Spinach & Chicken Sausage Pizza

Since fresh tomatoes aren't in season this time of the year and pre-made marinara sauce is often loaded with sodium, canned diced tomatoes with no added salt are a healthy solution.

Photo: Edward Pond

By Julie O'Hara

Serves: 6
Hands-on time: 15 minutes.
Total time: 25 minutes.

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 oz spinach leaves
• 1 14.5-oz can, no-salt-added diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 whole-wheat thin pizza crust (such as Boboli 12″ 100% Whole Wheat Thin Crust or CE’s Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough)
• 2 fully cooked, all-natural, deli chicken sausages, sliced into 1/4-inch thick pieces
• 3 oz part-skim mozzarella cheese, grated (about 3/4 cup)

PANTRY STAPLES:

• Olive oil cooking spray
• Ground black pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Coat a skillet with cooking spray and heat on medium low. Add spinach and cook until wilted, about 4 minutes. Season with pepper, to taste. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Place 1 cup tomatoes in a fine mesh strainer and press out as much liquid as possible. Spread tomatoes onto pizza crust. Top with spinach, sausage and mozzarella. Bake 10 minutes, or until sausage is lightly browned and cheese is melted. Rest pizza on a cutting board for 5 minutes, slice into 6 equal pieces and serve.

Nutrients per 1/6 of chicken sausage pizza: Calories: 230, Total Fat: 8 g, Sat. Fat: 4 g, Carbs: 25 g, Fiber: 5 g, Sugars: 3 g, Protein: 12 g, Sodium: 205 mg, Cholesterol: 25 mg

Nutritional Bonus: A serving of our clean pizza provides more than three-quarters of your daily calcium need, but that’s not all from the mozzarella cheese. Spinach is also a good source of calcium: 1 cooked cup offers about 245 mg of the bone-building mineral (that’s a bit more than the calcium in a 3/4 cup of skim milk at 240 mg!)
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