MEat N Veggie Lovers Stovetop PIZZA Bake: C-Lean & Healthy

My Husband, Paul, and I eat healthy most of the time. We came up with this recipe, because we both LOVE PIZZA, but wanted a healthier option that was equally satisfying to our food-lover taste buds. So Pizza Bake was born. It actually is a concoction of foods and flavors we love, thrown into a big pot and cooked. The finished product is DE-LICIOUS!! It will also keep you satisfied for hours and can feed an entire family in one pot. 

Ingredients

• 2 small Zucchinis chopped
• 1 & 1/2 lb lean ground grass-fed beef (May also use lean hormone free ground turkey)
• 1/2 white or yellow onion, diced
• 1/2-1 cup mushrooms, roughly chopped or sliced
• 1/2 cup green bell peppers, diced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic (Optional-may also use garlic powder)
• 2 jars organic spaghetti sauce (You can also make your own using 2-28 oz non-drained cans of all natural, no salt added, crushed tomatoes with 2 cans low sodium tomato sauce, 1&1/2 tsp sea salt, and 1 Tablespoon italian seasoning)
• 1 Tablespoon or more :) Chef Paul's Magic Pizza & Pasta Salt free/sugar free all natural Seasoning (This stuff iS AWESOME and adds the perfect combo of seasoning-we use it for almost all of our Italian recipes)
• 1 cup low-fat or fat free part-skim mozzarella cheese (I used Kraft Fat Free)
• 2 1/2 oz turkey pepperoni slices (This can be omitted to make it CLEAN-but SO worth it)
• Optional: black olives (My husband loves them but I think they're nasty)

Instructions

1. In a large skillet, cook beef on medium-high heat for about 8 to 10 minutes or until crumbly and no longer pink. Drain liquid and throw cooked ground beef in large stew pot. Set aside for now.
2. In the same skillet that you cooked the beef, saute onion, mushrooms, zucchini, and bell pepper over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes or until tender.
3. Add saute'd veggies to the stew pot with beef, add minced garlic, turkey pepperoni slices and organic spaghetti sauce or homemade version (ingredients listed above).
4. Cook on medium heat until mixture reaches a boil then reduce heat to simmer for 5 minutes. 
5. Sprinkle cheese over the top and gobble it up :)

Note: You can also cook the beef and veggies in the stew pot, verses, using 2 separate pans. Just remove the beef and set aside to cook the veggies, then add the beef back to the pot. 

Nutrition Information

Per Serving (1 cup): Makes about 8 servings

Calories: 243

Fat: 7g

Carbohydrates: 20g

Fiber: 5g

Sugars: 5g

Protein: 25g