Pizza-in-a-Pot

Anyone who knows me know that I consider pizza it's own food group. It's God's gift to me. It's as close to culinary perfection as one can get. It's finger food, but it's a meal. I have a hard time finding anything I don't like about pizza (thank you Little Caesar's for making sure there is SOMETHING I don't like about it).

Matt is on a casserole kick these days. He picked up the ultimate casserole cookbook at Borders a couple of weeks ago. Then he found a magazine special issue devoted to casseroles. He's been having quite a lot of fun picking out recipes.

Last week he found a recipe we can both get behind: Pizza-in-a-Pot. Simple and delicious (sorry, no pictures - we dug into it too quickly).

3 cups spiral pasta
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1.5 lbs ground beef
15 oz. can pizza sauce
14 oz. can tomato sauce
2 T. tomato paste
8 oz. shredded mozzarella
1 pkg. pepperoni

1. Cook pasta. Set aside.
2. Cook beef, onion, and green pepper until beef is no longer pink and veggies are tender. Drain.
3. Add sauces and paste to meat mixture.
4. In a 5 qt. crock pot layer pasta, meat mixture, pepperoni, and cheese.
5. Cook on low 3-4 hours, or until heated through.

Matt and I both really liked it, and it was SO easy! Here are some suggestions/options:
1. We bought spicy Italian turkey sausage when it was on sale and used the in place of the beef.
2. Since we had spicy Italian turkey sausage, we nixed the pepperoni.
3. You could add a lot of your favorite pizza toppings and make it work: mushrooms, ham, bacon - they could all be good.
4. We were too hungry to wait, but the notes for this recipe suggest serving it with garlic bread. I wish I had remembered - it would have been yummy!!