{Recipe Files}: Mexican Pizza

It's been a little while since I've shared a recipe with you (mainly because I was gone for 2 weeks, not cooking haha), but I tried out a new one last week and it was SO tasty that I knew it was worthy of a share!

I used to LOVE Mexican pizzas at Taco Bell growing up (I haven't been to Taco Bell in YEARS), so when I saw this recipe I knew I wanted to try it. It was a total hit in our house!

What You Need:

~1/2 lb ground beef

~1/2 C diced onion*

~1 tsp chopped garlic (or 2 cloves)

~1 Tbsp chili powder

~1 tsp ground cumin

~1/2 tsp black pepper

~1/2 tsp salt

~dash of cayenne pepper

~16 oz can of refried beans

~4 flour tortillas (10inches)

~1/2-1 C of salsa

~2 cups mexican cheese, shredded

~1 tomato, diced

Optional:

green onions, jalapeños, sour cream, black olives

*original recipe calls for 1 cup--that was WAY too much onion for this recipe for me, but add as much onion as you prefer.

What You Do:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Get a baking sheet and either cover with foil/non-stick spray or a silpat baking mat.

2. While the oven is heating up, add the onion, ground beef and garlic to a pan and brown the ground beef. Drain any excess fat, then stir in the chili powder, cumin, black pepper, salt and cayenne pepper. Remove from heat.

3. Put two tortillas next to one another on the baking sheet (with foil or silpat underneath). Spread an layer of the refried beans on each tortilla.

4. Add half of the ground beef mixture to each of the tortillas, then top with another tortilla and bake for 10 minutes.

(this is before adding the top tortilla and baking)

5. Add salsa, cheese (jalapeño, black olives, diced tomatoes or other topping) and bake for another 5-10 minutes, until cheese is melted. Mine was good after 5 minutes.

6. Remove from the oven and let cool a bit. Then cut into halves or fourths. This made 4 servings for us (a serving being half of the Mexican pizza). And they were delicious as leftovers too!

Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!