Pizza is a winner in practically every household, but yet we all know that it's not going to win any prizes for nutrition; best case it's health-neutral, worst case its detrimental to childrens' health with high saturated fat and salt content. So, the simplest solution is to make your own and healthify it!
The key switches are:
Use a proportion of wholemeal flour for the dough
Make your own hidden vegetable tomato sauce
Add less cheese and more vegetable toppings
Let the children join in to motivate them to eat what they've made
Pizza Dough
250g strong plain flour
100g plain flour
150g wholemeal flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fast-action dry yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
350ml of warm water
Mix the dry ingredients and olive oil in a bowl.
Gradually add the water to make a sticky dough.
Turn the sticky dough out onto a floured surface
Knead with some umpff for about 10 minutes after which time most of the stickiness should have gone (add slightly more flour if you absolutely have to, but give it a chance with some elbow grease before you do!)
Lightly grease the inside of a large bowl and place the dough inside
Cover with cling film and leave to prove for about 2 hours
Tomato base sauce
I use broadly what I have in the cupboard at the time (which this time included some green pepper), but almost always the ingredients will include
Olive oil
Fresh tomatoes
Carrots
Red peppers
Onions
Tinned tomatoes
Garlic
Taking my own advice to eliminate the need for added salt, I now roast the tomatoes and the red pepper to bring out the flavour
Meanwhile, saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until nearly transparent
Add the carrots (finely sliced)
Allow this to gentle fry until the carrots are becoming tender, then add the tinned tomatoes
Once the carrots are properly cooked through, add the roasted veg and blend using a handheld blender
Pizza Assembly
Toppings e.g.
Sweetcorn
Peppers thinly sliced
Olives halved
Mushroom slices
Torn mozzarella pieces
Small amount of thinly grated cheddar
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
Knock back and divide the pizza dough into rough quarters and shape each piece into a thin, pizza-shaped base
Grease a baking tray and place the stretched pizza dough on top (Mine stuck to the baking paper I used!)
Cover with approximately 3 tbsp of tomato sauce (above)
Place mozzarella pieces on top along with other toppings as desired
Finish with thin sprinkling of finely grated cheddar cheese
Bake for approximately 10 minutes
This is genuinely delicious. Other than in the pizza dough, there is no other added salt or sugar, whilst there are plenty of added vegetables, even for those less keen on vegetable toppings!