Meat Lovers Pizza Burgers

Meat Lovers Pizza Burgers

Dorcas Annette Walker

Schools are back in session. It doesn’t seem that long ago that my life completely revolved around a school schedule. When my son started kindergarten, I also went back to school and taught kindergarten. It was a learning experience for us both. When Dwight reached high school, I homeschooled him due to his chronic internal bleeding episodes that made him absent so many school days. There never seemed enough hours in a day to do everything that needed done. I didn’t have time to spend in the kitchen cooking up a huge meal. So this month I am going to feature four different kinds of burgers that are quick and easy to make that our family enjoyed.

There is a lot of controversy over who exactly first invented the pizza. Egyptians and other ancient Middle Eastern cultures were eating bread much like a pita. Pizza was considered a peasants meal in Italy for centuries. The modern pizza has been attributed to a baker in the 16th century, who owned a restaurant in Naples and baked a special pizza for the Italian king and queen. The introduction of tomatoes on pizzas came in the 18th and early 19th century. As pizza became more popular street vendors gave way to shops where people could order custom pizzas with different toppings. In the early 1900’s pizza made its way to the United States through Italian immigrants. For over 50 years pizza has been an American favorite food. Millions of pizzas are eaten daily.

My Meat Lovers Pizza Burgers are very versatile in that any favorite pizza topping can be added to customize the pizza burgers for your family, leftovers can be frozen and then microwaved, or you can make up a batch of Meat Lovers Pizza Burgers to freeze and bake later. Sausage or ham can be added or substituted for the hamburger as well as peppers and black olives. Any way you make them Meat Lovers Pizza Burgers will be a hit with your family each time you serve them. Preparation time for my Meat Lovers Pizza Burgers is around thirty minutes and this recipe serves sixteen.

Meat Lovers Pizza Burgers

8 jumbo hamburger buns
1½ lb ground hamburger
1 tb chopped onion
1 tsp oregano
¼ tsp garlic salt
2 c pizza or spaghetti sauce
½ c parmesan cheese
48 pieces of pepperoni
2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Fry hamburger until browned adding onion, oregano, and garlic salt. Lay half a hamburger bun on two large trays inside up. Spread with a tb of sauce and sprinkle on parmesan cheese. Drain the hamburger and divide up between the buns. Place three pieces of pepperoni on each half and then top with ¼ c of mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350º for fifteen minutes until the cheese is melted. Serve hot with a tossed salad!

Weekly tip: Since each of my four burgers go great with a tossed salad; I’m going to give a salad tip each week. #1 Select greens that are crisp and free of discoloration. Heads should be firm and solid to the touch!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcaswalker@twlakes.net. For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com