Pizza Joes

I'm a big believer in using up leftovers creatively. Who wants to just heat old chicken casserole in the microwave? It's much more fun to re-create leftovers into new meals. I also like to use things up quickly, partly because I'm just picky and a little paranoid that way about food. I rarely place food in the fridge that doesn't already have a purpose laid out in my mind. For dinner recently, I combined leftover cooked ground venison with leftover spaghetti sauce, with leftover pepperoni, with leftover mozzarella cheese, with fresh sandwich buns to make Pizza Joes!

Leftover.

Just wanted to say it one more time.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 lb ground venison, turkey, or beef
1 26 oz. jar spaghetti sauce (or less if you'd like the mixture to be thicker)
32 pepperoni slices
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

8 sandwich buns

In a large skillet, cook onion, garlic and ground meat until no longer pink. Stir in the spaghetti sauce and heat through. Meanwhile, separate sandwich buns, placing the bottom buns on a baking sheet. Spoon 1/2 cup meat mixture onto each bun. Top each with 4 slices of pepperoni and 1/4 cup of mozzarella. Broil for 4-5 minutes until cheese is melted.  Add the top bun and serve!

This recipe, like most of mine, is pretty easy to adapt to your family's tastes. Any of your favorite pizza toppings like green pepper, black olives, mushrooms, would be great in here.