Somebody had a birthday today!

My dear Mom – aka Shirls, Ma, Skip, Iowa Mom Eats and/or the. best. Mom. ever.

Last Friday my whole family got together to celebrate with dinner and drinks, but since today was her actual big day, Ben and I invited my parents over for a fun and informal dinner of Cheeseburger Pizza.

Pizza had an affair with a cheeseburger, and their love child was this insane Cheeseburger Pizza. Muwahahaha!

This head spinning pizza starts with Trader Joe’s pizza dough that’s stretched out and smothered in a secret sauce. Fine – I’ll tell you what’s in there. It’s ketchup mixed with Thousand Island dressing. It tastes like a Big Mac!

Next, layers of seasoned ground beef and chopped pickles are layered on top.

(Pickles IN the pizza!)

Finally a generous layer of cheese goes on top before the pizza is popped into the oven.

I was totally tickled to see this American & Cheddar blend at the store. Classic cheeseburgers usually have a slice of American nestled on top of the burger patty, while many pizzas use cheddar as their cheese of choice. This blend combined the best of both worlds.

And it was soooo good!

We were all like, ok this seriously tastes like a cheeseburger!! before realizing that, wait, it actually is a cheeseburger. The bread is just baked in a different way. That’s neither here nor there, though. We gobbled this up quick!

Cheeseburger Pizza

Serves 4 people, 2 slices each

Print this recipe!

Ingredients:

3/4 lb lean ground beef

Salt, pepper, onion powder

1 pizza crust (homemade or store bought)

1/2 cup ketchup

2 Tablespoons Thousand Island dressing

1/2 cup chopped dill pickles

2 cups shredded american/cheddar cheese blend

2 vine-ripened tomatoes, seeded & chopped

1/3 cup onion, chopped

2 cups shredded lettuce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sauté ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat, seasoning generously with salt, pepper and onion powder. When the meat is no longer pink, drain and return to the skillet.

2. Spray a pizza pan with non-stick spray, then stretch the dough on top. Mix ketchup and Thousand Island dressing together, then spread on top. Add layers of cooked ground beef, pickles and cheese. Bake pizza according to the dough’s package directions.

3. When pizza is fully cooked, top with tomatoes, onion and shredded lettuce.

Serve with fries and a coke?!

How about a big slice of Pepperidge Farms Birthday Cake instead?

Since there was only 4 of us tonight (my brother, sister-in-law and nephew were unable to come) we cough, splitthecakeinto4pieces, cough.

We all confessed that, for as many years as we’ve been eating Pepperidge Farms Cake for our family members’ birthday, we’ve wanted to do this, and tonight was perhaps the only opportunity we might ever have?!

Afterwards we all unanimously agreed to never do it again. Blerg. Cake coma. 

Happy birthday to the best Mom I could have ever asked for!

~~~~~

Do you have any birthday traditions?