Thursday, June 14, 2012

Garlic Butter Crusted Flatbread Pizza {Recipe}

Pizza is hands down one of my top 3 favorite foods. It’s partly because it has so much cheese and partly because it’s comforting.

And all that comfort usually situates itself on my hips.

A few weekends ago, my husband and I were wanting some yummy pizza, but didn’t want to get out of our pajamas to go buy some. Instead, I got a bit creative and made a delicious flatbread style pizza complete with a garlic butter crust. And unlike traditional pizza, this one is meat heavy and light on cheese, which makes it filling and low calorie. One slice will fill ya up!

Ingredients:

-1/2 lbs. Lean ground beef

-1/2 cup Pizza blend cheese (or fat free mozzarella, which I found to be flavorless…)

-Pizza crust (I used the Pillsbury kind)

-Garlic powder

-1 tbsp. butter

-1.5 cups of Marinara Sauce

-24 Pepperoni slices

Step 1: Set your oven to about 400 degrees, and get out your 9x13 Pyrex dish and your dough. I love to sprinkle garlic powder all over the dough/crust. It gives it good flavor without adding any calories. Once you sprinkle it all over the crust, make sure to knead it well.

Step 2: Brown your ground beef and once it’s cooked, drain fat if necessary and add in about 1.5 cups of marinara. While that simmers, roll out your dough and arrange 12 pepperonis on the bottom. I used the pepperonis to cover up any gaps in the crust. It doesn’t look beautiful, and that’s ok with me. I tend to think of flatbread pizza as kind of a rustic food.

Step 3: Top your crust with your meat sauce. I used about 1/2 of the meat/sauce mixture, and I reserved the other half for pasta the next day. Just a tip! Pop your pizza in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Step 4: Melt your tablespoon of butter and mix in some garlic powder. Have your cheese ready for the next step!

Step 5: When the 10 minutes elapses, take the pizza out, top with the cheese + pepperoni and put the garlic butter on the crust. Put it back in the oven for about 10 more minutes.