Recipe: Pepperoni Cups
Ingredient list: Approx 1 pound of thin sliced sandwich size pepperoni, room temperature. It molds much easier to the muffin tins if it is not fresh out of the fridge cold. If you do not have the larger slices, 'regular' size will work but you will need several of them to line the bottom and partially up the sides of the tin.
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese plus extra for topping
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
Pizza sauce - for this I used the canned Don Pepinos - it only has 4 grams of carbs (2 from sugar) per quarter cup serving
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Prepare one muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray (the pepperoni is greasy but the cheese tends to overflow and stick to the pan).
In a bowl mix together the cheeses. Season as you like, mixing well - I used garlic powder, basil and oregano.
The recipe says to place the cheese mixture in the middle of the pepperoni and the mold it into the tin. I found it easier to mold the pepperoni into the tin first and then add the cheese.
Spoon a bit of the sauce in the center of each cup - I used less than a tablespoon for each cup and sprinkle more of the mozzarella on top.
Place in preheated oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes (more or less depending on your oven).
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Notes: I am on a very carb restricted diet right now and have been both craving pizza and lasagna. My husband suggested finding a recipe for this since he had tried something similar years ago when he was on the Atkins diet. The original recipe called for cream cheese instead of the ricotta and frozen spinach (thawed). The cream cheese sounded like it would be far too rich and I'm not a big spinach fan, so I omitted the spinach and substituted the ricotta for the cream cheese. What I ended up with was delicious and really satisfied the craving I had been having.
This contains a bit more fat than I would normally intake but that can be helped by using lighter versions of the cheese. Since this is not something I would eat every day or even every week, the extra fat for one day isn't that big of a deal. I will definitely be making this again.
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese plus extra for topping
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
Pizza sauce - for this I used the canned Don Pepinos - it only has 4 grams of carbs (2 from sugar) per quarter cup serving
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Prepare one muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray (the pepperoni is greasy but the cheese tends to overflow and stick to the pan).
In a bowl mix together the cheeses. Season as you like, mixing well - I used garlic powder, basil and oregano.
The recipe says to place the cheese mixture in the middle of the pepperoni and the mold it into the tin. I found it easier to mold the pepperoni into the tin first and then add the cheese.
Spoon a bit of the sauce in the center of each cup - I used less than a tablespoon for each cup and sprinkle more of the mozzarella on top.
Place in preheated oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes (more or less depending on your oven).
---------------------
Notes: I am on a very carb restricted diet right now and have been both craving pizza and lasagna. My husband suggested finding a recipe for this since he had tried something similar years ago when he was on the Atkins diet. The original recipe called for cream cheese instead of the ricotta and frozen spinach (thawed). The cream cheese sounded like it would be far too rich and I'm not a big spinach fan, so I omitted the spinach and substituted the ricotta for the cream cheese. What I ended up with was delicious and really satisfied the craving I had been having.
This contains a bit more fat than I would normally intake but that can be helped by using lighter versions of the cheese. Since this is not something I would eat every day or even every week, the extra fat for one day isn't that big of a deal. I will definitely be making this again.