Upside Down and Inside Out

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! It turned out to be completely lovely here, and I made sure to enjoy as much of it as possible! Yesterday, I spent a little bit of time re-vamping my blog’s look…what do you think? I’m really liking my new color scheme!

Today, I went in search of new dishes and placemats to help make my pictures prettier and had way too much fun at Crate and Barrel! You’ll see my purchases in posts soon! While I was there, I got a call from Lizz to see if I wanted to meet for lunch, and of course I did! I love when spontaneous (though cameraless) dates work out! Towards the end of lunch, I was lamenting that I had NO idea what to make for dinner and as usual, Lizz came through.

She suggested an “Upside Down Deep Dish Pizza”. I believe my “huh?” was followed by her instructions, followed by a Homer Simpson-like drool noise.

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Being the person that I am, I can’t leave well enough alone when it comes to ANY recipe, even one told to me by my best friend…so I mucked with it, but it came out fantastically!

**WARNING! These are NOT the best pictures in the world, and I’m rather embarrassed by them. After 9 photos of bowls of casserole, I came to the conclusion that there was just no way to make this pretty. And yes, my stovetop has *gasp* splatters on it! The recipe is worth it though!**

Upside-Down Deep Dish Pizza

Ingredients
* 1 batch 10-10-10 Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

* 1 small can crushed tomatoes

* 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

* 1/2 tsp onion powder

* 1/2 tsp basil

* 1/2 tsp. oregano

* 1 lb. ground beef (I used 93% lean)

* 1 bag frozen broccoli (or 1 head fresh, chopped)

* 8 oz mozzarella cheese (I used part-skim)

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350* and heat a large skillet on the stovetop. Add the ground beef to the skillet and brown well, stirring to break into small pieces. Add the tomatoes and spices to the beef, and simmer a few minutes. Then, add the beef to a 10×10 (or 9×13) baking pan. Top with the broccoli (or other vegetables of your choice) and then top that with the cheese. Stretch the pizza dough atop the pan, pinching it to create a seal. Poke a couple small holes in the top, then bake until the crust is browned and crispy. Cut into pieces and serve.

It was really remarkable that the flavor of this was almost identical to a great deep-dish pizza! I used a large can of tomatoes, and realized that it was far too much liquid, so in the recipe above, I reduced it to a small can. Thank you for the recipe idea Lizz! We loved it!

I’ve got a few fun recipes planned for the week, so make sure you come back to check them out. It’s back on track time after two weeks of holidays and celebrations, so be prepared to see some healthy alternatives to some old favorites!

Hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

Tagged as: cheese, friends, ground beef, Italian, pizza, simple recipe