Pizza! Ninja Turtles Style.

Ed and I love pizza on Friday nights.  I eat carefully all week, and it's nice to come home to a nice cheesy slice of yumminess on Fridays.  Both Ed and I work on Saturdays, and that has (for better or for worse, but we're trying to be positive here, so I'll say for the better) helped us to not drink too many beers or stay up until all hours eating junk on Fridays. (aka continuing the college lifestyle)  We're only 26, so I guess that's a little weird, but we like to crash on the couch and watch Netflix on Fridays.  We each work long hours and I also have class during the week, so it's our first chance all week to just chill.

Ed's pizza-on-Friday-nights schtick was a thing he and his brother Ray always did on Fridays when they lived together.  When Ed and I moved in together, he wanted to continue the tradition, but I used to sort of dread it - I mean, take-out pizza?  Grease and sodium city!  I have goals, people!  ..but I do just looOOve pizza.  Mmm.  I thought there must be a way to enjoy it without derailing too bad.

After the holidays we went balls to the walls healthy eating.  I'm proud to say that we've stuck with it past the New Year's Resolution phase, and this meant revamping Fridays.. and pizza-fests.  We decided to keep it in the kitchen and adventured into the world of homemade pizza and frozen pizzas.

Homemade pizzas can be fabulously healthy.  You make it, so you control it.  There are tasty recipes out there, including trying flatbreads or eggplant rounds as crusts, or hummus instead of pizza sauce.  But for us, after awhile, making our own pizzas ended up defeating the purpose of easy end-of-the-week meal because I had to roll out dough, or spread sauce or sprinkle cheese, or dice something, or whatever.  On a Friday, I just wanna EAT.

On to the frozen pizzas.. lots of options from which to choose (Tombstone, Store-brand, Lean Cuisine, etc.), but as far as health and taste go, we narrowed it down to our top 3 favorite brands (not including individual-size pizzas, and clean eating aside, sorry Tosca.)  Here they are in order of our favorites from very good to awesome..

#3: Amy's Kitchen organic line of pizzas. (we are slightly falling for the the organic = healthy mindset here, but I don't care!)  And I must say, I am loving the flavors.  My favorite, far and away, is Amy's 3-cheese pizza on cornmeal crust.  Yum.  Love the creaminess of the goat cheese and weird grainy firmness of the crust.  (Please note that it isn't a gluten-free.. Our friend Shipper has Coeliac - we give him a hard time about it as often as possible and try to scare him with loaves of bread.)  Amy's Pesto variety with tomato slices is also delicious.  These pizzas are a little expensive dollar-wise and calorie-wise for home-dining.  They run about $7.00 per (small-ish) pizza.  The nutrition count is still a bit high (especially fat) even for a semi-splurge serving on a Friday night.  There are better options out there but the flavor is great!

Serving size 1/3 pizza (they are small-ish), Calories 370, Total Fat 19g, Saturated Fat 4g, Trans Fat 0g, Sodium 580mg, Total Carbohydrate 41g, Fiber 2g, Protein 10g

#2: Ristorante brand by Dr. Oetker pizzas ("Italy's #1 pizza!" ..according to the box..) are very very yummy.  This is probably due to the higher percentage of calories coming from fat than our other choices.  Our favorite flavor is the Pizza Spinaci, (the spinach tastes so fresh!) but I also love mushrooms and so the Pizza Funghi is a close second.  The price is reasonable, at about $5.99 per pizza.  Like I said, these pizzas are higher in fat, and that is the only reason I vote them at number 2 instead of number 1.  But, the portion size is a little bigger than our #3 choice for the calorie count - if you serve a nice tossed salad alongside, it's a great meal.

Serving size 1/3 pizza, Calories 290, Total Fat 16g, Saturated Fat 5g, Trans Fat 0g, Sodium 750mg, Total Carbohydrate 28g, Fiber 2g, Protein 9g

Our #1 Selection for Taste, Nutrition, & Portion Size: Kashi Brand Frozen Pizzas.  We particularly enjoy the roasted vegetable variety.  The veggie flavor is nice and pronounced, and the thin crust gets nice and crispy.  The price of these pizzas is completely reasonable at about $4.99 per whole pizza. (That's about 1/3 the price for a muuuuch healthier pizza choice than any average take-out pizza!)  Best of all, the size is ginormous as compared to the other frozen varieties we tried, for up to 100 less calories per serving, with less fat, and more protein.  Bingo!

Serving size 1/3 pizza, Calories 250, Total Fat 9g, Saturated Fat 4g, Trans Fat 0g, Sodium 630mg, Total Carbohydrate 28g, Fiber 4g, Protein 14g


What weekend splurge meal can you recreate?  Think outside the box (..of fried chicken.)  Have a happy, healthy weekend!