Meat Crust Pizza Recipe

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meat crust pizza, eating after muscle workout

Easy to make, meat crust pizza is the perfect meal after a tough muscle workout.

After a particularly challenging muscle workout, this dough-less pizza recipe hit the spot. Easy to make, meat crust pizza provides a whopping 57g of protein with only 12g of net carbs. And like regular pizza, it’s great the next day. The husband loved it and declared it his new favorite meal.

Also, for all my gluten-free pals, this recipe is perfect for you – no dough!

The recipe calls for a round pizza pan. If you don’t have one, don’t fret. I ended up dividing the recipe between two 10″ pie pans. Heck, even a rectangular pan (1-inch deep) will do the trick.

While you can slice the meat crust pizza like a regular pizza, you can’t eat it like one. Try picking it up with your hands and it falls apart. I write this from experience. Use a fork.

Meat Crust Pizza
Net Carbs: 12g
Weight Watchers PointsPlus: 14
Servings: 2

Ingredients

  • 1 Pound lean ground beef (95/5)
  • 2-C shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
  • Fresh mozzarella (2 oz.) – optional
  • 1/2-C low-sugar pizza sauce*
  • Turkey pepperoni
  • Baby portabella mushrooms, sliced (2 oz.)
  • Red bell peppers, chopped (2 oz.)
  • Yellow bell peppers, chopped (2 oz.)
  • 5 Asparagus spears (cut into ½ inch pieces)
  • Tomato, thinly sliced
  • Whole fresh basil leaves

Directions

  • Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Brown the ground beef; drain.
  • Place meat in a bowl and mix in 1 cup of the shredded mozzarella
  • Spread the meat and cheese mix into a round pizza pan for baking. Top with pizza sauce and spread so sauce covers the top of mixture.
  • Not including the tomatoes, begin topping pizza evenly with your veggies. Top the pizza with the rest of the shredded mozzarella.  Place your tomatoes on top and then add the turkey pepperoni and the fresh mozzarella, if using.
  • Place in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is melted and browned.
  • About 5 minutes before it is ready to take out of oven, place whole basil leaves on top.

If you want to get your PointsPlus value lower, you can reduce your portion size or if you have the 14 points for dinner, I suggest loading up on the veggies. I’m limiting my veggies to get a lower carb recipe.

*I used Mid’s Homestyle Pasta Sauce – Pizza Sauce. It has 1g of sugar and 3g of net carbs.

Went On A Minor Bender Last Night

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These are tastier in pie form. Photo courtesy of Paul and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

These are tastier in pie form. Photo courtesy of Paul and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Yesterday I spent the morning cooking food for a BF and her family who are mourning a loss. It was my first serious attempt making gluten-free food so it was a bit stressful. After delivering the food, the last thing I wanted to do was spend even more time in the kitchen making dinner.

Normally I would have lots of cooked food in the fridge for days like this. Well I had the wonderful brainstorm to cook a turkey this week to help save on the groceries. I planned to cook the turkey yesterday, but the sucker is still frozen after 4 days.

So while I was on the way home, I called the hubby and we decided on pizza for dinner.  Now a funny thing happened on my way home. I felt compelled to make a pit stop at Trader Joe’s grocery store.  I would like to say that I got a salad or some veggie dish to make sure I would only have 2 slices of pizza. I would like to say that, but that would be lying.

I got a blueberry pie.

And whole milk.

And wine.

Not one of my finer moments. But no use beating myself up. What’s done is done and I won’t do it again (at least not for a while).

Will Power Is A Myth

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I use to think I had no will power. I ballooned to 325 lbs. and I blamed it on a lack of will power. That’s BS. Will power is a myth. The key to my weight loss is the Tao of Dumbledore.

Let me explain.

“We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy,” so says Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. So I just applied this philosophy to my diet.

Pizza…I love it so. After working 15-hours and sitting in traffic for an hour, the last thing I wanted to do was cook a healthy dinner. So I’d order pizza. It was the easy choice. I’d eat 4-5 slices. I’d pack on the pounds and feel sluggish and ready for a nap after pizza. But hey, at least I didn’t have to cook.

I’ve decided to minimize pizza’s importance in my diet. Occasionally – and it’s rare – I’ll have pizza. Not the 4-5 slices I use to eat. Just a small slice with a large salad.  That’s not will power.  I just made a smart (i.e., the right) choice rather than taking the easy way out.

Some fundamental truths about my weight loss. I shed 75 lbs in 12 months by:

  • Going low carb
  • Exercising daily
  • Eliminating sugars and processed foods from diet
  • Drinking 8+ 8-oz glasses of water a day
  • Limiting my alcohol intake
  • Counting points and tracking my food
  • Stepping on a scale once a week

None of it is easy. In fact it’s damn hard. Trust me. Choosing a pizza over a salad is easy. Meeting friends at a bar and drinking ice tea – hard.

Last year the hardest decision I made was also one of the best. I made my health a priority.

Dumbledore would be pleased.

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