Change4Life Supermeals Challenge Day 2

It’s the second day of my Supermeals Challenge, in which I try out every recipe in the Change4Life recipe booklet. This booklet has been produced as part of a Welsh Government public health campaign, with the aim of helping people on low incomes eat more healthily.

A quick look through the booklet might have given the impression that today’s (Tuesday) recipe - quick pitta pizza - could have been one of the least successful. However, it proved very popular (more so than yesterday’s pasta, which the kids enjoyed but the adults thought a little bland).

I used a value-pack of pittas for this, with organic vegetables (cost remaining within the £1.25 a head budget). With freshly-sliced tomato, mozzarella, mushrooms and olives (our optional extra) on top, and a generous sprinkling of herbs, the pitta “pizzas” tasted better than most shop-bought frozen pizzas I have eaten recently.

I sliced the ingredients and let everyone assemble them how they wanted. This was a fun part of the dinner for the kids (and me), which added to the appeal. After spreading on her tomato puree, our youngest added everything but the mushrooms (substituting them with some sweetcorn left over from yesterday); while our oldest really piled everything high – and may have invented a new marketing concept in 3-dimensional pizzas (you need the cheese uppermost). If you completely cover all the top surface of the pitta, there is also less chance of the bread overcooking.

The recipe says: “Serve with salad”. Given that it has been cold, I served it up with savoury rice, containing cubes of baked paquito squash, finely-sliced fried onion and dried apricot. As a dinner, the combination worked very well.

On their own, the pitta pizzas would make good snacks, lunch or light dinner. However, served with an imaginative and tasty salad, they can be turned into a very wholesome, cheap and satisfying family dinner. The kids want pitta pizzas again, and the experimental options are endless!

quick pitta pizza
The ingredients: 4 wholemeal pitta breads, 4 tbsp sum-dried or regular tomato puree, 4 thinly sliced mushrooms, 4 thinly sliced tomatoes, 125g ball reduced-fat or light mozzarella cheese (sliced), sliced, 2 tsp dried mixed herbs, ground black pepper.

The method: Preheat oven (190°C). Put pitta breads on a baking tray and spread tomato puree on each. Top with mushroom, tomatoes and cheese. Add optional olives, peppers or onion. Sprinkle with herbs and season with pepper. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

The booklet reckons that pitta pizzas work out at around 218 kcals a portion.

Change4Life:

www.wales.gov.uk/change4life

Register with Change4Life online before Friday 10 February and you can get your own free Supermeals booklet.






Change4Life Supermeals Challenge Day 1 (Introduction)
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2012/01/change4life-supermeal-challenge-day-1.html