As great as the idea of baking a homemade pizza for your family sounds, making an entire pizza from scratch is not possible for everyone, especially busy folks. Luckily for you, there’s Giovanni’s Frozen Pizza to save the day! Now that you have the main dish, here are five healthy side dishes to serve with a frozen pizza dinner any night of the week:
- Veggie salad: Sure, you can pick up a frozen pizza that comes with some vegetable toppings—like bell peppers, olives, onions and mushrooms—but that’s likely not going to contribute enough to your daily vegetable intake. To ensure you and your family are getting enough greens at dinner, why not throw together a big green salad with a simple, light salad dressing? Use whatever raw vegetables you have on hand. Or, for easier preparation, grab a pre-made green salad on your way home from work.
- Bean salad: Bean salads are super simple to make and offer an extra nutritious helping of vegetarian based protein to meals. Unless you’ve got ready-cooked beans in the refrigerator, raid your pantry for a selection of canned beans. Canned kidney beans, green beans and garbanzo beans (also called chickpeas) mixed together in a bowl makes for a tasty combination. Add extra flavor with a healthy dressing of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper and a pinch of dried herbs.
- Chicken wings: It doesn’t matter if your frozen pizza of choice is more meat, veggie or cheese—unless you’re vegetarian, chicken wings are a treat to have on the side with a pizza dinner. Serving a pile of home cooked chicken wings when you have a lot of people to feed—or if pizza is not everyone’s thing—is not as hard to prepare as you may think, mostly due to the fact they can be cooked ahead of time and chilled. Cooked in a buffalo or barbecue sauce, or plain baked with herbs and spices, your chicken wings are bound to be a hit.
- Sliced fruits and vegetables: There’s no side dish simpler than slicing up a tray of fresh fruits and vegetables. Next to a mixed green salad, produce like celery, cucumbers, jicama, apples and pears are the perfect foods to pair with a hearty frozen pizza. A handful of veggie slices can cleanse your palate and balance out your taste buds after eating all that delicious hot, melted cheese.
- Simple soups: Most of us love pizza, but some of us may love it too much. To make sure you don’t end up eating an entire pizza on your own—especially if you’re practicing portion control—try sipping a bowl or mug of pre-dinner soup. A plain chicken broth is a great option, as it’s not only satisfying, but can also help you feel full sooner. This will help make you more likely to eat less at dinner.
Looking for a frozen pizza that the whole family will enjoy? Giovanni’s Frozen Pizza offers a variety of classic, custom and specialty pizzas with delicious toppings to match—try one today!