Pizza Burgers
In honor of back to school week, this week’s menu is going to be dedicated to budget meals, because after the trip to Scheels I just had… let’s just say we may need a budget week!
I think there is a connection between certain comfort foods and poverty- mac & cheese, biscuits and gravy, stew of all sorts, bread pudding, and the list could go on. This recipe was first made by my grandma Lucille and although they weren’t at poverty level, she did have five kids and I imagine the cost of every meal came into mind.
Growing up, my mom made this on a regular basis and we often had bags of them in the freezer, easily accessible to take out and toss in the microwave. Fast forward to my early twenties, when I begin to do more cooking on my own. I distinctly remember standing in the kitchen of my apartment and calling her.
“Hey mom! What are the ingredients in Pizza Burgers. I want to make them.”
“Oh, they’re super easy. Spam-”
“Wait, what? Spam?!”
Yep. This is the one and only excuse, in my opinion, to use Spam, and there is no substitute. Trust me, I’ve looked. I’ve actually spent the last couple weeks looking into Spam alternatives, knowing I wanted to share this one. There really isn’t a great one that I could find, so the real deal it is.
Ingredients:
3 tins of Spam- in hindsight, I maybe should have used the low sodium option here. Something to consider…
1 onion- finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic- minced
1 can of tomato paste
1 stick of butter- melted
2 packages of buns- you’ll need about 12 buns total
1 bag of mozzarella cheese
1 tbsp fresh thyme- minced
1 tbsp fresh rosemary- minced
1 tbsp fresh basil- minced
1 tsp dried oregano
If you don’t want to do fresh, you can substitute 1 tbsp Italian seasoning.
Instructions:
In a pan, heat olive oil. Add onion and garlic. Cook together for about 3 minutes.
Put onion and garlic mixture in a bowl. Add spam, herbs and tomato paste.
Use a spatula or other tool to grind up the Spam and mix together all ingredients.
Add half the mozzarella and the melted butter and mix again. Mixture should resemble ground beef.
Spoon mixture onto open faced buns.
Put in the oven on broil. You can use they high setting if you’re good about paying attention. If you’ve got other things you’re doing besides watching them, I’d recommend low.
When the edges start to get toasty, pull the pan out and sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella. Return to the oven until melted.
If you feel the need to class it up a little with this meal, just break out your Spam wine glass. It will take it to the next level!
Serves 8
Cost per serving: About $2.60