Pizza Cups

I took my first foods class when I was in middle school, and there is one recipe that I learned in that class that I remember and still make to this day.....pizza cups (it's a little hard to tell from the picture above, but these are little deep dish pizzas baked in a muffin pan)!  After learning to make these, I would always volunteer to make dinner for my family, and eventually they all got super sick of me making pizza cups every single time :)  Regardless, I love these little pizza cups and still make them about once a month on a weekday because they only have a few ingredients and always taste great (I also bet kids would love them)!  The recipe below makes 8 pizza cups (muffin sized) which feeds 2 hungry adults, but a lot of times I'll make a double batch so that I can use a whole pound of ground beef and have leftovers for lunches.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound ground beef
1 cup tomato sauce (we usually use store bought unless I have some leftover sauce in the freezer)
1/2 cup yellow or white onion, diced (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional)
1 can refrigerated biscuits - 8 biscuits (we usually use the pillsbury buttermilk biscuits)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
salt, pepper, and italian seasoning, to taste
pam or olive oil to grease the muffin pan

Directions:

1.  In a large skillet, add ground beef, onions, and garlic.  Heat over medium heat until beef is browned through and onions are softened.  Remove from heat, and drain excess grease.  Stir tomato sauce into the beef mixture and season with salt, pepper, and italian seasoning to taste.

2.  Meanwhile, take each refrigerated biscuit, and flatten with your hands and stretch out a bit.  Press each biscuit on the bottom and up the sides of a greased muffin tin (so the biscuit will form a little cup and come all the way up the side of the tin).

3.  Put a pinch of cheese in each biscuit cup.  Then spoon the beef and tomato sauce mixture to fill each cup.  Sprinkle the top with more shredded cheese.

4.  Bake at 350 degrees until biscuit cup edges are golden and cheese is melted (this usually takes me between 18-22 minutes).  If you love pepper like I do, put a little fresh cracked pepper on top of the pizza cups.  Let pizza cups cool for a few minutes and serve.