From the Eat Well with Janel blog:Spinach Artichoke Pizza - Dine, Dish, Delish |
Posted: 22 Dec 2011 03:00 AM PST  One of my biggest peeves as a dietitian is when naturally nutritious foods are made out to be the bad guys simply because of the way they're prepared or what other ingredients they're paired with. Case in point: potatoes. As is, they're loaded with fiber, potassium, and vitamin C. If you drench and fry them in oil, that's another story. Also? Spinach and artichokes. Smooshed together in a dip with cream cheese, salt and regular cheese it's an unhealthy calorie bomb at around 100 calories per tablespoon. Yiiiikes! But on their own, they're veggies jam-packed with fiber and nutrients.  I had a hankering for that spinach-artichoke combo and didn't want the artery clogging junk that comes along with the dip, so I decided to use them as a homemade pizza topping. I love a lot (and I mean a LOT) of veggies on my pizza, so I absolutely covered it with fresh spinach and chopped artichoke hearts. Underneath all that goodness, I used a can of Red Gold's Red Pack tomato sauce, which doesn't contain any high fructose corn syrup – woohoo! Normally I buy a jar of tomato sauce or pizza sauce, and always wind up with so much left over. This time I snagged the 15 ounce can which was the perfect amount (and I had just enough to use on both sets of pizza).  I divvied up the pizzas into two separate pies to make baking and storing leftovers easier. I even made a second pizza for our friend who I cook for, and split up the dough into four single-serve pizzas. Ingredients for one large pizza: Fresh, prepared whole wheat pizza dough 15 oz can tomato sauce 3/4 – 1 cup cheese (I used shredded soy) 1/3 bag fresh baby spinach 1 can artichoke hearts, chopped Roll out the pizza dough into a thin layer. This was actually easier to do with the two smaller pizzas than with one large pizza. Whenever I make one large pizza, I can never keep the dough rolled out thin enough and wind up with a huge sticky, uneven dough mess. Next I spread on the tomato sauce. I layered the fresh spinach on top of the tomatoes and underneath the cheese. This way, the spinach trapped under the cheese would help steam and cook it so it wasn't like I had a hot salad on my pizza. Finally I topped the cheese with the artichokes and baked in a 350 oven for about 10 minutes until the crust started to brown. This totally took care of my spinach artichoke dip craving, as well as Funk's twice-weekly pizza craving. |
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