Pizza You Can SHAPE Magazine

Written by on in Dinner, The Lazy Chef, Tidbits and Treats, Writing

While catching up on Twitter this morning, I stumbled across some rather exciting news.

And by rather exciting, I mean I danced around my living room.

I am both honored and thrilled to share that I’ve been nominated for SHAPE Magazine’s Best Healthy Eating Blogger Awards!

When I sent Bobby the link to my feature, his first response was, “Awesome!” His second response was, “I never thought I’d be featured in SHAPE!” 🙂

That’s right, sir. You are front and center and looking handsome.

As a 7+ year subscriber to the magazine, it is a nomination that is very special to me, and I would be so grateful if you would vote for me at this link. But beyond the voting, I have to say that it is truly fantastic to be included among such great company. All of the above bloggers are talented writers, photographers, recipe creators…you name it. If my secret nominator is out there reading this right now, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

***

That said, Mama B. pointed out that it would probably be a good idea to put up a healthy recipe.

She’s a smart lady.

You may want to break out pen and paper for this one, M.B. Ready? Here goes:

Yes, that’s right. My healthiest recipe (for life) is, and will always be, “Love your food. Love your wine.”

Especially when given the opportunity to try a new wine out with one of my favorite healthy foods.

I know what you’re thinking. Wine + pizza = healthy eating? To that, I say you could not be more correct.

It all started with a gigantic ball of multigrain pizza dough from Whole Foods. You see? Multigrain. As in, multiple grains. Already this pizza is healthier than my beloved Chicago deep dish (though, admittedly, nothing beats Chicago deep dish in taste).

The best part about this dough ball was that we could shape it to the thickness and diameter we desired.

We ended up with roughly twelve inches across but were still looking at a moderately thick crust. As a self-professed lover of all things crust, this was obviously a done deal. Time to add the pizza sauce – made with healthy tomatoes! 😉

Still doing pretty good from a healthy point of view. Let’s speed things up, shall we?

Our assembly line continued with a dusting of cheese – a blend of mozzarella, fontina and asiago – plus layers of spinach, organic deli ham, red pepper and mushroom. Then it was time for the pizza “icing,” or what I’ll call a healthy helping of more cheese. We received a tip the last time we made pizza that it was best to spread the cheese out between top and bottom to hold the ingredients in better.

The tipper (ahem, Mama Bender) was a genius. This pizza was more compact and easier to eat than ever before. Much more enjoyable when you don’t have random veggies or meat dropping out every time you take a bite!

We plan to make this exact same pizza again tonight, but with chicken sausage!

Pizza You Can Shape Magazine

Ingredients (serves 2-4, depending on whether you want leftovers):

  • 1 multigrain ball of pizza dough (or 12-inch prepared crust)
  • 1/4 cup tomato or pizza sauce (depending on preferred thickness – we like thicker pizza sauce)
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheese (we used a blend of mozzarella, fontina and asiago)
  • 1/2 cup spinach
  • 6 slices deli meat (we used ham, but any meat will do)
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 4 baby bella (crimini) mushrooms, sliced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll dough until desired width and thickness of pie is reached. Add tomato sauce and roughly 1/4 of the cheese mixture. Pile on spinach, deli meat, red pepper and mushrooms. Add remaining cheese mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until cheese begins to brown and crust looks cooked through. Remove from oven and cool slightly. Cut and enjoy!

***

Of course, no pizza night would be complete without the wine. I recently received a sample of both red and white from a company called Entwine. We opened the bottle of cabernet sauvignon with our pizza. It was smooth and fruity, just like they promised. We loved it!

Love your food. Love your wine.

Love your readers for nominating you. Again, I am honored and thank you for making my day.

What are your weekend plans?

Tomorrow Bobby and I are attending our first Wildcats game of the season. We can’t wait! Sunday will be filled with even more football and writing. In other words, it will be just your average fall weekend around here, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Abrazos,

25 Comments

  1. Congrats on the nomination! That’s fantastic! Entwine is the Food Network wine, right? I think I’ve heard about it. Have fun at the game tomorrow- you’re going to have awesome weather for it. 🙂

  3. Congrats girl!!!! This is very exciting and such a honor for you. 🙂 You must feel so proud of yourself and rightfully so. You deserve this. 🙂

  5. Congrats lady! I voted as soon as I heard and couldn’t be more happy for you! So exciting!

    And that pizza looks great! I made some the other night with tortillas because I had no dough! And great thinking with the cheese sprinkled in between! I need to do that next time for Whit!

  6. Congrats on being nominated Jenn! My story is similar to yours – I stumbled upon the link to the blogger awards this morning through Facebook and was excited to see myself included among such inspirational bloggers.

    I love that you can vote more than once because now I can vote for all my favorites. 🙂

    Hope you are doing well lady! xoxo

  7. yay, Jenn i can only imagine how proud (and EXCITED!) you must have felt when you saw your nomination! definitely well-deserved. i rarely ever read healthy living blogs, but i continually find myself drawn to yours. i hope you win!
    and ps – that homemade pizza looks so good! i’ve been wanting to make my own pizza sometime.

  15. So excited for you! Congratulations on your nomination! It’s definitely well deserved!

    Pizza looks good! Great tip, spreading out the cheese on the bottom and on top!

    I got that wine, too! Made a cabernet sauce with it, to go with filet mignon (although I used ribeye steaks instead). What white wine did you select? I chose the Pinot Grigio and just made a wine cake with it!

  16. Congrats on the nomination! That is super exciting! 🙂

    That pizza looks amazing. I love making homemade pizza. It always tastes better than at a restaurant and it’s a lot healthier too.

  21. That pizza looks so delicious! Yummy! I’ll have to try the cheese on the bottom trip the next time I make some. More cheese can never hurt a pizza if you ask me :).

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