Healthy homemade pizza

Hello everybody!

Have you been experiencing a major craving for pizza, but you don't want to consume the thousands of calories and massive grams of fat that would be delivered to your door in less than 30 minutes, not to mention the 30-40 dollars including tip that you stand to lose?

Never fear, I have a great recipe that will make a very tasty pizza, and cost half the price of a delivery pizza. All the ingredients can be found at your local grocery store, and it takes less than 30 minutes from preparation to tabletop.

Ingredients:
Naan bread - I can get a package of two at Harris Teeter for $2.79. Always choose whole wheat. The garlic or tandoori flavors will make the pizza more flavorable, but it would be just fine it you get the plain whole wheat naan bread. Generally 1 bread = 1 person, so be sure to grab enough at the store to cover your family.

Hummus - this is a completely customizable base spread. I choose the sun dried Hummus from my local store, but the original recipe I started with called for a ricotta cheese and pesto mix. The ricotta is too creamy for me, and the pesto can be a bit overpowering if you put too much on. In my opinion, the hummus integrates perfectly with the other ingredients. I have also made it with no spread, only a brushing of olive oil and it came out very nicely.

Asparagus - Get a bunch of very fresh and medium thickness asparagus from your local grocer. Snap off the broad ends and set aside. This is also customizable. You can choose a lot of greens such as spinach, kale, I would even consider thinly sliced parsnip straws for this ingredient.

Ham - really good lunch meat does just fine for me. It is low-calorie, and protein-rich. In the past I have gone fancy and picked up prosciutto or other Italian meats, and it does make the pizza outstanding. Of course, it also makes it much, much more expensive. Sometimes I even have to feed my pepperoni fix and add them here instead of the ham. It's really up to personal preference.

Mozzarella cheese - Sargento makes some great and cheap finely chopped mozzarella that can be found at any store. I have used all kinds of cheeses such as fontina, provolone, Swiss, etc., but once again, it is personal preference and value-based. For me, the cheaper mozzarella is just perfect.

So now you have the basic ingredients. You can always add more, change it how you see fit. Some sun dried tomatoes, maybe some mushrooms would be excellent additions. Make sure you don't make it too thick on top or the naan bread base will not support the toppings.

-Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
-Place the naan bread smooth size down on a cookie sheet and brush with then hummus or whatever you choose to be your base sauce. Be sure not to make it too thick, you don't want to overpower the pizza or make it a gloopy mess. A light covering works just fine. If you're a big fan of cheese, you can choose to add a light covering of mozzarella to this base. I don't, and it works fine.
-Place the snapped asparagus into the base sauce, like you are making a mold. Continue to stack the asparagus across the pizza like you're making a checkerboard. Do this for all pizzas until you run out of asparagus and all pizzas are covered.
-Put the pizzas in the oven for approximately 10 minutes, or until you start to smell the asparagus roasting and you can see some browning on the naan bread.
-Pull it out of the oven and cover in the meat of your choice and then the mozzarella cheese until well covered. You can also add any herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme at this point.
-Put pizzas back into the oven for about 2-3 minutes until cheese is fully melted, then pull back
out and cut into any pattern you see fit and ENJOY!