recipe review: pizza in a pot!

welp, i have to say, a recipe MUST be successful if there aren't any leftovers...and that was definitely true of this one.

1-1/2 pounds ground beef
1 med green pepper, chopped
1 med onion, chopped
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1 jar (14 oz) pizza sauce
2 tbsp. tomato paste
3 cups spiral pasta, cook and drained
2 packages sliced pepperoni
2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1. in a large skillet, cook the beef, green pepper, and onion over med. heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. stir in the tomato sauce, pizza sauce, and tomato paste.
2. in a 5-qt slow cooker, layer the pasta, beef mixture, pepperoni, and cheese. cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours, or until heated through.


tips: there was really only enough to do two layer of the ingredients. i did: noodles, sauce, cheese, pepperoni, noodles, sauce, cheese, pepperoni.
i used way more than 2 cups of mozzarella cheese becuase it's delicious and i think everything is better with more cheese. also, i didn't use quite 2 packages of pepperoni. i probably could have even gotten away with just one.

the mixture of beef, and the assorted tomato sauces was really hard to mix in the frying pan and i used the biggest one i had. next time, i'll probably drain the beef, pepper, and onion and transfer it to a big bowl to add the tomato sauces.

i cooked mine exactly 3 hours and there were some blackened bits around the edges--so i think 4 hours would be WAY too long. then again, my crockpot is new and pretty powerful, so that might not be true for everyone.

the end result was really good, and we will definitely be making it again. dustin and his friend brandon demolished the whole pot in just 2 meals, so i know they'll probably request it again in the future. :)