Hello my friends! Happy National Pizza Day! I'll admit, I love pizza but the way it's made traditionally, at least in the US, it's calorie dense and not diet friendly. So here are some diet food swap pizza recipes and pizza-making tips for weight loss. I'll include some gluten-free pizza recipes too. Eating lighter and with healthier diet food swaps was part of how I lost 100 pounds.
Diet food swap pizza crust recipes. Pizza crust is the single biggest calorie booster in the dish. We don't even like the thick breadier Detroit style pizza crusts anyway, so that a good thing. We buy thin or cracker style pizza crusts from Dollar Tree and cut calories and cost. I could also make my own but in the interest of a quick, nutritious meal, I'll opt for pre-made thin pizza crusts. And I'm saving money over pizza take-out or store bought. And we're talking serious calorie cutting here. And entire thin crust pizza crust is only 320 calories compared to 960 per refrigerated pizza crust and a whopping 1,080 for regular Boboli.
Breadless gluten-free pizza crust recipes. Cauliflower pizza crusts are a popular gluten-free food swap to wheat flour crusts. You can make your own using riced cauliflower (just make sure to extract as much liquid as possible to avoid soggy crusts).
Besam or gram flour pizza crust. My preferred diet pizza option is to use besam or gram flour (ckickpea flour) as a protein rich gluten-free pizza crust option. This flatbread style is made similar to naan pizza using a greased skillet. Besam pizza crust recipe is simple, using 1 cup ground chickpea flour, one T. avocado or olive oil, tapioca flour or milled flaxseed, garlic, fennel and celery salt to taste--celery salt is my go-to for all savory recipes. For a more Indian flavor, add cumin and for Italian, add rosemary and thyme.
Carb free Keto diet Spinach pizza crust. The breadless pizza crust alternative is amazingly delicious. Oil a pan with high heat oil like avocado or light olive oil. Arrange a mat of spinach leaves about 3-5 thick. Alternate layers of spinach leaves with shredded parmesan which when baked, acts as a binder. Next, top your spinach crust with favorite toppings, omitting cheese as it's in the crust.
Diet pizza food swaps for cheese. Cheese is another big calorie add. Parmesan cheese is keto-friendly as it is a low lactose (milk sugar) and high protein cheese with CLA (fat burning conjugated linolenic acid) Eating keto was part of how I lost 100 pounds. Goat cheese, brie and feta cheese is lower in calories than most hard cheeses so it makes a good diet food swap. Just plan on it not melting well. For a good low calorie cheese to melt, try lowfat mozzarella. Although for me, the jury's still out on full fat vs. lowfat cheese. Full fat curbs hunger better and sometimes has less junk in it than "light" options.
Diet meat pizza toppings food swaps. Diet food swaps for meat toppings include pre-cooked crumbled bacon. One T. has only 25 calories. Turkey pepperoni or sausage is lower fat and calories. Both are low fat but also suuuper salty. So I just use less or omit. My diet food swap preference is shrimp pizza. Cooked shrimp has a protein punch with almost no fat. My husband loves anchovies too.
Diet food swaps for pizza topping. Here's where the creativity comes in because there are so many vegetable combinations to enjoy on your pizza. Our must-haves are baby bella mushrooms, onions, multi-colored peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, fennel seed and just a few black olives.
Lenten kitchen pizza recipes. Our rainbow vegetarian pizza for lent (when we Catholics don't eat meat) features a thin pizza crust (or spinach pizza crust) with a light spread of marinara sauce. We top with fresh mushrooms, diced red (purple) onion, colored peppers (green, red, yellow and orange), garlic, sliced grape tomatoes, fresh basil and spicy sprouts andshrimp for me and anchovies for him. We add generous portions of oregano and fennel seed and drizzle with truffle oil.
Fun food swap pizza recipes. Our son introduced us to bacon, fig and goat cheese pizza and I loved it. Figs add a high protein kick and that little bit of sweet counteracts the saltiness of pizza. I'd also use dates or reduced sugar dried cranberries. I add fresh mushrooms, just because, well, mushrooms. You could add Greek olives too.
Stay tuned for more upcoming Lenten Kitchen vegetarian food swap recipes as Ash Wednesday approaches! Making food swaps like these was part of how I lost 100 pounds without drugs or weight loss surgery.
