Whole wheat pizza - really??

           My friend treated some of us to a pizza lunch a while ago.  It was take out, but not just any take out.  It was a healthier version of pizza!  And it was great.  So, when my family asked for homemade pizza over the weekend I tried to recreate the take out version I had.  Usually, when I make homemade pizza I start with a “white” readymade crust, top it with sauce and lots of cheese.  Healthier than take out, but not quite.

            For this re-creation I started with a whole wheat readymade crust I found at my local store.  Now, I have changed over a lot of our grains to whole wheat, but never thought of whole wheat pizza!  So, when I saw the whole wheat crust in the store, I knew it was meant to be.  I rubbed a little bit of extra virgin olive oil into the edges of the crust (I always do this to help the edges brown and add another dimension of flavor).  I use my hands because olive oil is a great moisturizer too.  Then I topped the crust with a half can of pizza sauce.  Now, here is the special stuff.  I shouldn’t be taking all the credit for this, because Joey helped a great deal.  We then sprinkled diced grilled chicken.  I already grilled about two skinless, boneless chicken breasts with salt and pepper – I always make extra when I grill chicken – this is a good way to use up those leftovers.  Then we put diced steamed broccoli over the chicken – another way to use up leftovers.  After that we spread sautéed spinach over that.  The next step was to add a sprinkle of finely grated pecorino romano (you can use any cheese that you would put on pasta) and then we added 8 ounces of grated part-skim mozzarella.  I usually use 12 ounces on my typical homemade pizza, so I was able to cut some of the extra fat and calories there.  We cooked the pizza at 400° for about 20 minutes checking it at 15 minutes.  This made for a great dinner and I will tell you that I was satisfied eating just one slice.  It was tasty and filling and the kids ate it without complaint!