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| Pictured are low carb - using a keto bun and served with keto 'faux' fries - not potato based french fries |
When I get a food memory/craving stuck in my head, it lives there until I finally make it. I got it into my head I just had to have something from my childhood. Not just my childhood, but an elementary school lunch item; pizza burgers.
Now, I wasn't able to recreate it exactly to my memory. But it's close. So close. I'm going to tweak it a little more at some point in the future - as I know my school used canned tomato soup in their version as well; and we don't ever have canned tomato soup in our house because we are lowcarb/sugarfree.
To make it a little more difficult, I was having to not only recreate something from a childhood memory, but we eat sugar free and low carb so I had to try to make it keto!
If anyone from the internet stumbles upon this recipe through searching; remember - YOUR school might have made these differently. I suggest you do your own taste tests and see if it's similar to the version your school cooks made. Mine just needs a little bit of tweaking (needs a bit more... tang I think) but it was SO close, I was happy with the results for now. (And, since this is the first time I've craved them in over 30+ years, I might not have another craving for years! Ha ha).
Old School Pizza Burgers
1 1/4 lb. ground beef (approximately - I didn't weigh)
1/2 lb. (about) ground ham
1/4 c onion, finely minced
1- 6 oz. can tomato paste
1/2 c water (use the can to pour as to rinse out the can as well)
1 c (scant) ketchup (I'm going to use part tomato soup next time as I KNOW my school did)
1 1/2 T dried parsley
1 t Italian seasoning
1/2 t salt and some fresh ground black pepper
onion powder
sage
oregano
2 t vinegar
2 - 3 T cream or whole milk
Hamburger buns
Shredded mozzarella
Shredded or sliced up American cheese
Brown the ground beef and onion, add the ground ham.
(I used an S-blade in my food processor. I didn't want to over process it, but after I was ready to add it, realized I should have processed mine a little more - but I was lazy and didn't want to bother so the pieces in mine in the photos are little larger than I'll do next time). Season with salt and pepper.
While the meat cooked I mixed up the sauce separate (although you TOTALLY could add it to the meat in the same pan. I just made mine while the meat was still cooking as I like to multi-task and have no patience to just stand around browning meat without doing other things as well.) Mix the tomato products and the seasonings. For the onion powder, safe and oregano, I started with about a teaspoon of each. You can adjust this later.
Add the tomato mixture to the meat. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes over low.
After mixing with the cooked meats and letting it simmer for a few minutes to blend the flavors; do a taste test. I added about 1/2 - 1 teaspoon more of each of the oregano, sage and onion powder. When you are happy with the meat filling, stir in about 1/2 cup cheddar cheese IF you wish - or some of the American cheese into the mixture. Use the rest of the mozzarella and/or American for the top later.
On a baking sheet (lightly greased if you wish) but not on parchment as the buns need to crisp up a bit, lay out about 8 buns to make 16 sandwiches. Or lay out 4 buns, open to make 8 sandwiches and you can freeze the rest of the meat mixture.
NOTE: I used KETO buns for this meal with only 4 carbs total per whole bun, so only 2 carbs total when eating just the one half, as these are served "open faced". Regular buns usually run about 24-30 carbs, so each half would be about 12-15 carbs.
Sprinkle the tops with shredded cheeses. Bake at 350 or 375 (I baked at 370) until golden brown buns, melted cheese and heated through. About 12-15 minutes depending on the heat of your oven.
