Homemade Healthy Mexican Pizza

Pie Caramba (from the Eat, Shrink and be Merry cookbook)

Weekends are often deemed 'Mexican Night' at our home. This past weekend we did it again. This time I went back to one of my old favourite cookbook. Eat, Shrink and be Merry. I always find that they use such a great combination of ingredients and spice it up just right so that you don't miss all the extra fat and calories.

Ingredients

    8 oz (227 g) extra-lean ground beef

    1/3 cup minced red onions

    1 tsp minced garlic

    ½ cup diced grape tomatoes

    ¼ cup each grated carrots and diced green bell pepper

    ¼ cup frozen or canned corn

    ¼ cup no-salt-added canned black beans, drained and rinsed

    1 tbsp minced fresh cilantro

    1 tsp chili powder

    ½ tsp ground cumin

    ¼ tsp each salt and freshly ground black pepper

    ½ cup pizza sauce

    1 12-inch prebaked whole-grain thin-crust pizza shell

    1 cup packed shredded light old (sharp) cheddar cheese (4 oz/113 g)

    2 tbsp minced green onions

    Garnishes: Light sour cream, salsa and guacamole (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Cook beef, onions and garlic in a large, non-stick skillet until beef is no longer pink. Add tomatoes, carrots, green pepper, corn and beans. Cook and stir for 2 more minutes. Add cilantro, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook 1 more minute. Remove from heat.

Spread pizza sauce evenly over crust. Top with half the cheese. Spoon beef mixture evenly over pizza. Top with remaining cheese, followed by green onions.

Place pizza directly on middle oven rack and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is completely melted and crust is lightly browned.

Makes 1 pizza, 8 slices

Nutritional Information Per slice:

186 calories,  6.8 g fat , 12 g protein , 18 g carbohydrate, 1.9 g fiber

Since we (well Melanie and I) don't like black beans I omitted them, and changed the colour of the peppers to orange.

This is an awesome product found at Loblaws. It's a lighter/healthier version of a pre-made pizza crust.

I dressed the top of our pizza with black olives and green onions.

And then served it up with Herdez Salsa and light sour cream, you could try guacamole too.

It was really delicious. Next time, I would add more cilantro, next time, Melanie wouldn't add the corn! Girls!!!