This delicious recipe got me through Atkins Induction whenever I craved a bit of pizza. I’ve tried so many of the popular low-carb pizza crust recipes and just don’t like all that cheese, the heaviness, and particularly I don’t like all the salt that is inherent in cheese crusts. Not fond of the cauliflower crust recipes, because for me, leftovers get a strong taste of cauliflower on day 2. I find all the low-carb recipes just too “heavy” and greasy. Even this amount of sausage and cheese packs a whopping amount of sodium, as seen in the nutritional stats below! But hey, when you’re still on Induction and craving pizza, this’ll do just fine for me. It can be ready in 10-15 minutes! And I don’t end up with “sausage fingers” and swollen ankles the next day from water retention due to sodium. It is my sodium sensitivity that makes me leave off pepperoni from my pizzas. Jusst adjust the ingredients for more servings.
Now this “pizza” isn’t one you can pick up and eat with your hands. Even as it cools a bit and the cheese firms up, you’ll still have to eat with a fork. So I don’t do this recipe for company. 🙂 But I find not being able to pick it up and eat by hand doesn’t bother me one bit. This tastes just like the best sausage, mushroom, bell pepper pizza I ever had in any Italian restaurant or pizza parlor! You may prefer to use all sausage or all beef, your call, but nutritional info is for the recipe as written. If watching your sodium intake on doctor’s orders, using all ground beef and also lowering the cheese to 2 oz. would be wise choices.
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INGREDIENTS:
Ready to dig in!
2 oz. pork sausage (breakfast or Italian)
1 oz. ground beef (or more pork sausage)
¼ tsp. fennel seed
Dash oregano
Sprinkle of garlic and onion powder
1/3 can drained, canned mushrooms (or 2 fresh, sliced)
2 oz. bell pepper
3 T. low carb spaghetti sauce (I use Bello Vita)
2 oz. grated mozzarella cheese
DIRECTIONS: Brown meat in no-stick skillet on medium heat. Add veggies and continue to cook until pretty tender, about 5 minutes. Add spices and stir. Using spoon or spatula, neatly push ingredients away from the edges of the skillet as shown in picture. Dot the surface with the tomato sauce but no need to stir. Top with the cheese, trying to keep it pretty much on the ingredients. Cover and lower heat to lowest setting and heat long enough to melt cheese. Should be ready in just a few minutes. Allow to cool a couple minutes so cheese will firm up a tad before attempting to “slice” into two slices. Using a broad spatula, slide a portion out of the skillet onto the serving plate (or toasted French bread, for non-Atkins eaters). Enjoy!
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 1 and contains:
531 cals, 39.3g fat, 11.2g carbs, 2.9g fiber, 8.1g NET CARBS, 34 g protein, 1312 mg sodium
Buttoni's Low-Carb Recipes 
Miss Peggy, I have just started this low-carb life style. Could you please tell me what is the difference between carbs and net carbs? I have used several of your recipes and love all of them. Thank you for sharing. Peggy Tisher
Carbs minus fiber = Net carbs. Dr. Atkins said since fiber (although it has carbs) is not digested and basically passes out of the body via the colon. Therefore, it need not be counted against the 20 carbs permitted during Induction. There are SOME low-carb plans that don’t follow this fiber deduction and only allow counting of total carbs. That allows so much less variety in menu planning and total foods allowed. Too strict for me, as I have tried to follow that plan before.
I love this “pizza”! But I don’t use any pizza sauce. A little oregano and a couple of very thin slices of tomato works just fine and I think it tastes better. You also don’t have to go all over town or the internet looking for expensive, processed low-carb sauce.
I make my own sauce and keep it in the freezer. But sliced fresh tomatoes wouldn’t be too bad here. Not as intense a flavor as the simmered sauces, though. 🙂
where does all the sodium come from ?
The cheese, the sausage and the commercial sauce. Now if you use homemade sauce and homemade sausage you can control and lower the sodium to please. But that which is commercially processed really stacks on the sodium total.
Peggy…by the way, I made your blueberry coffee cake today and it was sensational. I’m not keen on Carbquick but combining it and using a small amt all worked. delicious. Thx for your reply.
Great idea Peggy….yea, my low carb crusts have been dismal…soggy to the point of nausea. And I don’t want to get to where the sight of pizza sickens me…
My grain-free pizza crust isn’t soggy, Frank. Try that one some time. Do follow the directions about removing the parchment mid-cooking for best, dry, crisp results. But this one without a crust is nice when I have had too many carbs at breakfast or lunch and want a carb-lean pizza. 🙂