These are incredibly quick, incredibly easy and incredibly good!
I keep all the ingredients made up in my freezer and refrigerator so such lunches are a snap for me! These little gems can’t be picked up and eaten like regular pizza as they are too wet/messy, so get out a fork to enjoy these. This recipe is not suitable until you reach the nuts rung of the Phase 2 OWL carb ladder. They are OK for Primal diners, but not Paleo due to the cheese. These would be lovely served with a nice green salad. These can also be made with ground beef, but I was looking for an Italian sausage flavor today.
INGREDIENTS:
12 oz. breakfast sausage (I use mine:
http://buttoni.wordpress.com/2011/0...akfast-sausage/)
1 egg, beaten
¼ tsp. each fennel seed & dried oregano leaves (or ½ tsp. Italian seasoning)
¼ c. low-carb spaghetti sauce (I use Luccini basil pesto)
¼ c. pesto sauce (I use my own recipe:
http://buttoni.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/pesto-sauce/)
1 c. grated mozzarella cheese (about 4 oz.)
½ oz. thin sliced red or green bell pepper, cut into strips
DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. In a medium mixing bowl, well mix the sausage, egg, fennel and oregano with a fork or your hands. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of meat into each of 12 muffin cups and press down with the back of the spoon. I used a silicone muffin pan. Pop into your 350º preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove, tilt and blot off excess grease with paper toweling. Top each meat pattie evenly with 1 tsp. spaghetti sauce. Next spread 1 tsp. pesto sauce on top. Sprinkle each with about 1T. of the mozarella cheese, going back and using it all up evenly. Top with a piece of bell pepper. Pop back into oven and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. Cool slightly and gently lift them out with a fork onto your serving platter.
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 12 mini-meatzas, each contains:
161 calories
13.4 g fat
1.44 g carbs, .36 g fiber, 1.08 g NET CARBS
8.5 g protein
136 mg sodium
109 mg potassium
12% RDA Vitamin B6, 33.5% B12, 14% iron, 14% niacin, 19% phosphorous, 15% riboflavin, 23% selenium, 30% thiamin, 20% zinc