Taco pizza.

We love to do homemade pizza around here. It is super easy to throw together last minute and you can just add whatever toppings you have. My two favorite pizzas to make are taco pizza and feta pesto pizza. I will share the pesto one another time. I got the idea for this one originally from FamilyCircle magazine. I do the same ingredients that the original recipe calls for but I find that I can actually make two pizzas out of the same amount of ingredients. So the following will yeild two 12" pizzas. If that is too much for your family I highly recommend making them both anyways and freezing the other for later use (I have not done this yet, so maybe check this post). Although I have yet to freeze the entire premade pizza I always make a double batch of pizza dough and freeze half of it. It tastes just as good as freshly made (just make sure to put it in the fridge to defrost that morning).
So anyways, I normally use this recipe for pizza dough. But yesterday I tried this one in my bread machine and I think I like it more. My hubby said the first one was better though so I don't think you can go wrong either way. I have yet to do any kind of fancy dough with herbs but I might try it next time. To make it a little healthier you can use whole wheat flour but I recommend finding a recipe specifically for that. I subsituted wheat flour for all purpose in the recipe above and the dough was a little too heavy for my taste.  

Ok so all that to say... make some pizza crust and add the following ingredients for a yummy meal!

Taco pizza
(makes two 12" pizzas)
- 1 can (15oz) refried beans, stirred to loosen
- 3/4 cup medium-hot salsa
- 1 can (15oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese (or your preferred cheese)
- 2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro
- 2 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
- 2 cups grape tomatoes, quartered (or any tomatoes chopped)

1. Heat oven to 475 degrees and coat pizza pan with nonstick cooking spray
2. (optional) Cook pizza crust in preheated oven for 3 minutes then take out and let cool a little.
3. Spread refried beans over dough to within 1/2 inch of edge. Also spoon on salsa and black beans then scatter cheese and cilantro over top.
4. Bake in oven for 15 to 17 mintues.
5. Scatter lettuce and tomatoes over top and cut into slices.
6. Enjoy!