Cheeseburger Pizza – A Family Favorite

Family dinners are very important in our house. Nearly every single night we all sit around the dinner table together and follow three rules: 1. Show your manners, 2. No “screens” (electronics) at the table and 3. Share about your day.  To help with the last one, we take turns sharing the best part of our day and the worst part of our day. It’s a great way to get the kids thinking and excited about sharing. Needless to say the favorite part of my day is usually family time around the table. (Although they’ve quit letting me use that one!)

We also have “kids night.” This is the night when the kids get to choose and make the meal. (With a little help.) All three of our kids love to help me out in the kitchen and this is one of the ways to not only get them excited about cooking, but also about the ingredients going into the food. We have two gardens in our backyard and this recipe started from picking veggies last summer and deciding on a fun way to incorporate them into our meal. Cheeseburger pizza is fun and tasty and definitely a family favorite.

 Ingredient list for pizza dough:

2 cups flour

1 packet yeast

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. sugar

2/3 cup + 2 tablespoons warm water

Ingredient list for cheeseburger pizza toppings:

1/2lb ground beef

1/4 cup thousand island dressing

1/4 cup diced onions

1 cup shredded lettuce

1/2 cup cherry tomatoes

1/2 cup sliced dill pickles

1 – 1  1/2 cup of your favorite grated cheese (we use a combination of cheddar and mozzarella)

Directions:

1. Start with the pizza dough. Pour the packet of yeast into the warm water. Combine the flour, salt and sugar in a medium mixing bowl. Then add the warm water/yeast and mix/knead thoroughly. Form a round ball in the bottom of the bowl and cover with a damp towel to let rise 10 minutes.

2. While the dough is rising, brown the ground beef and the onions over medium heat together. Drain well and set aside.

3. Cut cherry tomatoes in half and set aside.

4. After dough has risen for 10 minutes, place on a flat surface, dust with flour and roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. We prefer to roll it out into a rectangular shape and finish by placing it in a shallow sheet pan to form the crusts.

5. Once in your sheet pan, top with the thousand island spreading evenly and almost to the edges.

6. Sprinkle grated cheese, then ground beef/onion mixture over the thousand island. Then top with sliced dill pickles.  Bake in 350 degree oven for 18-22 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown.

7. Once out of the oven, top with shredded lettuce and tomatoes.

I know it sounds a little weird, but give cheeseburger pizza a chance –it’s incredible. We have been known to add bacon because well… bacon! Just cook it before hand and crumble over the pizza prior to baking. We have also added fresh avocado to the top with the lettuce and tomatoes. Yum! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do, but more importantly, I hope you enjoy family dinner time as much as we do. Talking about our ups and downs is a great way to share about our day and for me to learn something the kids might not otherwise remember to tell me. Do you have family dinner traditions? I’d love to hear about them!