Tex Mex Meatza

Hello. Nice to make your re-acquantance. After 3 months of not cooking O N E time and eating E V E R Y single meal out (Yes, it’s true.), our kitchen is finally cook-able. Thank you all for your continued comments (even the ‘sugar isn’t paleo‘ ones) and checking of the site. I know there must have been continual feelings of disappointment for the last 90 days…but alas, today, your patience has paid off. 🙂

The kitchen was a complete gut job and we did all of the work ourselves (minus the countertop installation)–so it took some time, obviously. We’re about 95% done, still a few odds & ends to tie up. Expect some before & after (with the juicy details of materials used, where we purchased and how poor we are…I mean how much stuff cost) pictures of the kitchen once it’s completed.

This recipe was inspired by our chest freezer tripping–not “trip & fall” tripping, not “I’m so high I think I could fly” tripping, but “the electricity went out and the freezer never turned back on” tripping . So after we figured this out–days after it happened, we threw away about 40 pounds of meat and seafood. It was a very unpleasant experience (in more ways than one). We managed to salvage a few pounds of ground beef and well…viola, a meatza. I didn’t make this concept up, I don’t know who did or I’d give credit. If you’ve never heard of it before, it’s just ground meat as a pizza ‘crust’. Makes so much sense–especially with all the other ‘Paleo pizza’ options out there–cauliflower/coconut/eggplant concoctions. K.I.S.S.–that’s all I’m sayin’ about that. All I’ve done with this is mix in some salsa, because I’ve been too lazy to organize the spice cabinet, and top it with some other tex-mex stuff and well…viola.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1 16 oz. jar of salsa
• 8 oz. raw cheese, shredded (optional)
• handful of cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 head crunchy lettuce (like romaine), chopped
• 2 green onions, sliced

Method

Preheat your oven to 400ºF. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the beef, egg and 3/4 c of salsa with your hands. Spread the mixture out into a large oven-safe pan (something with high sides–we used cast iron), making sure to press the mixture all the way up the sides–think deep dish pizza. Bake this mammoth meat mass for 30 minutes* or until the meat is cooked through and is considerably brown.

While the mammoth meat mass is baking, chop and shred the rest of your ingredients.

You’ll see the mass has shrunk quite a bit, but has still maintained a nice crust/toppings boundary line. Pour the rest of the salsa into the ‘toppings’ part of the pie and top with cheese. Turn your oven on broil and pop the pie back in the oven. Let the cheese get to the desired level of bubbly, brown-ness, remove and let cool a bit.

Top with the chopped veggies** and serve…

*We have a new range (pardon the fingerprints…and me). It’s a convection oven with gas heat–so my timing may be off on this, if you have a different type of range. I’d be interested in hearing anyone else’s results…

**I made a boo-boo and threw all the lettuce on the top and then cut it into slices. Now we’ll be eating cold meatza tomorrow, as re-heated, wilted lettuce isn’t that appealing to me.