This Healthy Pizza Casserole recipe means you can get your pizza fix in a guilt-free way! It's a lighter version of a pizza casserole that's also WW friendly, but so good, you'd never know it's a healthier version.
This recipe is a popular game day food, making it a great alternative to chili. But it also makes a fun and easy dinner for back to school, movie night, pizza night, or any night! This casserole is also ideal for bringing along to a potluck. My whole family LOVES this casserole and it pairs well with garlic toast or salad.
Jump to:
I love pizza in any form! And you don't have to give up pizza to lose or maintain your weight. I have a bunch of lighter and WW friendly pizza recipes you'll want to try, such as my Healthy Pizza Dippers, Weight Watchers Pizza with 2 ingredient Weight Watchers Pizza Dough, Pizza Cupcakes, Healthy Breakfast Pizza Recipe (Egg White Pizza), and my Healthy Homemade Pita Pizza Pockets!
🥘Ingredients
You'll need the following simple ingredients for this pizza casserole:
- 4 cups egg noodles, smart pasta * I use no yolks broad egg noodles
- 6-7 ounce (¾ cup)- can of olives, pitted and sliced
- 8 oz package of sliced mushrooms
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 ¾ cups red pasta sauce (marinara sauce)
- 10 oz - can of cream of chicken soup (low-fat)
- 1 lb extra lean ground beef
- 1 ½ cups low-fat cheddar cheese
- ¾ cup turkey pepperoni about 5 sticks, chopped
- 2 tbsp low-fat or fat-free parmesan cheese
🔪Instructions
Prep:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C)
Cook noodles as directed. Drain, return to pot, and set aside on a trivet.
Spray a large skillet with non-stick cooking spray.
Cook mushrooms, onion, and pepper over medium heat for 5 minutes (covered)
Add the ground beef.
Cook ground beef until browned.
Add pasta sauce, cream of chicken soup, ¾ cup of cheddar cheese, pepperoni, and most of the black olives (reserving about 1-2 tablespoon for garnish) to the cooked pasta.
Spoon into casserole dish.
Bake until hot, about 35 minutes
Remove from oven and add remaining cheese.
Cook for an additional 5 minutes or until melted.
Garnish with parmesan cheese and remaining black olives. Serve hot.
📖Variations & Substitutions
- Noodles - you can use any type of noodle, such as penne pasta. But to keep it light, you'll want to use smart pasta or whole wheat pasta. Alternatively, you could use zucchini noodles to lighten it up even more.
- Ground Beef - I use extra lean ground beef but you could use regular, lean, or use ground turkey or ground chicken instead
- Pepperoni- I use turkey pepperoni sticks because I can no longer find the turkey pepperoni slices
- Cheese - you could use part-skim mozzarella cheese instead
- Peppers - you can use red, orange, yellow or green pepper.
- Toppings - you could use an Italian turkey sausage (or chicken sausage), Italian seasoning, or any of your favorite pizza toppings
- Spicy - for a little kick of spice add chili pepper flakes or jalapenos
🥗 Side Dishes
Here are some suggestions for what to serve with this recipe for pizza casserole:
- Bread Machine Italian Breadsticks
- Garlic Toast
- Everything Bagel Cloud Bread Recipe
- Mandarin Orange Salad Recipe
- Spinach salad (shown)
🍽Equipment
You will need a cheese grater, a large pot, a large skillet and a 2 quart casserole dish (affiliate links) for this easy pizza casserole recipe.
Or you can simply use a Dutch oven (affiliate links) and boil the noodles in it, then brown the meat and vegetables and bake the whole thing in the oven! You will also need trivets.
👪 Serving Size
This healthy pizza casserole recipe makes 8 servings. However, you can half, double, or triple the recipe by clicking on the blue serving number and selecting the number of servings you'd like. The ingredient quantities will automatically adjust.
🔢WW Points
This original recipe was a recipe that was lightened to be WW friendly, so this is Weight Watchers friendly @ 7 points per serving, using fat-free parmesan. There are 8 servings in this casserole - a serving is about 1 ¼ cups.
You can further lighten this up by using broad whole wheat noodles or zucchini noodles.
🌡️Storage
Store leftover pizza casserole with pasta in an airtight container for up to 4 days. It can also be made ahead for busy weeknights and frozen for up to 3 months in a sealed container (see Top Tip for how to reheat).
💭Top tip
How to reheat pizza casserole:
This method is the best because it prevents the casserole from drying out.
- Simply bring the casserole out of the freezer the night before and let it defrost (preferably in the fridge). Ideally, you want to keep it at room temperature for about 30 minutes to an hour before you put it in the oven.
- Then heat the oven to 350 degrees F/175 degrees C, remove the lid and plastic wrap, then tightly seal your casserole dish with aluminum foil (shiny side in) and put it in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes, until it's warmed through. *you can remove the foil and broil it for the final 2 minutes if you desire.
- You can use an instant-read thermometer (affiliate link) to make sure it's done (165 degrees F/75 degrees C)
🦺Food safety
- Cook ground beef to an internal minimum temperature of 160 °F (71 °C)
- Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
- Wash hands after touching raw meat
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
- Never leave cooking food unattended
See more guidelines at USDA.gov
If you are looking for healthy meals that are delicious and fun, the entire family will love this pizza pasta casserole recipe! And be sure to check out my other casserole recipes.
📋Healthy Pizza Casserole Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 cups broad egg noodles * I use no yolk broad noodles, measured dry
- 8 oz package of sliced mushrooms
- 1 orange bell pepper
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 ¾ cups red pasta sauce
- 10 oz - can of cream of chicken soup * I use low-fat
- 1 lb extra lean ground beef
- 1 ½ cups low- fat cheddar cheese
- ¾ cup turkey pepperonini sticks about 5 sticks, chopped
- ¾ cup can of olives, pitted and sliced
- 2 tablespoon low-fat parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C)
- Cook noodles as directed. rinse and drain
- Spray a skillet with non-stick cooking spray. Cook mushrooms, onion and pepper over medium heat (with a lid) for 5 minutes.
- Add the ground beef to the skillet.
- Cook until browned.
- Add pasta sauce, cream of chicken soup, ¾ cup of cheddar cheese, black olives (reserve a few for garnishing) and noodles. Mix well.
- Spoon into baking dish. Bake until hot, about 35 minutes.
- Top with remaining cheddar cheese, then bake 5 minutes longer
Garnish
- Garnish with parmesan cheese and remaining black olives. Serve hot.
Susanne
Easy recipe to follow and make.....delicious result!
Terri Gilson
I'm so glad you found it easy to make and loved it, Susanne!