Thursday, April 7, 2011

Deep Dish Pizza Casserole











Hurray! A cooking post! When it comes to cooking meals, whether simple or extravagant, I'll be the first to admit that I am not very creative. You know those people who have that capability to observe what's in their pantry and come up with these *fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-but-end-up-looking-and-tasting-simply-marvelous recipes? Yeah, I'm not one of those people. I hope that one day I will be, one day when I truly feel I have learned to cook. Until that day, I continue to feel like I am still constantly learning. A student, if you will.

*My sister Lauren is very good at this. She can take nothing ingredients and turn it into something amazing. I remain jealous as always.

Nobody taught me how to cook. I taught myself. I was never very interested in cooking at all growing up. Despite having a mother who produced dishes so delicious they could make a grown man cry, I never took much of an active interest beyond scrambled eggs. I blame it on plain old immaturity. It wasn't until around the year 2003 when my ears finally perked up. That was back when Rachael Ray was a newer figure on the scene of the Food Network--before her voice got all raspy like a truck driver and her show turned into The Yummo! Show. One day I managed to catch an episode and I was hooked. I didn't particularly care for the actual recipes she concocted--Cheeseburger Salad? Really?--but I was fascinated by her unskilled skills. Watching her chop an onion was mesmerizing, like watching a sculptor create a life size masterpiece. I wanted to be able to chop like that! I wanted to pull steaming hot dishes out of the oven like that! I wanted to make soups--or stoups, as she calls them--like that! It had been a long time since I had a real hobby, and I was excited to have discovered a new one.

I started very slowly, buying one or two cookbooks. I made one overzealous attempt to jump into the shallow end of the pool head-first when I attempted to make homemade ravioli. Not just a premade ravioli with a homemade sauce. I'm talking the sheets of pasta, the filling, the sauce, everything from scratch! Needless to say, it was far from a success--oh, those little torturous bricks of ravioli!! But I have since soldiered on and have improved greatly over the years. I still think I am far from a good cook. Endlessly, I beat myself up when I have completed a recipe. My husband gets so annoyed with me when I do this. He thinks everything I make is wonderful, but I am my own worst enemy and always find some flaw in the dish. At the same time, though, I welcome those flaws because to me, the flaws are what really teach me. So the next time I go to make that recipe, I'll know what to do or what not to do.

Hmmm...This was supposed to be a cooking post, wasn't it? Okay then....

I figure one day I'll develop a little more creativity in the kitchen. Currently I still prefer to follow a recipe. I do this so I can experience making it and tasting it someone else's way. If I want to put my own spin on it, I will do that afterwards. There is one dish though. One dish that I actually managed to come up with myself. It's been so long since I first made it that I hardly even remember how I did it in the first place. It requires so few ingredients that it's almost ridiculous, but it produces such a quick and comfy meal. It's the perfect meal for a weeknight because it takes such little time to make.

I give you Deep Dish Pizza Casserole....




Starring Players








The Supporting Players




1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. Spray a 13 x 9 baking pan with cooking spray(I prefer to use a glass Pyrex dish when making this so I can monitor the dough easier)



3. Open the dough (or in my case have your husband do it since those exploding cans scare the doo-doo out of me!) and lay it inside your sprayed pan, pulling the edges up to the top of the pan as close as you can manage with the tips of your fingers (the cooking spray makes this a bit of a chore, but unfortunately the spray is essential). Set aside.



4. In a meduim saute or fry pan, brown your ground round (1 lb.) over low to medium heat.





5. Drain off fat (and make good use of those useless Christmas mugs taking up room in your cabinets).






6. Add one can of tomato sauce to the meat and stir to combine till heated through. Add as much or as little oregano, garlic and onion podwer as you desire. You could certainly use real garlic, but come on, this is supposed to be a speedy dish!



7. Add the meat and tomato mixture to your uncooked dough shell and spread evenly. Place in your preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.

8. Remove from oven and sprinkle 1 and 1/4 cup shredded cheese evenly over meat. Put back in oven for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. (Whoops! Forgot to document this step!)





9. Let cool for 10 minutes. Slice into 6 pieces and enjoy some ooey-gooey goodness!








Deep Dish Pizza Casserole

Serves: 6
Weight Watcher Points Per Slice: 8

- 1 can Pillsbury brand Pizza Dough
- 1 lb. Ground Round
- 1 15 oz. can Tomato Sauce
- 1 1/4 cups Part Skim Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
- Cooking Spray
- Oregano, 1-2 tbsp. or to your liking
- Garlic Powder, 2 tsp.
- Onion Powder, 2 tsp.

- Preaheat oven to 425 degrees.

- Spray a 9 x 13 baking pan with cooking spray. Open pizza dough and spread in pan, pinching edges of dough up to sides of the pan. Set aside.

- Brown meat in a medium sized saute or fry pan over medium heat. Drain off fat.

- Add tomato sauce to meat, stirring to combine. Add oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder to meat mixture and stir to combine.*

- Pour meat mixture into dough shell and spread evenly. Make sure to pull up any dough that has slid down. Place in oven for 10-12 minutes.

- Remove from oven and sprinkle mozzarella cheese evenly over the meat. Put back in oven for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

- Let cool for 10 minutes and enjoy!


**I would like to add, that I purposely do not add salt to this dish. In my opinion, the canned sauce contains enough sodium to season the meal. By all means, add salt, but with watching my weight, I figure I don't need it. I didn't miss it anyway. It still tasted delicious!

3 comments:

  1. We are so related.....I make a taco version of this. I havent made it in so long so it isnt on my blog. Your pictures are making me crave it now. That is a decent serving for 8 points. I will have to give it a whirl. Your cooking skills will come along. It has taken me the last 10 years of cooking pretty much daily, to get to the point I am at and I still need to follow recipes for most things. I change things to suit my likes and dislikes but I think my brain is too tired most days to create original recipes without inspiration from someplace. In my next life I am going to culinary school!

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  2. I'd love to see the taco version, Juli!

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  3. Yum. That reminds me... I'm so freakin' hungry right now. You're a great cook, so stop it!!

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