spread them evenly. It doesn’t need to be perfect.
- Sprinkle the remaining cheese to your crust as evenly as possible.
- Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes depending on how crispy you like your pizza.
Nutritional Notes:
- Fat content in dairy changed depending on the kind of cheese you buy, however, so does the melting. If you get a cheese that is lower in fat, it tends to be a little drier and won’t necessarily melt as well. If you want to go with a lower fat dairy, 2% still tastes good, melts and saves a gram or two on fat per serving.
- Fat content in meat changes greatly depending on the cut. We used tri-tip sirloin steak, which has 9g of fat per 4 ounces according to the package we bought. Round, sirloin and top sirloin are the leanest cuts of steak.
We each ate half a pizza.
I also made a salad with tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli slaw and balsamic and oil.
When you’re cooking at home and cooking bulk or in an assembled way like a pizza is you make the best estimates for portions.
I know for certain that this WHOLE pizza was 61g of fat, 110g of carbohydrates and 86g of protein. We tried to spread the steak and cheese as evenly as possible and we got it cut pretty much down the middle.
I estimated that I ate about 30.5F (with 9.5g of saturated fat)/55C/43P or 667 calories.
Now before some of you freak out. Let’s discuss. The steak was pretty lean, the veggies were fresh veggies and the cheese was well under a standard portion at a restaurant.
I ate half a pizza, which was about four slices, completely loaded. If I compare this pizza to Domino’s Philly Cheesesteak Pizza here’s what we get:
A medium Domino’s pizza is 8 slices and so is the large.
1 slice of medium Domino’s Philly Cheesesteak Pizza has:
- 230 calories
- 10g of fat including 5g of saturated fat
- 26g of carbohydrates
- 10g of protein
So if I ate 4 slices of this pizza, I would’ve consumed 920 calories, 40g of fat (20g of saturated fat), 104g of carbohydrates, 40g of protein.
1 slice of large Domino’s Philly Cheesesteak Pizza has:
- 310 calories
- 13g of fat including 6g of saturated fat
- 35g of carbohydrates
- 14g of protein
So if I ate 4 slices of this pizza, I would’ve consumed 1,240 calories, 52g of fat (24g of saturated fat), 140g of carbohydrates, 56g of protein.
I want us to be realistic.
I’m sure many of you are saying well that’s not a lot healthier than going out for pizza because I ate half the pie – but be honest with yourself. Will you stop at a slice or two? Will the ingredients you’re getting be fresh or lean or antibiotic free (if you’re into that kind of thing). I’m pro-greasy egg rolls, sometimes, but cooking at home provides you the advantage of choosing your ingredients and building your nutrition skillfully.
I could’ve stopped at two slices, but I also planned for this. I knew I would want more than two slices. Knowing we were having a later lunch with the football game around 1:30 pm and we ate more densely and didn’t eat dinner until about 7 pm, which was chicken breast and broccoli #balance.
We don’t always make loaded pizzas like this. Sometimes we do lean chicken breast and veggies. Sometimes we do individual pies so we can each have different toppings. We almost always put veggies on our pizzas so we can say we did so.
Both of the crust recipes can be used for calzones or personal sized pizzas if you want something more individual or have picky eaters. I think you get more volume by making it at home than you do out at a restaurant, but to each their own poison.
