Let’s welcome author and photographer Sharon Delarose to Writer Wednesday on the blog!! I haven’t had a chance to read any of Sharon’s books yet, but they look super cool (in that creepy, hopefully not in my backyard, sort of way – LOL).
Made by Sharon Delarose
If you’re following a low carb diet, traditional pizza becomes taboo with a typical slice of pizza being loaded with carbs. One slice of bread can hold 13-30 grams of carbs. Imagine the carbs in your pizza crust! Another series of high carb items are the tomato sauce products. A half cup of plain tomato sauce has 9 grams of carbs while a half cup of tomato paste holds a whopping 25 grams of carbs. Do you know what type of sauce they are using on your pizza Now imagine a pizza that replaces the high carb crust with a low carb lunch ham and eliminates the tomato sauce altogether. Even better, what if this pizza was loaded with flavor? Welcome to the Low Carb Pizza Casserole.
Low Carb Pizza Casserole
1 green bell pepper – chopped
1 medium onion – chopped
1 pint (10 oz.) cherry or grape tomatoes – halved
20 oz. sugar free or smoked lunch ham
24 oz. shredded pizza cheese
3.5 oz. (50 pieces) pepperoni
Spanish olives (optional)
Basil
Oregano
Thyme
Italian seasoning
2 bread loaf baking dishes (9x5x3)
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Using 1/4 of the ham per baking dish, cover the bottom of each baking dish with ham slices. Ideally the ham will come up about an inch around the sides. Now you can begin layering the other ingredients.
Divide the pint of cherry or grape tomatoes between the two baking dishes creating a layer of cherry tomatoes in each dish. This will use up the tomatoes.
Using 1/4 of the onions and peppers per dish, add one layer of onions and one layer of bell peppers. Liberally sprinkle with basil, oregano, thyme and Italian seasoning. This is much of your flavoring so don’t skimp.
Optionally you can add a layer of olives (about 10 uncut olives with or without pimentos) after each spice layer.
Follow up with a thick layer of cheese, using 1/4 of the cheese per baking dish. Top off each dish with 12 pepperonis and cover it up with a layer of ham, using up the rest of the ham slices. The baking dishes will look almost full and the ham should overlap the sides of each dish, folding upwards around the edges.
Divide the rest of the peppers and onions between the two baking dishes, add olives if desired, then sprinkle liberally with the four spices. Top it off with the rest of the cheese and pepperonis.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. The cheese should be tinged golden brown.
After cooking, carefully drain the juices out of each dish. This recipe makes four man-size servings or six smaller servings.
If you need to accommodate both low carb dieters and non-dieters, you can add ingredients to the second baking dish for the non-dieters. Add mushroom slices (15-20 pieces per layer), pineapple (8 small chunks per layer), and pre-cooked breakfast sausage patties (one half sausage patty per layer) on top of each onion/pepper layer.
————————
Goodness!! I think I’d be worried about the cheese as much as the bread!! But I have a feeling you’d have a line up of meat lovers out the door if you made this one!!
Sharon says, “my husband, Bear, came up with this recipe while on the Atkin’s low carb diet. We were missing out on regular pizza, so he came up with this low carb alternative. It’s absolutely delicious, and even when not on Atkin’s, we eagerly indulge in this Low Carb Pizza Casserole.”
The Wizard of Awe: An Acre of America Backyard Nature Series
You don’t need to travel to the Galapagos Islands, Hawaii, Australia, or the Amazon jungle to witness nature’s magic wand as it dances with creatures that seem to be out of this world, and plants that spawned science fiction movies.
From bright orange tree blobs to blobs that ooze across the ground, witch’s curses, Halloween legends, and insects that give grown men the heebie jeebies, Mother Nature invented the wow factor. Toaster pastry spiders, Chinese dragon caterpillars, mummies hanging from a peach tree, and mushrooms that send dogs rolling in orgasmic ecstasy are just a few of the wonders we’ve discovered in our own back yard.
Explore the creatures living right under your nose through photos and stories, facts and legends. Take a walk on the wild side in your own back yard. Be in the moment and forget the bustle of the busy world. Take a few minutes out of your week to bask in nature’s bounty. Marvel at Mother Nature’s artistry and originality. Be as a child again and you might find that there’s no place like home.
AMAZON KINDLE – AMAZON PAPERBACK – NOOK
Biography: Sharon Delarose is the author and photographer of the three-book An Acre of America Backyard Nature Series, as well as a variety of other books including non-fiction Bad Dog to Best Friend, Alien Nightmares, Ancient Aliens and the Lost Islands, and Yankee Go Home.