Halfway homemade pizza

I'll tell you a secret.  Anything you make at home has a heckuva better chance at being better for you than if you order in.  Pizza is no exception to that rule, it really gets a bad rap healthwise when they pile on full fat cheese, greasy full fat meat, brush the crust with butter, etc.  I'll give you no argument that it tastes heavenly, but I'm always guilt ridden when I've got a full belly of 'za.  The problem is, I can't just stop eating the stuff....it's in my blood, my DNA, or wherever those weird, cheesy, fatty cravings hide out and pounce on you from.

I guess I can't really call this homemade because I use store bought crust and store bought sauce but come on...I wanted to watch a movie and hang with my dude instead of whipping up food from scratch! I should at least get points for not ordering in...

This is a way to lessen your guilt after downing your fair share of pizza pie.  Here's what you need:

1 can Hy-Vee refrigerated pizza dough
1 can/jar your fave pizza sauce
whatever meat toppings you want to throw on it (can bacon and turkey pepperoni are good ones for flavor that dont pack much fat/calories)
whatever veggie toppings you want to throw on it
mozzerella cheese (2% if available, fat free doesnt melt very well)
italian seasoning
fresh basil

From here on out, it's pretty much up to you how bad/good for you your pizza will end up being. I used mini turkey pepperonis which are pretty much harmless, and then threw on all sorts of veggies to spice it up! 

My original intention was to grill pizza because I've seen it on so many blogs and cooking shows but to be honest, we were hungry, and I didn't want to risk ruining it and having to start over!  So we went with the tried and true...

First thing is first, we did thin crust because I don't want all the carbs from the thicker crust....you can choose which way to do it by how thin you roll it out.  I used a regular baking sheet...make sure to spray it with Pam first so the crust doesn't stick to the pan.

Spread with your favorite sauce...I've tried them all and this is by far the best in my opinion! I also minced some fresh garlic and stirred it around in the sauce...you HAVE TO have fresh garlic on pizza....it's like state law.

At this point, it's pretty self explanatory. 

Layer your toppings!  As I said, I used mini turkey pepperonis and mushrooms on the whole thing.  Then I added fresh spinach and cherry tomatoes from the garden to one side....

And sour kraut and banana peppers to the other side (thinking that if this spicy side hurt J's weak stomach, he had a whole non-spicy side to fall back on)....

You also see slices of greyere and fontina cheese mixed around on the top of the pie, I had about 1/4 cup of each left laying around after the 5 cheese lasagna I made the other day, so I distributed that before shredding 1 cup of reduced fat mozzerella and spreading it on top of the whole pizza.  An easy way to cut fat is to cut cheese, so the less cheese you use the better off you'll be (I could've gone with less than what I did).  I sprinkled the whole thing with italian seasoning and some fresh basil I cut off my plant (I can't explain how much this MAKES the pizza), and got ready to throw it in the oven and get to the couch....

425 degrees for 20 minutes and you're in business....

Cut it up and enjoy!  For some reason, square pieces make me feel at home.  Maybe because you don't have to have crust for the middle pieces? Don't ask me.  I will say that we will be doing this a lot more often to save on cash and calories in the future...it was a hit!