Meatzza Meatzza

What’s better than pizza you may ask. I find myself asking that all the time. Pizza is the ultimate comfort food. As I watched the MLB baseball playoffs I am reminded just how much I love a certain pizza chain… Pizza Hut. Their ads come up with every commercial break and I salivate at the images of stringy cheese as each slice is being grabbed… not only from the toppings but from that delicious crust stuffed with (you guessed it) more cheese! Who was the genius who thought “Hey, pizza just isn’t cheesy enough, lets put some more cheese in the crust!”? But I digress.

Pizza Hut is by far one of my favorite pizza chains followed closely by Papa Murphey’s. Pizza Hut is just pizza fast food perfection. I can’t get enough slices once I start and if bread sticks are included in my order I am sure to consume and entire meal almost made entirely of bread. I also like Papa Murphey’s but that’s when I want to fool myself into thinking I am eating a somewhat healthier pizza because it’s made in front of me while I wait and then I take it home and bake it, feeling as if I had some part in the cooking process. When in fact it’s just that… processed. But probably the lesser of 2 evils. But a little pizza in moderation is A-Okay in my book.

However, I wanted to have my first “clean” birthday. Oh, have I mentioned tomorrow I turn 32? And by clean, I mean, I wanted to refrain from my usual food hangover that ensues the days after my birthday weekend. Yep, I usually splurge the entire weekend. I pick a favorite dinner followed by a dessert and why not a couple nights in a row since well, it’s still my birthday… weekend. In years past I picked some sort of cheese and white starch filled meal followed by a massive slice of DQ cake or two.

This year I was craving pizza so I decided to try and make this new (to me at least) recipe called Meatzza. Yep, that’s right… Meatzza… a pizza made of meat. How could that ever be bad? I had seen the idea on pinterest.com a few times and decided to try and make it for my family and I this year. The recipe I found from “Things My Belly Likes” called for more cheese in the meat “crust” and some canned diced tomatoes. I went the more traditional pizza sauce route and skipped the extra cheese in the crust since there was plenty in the toppings. I also used some nitrate and sugar free summer sausage I got at my local food co op last weekend to make some “pepperoni” on top.

Favorite things about this recipe:

1. It makes me feel like I am eating pizza when really it’s just a giant cheeseburger with no bun… kinda

2. Lots of protein and no grains or nuts (many grain free pizzas call for almond flour).

3. Cheese, I love cheese. I don’t eat much of it but when I do I enjoy it!

The end result caused my husband to exclaim “Winner winner chicken dinner.” and my daughter repeated this phrase over and over the rest of the night. So, I guess this dinner gets 2 thumbs up. Although I think I will double the recipe next time and use a large Pyrex pan instead.

So the ingredients I used were:

• 1 farm fresh egg
• 1 lb grass fed beef
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 cloves of garlic
• pizza sauce with no added sugar
• shredded cheese (about 6 ounces)
• pepperoni, sliced kielbasa, or sliced summer sausage (no nitrates added)

I mixed the egg, beef, oregano, and garlic and spread it out on a cookie sheet. I made sure the beef mixture was evenly spread and tried to smooth out the edges to make a nice circle.

I then added my sauce, cheese, and summer sausage. You can use any toppings you want of course.

I then cooked it at 425 degrees for 25 min and let it cool for a bit before serving it up with some roasted broccoli and cauliflower.

I meant to take a photo of the whole pizza but was so eager to eat it that I cut it up and served it up to my fam then was like “Oh yeah, I should photograph this!”

Have you ever tried Meatzza before? This was a first for me and I am pleased. Do you have any other grain free pizza recipes you love? Feel free to comment below.