Tuesday, December 13, 2011

My Pizza IS a Vegetable

Did you hear about the new law in Congress, allowing 1/8 cup (2 Tbsp.) tomato paste to count as a serving of vegetables in school lunches, instead of the half cup required of other vegetables?  It inflates pizza's nutritional profile. 

I was musing on this as I made pizza for supper the other night.  School pizza is made of white flour crust, tomato paste and corn syrup, and cheese.  No flavor, no whole grains, just some high-sodium tomato paste and cheese product mozzarella.


Homemade pizzas are different.

Exhibit A:  100% whole wheat crust, homemade pizza sauce thickened by hours of simmering, not tomato paste, mozzarella, Parmesan, green olives, mushrooms, and onions


Exhibit B:  same healthy crust, sauce and cheese, just with lots of spinach, blue cheese, and garlic

10 comments:

Christian - Modobject@Home said...

Yummo! I would happily eat my veggies at your house!

beth said...

Mmmm. Those look good!!!

Unknown said...

Sad to say, there's just no worthy substitute for home cooking...many have tried, none have succeeded ; )

BLD in MT said...

Homemade pizza is the best. I don't even want take-out any more. And yes, I heard about that ruling. My sister (who has school aged children) told me about it in outrage. Crazy, crazy stuff. But, yes, pizza COULD be a vegetable...if done right! As in with real vegetables!

Also, I love the children waiting patiently (or does it only look patient?) while you snap photos. I do that to Matt all the time.

Carolyn said...

Gee, and aren't we glad that Congress spent how many hours/days/weeks debating this important piece of legislature instead of taking care of REAL issues facing our country?

Jennifer Jo said...

Yes, I heard about that ruling. So ridiculous.

YOUR pizzas look ridiculously GOOD.

Rebecca said...

I'll be right over for the green olive etc. pizza.

Crystal said...

I couldn't agree more! The ketchup ruling isn't much different than the pickle that counts as a vegetable every so often or the baked beans from a can that are loaded with hfcs. Oh and don't get me started on what counts as fruit!

Margo said...

BLD, they were patient (which is not always the case!). I also take meal photos at lightning speed, so it's never long.

Steph (The Cheapskate Cook) said...

2 tablespoons of tomato paste?!?! That'd be funny if it wasn't so sad. I read this to Chris and he pointed out this means we could eat a plate of spaghetti and be good for a week of vegetables.
These pizzas look delicious! I especially like the look of the one loaded with spinach!