Couch Potato Pizza

Couch Potato Pizza(makes 3 small pizzas)

At the last dinner date at Kara's she made an amazing pizza crust that I've been dying to try on my own. I finally gave it a shot with this concoction.

In the earlier stages of our relationship my husband (then boyfriend) and we lived in a tiny apartment in Boston. Down the street was a pizza place that made this amazing pizza that we couldn't keep ourselves away from. It was topped with mashed potatoes, bacon and cheddar cheese. Using Kara's great crust, I made a healthier version of this blast from my past. It was truly delicious! You shouldn't have a hard time convincing a toddler to eat this one. I sure didn't.

Ingredients:
Kara's Crust
2 c mashed potatoes
1/2 can (about 2/3 c.) cannellini beans
6 strips of turkey bacon
1 c. shredded mild cheddar cheese
handful of fresh baby spinach (optional)

1. Prepare crust according to Kara's recipe.
2. I recommend making mashed potatoes how you like them since everyone likes them their own way (I did butter, garlic, etc). However, during your 'mashing', throw in the beans and mash those up with the potatoes. I thought this would be an easy way to throw in a little undetected protein. In my case they didn't affect the taste one bit.
3. While your potatoes are cooking fry up the bacon until just under crispy. (They will finish crisping in the oven,) Cut into small pieces.
4. Assemble the pizzas. I decided to sneak in a layer of spinach under the potatoes. Ultimately this was fine but I will say it was hard to spread the potatoes over the spinach which kept sticking to the potatoes and sliding around. If you don't do spinach: spread on the potatoes, top with the bacon chunks and finally top with some cheese.
5. Bake on a cookie sheet in a preheated oven (450 degrees) for about 15 minutes (or until the cheese is melty.) Cut and serve!