Pizza is one of my favorite foods.

One of the things that's been a challenge to give up is making a meal out of pizza.  I used to eat 4 regular slices of pizza (or 2-3 thick crust pieces), plus garlic/cheese bread and a salad for dinner.

I still eat pizza and I do it frequently, because it's one of my favorite foods.  However, most of the time, my numbers tell me one regular slice is enough.  Can't really make a full meal out of one slice of pizza and be full.  Plus, I need more carbs than just 15 grams or I'm asking for a low.  While I don't make a whole meal out of pizza, I have found ways to make those carbs stretch.  Here are some basic tricks I use:

• I always order thin crust.  Sometimes thin crust just means no thick crust on the edge.  Sometimes think crust actually means a cracker thin crust.  If I can find a good thin crust, I can eat quite a bit of pizza.  Almost a whole dinner, but I still need salad and some starchy vegetables.  
• I double up on toppings (not by ordering extra, though).  Hubby and I go to a local pizza buffet every now and then.  This makes it easy for me to double up on toppings.  I do this by taking two pieces of pizza from the buffet.  Then I take my knife, scrape the cheese plus toppings off of one piece and pile it on the other.  Double the toppings, but not double the crust.  It's tasty!
• I've been known to order crustless pizza.  There's a chain, here in the midwest, that has a soy crumble "crustless" pizza.  It's a 10" pizza and the whole thing is only 15 grams of carb.  Regular pizza toppings don't taste all that good, so I usually order it with chicken, spinach, mushrooms cheese and spices.  Plus there are enough carbs left over that I can have a little garlic bread with it.  Add salad and it's a very filling pizza meal.
• Pizza makes a great snack!  When I'm really hankering for some good old fashioned pepperoni pizza, I sometimes make it at home as a snack.  I get pre-made whole wheat dough, use a 15 carb gram portion, roll it extra thin, add toppings and bake it.  I've also been known to use Naan bread.  1 quarter of the store bought whole grain Naan bread is 15 grams of carbs.  Top, bake and you have pizza.  

Thanks to Pinterest, I discovered the most tasty, pizza craving killer snack ever; Zucchini Pizza Bites (My picture below). 

Oh, these are so tasty and yummy!!  I had some zucchini left over from a failed recipe and all the toppings, except the mini pepperoni's, in the house.  So, I substituted bacon pieces (which I almost always have around) and made some for a snack.  My compliments to The Comfort of Cooking blog for posting this.  

I'm not the biggest fan of zucchini, but I do like it in tomato sauce and I almost always have some sort of organic marinara on hand (I use organic because the carb count is usually a lot lower than the brand names).  I think I'll have to make these at Christmas time this year.  

Nutrition-wise, it's loaded with protein and vegetables.  How can you go wrong?!  Healthy AND tasty...um, and I don't usually like these sort of "substitute out the bread for something else" things.  The zucchini adds the crunch and the toppings are delicious.  Try it and let me know what you think.  

What are your tricks for curing a pizza craving?