Hi All,

I just made this for the first time, and I liked it.  Below is the recipe.  I used ground beef, and I cooked the veggies and ground meat separately and then tossed them together with the pizza sauce. 

I mostly liked the cheese and pepperoni topping!  And there were enough veggies and protein to make it healthy!

enjoy!

Carol

Pizza Casserole

Ingredients:

• 2 c. whatever veggies you like, diced (I used onions, bell peppers, and zucchini)

• 1 clove garlic, minced (or 1 tsp. already minced garlic)

• 1 lb. Italian-style ground meat

• Salt and pepper, to taste

• 1.5 c. your favorite pizza or spaghetti sauce

• 1.5 c. shredded pizza blend cheese or mozzarella

• Toppings: I pepperoni  and sliced black olives, but add anything you like on top of pizza!

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Set a skillet over medium-high heat and let it get hot (2-3 minutes) before adding nonstick cooking spray (or 1 tbsp. of oil if you like that better). Add veggies and saute for 2-3 minutes until soft. Add garlic and saute an additional minute or so.

3. Add the ground meat, breaking it up with a spatula and mixing in the vegetables. Coo****il meat is done through. Drain meat of any excess fluid with a colander.

4. Turn stove heat to medium-low and add sauce, stirring to fully combine. Simmer about 5-7 minutes or until sauce turns a deeper shade of red. Your mixture should be saucy but not soupy. Ultimately the veggies will continue releasing water as they cook so you don't want your sauce to have too much liquid. If there seems to be a lot, drain some of it off before doing the next step.

5. Transfer mixture to a casserole dish (8 x 8) and spread evenly. Add toppings. like pepperoni and black olives, etc. along with the shredded cheese.

6. Bake about 20 minutes, long enough for the cheese to melt, brown just a bit and for the pepperonis to become slightly crispy.

This sounds really good. Thanks.

I LOVE Cloud Bread!  I use them to make my breakfast sandwiches to freeze!  they come out great!

How many serving does it make?  Sounds wonderful!

You can be vegetarian, but many of the foods we don't eat in large amounts vegetarians eat quite a bit of, like rice, whole grains, etc.  I was on a ketogenic diet pre-op and remained very low carb post op, and my cholesterol was 96 when tested three months ago... yep, total cholesterol and had excellent blood markers.  

It really depends what you eat as a vegetarian.  I have one vegetarian friend who eats nothing but macaroni and cheese, and another who eats very healthily low carb and was post-WLS (she has a lot of protein powder/shakes).  It depends what and how you'd eat.  I had a vegetarian day once in a while post-op, and those were the days I was hungriest even with protein.  Back to low carb went I.

I think regardless of what way of eating you choose, it's vital to stay away from processed foods and high sugar/very high carb stuff that has no nutritional value.