Pizza Spaghetti

The hubby and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary yesterday. He took me out for a romantic, wildly expensive meal. And shared cheesecake with me for dessert. He let me have the last three bites. AND he brought me roses.

Aren't they purty? (Uh, the video camera has nothing to do with our anniversary evening. I swear it. Although it IS high-def ...)

I can honestly say that the past seven years have been both faster and more fun than I would have thought possible. And I have absolutely no doubt that the next seven will be just as enjoyable. If we can make it through one little obstacle ...

The hubby recently announced to me that he no longer likes red sauce.

I'm not sure how or why this aversion developed, but it saddens me. (I'm hoping it's just a pregnancy sympathy food aversion that will resolve itself after the baby arrives.) In the meantime, I am free to feed my own red sauce cravings. The hubby will still partake of a piece of lasagna, and I'm sure he wouldn't run from a plate of chicken parmesan, but if he's not hungry for what I make, he'll just find something else.

Today, I needed spaghetti. Or maybe pizza. I couldn't decide. So I combined them! The idea from this recipe came from a Taste of Home Simple & Delicious magazine, but I made several modifcations. As you can modify MY version. Use sausage instead of ground beef, use whatever veggies you prefer, leave out the mushrooms if you're not a mushroom household (but increase the meat).

The key to the sauce is the pepperoni. Don't like pepperoni? This is not the sauce for you. (Quite frankly, I don't trust anyone who doesn't like pepperoni. Donna.) I think you could easily halve the amount of pepperoni and use extra ground beef, however, and still get the same concept.

And even better, this dish is amazingly, surprisingly, supposedly low-fat. I imagine that draining the pepperoni grease is key.

Pizza Spaghetti
Serves 4

1/2 lb. lean ground beef
6 oz. chopped or sliced pepperoni
Salt and pepper
8 oz. button mushrooms, stemmed and chopped
1 Tbsp. dried minced onion
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes, optional
1 6-oz. can tomato paste
1 c. water
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
1 Tbsp. dried parsley flakes
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. sugar

1. Season hamburger with salt and pepper, and brown hamburger and pepperoni over medium-high heat. Drain.

2. Add mushrooms to pan and saute until tender.

3. Add remaining ingredients to pan. Cover and cook over medium heat until hot, then reduce heat to low until ready to serve.

4. Serve over cooked spaghetti.