Meatza: The bariatric answer to pizza!

You know when you see someone do something and you think, “Why didn’t I think of that myself?” This happened to me recently and oh my gosh I need to share it with you guys because it’s amazing. Meatza. That’s right, a pretty much no carb pizza. Pizza is one of the things I miss the most after my gastric bypass so read on if you’re keen to see how I made a very bariatric friendly pizza.

One of my friends, Haven, has a blog called Fork Off Gluten. She has some really great paleo recipes posted there and she originally posted her meatza recipe a few years ago. You can find Haven’s recipe that I based mine off here. On the whole I find paleo food to be quite a good option for me post gastric bypass, you just have to watch the fat content with some things. Haven has a habit of snapchatting herself cooking dinner most nights and this is where I saw meatza for the first time. All hail snapchat!

The main difference between meatza and normal pizza is that you make the base out of any kind of minced meat you like. Haven used turkey mince when I saw her do it but often uses venison and there’s no reason any kind of minced meat wouldn’t work. It should be a normal part of life for you now but obviously buying the leanest, highest quailty meat to start with will get you the best and healthiest results. I was going to use turkey mince but the supermarket only had chicken mince so I went with it.

For the base: I mixed about 450 grams of chicken mince with a quarter of a chopped onion, a heaped teaspoon of minced garlic and a tablespoon of moroccan seasoning. Once it was mixed I decided I didn’t need to add an egg to it as it was staying together quite nicely. Haven recommends you add an egg if you think it needs it to bind it. Then I rolled it into a ball, squashed it kind of flat and then carefully pressed it out into a nice round shape that was about 1cm thick.

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Topping: At this point you can basically do whatever you want. On top of my meatza I used the Get Real Food BBQ sauce that I got in my goodie bag at Julie Bhosale’s Winter Wellness workshop. Then I put a couple of tablespoons of cooked onion, a tiny smattering of cooked, chopped roast chicken, half a chopped red capsicum, roasted pine nuts, bacon and a sprinkle of cheese.

Get Real Food BBQ Sauce

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I cooked the pizza for about 25-35 minutes and I had to drain the juices off a couple of times. I used the juices as a guide to when it looked cooked, as you would when you’re roasting a chicken, and when I took it out and cut it the base was cooked through beautifully.

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Now all that was left was to taste it. Oh my gosh it was so so good! It tasted like pizza and I did not miss having a dough base in the slightest. It was moist and good for me texturally. I cut it into eight pieces and put two on my plate. I knew my eyes were bigger than my belly but I thought I would give it a go. I managed to eat one piece and two bites from the next bit. I was FULL. Needless to say there was heaps left over and that was lunch sorted for the next few days.

Recipe roundup:

Base

Approx 500 grams of the minced meat of your choice.

1/4 – ½ Onion

1 Heaped tablespoon of Minced Garlic

1 Tablespoon of Moroccan Seasoning

1 Egg (if needed)

Topping

2 Tablespoons of base sauce (I used BBQ)

¼ Precooked onion

½ Chopped red capsicum

¼ Cup cooked roast chicken

2-3 Rashers of bacon (Precooked)

¼ Cup of cheese

Method:

Preheat oven to 200C. Mix base ingredients together (omit egg until other ingredients are mixed first then decide if you need it). Roll into ball and flatten it out into a circle shape about 1cm thick. Spread the base with base sauce and sprinkle over onion, chicken, capsicum, bacon and cheese. Cook for approximately 25-35 minutes. Drain the juices off a couple of times while cooking.

While this is a great alternative for a bariatric tummy to normal pizza it’s still not the most healthiest balanced meal, although you could make it so by putting more veges on top and I think I will next time. I can see this is going to be a firm favourite and will be a nice weekend dinner for me to make once a month or so.

Is this a revelation to you like it was for me? Are you going to try and make a Meatza? What did you do differently to how I did it? Comment below and let me know I’d love to know what you thought.

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There are 6 comments for this article
  1. Kristi at 8:57 pm

    Sounds fab.. my toppings of choice would be cranberry sauce, red onion, brie and cracked black pepper. .. I know what I’m having for dinner tomorrow night. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Ashleigh at 10:32 pm

    This sounds delicious I’m definitely going to try making it as I do love pizza but it’s normally out of my diet. I usually make a cauliflower base pizza ‘ caulizza ‘ could be it’s name lol!

  3. Meagan Kerr at 11:24 pm

    Heck yes, meatza is the best! I keep mine simple, with a base made from just minced beef and pork (plus salt and pepper) with a thick tomato paste as the base sauce, cheese and fresh basil. Sometimes we add pepperoni too. It’s pretty low on veges, but I add a side salad and I’m good to go! I definitely prefer this to regular pizza or gluten free base, I don’t feel as over full and bloated and I find that I eat a lot less because I’m satisfied sooner (if that makes sense). Hurray for protein.

    • Melissa Peaks Author at 7:23 am

      Your version sounds simple but really yummy Meagan! I might do it like that next time! It’s such a good option if you’re trying to keep an eye on your carb intake.

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