Kid Approved Whole Wheat Pizza!

Mission Dietitian is back!

 

I am very excited to share that I completed all of my coursework in April, and have since moved on to the supervised practice portion of my journey. In order to be able to sit for the registration exam, you must accumulate 1200 hours of supervised practice. I will spend the rest of this year completing rotations in acute care, long term care, pediatrics, school food service, community nutrition, and a specialty rotation of my choice.

 

My first rotation was spent at Oak Pavilion Nursing Center in Clifton, which was surprisingly awesome. The patients were great, as was getting to practice my counseling skills one on one. It was sad to leave the patients at the end of my rotation and I often wonder how they are doing. Perhaps a visit to volunteer is in order! 

 

I am currently 2 weeks into my school food service rotation with Norwood Schools. Their program has blown me away with their focus on health, wellness and real food. They are currently working to get back to cooking completely from scratch, have eliminated snack vending machines, and only serve dessert items on special occasions. I have been having a great time helping out with serving summer lunches and educating the kids on healthy eating.

 

One of the projects I have completed for Norwood was to develop a whole grain pizza crust recipe to replace the frozen crust they have been using. The recipe also had to meet the National School Lunch Program guidelines for whole grains. For the purposes of this school lunch program, 2 ounces of grain must be provided at each meal and half of that grain must be whole grain.

 

The Whole Grain Council put out a great recipe and that was tested on my guinea pigs, ahem... my family. They managed to choke down two pizzas without too much of a struggle, so I prepared another batch so I could do a taste test with the kids.

 

This past Friday, I served pizza samples to 83 children between the ages of 1 to 18. They each tried the sample and answered a few taste test questions. Overall, 89% of them loved it and actually preferred it to the frozen Tony's pizza that was served for lunch that day!

 

I thought I would share the recipe with all of you to try at home! Making pizza from scratch is a great way to get the entire family in the kitchen and involved in the cooking process. Summer is a great time to experiment with lots of different home grown veggies and herbs as toppings!

 

Don't be intimidated if you have never made a bread item from scratch before. This recipe is quite easy and the dough is VERY forgiving!

 

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Makes two 16" pizzas

(1 serving = one 2" slice)

 

Ingredients:

 

2 c. Whole wheat flour

2 c. All purpose flour

1/2 c. Dry oats

1 Tbsp. + 1 1/2 tsp. Active dry yeast

1/4 tsp. Salt

2 tsp. Honey

1 1/2 c. Warm water

 

Directions:

 

Mix 1 cup each of white and whole wheat flour, oats, yeast and salt

Heat water to 125º, and then add honey. (Heating water in the microwave for about 1 minute and 30 seconds is about right. Don't get it too hot or you will kill the yeast and the crust won't rise)

Gradually add water to dry mixture. Mix for 2 minutes.

Add remaining flour, mixing well after each addition.

Knead dough for 10 minutes. Don't know how to knead? It's easy! Check out this video.

Spray with cooking spray. Cover with saran wrap. Let rise in warm place until double. The inside of your oven is a great place to let the crust rise since it is free from drafts! Just make sure not to turn the oven on!

Divide dough into equal parts. Roll and place in 16” pizza pans. Cover and let rise again, at least 45 minutes.

Bake in a 425 degree oven for about 10 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and slightly brown.

 

Here is a picture of the finished product I made for Norwood Food Service!

 

 

 

I promise more to come about my adventures in interning very soon. Thanks for reading and enjoy the pizza!

 



Peace, love and healthy food,

Katie