Hello everyone,
I’m new to forums but i’m really looking forward to hearing other peoples take on low calorie recipes. I’ve been on a diet now for 3 months and I’ve found cutting out things like butter, mayo and oil has been really effective. I’ve also severely cut down on my bread and cheese intake and i’ve found it really hard. I miss pizza and I miss garlic bread. Is there any way of making a low calorie pizza base? Or even anywhere I can buy one? I’m not holding much hope…
Hi Clare1302
Not sure this will help you but I also love pizza & want to cut out the calories. Once a week we have pizza here, my husband can eat any kind & never gain anything…ME, I head to the grocery store & buy the Lean Cuisine frozen pizza (think it has about 330 calories). THEN I do some creative doctoring to it! I slice & seed a fresh tomato, slice fresh mushrooms, & as the pizza is to be made in the microwave, I layer tomatoes, fresh mushroom slices & about 1 12 tsp. Parmesan cheese, send to the microwave for 1/2 the time, repeat layers & back to the microwave. Sprinkle an additional 1 teaspoon Parmesan cheese over all when finished. I then use a pizza cutter to slice into 8 pieces. It is so good, I don’t even care what my husband is eating. The type I usually look for is labeled Traditional Deluxe, although Lean Cuisine has many varieties. I’m not promoting a specific product but that is the one I prefer & really like. It’s even better when you can find them on sale & toss a few in your freezer for future use.
You could also buy English muffins, spread with a jarred pizza sauce, add either soy crumbles OR lo-fat turkey pepperoni & top with 2% mozzarella cheese & toss in the oven…but that does take time.
Garlic bread? I also like it but have found I can live without it & it doesn’t bother me, hey! I remember what it tastes like & 2 minutes after I eat it, it will be the same memory again.
To replace mayo, I use fat free salad dressing OR fat free mayo. I also carry packets of fat free salad dressings with me to use in restaurants.
Clare1302, personal message me & we can continue this. I’ve been straying off track recently & have been heading in the right direction again.
Let’s face it, there’s just no great substitute for great pizza. Sure, ya’ can use sunflower seed flour, to lower calories, and easily, the crust can have low-fat to non-fat, and yeah, you can get 2% or 1% low fat cheese, but it will lose flavor.
So ya’ need to enjoy it at times, with all is calories. Just gotta limit the amount. What I do, is fill up on fresh veggies like baby carrots, celery, red radishes, etc., which makes me feel stuffed when I try eating more than a slice and a half of pizza. And even sometimes, I skip the pizza coz I ain’t hungry anymore.
And garlic bread is easy, coz ya’ can use any bread. Get Promise Ultra Fat-free oleo, spread it on the top of the bread, spinkle on the garlic, then use a butter flavored pan spray just very lightly on the top of bread (It helps the top brown slightly, coz the Promise Ultra won’t). Then just bake or broil. Or best yet, a toaster oven if ya’ have one.
I think you might be right I could have a slice of pizza from time to time and just make sure I limit myself. The only problem with that though is what do I do with the rest of the pizza? I’m too much of greedy guts to watch it go in the bin. Food waste makes me sad lol xxxxx
Just make small pizzas equivalent to 1 serving. Portion and freeze the remaining dough for future use.
I LOVE the mushroom idea. I’m definitely going to give them a go at some point in the near future. Low calorie or not, they’ll make a fantastic side dish or starter.
Can’t help but toss in my 2 cents about re-heating a previous fresh baked pizza slice that has been frozen.
I’m sure there are many techniques.
Because when a fresh pizza is frozen, most of its moister moves to the outside of the crust. What I do is defrost the slices in the microwave first, on full power, for no more than 30 seconds. You don’t wanna heat the slice in the microwave, just defrost it. What this does is redistribute the moister back into the slice. Don’t over-do in the microwave, coz it ruins the crust.
Then, place in the hot oven to heat. Once again, even better if ya’ use a toaster over, coz ya’ can heat both the top & bottom of the slice at the same time, using the ‘toast’ cycle.
Many agree, that my re-heated frozen pizza slices come out tasting much the same as when they were fresh.
Portabellas are a favorite of many vegetarians! Most of our restaurants here offer some sort of portabella on the vegetarian menu, and many will allow you to substitute a large grilled portabella for a burger in any of their burger combinations.
Have you ever putting grilled portabellas on a salad? I started seeing portabella salad on some of the “heart healthy” menus, and they are delicious! One of the salads I had was a Bleu cheese and portabella, with bits of bleu cheese and bleu cheese dressing.