Paleo slow cooker clean-out-the-fridge pizza bake

My friend Rachel recently suggested I try this recipe from PaleOMG, but I didn’t want to turn on my oven, and I didn’t want to buy pizza sauce. Slow cooker and spice cabinet to the rescue! 

Paleo slow cooker clean-out-the-fridge pizza bake

1 spaghetti squash
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced no-salt tomatoes
2 tbsp. tomato paste
4 cups of your favorite pizza toppings (or stuff that you need to clean out of the fridge!)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. basil
3/4 tsp. oregano
3 dashes thyme
7-8 dashes garlic powder
2 eggs (optional)
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Cut the spaghetti squash in half, scoop out the seeds, add a couple tablespoons of water to each half and cook in the microwave for 10 minutes. While that’s going, cut up about 4 cups of your favorite pizza toppings. (The amount doesn’t matter that much. Just throw it all in!) The day I made this, I needed to clean out my veggie drawer, so I added 1 yellow bell pepper, 2 yellow onions, broccoli and mushrooms. Oh, and we had 3 cooked ground beef patties from dinner the night before, so I cut those up and threw them in as well!

Put all the pizza toppings in a bowl and add the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, spices and 2 eggs. (The eggs help make the dish more “cake-y”, so that you can cut it up easily and serve it in pieces similar to a casserole. But you don’t really need the eggs.) Mix it all up. When spaghetti squash is done, use a fork to flake it into the slow cooker. Add pizza toppings mixture to the slow cooker as well, and mix it all up. Cook on low in the slow cooker for 4 hours.

Divine.

Aaaand if you want, you can add parmesan cheese on the top during the last hour of cooking. (Yes, I know this isn’t true Paleo, but someone has to make sure the kids and husband will eat it. Plus, who could say no to that delicious hot, salty, melted parmesan on top?!? Answer: not me.)

The cool thing is this has all the great Italian flavors of homemade pizza, without all the crap. Well done, Mama.