People who know me well know that I love, Love, LOVE to cook and create various concoctions in the kitchen.  During the COVID-19 times,  I have tried to use pantry items I had on hand.  I am fortunate in that I was able to supplement as needed with the service my grocery store offers whereby I place my order online and have it placed in my car.  I have really enjoyed fixing combinations of food that I probably would not have otherwise so as to prevent extra trips to the grocery.  I’ve also seen several recipes online that I have tried.

Recently, I thought I’d like to have a pizza, but didn’t want to venture out to get one from a pizza place.  COVID-19 again!  I love my Crock Pot, so much so that I keep an extra one, still in the box, in my basement so that when mine quits, I won’t be terribly inconvenienced.  I found several recipes for making pizza in a Crock Pot. 

Thus, the Pizza That’s Not a Pizza was made.

Here’s what I did:

Using olive oil, I liberally greased the bottom and sides of my Crock Pot.

Next, I covered the bottom with ketchup.

I added a package of frozen sweet Italian sausage and about a pound of frozen ground beef.

I cooked that on high for about an hour.

To that, I added:

About ¼ of a measuring cup of red wine

1 undrained can of diced tomatoes

1 undrained can of pitted black olives

1 undrained can of mushrooms

2 packages of Ramen noodles  (I kept the seasoning packets to use for something in the future.)

1 large onion, peeled, but uncut

I was afraid the Crock Pot wouldn’t have enough liquid, so I added about 1 cup of chow-chow.

I kept on thinking, “How can I make this special?  What can I do to kick it up a notch?  What’s the surprise element?”

Then, I added 1 package of frozen Brussels sprouts, knowing that the liquid produced would help prevent the “Pizza That’s Not a Pizza” from sticking.

I continued to cook all ingredients on high for 3 hours. 

It was during this time, while the ingredients were cooking, that I talked to my good friend Heidi Dulebohn.  I told Heidi what I was fixing and she said, “I think you need to blog about this.  That sounds delicious!”  So Heidi, I took your advice, and not for the first time! 

As I was ready to serve the “Pizza That’s Not a Pizza”. I sprinkled a liberal amount of cheddar cheese over the top of each individual serving, but not in the Crock Pot.  I knew more cheese could be easily added for the individual servings.  I intentionally added no spices to “Pizza That’s Not a Pizza”, so that everyone could adjust the taste to the desires of their own taste buds. 

As I’ve blogged before, when I was young, my mother would sometimes make vegetable soup, using items she wanted rid of from the refrigerator.  Leftovers of just about any vegetable would find itself in the mix.  Vegetables I remember the most are tomatoes, potatoes, corn, green beans, dried beans, peas, carrot and celery sticks, maybe part of an onion or part of a clove of garlic.  And that was my inspiration for adding the Ramen noodles, chow-chow and Brussels sprouts.   While they were items I wanted to get rid of from my pantry and freezer, I didn’t think about using any of these until most of the other ingredients were in the Crock Pot.

 “Pizza That’s Not a Pizza” really doesn’t taste or look much like pizza.  But it sure is good! 

#PizzainaCrockPot #Notpizza #HeidiDulebohn #COVID-19 #Unusualpizzaingredients #Chowchow #Brusselssrpouts #Vegetablesoup

Copyright June 12, 2020 by Rebecca Henderson