Pizza Bread

I don't think it is a secret. I LOVE pizza. Like I could eat it every week.

Except that I am counting calories these days.

And pizza is not a calorie friendly food.

Especially restaurant pizza.

Which is my favorite.

So I find myself looking for substitutes.

Constantly.

And in this age of Pinterest, I have found plenty.

So every week or other week, I find myself attempting a new one.

And most of them are met with "That is good..." or "Yeah, this is nice." response.

When I saw the photo for this pepperoni and cheese stuffed ciabatta bread on Pinterest, I knew I had to try it.

I also figured I would be the only one who really liked it.

So yesterday, I took a large oval shaped loaf of ciabatta bread (I think the original recipe probably uses the smaller ciabatta rolls, but that seemed more time consuming than I had time for :). And in less than 30 minutes, I had this "pizza bread".

We ate in shifts yesterday because hubby and oldest son attended a school meeting.

I heartily ate my one serving size (though I would have LOVED to have more...dumb calories).

Child 4 wasn't really in a hungry state; you just never know with him.

Child 2 made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which I expected. She tells me often how much she doesn't like pizza. Yes, she is one of my biological children...how is that possible??? :) She did glance at it during the meal though and announce that she might have liked it if she had tried it.

Child 3 happily asked for seconds.

Then later the boys came home.

They are the big "pizza" judges.

Not that this is pizza.

But they are the ones who will usually eat the pizza substitutes I make but not with much gusto.

Except this time they did.

They loved it.

And they ate every single bite.

No leftovers for me. :(

I think next time I will make two...

Ingredients:
Ciabatta Loaf

Pepperoni

Provolone Cheese

Directions:
Carefully cut the "top" off the ciabatta loaf and and hollow out the inside. My daughter likened it to a pumpkin. It did remind me of the act of gutting a pumpkin actually.

You can save the inside for bread crumbs for future recipes. Or feed the local ducks at your duck park. Or if you are really tired and too overwhelmed to think, you can just throw them out and think of it as disposing of calories.

Layer pepperoni and cheese as many times as needed to fill "bread bowl". It took two layers of each (10 slices of provolones and about 50 pepperoni).

Then replace the top.

The original recipe also places more provolone cheese on TOP of the "bread bowl".

I didn't...dumb calories.

Place on a piece of aluminum foil on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes.

I served ours with the squeezable pizza sauce on the side for dipping.

Enjoy!

I know.

It is simple. Nothing fancy.

But it works.

(I imagine you could add about whatever you wanted as far as toppings go)

I am already ready to make it again!

Reba