Instead of frozen pizza, let's have ...

July 20, 2024 2:49 PM

We (two adults) usually have frozen pizza on our movie nights. But now, we would like to lower our cholesterol. Do you have any suggestions for what we might have instead? We'd like something that is easy, a bit of a treat, less cholesterol, and somewhat the same ballpark in price.
posted by NotLost to Food & Drink (17 answers total)

Frozen vegan pizza contains no cholesterol.

(Note that most of your internal cholesterol is manufactured by your own body, influenced more by genetics than by food intake, and probably depends more on your saturated fat and sugar intakes than on your actual cholesterol intake.)
posted by heatherlogan at 2:54 PM on July 20 [8 favorites]

Amy’s frozen burritos. The ones without cheese have no cholesterol but the ones with probably will be an improvement for you.

I know it’s now popular to claim diet doesn’t influence cholesterol, but mine went way down when I went to a vegan (zero cholesterol) diet. Total is 116 now. There’s a way to game cholesterol studies, which is very much in the interest of industry.
posted by FencingGal at 3:05 PM on July 20 [3 favorites]

Do you like sauce? Make some red sauce or use jarred, dip your pizza, vegetables are good for you so also add spinach or other veg to your pizza. Eliminate the pepperoni or sausage.

I love potstickers, and most groceries carry frozen veggie ones that are easy to cook at home. you can get good vegetarian Pad Thai, as well.
posted by theora55 at 3:17 PM on July 20 [2 favorites]

My favorite healthier pizza: Thin crust frozen pizza crust (I like this one), brush with a good extra virgin olive oil, top with Calmata olives and slivered fresh basil leaves, bake per the crust package instructions.

You can vary the toppings to your tastes, but do try this one. So simple and delicious.
posted by evilmomlady at 3:34 PM on July 20 [2 favorites]

Seconding that not all frozen pizza is the same, when it comes to managing your cholesterol levels. I'm reliably informed that it's saturated fat you need to watch out for, which in a pizza context means steering away from the salami and four-cheese end of things, and towards the marinara and vegana end. So if you happen to like your pizza heavy with grilled vegetables and light on cheese, that's not a bad choice at all.

(My favourite healthy-ish home-made one involves a plain pizza crust, a whole can of chopped tomatoes, and some anchovies, but I'm aware that anchovies are divisive!)

My other suggestion would be sushi, if you live somewhere you can get half-decent supermarket (or similar) sushi rather than somewhere it can only be had expensively from a restaurant.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 3:46 PM on July 20 [1 favorite]

Veggie samosas.

But let's be real...I'm pretty sure the answer to most questions is samosas.
posted by Sauter Vaguely at 4:03 PM on July 20 [12 favorites]

A nice Greek salad, dolmas, and a very small portion of baklava.
posted by Czjewel at 4:04 PM on July 20 [2 favorites]

We do a salad and Quorn "chicken" cutlets baked in the oven.
posted by egeanin at 4:09 PM on July 20 [1 favorite]

Because it's movie night, what about popping your own popcorn? Popcorn has zero cholesterol when air-popped and also when popped in many healthier, unsaturated oils. (My favorite pop is with peanut oil, but olive oil, corn oil and others can work well. The oils sold as "popping oils" may not be cholesterol-free, however, but IMO are never necessary.)

A Whirley-Pop can let you make crisp, movie theater quality popcorn on your stove just a couple of minutes using cheap bulk kernels and a little oil. It really makes a difference.
posted by eschatfische at 4:28 PM on July 20 [6 favorites]

veggie burgers 🍔 (plant-based cheese)
posted by HearHere at 4:57 PM on July 20

Any thin crust frozen pizza, longer on sauce than cheese, and when you take it out of the oven fold the whole thing around chopped greens to cook the greens in the heat of the pizza. Advantage, gets the pizza down to tolerable temperature that much faster. AIUI lots of fiber and general vegitude will usually balance pizza greasiness for dietary health.

(I think chard is about perfect, kale needs to be either tender or chopped very fine to cook through, lettuce cooks a little too fast but is surprisingly nice cooked, and spinach is pretty expensive in the quantities I’m thinking of.)
posted by clew at 5:32 PM on July 20 [1 favorite]

Frozen bao are an easy, tasty, indulgent treat at my house.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:23 PM on July 20 [2 favorites]

One more vote for buying a frozen thin crust and making your own style of toppings. Compared to the ready-made frozen pizzas, you'll use so little saturated fat that you could easily "afford" using a ball of mozzarella on top if you want to.
You can just buy a jar of vegan sauce for the topping. I like the "alla Norma" sauces, they have some umami flavor from the eggplant that is a good replacement for salumi and cheese. Anchovies are very good too for that purpose. If you blend the anchovies into the sauce, you'll get the flavor fullness without the sharp punch.

I've lowered my cholesterol significantly by changing to a more vegetable-based diet. My nemesis was more cheese than it was meat, and I still eat a little cheese and a little meat and fish. For me it has worked better to eat less than to eliminate those things completely.

An alternative could be pita breads with falafel. Some people are very picky about falafels being made from scratch and freshly fried, but if you eat frozen pizza, frozen falafel might be fine. I like them, I buy an organic brand to avoid ultra-processed stuff like emulsifiers. Heat the pita breads and fry the falafel (this is where an air fryer does a great job), and stuff with shredded cabbage, slices of tomato, red onions and cucumber, a yogurt-based dressing and some hot sauce or chili oil.
posted by mumimor at 11:48 PM on July 20 [1 favorite]

If it were me, I would try this ketogenic diet pizza as an alternative -on the understanding that it is the carbs and the gluten in the base which are bad for you, rather than the cholesterol in the meat.

You may choose to just enjoy the pizza without pepperoni rather than go down a rabbit hole and why your doctor’s advice to cholesterol is probably wrong. If you want to open that can of worms then this would be a start. Anything which may make you choose to not follow your doctor’s advice deserves some pretty good research on your part.
posted by rongorongo at 1:08 AM on July 21

I think the point about cholesterol is that we no longer believe that cholesterol in what you eat is of any significance. But your diet absolutely is important to your cholesterol levels. It’s just that you want to avoid saturated fat, not cholesterol per se.

Anyway, nuts are good in this respect - would chili-coated mixed nuts appeal? Maybe a sharing bread like a fougasse?
posted by Phanx at 2:12 AM on July 21 [2 favorites]

I came into this askme to recommend a whirley pop (see above). As a longtime on-the-stove popcorn maker, the whirley pop is a total game changer for the quality of your popcorn. It's truly amazing!
posted by bluesky43 at 8:06 AM on July 21 [1 favorite]

When it comes to making take-out or ready-made meals better for us, my partner and I "dilute" them with something healthy. In the case of pizza, we just add salad and eat much less pizza. If it's Indian food, I'll often add more of whatever is in it (an extra can or two of chickpeas, a bunch of frozen peas, a chopped cauliflower, etc.) Saves money too.

If you're willing to cook, it's easy to make pizzas on whole-wheat pita breads, lots of vegetables, and not too much cheese. Try a strong cheddar instead of mozza for more flavour. Grill or fry mushrooms before adding for extra flavour and less water. Use olives, sliced garlic, and sundried tomatoes for flavour instead of meat.
posted by Frenchy67 at 7:17 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]