Friday, January 4, 2013

Mandy's Mexican Meatza

I don't know what it is when I am on these 21-sugar detox programs, but I crave Mexican~!   When I completed the detox in December, I created a Mexican Meat and Squash Casserole which I shared here. My family and I loved it. 

Now it's January and I needed another fix that fell under the Latin American cuisine that I knew was homemade and healthy.  But hey, it's better that I crave this sultry, salty flavor over sugary snacks though, right?!  Right!  No problem! 

I have a bunch of grass-fed hamburger meat in my freezer so I'm always looking for ways to use it up.  I've seen a few Meatza recipes in the Paleo and Primal online sources out there while I browse the web.  But I didn't find one that was quite what I wanted.  So I decided to create my own meatza and give it a Mexican flare.  My first thought was to include my own guacamole as part of the sauce.  I placed a small amount of tomato sauce on top of the guacamole in efforts to sneak the avocado into my five year old's plate.  Thankfully Vivian, who normally notices everything, only discovered how great the flavor was.  My whole family LOVED it. This is definitely going into our monthly food rotation now!  Oh yes.




Mandy's Mexican Meatza
(Serves 4)

For the meatza base ("crust"):
1 pound of grass-fed hamburger beef
1 egg (cage-free, all natural)
1 Tbsp of homemade taco seasoning - I follow this recipe to make it
1/2 Tbsp oregano
1/2 Tbsp garlic powder
1/2 Tbsp onion powder
4 dashes of sea salt
2 dashes of ground pepper

To make the guacamole:
2 avocados, seeds scooped out and mashed
1 small tomato
2 Tbsp of that same homemade taco seasoning - using this recipe
1 Tbsp of lime juice
1 tsp of garlic powder (or two fresh cloves of garlic, minced)

For the sauce and toppings:

1 can (8 oz) of tomato sauce - read label carefully for no added sugar, salt or preservatives
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, any color, chopped
1/2 tsp garlic and herb seasoning (optional)
1/2 cup of all natural cheese, shredded (optional) - leave out if you can't do or don't want dairy


Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Grease a pizza baking pan with olive oil.  Set aside. 

In a medium size mixing bowl, combine all your ingredients to make your meatza (crust) base -- pound of beef, egg, taco seasoning, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt and pepper.  Mix well.  Form into a ball. 

Then mash and spread out that meat ball into your greased baking pan.  Press it down and out into one large patty ("crust").  Like this:






Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 17 minutes.  Then drain off any grease or fat that is there before proceeding.  Let it completely cool before you put the sauce and toppings and bake further.  It should look like this or similar:




While it's baking, make your guacamole spread and chop up your veggie toppings. 

To make the guacamole, scoop out and seed your two avocados.  Place them into a medium size mixing bowl.  Mash them with a fork until smooth.  Add in the diced tomato, 2 Tbsp of homemade taco seasoning, lime juice and garlic powder (or fresh minced garlic).  Stir and mix well.  It should look like this:



Once your meatza patty is comppletely cooled, put the guacamole spread over it.  My guacamole spread makes just enough to cover it all, like this:




Then put on your tomato sauce over the guacamole spread. Top with any additional seasonings.  I sprinkled about a tsp more of garlic and herb natural seasoning using my grinder.  Soon your guacamole will be covered and hopefully your picky children (like mine) won't even see the green stuff or question it.  Hee, hee!  Sneaky, sneaky!  It should look like this:



After that I added my veggie toppings.  In my case, I used 1/2 a chopped onion and 1/2 chopped yellow bell pepper.  Mmm, mmm!  It looked like this:



Then I baked my meatza for ten minutes.  It looked done BUT I wanted my meatza darker and crispier.  So I broiled it for seven minutes.  You decide how dark and crispy you want it.  Everyone loves their pizza/meatza a little differently. 

I then topped ours with about 1/2 cup of all natural, Amish Colby and cheddar cheese that I shredded while it was baking.  I placed it in the oven for about a minute more, just to let the cheeses melt.

 You can have it with or without the cheese.  It will still be amazing!  But look how pretty mine turned out:



Let it cool (if you can wait) for five minutes.  Then use a normal pizza cutter to slice it up.  Eat or inhale it.  

This is very delicious and a nice change from your ordinary dishes.  I hope you enjoy!

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If you're looking for another Mexican style favorite unique dish, try this one - my Mexican Meat and Squash Casserole!  This is just as tasty and even easier to make!

Happy Eating!

-Mandy



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