Whole Wheat Pizza

For years the kids were happy with my fast and easy version of pizza.

Take one tortilla, sprinkle on some shredded cheddar and throw on a few pieces of pepperoni and throw it in the toaster oven on "broil" for a couple of minutes. They loved it! The kids asked for it at least once a week.

One day the girl decided she didn't like them anymore. Might have been due in part to my switching to whole wheat tortillas. She wanted some real pizza.

"Real" pizza is a deadly substance. Not that that stops us from eating it when we eat out - but it's one of those things I stopped making at home some years ago.

So lately I've been wondering if I could come up with a "healthy" "real" pizza that wasn't just a white carbohydrate smothered in fat (albeit very yummy fat).

Trader Joe's (my new favorite store!) to the rescue. They actually sell pre-made whole wheat pizza dough. It cost about $1.50 and it was enough to make a cookie-sheet sized pizza.

The girl was my ever willing pizza maker helper.

I carefully measured out a reasonable amount of cheese and pepperoni.

The kids kept wanting "another slice" so I think they enjoyed it.

Personally - I didn't like the crust. It was kind of soft and chewy (I even took it out of the pan after it was cooked and placed it right on the oven rack to see if that would crisp it up a bit).

I also thought it needed more cheese and pepperoni :0 Or at least some heavier toppings to compensate for the reduced cheese.

But all in all it gave me confidence to experiment some and to consider making my own crust (maybe I'll just use 1/2 white flour and 1/2 whole wheat flour).

I still surprise myself that I'm turning into one of "those moms" that I would have scoffed at years ago when my daily lunch consisted of a bag of Salt n Vinegar potato chips and a Coke. Just thinking about the good old days makes my mouth water.