Is it even possible to make a really healthy pizza? Probably, but I honestly don’t think it’s going to taste much better than saucy cardboard. On a Friday night, after a long work week, sometimes you just want cheesy, delicious pizza and a glass of wine. You’ve earned it, right?! Having said that I don’t think you need to destroy a weeks worth of good choices by eating pizza dripping with meat and grease. Besides, there’s still Saturday and Sunday to recon with and if you’re like me ice cream is going to happen on one of those days. So my compromise? Sorta Healthy Friday Night Pizza. It still has lots of cheese, as well as lots of veggies to kill some of the guilt.

One of the best things about making pizza is that you can literally put anything you want on it. Whatever you have in your fridge that’s aging a bit is a great candidate for pizza, like the bottom of the bag of spinach, partially used onion from Monday’s casserole, leftover cooked chicken… you get the picture. Pizza sauce is a snap too. No need to buy a jar at the store. Simmer a can of tomato sauce, garlic, oregano and a nice pinch of sugar for 5 minutes and you’re done!

The trick to making sorta healthy pizza is a lot of veggies and zero fatty meat. I always make mine vegetarian but you can add chicken breast, shrimp or some other very lean meat. Keep your veggies sliced extra thin to prevent them from getting watery. For the pizza in the picture, I used frozen broccoli that I par-boiled for a couple of minutes then placed on my cutting board and cut in small pieces. I also happened to have smoked tofu that needed to get used (yes, I’m a tofu weirdo) which ended up tasting like bacon. The crust is store bought. Substitute any of my ingredients and use what you like!

• 1 store bought pizza dough or flat bread (thinner has less calories)
• 1/2 cup red pizza sauce
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup chopped broccoli, par boiled & salted
• 1/2 cup sliced olives or 1/4 c olive tapenade (pictured)
• 1 cup smoked tofu or lean meat

Preheat oven to 425 and assemble the ingredients in the order listed. AGAIN, choose your own favorite veggies that you have in the fridge. Partially cooking most veggies is better with the exception of zucchini and eggplant. Bake for 7-10 minutes and you are done! A bit of Parmesan is always delicious sprinkled on top.