This is how I get around fast food pizza lunches at school. I make sure I send my kids with a special lunch (special doesn’t have to be junk food), like fresh berries, fun snacks, a little healthy chocolate and maybe just cheese and crackers or california rolls. But, mostly, I try to send them with a healthy pizza. I won’t make dough from scratch on a weekday morning, that would be suicide. But I could send them with homemade pizza leftovers from the night before. That’s extra easy. But lately, I’ll buy premade shells and throw them in the oven before school with sauce, cheese and a few toppings and it’s super fast. I let it cool and then wrap it up. My kids love it.

If you’re thinking there’s no way they’d love it over warm, chain store pizza, they do. I’ve made it a habit of talking to my kids after they eat junk food, to talk about how it makes them feel and affects their mood and behaviour. And they see the difference. They don’t crave things that don’t make them feel great after or affect their health (that’s phlegm, headaches etc… for some of us). So, it’s all good. The only part I feel a bit bad about, is that school pizza is a fundraiser, so it’s for a good cause. But not good enough that I’ll make junk food pizza a weekly staple in my kids’ diet. 

I usually have a basil plant on my window sill. We love the herb but we also have an affinity for it since Bazil is the name of our third born angel that decided 9 months of life inside the womb was all the time he needed. So, fresh basil is usually readily available in our house. Tearing up a few leaves for each pizza really elevates the flavour as I don’t get fancy with toppings when I’ve got 10 minutes to make it before school drop off. 

I’ve discovered O’Doughs gluten free products – the best gluten free, so far, by far. They have hamburger and hot dog buns, bagels (their bagels are THE BEST), flat bread, and lots more. Check out their site.

This pizza kit is basically their flat bread and some sauce. I think I’ll stick to just using their flat bread and my own sauce (I always have tomato paste on hand. Just add some oregano, oil and salt, maybe crushed garlic, et voila – pizza sauce). But buy the kit if you don’t want the hassle of doing your own sauce. Oh, one more thing, O’Doughs delivers for free. And if you order 12 they’ll throw in 2 free products. 

What I love about these crusts – from the kit or the flatbreads (again, same thing), they get crispy on the outside and are slightly soft in the middle. For pre-made, they’re great. 

gluten free, crap free

school pizza

• frozen pizza shells (Udi’s or O’Doughs makes a good gluten free crust) 
• pizza kit sauce or tomato paste (flavour as written above – oregano, garlic, olive oil)
• goat mozzarella or etorki (sheep) is another fav
• peppers, onions, olives, etc…
• fresh basil leaves

Cook as per instructions (which is usually 8-10 minutes in hot oven). Pack it up, drop the kids off and breathe