Mexican Pizzas

I love Taco Bell. All things Taco Bell. Unfortunately we don't go out to eat that often so I've been scrounging for copy cat recipes (plus it's cheaper). My favorite thing there I still can't find a recipe for so if you know of a killer copy cat recipe for the Beef Meximelt I'm all ears. But the other night I found a copy cat recipe for their Mexican Pizza. So I decided to try it out. It wasn't a HUGE success but it was tasty. The kids aren't fond of cilantro and tried to be sneaky about not eating it. Otherwise, it was ok. A bit messy but good none the less (at least to me anyway).

Ingredients

• 12 (6 inch) Flour Tortillas, cooked into crispy tortillas
• 1-1/2 cups refried beans, prepared
• 1-1/2 pounds ground beef, chuck, raw
• 1/2 packet taco seasoning
  
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons pizza sauce, prepared
• 1-1/2 cups Mexican Cheese Blend, grated, prepared
• 3/4 cup Roma tomato, fresh, small chop
• 2 tablespoons cilantro, fresh, rough chopped
  

To make the Crispy Tortillas: Place all 8 tortillas directly on the oven rack of a 350 degrees F oven and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and reserve on your work surface.

1. Heat the 1 cup of refried beans for 1 minute in the microwave to get hot and reserve for the recipe build.
2. Season the ground beef with salt, pepper and taco seasoning and saute for 8 minutes in a non-stick pan, drain and reserve hot for the recipe build.
3. To build 1 Mexican Pizza: Place 1 crispy tortilla on work surface.
4. Evenly spread tortilla with hot refried beans.
5. Evenly top refried beans with of the cooked ground beef.
6. Top ground beef with second crisp tortilla and evenly spread 1 heaping tablespoon of pizza sauce over the tortilla.
7. Evenly top the pizza sauce with grated Mexican cheese blend and 2 tablespoons chopped tomatoes.
8. Repeat steps 1 through 5 for remaining 3 servings.
9. Place all 4 pizzas, at one time, in 350 degrees F oven on a cookie pan/flat pan, and bake for 2 minutes to melt the cheese. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon chopped cilantro evenly over the top of each pizza. Serve each pizza whole.

*We didn't cook the pizzas after assembled. And if I were to do this again I would not cook the tortillas before hand but warm them through after assembled. They were very messy!!