Find Your Balance

Pennywise Pizza

July 23rd, 2009

How much does a pizza cost? $12? Something like that? I haven’t actually purchased a pizza pie in a pretty long time so I’m guessing.

When I was maybe 8 years old living in New Jersey I’d gather up my quarters and walking a few blocks to our local pizzeria. A slice cost $1.00 and I felt very grown up ordering and paying for my own food! As an adult, New York pizza is by far the best I’ve tasted, with Chicago deep-dish style a very close second.

But let’s face it. Pizza isn’t the healthiest meal. Maybe you can get some mushrooms on top. Still, it’s not knocking my socks off with nutritional value. But pizza is fantastic when you make it yourself – a delicious, healthy, real-food, cost-conscious dinner.

You with me?

Here’s how I did it. I started in the morning with a 5 minute homemade dough. You mix it together, set it in the fridge and let it rise all day. Then you come home, roll it out, bake, add toppings and bake some more. Not bad.

Got leftovers in the fridge? Throw ‘em on! Got veggies you don’t know what to do with? Perfect! Maybe you have cheese, maybe you don’t. Got some sauce lying around? Pesto? Hoisin? Work it, sista.

Pizza is undeniably accommodating. And therefore, a big money saver. Food that goes bad or gets thrown away is a major waste of money. So…use it and save the bucks.

Michelle’s Herbilicious Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
3 cups whole wheat bread flour, plus 1/4 cup
1 tsp. instant yeast
2 tsp. sea salt
1 cup water
2 Tbl. olive oil
1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 handful fresh basil leaves (or oregano or sage, you get the gist)

In the morning
In food processor combine flour, yeast and salt. Turn on machine and add water and oil through feed tube. Let the machine run for less than a minute and it should form a ball of dough. Remove, turn onto floured surface and knead for a few seconds. Place ball of dough into oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth in the refrigerator.

In the evening
Remove dough from fridge. Divide into 2 or 4 equal pieces to make smaller pizzas that actually fit on a cookie sheet. Make each piece into a ball on floured surface, cover with a towel and let rise 20 minutes while you prep your toppings. (I used roasted golden beets, chopped beet greens, feta and a quick homemade pesto. The beets had been sitting in my fridge about to go bad! This all came together really well but obviously you can use anything.)

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Oil cookie sheets. Place dough on sheet and press out into a circle using your hands. Bake for about 6 minutes. Remove from oven, add toppings, then bake another 6 minutes. Serve.

It struck me odd that I don’t do this more often. Making the dough was super easy and cost pennies.

And by splitting it into 4 smaller pizzas, I had individual servings ready to rock the next day for lunch – the kind of lunch that makes other people jealous!

This post is part of Nourishing Gourmet’s Pennywise Platter Carnival and Food Renegade’s Fight Back Fridays.

19 Comments frugal living, recipe, whole grains