Hi Everyone!

Thank you so much for the recipes some of you have been emailing me recently. I REALLY, REALLY appreciate them. Some weeks it can be difficult for me to find time to search out and try a recipe to share, so yours are a HUGE help. Not to mention DELICIOUS! I am sure I can safely speak for the other readers when I say THEY APPRECIATE IT TOO! I will continue to share them in the weeks to come.

I couldn’t resist putting this one on today because my boys couldn’t stop raving about how much they liked it last night and that always makes me feel really good! It’s like a big game….”How can I cook something everyone will eat, even the boys’ friends who stop by at dinner time, that makes the house smell delicious and comforting on a cold winter night, while avoiding a fat laden calorie monsoon on my own plate????? SCORE….I won last night and I can’t wait for you to try it too!!!

This deep dish pizza casserole is comfort food at it’s finest. I used half lean ground beef and half Jimmy Deans turkey sausage. Delicous! We all loved it and and I know I am going to be making it again, so we thought up some other variations that might be good too.

Cole, my oldest son, and I like Hawaiian pizza, so next time we agreed, I am going to try adding Canadian bacon and pineapple with less ground beef. If I were making it for just Darin and me, I would have loaded up on the veggies…more mushrooms, green pepper and onion…but I am appealing to the masses at my house these days, so I had to settle for a salad on the side=) Whether you modify it with your own touches or just make as directed, I am pretty sure you’re going to like it:)

Enjoy!

PS
This came from www.emilybites.com, which is one of my absolute favorite sites for recipes. She always rocks it with EASY comfort food recipes for a reasonable PointPlus value investment. I have yet to be disappointed by any of her recommendations!

Deep Dish Pizza Casserole
Source: Adapted from Cooking Light
Serves 6 (VERY generous portions)

Ingredients:
1 lb 95% lean ground beef
15 oz can tomato sauce
Oregano to taste
Onion Powder to taste
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes to taste
Cooking Spray
8 oz mushrooms, sliced or chopped
10 oz can refrigerated pizza crust dough
6 oz shredded reduced fat mozzarella

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425
2. Cook meat (seasoned with oregano, onion powder & crushed red pepper flakes to taste) in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, stirring until it crumbles. Add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are browned a bit as well. Add tomato sauce and cook until heated.
3. While meat cooks, coat a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray. Unroll pizza crust dough and press into bottom and halfway up the sides of baking dish. Sprinkle half the cheese over the bottom of the crust. Top with meat mixture.
4. Bake uncovered in the oven at 425 for 12 minutes. Remove and top with remaining cheese. Put casserole back in the oven for 5 additional minutes or until crust is browned and cheese is melted. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

Yields 6 servings.
Nutrition Information per serving from myfitnesspal.com: 317 calories, 29 g carbs, 11 g fat, 28 g protein, 2 g fiber