Secret Recipe Club: Taco Pizza

It's the March Madness Edition of the Secret Recipe Club!  In this group, each member is secretly assigned the recipe blog of another member.  The recipe is then prepared and taste-tested, photographed for cyber-posterity and posted.  It's fun to try new recipes, and I'm lucky to have a family that's generally good-natured about such experiments.

Of course, if I left the choosing to the kids, they'd pick cookies every time.  While cookies are fun, I like finding new main-dish recipes too.  So even though my assigned blog for March is really heavy on cookies, I focused on the non-dessert offerings at Sweetie Pettiti.  But that doesn't mean I didn't find a "fun" recipe!

Susie worked hard to duplicate her childhood favorite, Happy Joe's Taco Pizza.  She had to find a recipe that lived up to her high nostalgic expectations.  I had no such expectations, since I never ate at Happy Joe's.  The idea of Taco Pizza was appealing, though--and I figured my family would love it.  And salad on a pizza sounded fun, different, and even (imagine that) good for you!

Changes I made:

Instead of one huge pizza, I made individual ones.  This allowed each family member to customize their Taco Pizza.  If your kids like to help in the kitchen, this is an ideal recipe.  Once the ingredients are all assembled, kids can spread their favorite toppings on their pizza, then the grownups can bake it until done.

I also added sauteed onions as a topping.  (YUM!)

I had no tomatoes in the house, so I skipped those.  This is not the time of year for tomatoes.  In the summer, though, I'd have to add them!

I made my own pizza dough based on the recipe at Once a Month Mom rather than using premade dough.

Finally, I made a meatless pizza for my daughter, at her request.

Survey Says:

This is a yummy dish!  It would be a fun meal to have while you're watching a little March Madness--just be sure to have plenty of napkins handy, because (as Susie pointed out in the original recipe) the toppings fall all over the place.  It was easy to customize to individual tastes.  My daughter had a meatless pizza.  My husband ate his salad separately and spread sour cream on top.  It's also frugal:  I used up some pizza sauce and refried beans that were already in the refrigerator, so it's a good way to reinvent some leftovers.  I found that it was easier to "fold" this pizza like a huge taco and eat it that way rather than slicing and lifting little pieces of it.

Here's how to make this at home:

Taco Pizza

Makes 8 individual pizzas

1 batch pizza dough, divided in 8 portions, rolled and par-baked for 5 minutes at 425

1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained

1/2 onion, finely chopped and cooked until onions are soft

2 TBL taco seasoning

1/4 cup water

1 can refried beans

1/4 cup taco sauce

1/4 cup pizza sauce

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 1/2 cups cheddar-jack cheese, shredded

Lettuce, shredded

Tortilla chips, broken into small pieces 

Additional taco sauce, optional

Sour cream, optional

Season cooked ground beef with taco seasoning.  Add water and simmer until water cooks off.  Meanwhile, mix refried beans, taco sauce and pizza sauce.  (I found that heating the beans in the microwave for about a minute made them easier to mix up with the other ingredients).  Spread bean mixture on your par-baked pizza crusts.  

Top with mozzarella cheese, then with seasoned taco meat.

Add onions, then cheddar-jack.  Bake at 450 for 8 to 10 minutes, until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown on the edges.

Allow pizza to sit a few minutes before you try to slice or eat it.  Then top with salad and chips.

Grab a napkin or three, and dig in!

Don't miss the other recipes in today's Secret Recipe Club big reveal.  I always find a whole bunch that I want to taste-test!

Quiche for One: It's What's for Lunch

Real men might not eat quiche, but I love it as a quick, high-protein lunch.  This recipe is NOT low in fat, but it sure is delicious.  It's a twist on a full-size quiche recipe that my mom's been making since quiche (quiches?) were fashionable in the '80s.

Quiche for One
Get the recipe and nutrition facts at Cook and Count!

Super Pizza Bites

On Super Bowl Sunday, we tried Tami's recipe for Pizza Bites.

I changed it up a bit, since I don't have refrigerated pizza dough around. I also added pepperoni to some. Here's how I made them:

DOUGH:
1 cup water
1 1/2 tbl butter or olive oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp yeast

Place in the bread machine and use the dough cycle. At the end of the cycle, remove the dough to a floured surface. Allow it to rest 10 minutes before rolling it out into a large rectangle.

Cut the dough into squares (I got about 28 squares out of this batch of dough) and put a slice of pepperoni on each. Top with a bit of shredded cheese. Tami used sliced mozzarella sticks, which was a good idea. In the future I think I will just buy a block of mozzarella and cut it into small cubes. Pick up each square and "bundle it up" so that the seams are all closed. Place seam-side down into an oiled cake pan.

TOPPING:
2 TBL melted butter
1 TBL Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder

Brush butter over tops of the pizza bites. Sprinkle seasoning and garlic on top.

Bake in a preheated 400-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Pizza bites should be lightly brown.

Serve with warm marinara sauce for dipping.

Pepperoni Bread

Make the dough in your bread machine, then fill, roll, rise and bake!

DOUGH:
1 cup water
1 1/2 tbl butter or olive oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp yeast

FILLING:
1/2 lb. pepperoni, sliced thin
1/2 lb. mozzarella cheese, shredded

Use the dough cycle of the bread machine, and put in the ingredients in the order recommended by the manufacturer.

Remove dough; cover and let it rest 10 minutes. Then roll it out on a floured surface into a large rectangle.

Sprinkle with: 1 cup mozzarella cheese

Spread a generous layer of pepperoni over the bread. Make sure that cheese and pepperoni are not too close to the edges. Leave 1/2 inch margin all around.

Roll tightly like a jelly roll. Pinch the seam closed, and the ends as well. Place on a foil-covered baking sheet. (The foil is important in case the bread springs a leak.) Cut a few slashes in the top.

Cover and let the bread rise 30 to 45 minutes.

Bake 35 minutes at 350. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before slicing.

Print this recipe!