By Request...

The recipe(s) for Pizza Casserole!

What's written below is how the recipe was originally written. Italicized is my attempt to make it as healthy as possible (well, as possible as it is to make pizza casserole healthy!)

Pizza Casserole

- 1 8oz box spaghetti noodles........1 8oz box of whole wheat spaghetti noodles
- 2 8oz packages Mozzarella Cheese........2 8oz packages low-fat skim Mozzarella Cheese
- 1 pkg pepperoni........1 pkg turkey pepperoni
- 1 pound ground beef........1 pound ground turkey
- 1 16-oz jar spaghetti sauce........I use just plain Hunt's tomato sauce...then add my own seasonings in it. Who knows if it's healthier or not, but it doesn't seem as heavy on a dish that could easily feel heavy.
- 1/4 cup butter........1/4 cup margarine
- grated Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook spaghetti and drain. Add butter and generous amount of the grated Parmesan cheese. Brown ground beef, drain and add spaghetti sauce. Simmer all together for 20 minutes. Add pepperoni in small pan and fill halfway with water. Boil for 5 minutes, remove and drain on paper towel. In a 9x12 baking dish, layer spaghetti, cheese, ground beef mixture, pepperoni and another layer of cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Like I said, I don't know how healthy you can make something like pizza casserole, but to be honest, I think it tastes better with my adjustments. My husband is very much a "meat and potatoes" kind of guy and he even thinks the turkey tastes good.

It's Working!

The whole point of me starting on this quest is to learn to like vegetables. I figured I would have to try a lot of recipes with a lot of ingredients to get to the point where I would enjoy the actual vegetable.

I've blogged already about a broccoli recipe that I really liked with brown sugar and parmesan cheese.

I blogged about sprinkling the brown sugar and parmesan cheese on frozen meal broccoli.

Today, I took another big step. I omitted the brown sugar.

It might not sound like much, but to me, that was a major victory. I'm getting to the point where I can start omitting the extra ingredients and still enjoy the vegetable itself. I'm not saying I'm going to be eating raw broccoli or plain steamed broccoli anytime soon - but it was a little reinforcement that maybe I'm doing this right!

This week's menu is getting mixed up a little bit but the vegetables should stay the same. Tonight's going to be pizza casserole but still with the green bean and mushroom medley. I'm expecting high marks on this one because although it contains carrots, I absolutely love green beans and mushrooms :)

It Applies to Real Life!

Today for lunch, I had my typical frozen "diet" meal. I go back and forth between Smart Ones and Healthy Choice (usually depending on which one has the best sale). Healthy Choice typically comes with a meat, a side dish, and some sort of dessert.

On the menu today was lemon pepper fish, broccoli and some caramel apple dessert.

Lemon pepper = yummy.
Rice = yummy.
Caramel apple dessert thing = interesting.

On a normal day, I would've tossed it after eating the fish and rice because I wouldn't have liked the broccoli. Today, however, is a new day. I applied what I have been learning about veggie recipes and added a sprinkle of brown sugar and Parmesan cheese to the top of the broccoli as soon as it came out of the microwave.

*Gasp*

I ate ALL my broccoli! I never knew it could be so easy to get me to eat veggies!