PIZZA BUNS

I fell in love with pizza buns in 1958. My family had just returned to New York after a short, but disastrous move to Arizona. We were in bad financial straits and, while my parents saved the money to get our furniture out of storage and moved back home, we lived in an absolutely dreadful 4 room cottage. I was in fourth grade and attending a strange school which I hated. I hated the school, the classroom, my teacher...you get the picture. I cannot remember having a single friend from that 3 month period (yes, thankfully it was a short time). There were 2 things that got me through that awful episode in my life: the school had a fabulous library with a huge section of Grimm's fairy tales and every Friday they served pizza buns in the cafeteria. Unlike most of my southern Italian family, I do not like my food slathered in sauces and gravies. I do not like most condiments. To this day, I have no problem eating a turkey sandwich dry. So the fact that these pizza buns had virtually no tomato sauce on them was no problem for me. If I had to name my all-time favorite comfort food, it would be pizza; so when I am trying to shed some pounds, I need to be able to have my "fix" as often as I need to. These pizza buns are NOT like the ones served in the cafeteria. They DO have sauce on them as well as a few tasty toppings. If you're not up to making the pizza I posted a few weeks ago, these are fast, tasty, and don't cost too much in terms of calories or fat

PIZZA BUNS REDUX

5 light English muffins (Thomas' are great for this recipe)
1 cup your favorite tomato sauce (I like Prego Traditional and it's lowfat, low calorie)

1 cup lowfat shredded cheese (I used Weight Watchers, but Kraft 2% is a good choice, too)

garlic salt

oregano

olive oil non-stick spray

OPTIONAL TOPPINGS: sauteed red peppers and onions (leftover from last night's fajitas), 4 sliced turkey meatballs (I keep them in the freezer); I've used Hormel's turkey pepperoni on other occasions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Split the English muffins and place them on a cookie sheet. Place a spoonful of sauce on each muffin half and spread to edges. Sprinkle with garlic powder and oregano. Add the toppings: I added sauteed red peppers, onions, and sliced turkey meatballs. Divide the shredded cheese among the muffin halves. Spray the top with olive oil non-stick cooking spray to help the cheese melt. Bake for 15 minutes. Yield: 10 pizza buns. Each one is 2 WW "smiles"