Recipe: Mexican Pizza

Did anyone else have favorite "food days" in grade school? One of my most favorite days of the week was pizza day. (My other favorites were nugget day and taco day). I could eat way more slices of pizza than you'd think my tiny little child tummy could hold. I didn't like the regular pepperoni or cheese pizza, I always went for the hexagon-shaped Mexican pizza with it's orange cheese and perfect spiciness. I honestly don't think I've eaten Mexican pizza since grade school, so it was long overdue. I wasn't able to exactly mimic that greasy school pizza but I came pretty darn close as far as flavor goes. I hope you enjoy my version of Mexican pizza!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb ground beef
1 refrigerated pizza crust
3/4 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
3/4 cup refried beans
1/4 cup mild cheddar cheese sauce (or hot if you like!)
1/8 cup mild taco sauce-- optional
Approx. 3 tbsp. taco seasoning
2 1/2-3 tbsp. water

Preheat oven to 400°.
Spread pizza dough onto a baking stone, or a lightly greased cookie sheet. Roll or press dough out with your fingers to desired thickness. Our school pizza was always a thin crispy crust, but in my case there was just too much dough and not a big enough pan for this so I pressed it out to about a half inch thick.
Prebake your dough in the preheated oven for about 8 minutes. While this is baking, brown your ground beef in a pan over medium heat and drain. Add the water and taco seasoning to the meat and mix well.
Remove pizza dough from oven and spread the refried beans onto the dough as close to the edge as you would like. I like a little crispy crust with no toppings on mine so I left about an inch all the way around my pizza.
Spread the cheddar cheese sauce on top of the beans. Drizzle the taco sauce over the cheese sauce if desired.
Spread the ground beef mixture evenly across the pizza and, finally, top with the shredded cheese blend.
Bake for an additional 16-17 minutes until cheese is melted and slightly crispy and crust is golden brown.

Dig in!