Eat Your Pizza ... I Mean Vegetables

Pizza is one of my favorite foods. When I was a boy we would always make homemade pizzas on Sunday nights. It was the one day of the week that we were allowed to eat while watching TV and were allowed to drink Coke. My mom would make the crust from a Chef Boyardee box and my brother and I would add the toppings. We usually had ground beef and an assortment of veggies – mushrooms, bell peppers, olives, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes – and plenty of shredded mozzarella cheese with some Parmesan from a green can sprinkled on top. It was a fun time to be creative with the pies and a good activity to do together.

Today, I still love a good pizza. However, my tastes have changed slightly. Now, I prefer a homemade crust from Peter Reinhart. Yes, the kind that takes four hours or overnight to make. And I like to make my own sauce. And I only use whole-milk Mozzarella and freshly grated Parmesan. Lately, I’ve been making more simple pies of just pepperoni and bell pepper.

I was feeling that I should add more vegetables until I read an article recently in The New York Times that said that Congress has blocked the Agriculture Department from adding more fruits and green vegetable to the school lunch program. According to Congress one-quarter cup of tomato paste on a slice of pizza can still count as a vegetable serving. It might be bad news in the fight against childhood obesity, but it means that my meat pizzas can still be counted as vegetables. I’m not sure if Chef Boyardee had anything to do with this or not, but now when my wife wants to make a salad to go with the pizza, I’ll just tell her that I’ll go heavy on the tomato paste instead.

Geoff