Kind of Cheeseburger Pizza...

Tonight I was finally feeling like I am over the flu and I am ready for a regular meal!  Oh the small things in life :)

About a month ago, I bought pizza dough from Trader Joe's and I have wanted to make it.  No worries, I froze it so it's not like it was sitting in the fridge for a month.  Yesterday, I thought "tomorrow will be the day I finally make a real meal!"   I was pretty excited.  I immediately thought of Iowa Girl Eats (shock) Cheeseburger Pizza.  She made it awhile ago and I've been thinking about it ever since.

This pizza is really easy to make and is actually really tasty.  You start by browning your ground turkey or beef... simple enough :)  You only need about 1/2 pound of meat.  I used ground turkey as I don't usually cook with ground beef or red meat.  Red meat makes an appearance occasionally into our house.

While that was cooking away I was prepping the area to roll out the dough.  I don't usually like to make a big mess when I cook, but I sucked it up and spread some flour out all over my counter and rolled out the pizza dough!  I used whole wheat from Trader Joe's to try to healthify (yup!) the pizza!  

OH!  I ALMOST forget the BEST part of Trader Joe's pizza dough... it's only $1!! 

Next up it was time to put together the pizza. So Iowa Girl Eats made special sauce for her pizza, and I wanted to do the same but I could not convince Chris.  She mixed together 1/2 cup of Ketchup and 2 Tablespoons of Thousand Island Dressing.  She said this helped make it taste EXACTLY like a cheeseburger and that was the whole reason for making this pizza.  Well, I couldn't convince Chris on this one.  After eating tonight, he did say to just make it that way next time and not tell him ahead of time.  However, tonight I stuck with good old pizza sauce.  I don't like the uber cheap stuff at the store, it tastes too fake to me.  So I decided to pay an extra $1 and buy some nicer stuff.  I used about a half cup of sauce as I do not like my pizza to be overly saucy.

Success! Definitely some delicious sauce!

After piling on the sauce, ground turkey and MUCHO cheese (2 cups!), it was time to put it into the oven.  I followed the directions on the bag of dough.

It took only 12 minutes, though the next time I make it I might leave it in a little longer.  The dough was a little doughy.  We like our pizza to be a little crispy.  Definitely a success.  

Top with some tomatoes and lettuce and BAM!  You have Cheeseburger Pizza.  Unfortunately ours tasted like hamburger pizza because of the sauce.  But it was still quite delicious.  Next time I make pizza, I'm definitely going to make the ketchup sauce so it's a little more like a cheeseburger.  Chris can make his own dinner, right?

I would say this was very good and you should make it!  I only had a piece... but I would have to admit that my stomach has shrunk after being sick the last few days.  I am so happy to finally be on the mend and I am eating regular food.  I EVEN worked out today.  I did push myself a little too hard in spin class on got dizzy, but once I slowed down a bit it was a great workout.  

Back to the real world tomorrow... **SIGH**

I think Charlie has liked having us at home during the day... though now he can nap without any interruptions.