Deep Dish Pizza Casserole

Adapted from Weight Watchers

This dish was a favorite of mine when my mom and I joined Weight Watchers several years ago.  It's quick and easy.  I added the bell peppers to add to the nutritional value of the dish, and because I love bell peppers!  In the past I've added olives on my husband's half as a topping and have used mushrooms, too.  I'm sure any favorite pizza toppings would work.

You can use the peppers as a topping if you prefer, but they will need cooked ahead because they won't soften enough in the short amount of time the dish takes to cook, in my experience.  I like to add the peppers to the meat to cook because it saves me having to dirty another pan to cook them in! 

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef
½ large green bell pepper, diced
1 (15 oz) can pizza or spaghetti sauce
Cooking spray
1 (10 oz) can refrigerated pizza dough (not thin crust)
6 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
Crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 425°.  Cook meat and bell pepper in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, stirring until the meat crumbles and the peppers are tender-crisp. Drain, if necessary, and return to skillet. Add sauce, and cook until heated through.

While meat cooks, coat a 13 x 9 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Unroll pizza crust dough, and press into bottom and halfway up sides of the baking dish. Top the pizza crust with meat mixture.

Bake, uncovered, at 425° for 12 minutes. Top with cheese, and bake 5 minutes or until crust is browned and cheese melts. Cool 5 minutes before serving.  Top with crushed red pepper flakes, if desired.

Yields: 4-6 servings