Easy Pizza Casserole

Here is an easy to make pizza casserole…

Picture this: you've just gotten home from work. Your feet are sore, your head is spinning from the whole day's worth of work… then your significant other or your kids or both, come up to you, asking "What's for dinner?"

Since your family probably belongs to the 94% of Americans who love and eat pizza, a pizza casserole is a perfect choice for one of these difficult days. This is a perfect dinner dish – it will be warm, hearty and filling but it can be a breeze to prepare with the right ingredients. Add the fact that it is pizza and your kids will definitely love it.

Ingredients:

• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce or a blend of both (these are pre-seasoned and therefore convenient to use)
• 2 cups of noodle pasta, cooked
• 1 cup of sliced pepperoni
• ½ lbs of your ham or bacon
• ¼ lean ground beef
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Olive oil
• Shredded Mozzarella cheese
• Grated Parmesan cheese
• Parbaked deep dish pizza crust
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

These are the basic ingredients. Add or remove any ingredient you want. Adjust the amount of each ingredient, moreover, to suit your taste.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; hotter if you want a crispier crust.
2. In a skillet, cook the ground beef until brown then add the onion and garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste if preferred. Cook for a few minutes to let flavor seep into beef. Remove this from the fire.
3. Prepare the deep dish pizza crust (you may pop it into the oven for a few minutes to warm and thaw it properly. Add a layer of sautéed ground beef, put the pasta on top of it, add some more sauce on top, add the rest of the meat ingredients plus some cheese, and top everything off with the rest of the sauce.
4. Bake the casserole for around 20 minutes then sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. You can drizzle the lot with olive oil (use light olive oil if you don't like string olive flavor) to keep the top moist and aid in the browning of the cheese. Return dish to the oven and bake for another five minutes or until the cheese on top has melted. You should be careful not to overcook the pizza casserole for the cheese will burn.

Some Tips

The above is very easy to make. Make this casserole easily anytime you need to do so, keep a lot of your favorite casserole ingredients as freezer items. If you're partial to chicken, make sure you have a lot of cuts such as breasts always in store. Definitely, you should try to keep ground beef handy.

The same goes for the usual pizza spices, olive oil, pizza sauce, tomato sauce, and pasta, cheese, pepperoni, ham, bacon, sausages, etc. If you want a vegetable pizza casserole, then you must be sure to keep your refrigerator well stocked with potatoes, carrots and peas. All purpose cream may also come in handy if you want to try a creamy version.

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