Quick Pizza Dinner with Leftover Mexican Ground Beef!

Ok, I had quite a bit of the ground beef mixture left from my Mexican Beef Burritos last night...and it was a long day....so here is what I've come up with for dinner tonight!

Using the following beef mixture (although I'm using leftover) here it is for reference.

Beef Mixture:

• 2 lb of extra lean ground sirloin/beef (I try to find 95% lean)

• 4 tsp chili powder

• 2 tsp ground cumin

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• 1/2 tsp onion powder

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

• 1 can of black beans or pinto beans (or both), drained and rinsed

• 1/4 - 1/2 C green onions, or red onion, chopped

Cook ground beef in 2 tsp olive oil over medium heat.  If liquid remains when beef is cooked, drain and place back into skillet.  Add seasonings, and stir well over medium low heat.  Turn off heat and add beans and onions. 

What I've used in the Pizza:

• One recipe of the following pizza dough, or use frozen pizza dough (a good thing to keep in the freezer for quick dinners)

• 1 Jar of Newman's Own Marinara Sauce

• 1lb of Kraft's part-skim shredded mozzarella with philly for better melting

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

I rolled my dough out about 2 inches larger than my pizza stone so I could place some of the shredded cheese in the crust and roll the dough around the cheese and press down to secure and form a thick border.  Place the dough with the stuffed crust on a pizza stone and into a preheated 425 degree oven for approx 5 minutes. 

Remove from the oven.  I used one jar of Newman's Own Marinara Sauce, then topped with the beef mixture and the rest of the shredded mozzarella. Brush the crust with extra virgin olive oil (or garlic olive oil if you have some), place back into the oven for 16-20 minutes.  Remove from oven and brush crust with olive oil to keep it soft. Let stant 5-10 minutes before slicing!

Amy's Favorite Pizza Dough

(makes 2 approx 12 inch pizzas--OR 1 thicker crust or stuffed crust)

1 1/4 C warm water

2 T Olive Oil

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

1/4 C cornmeal

3 T whole wheat flour

3 C unbleached white flour

1 T yeast

• Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water (about 105 to 110 degrees F), add the rest of the ingredients and beat using the dough hook of a stand mixer until a nice dough ball is formed. If it is still sticky place flour on the counter and turn out the dough and knead until smooth.  Be careful not to knead in too much flour and make the dough too heavy. Let rise for 60-90 minutes, until doubled in size. Punch down and turn out and divide into two dough balls to roll out for pizzas.

• Option—Do you have a bread machine? Place the ingredients into your bread machine in the order the machine suggests, set for the dough cycle, when complete, turn out and divide into two balls which you will roll out for the pizzas.

--If you don't have one, you should look at investing in a Zojirushi bread machine...it is my second machine and I just love this machine. I make most of our bread and it is so nice to place ingredients in, go to work and come home to dough ready to go, or even a baked loaf!  www.zojirushi.com  They also make great rice cookers....this is a necessity in my kitchen too!

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Place pizza stones in the oven if you have them. If not place your pizza pans into the oven.  When hot, roll out the dough into your circle to fit your pan (doesn't have to be perfect). Take stone/pan from the oven and place dough on stone/pan.  Place back into the oven for approx. 4 minutes, then take it out of the oven, it's time to top it!