Pizza Rolls

Recipe source: sisterscafe.blogspot.com

Another kid-friendly recipe comin' at ya.  All of these recipes have been kid-friendly, but I've loved them, too!  This one is especially good, because it is so flexible.  You can change it up really easily according to your own tastes.

For the kiddos, I used pepperoni and cheese in the rolls.  For mine I did half with turkey pepperoni, ham, olives, and cheese, and half with low-fat cream cheese, shredded chicken (you could use any chicken), artichokes, and cheese.  They were SO good!  I think it would be yummy to do pineapple and ham or maybe barbecue chicken.  Maybe next time!  Also, the recipe says to use a homemade pizza dough (I used this one.), but you could use a thawed loaf of Rhodes dough, too. I love Rhodes!!

My favorite tip for rolling out dough like this is to lightly grease your countertop and rolling pin with crisco.  This makes the dough stick a little and makes it much easier to roll the dough out without it shrinking back on you.  I just stick my hand in a small ziploc and use that as a "glove" to grease with.  Works great!

You can go here to see pictures of the process and of the finished product.  With this recipe, I think it helps to have a visual. :-)  Someday, I would really love to have a good camera and a good lesson on photography.



pizza dough
mozzarella cheese, shredded or cubed
pepperoni, cut into fourths (I used the mini-pepperonis.)
Whatever toppings you'd like to stuff your rolls with!

Roll pizza dough out into a large rectangle. Using a pizza cutter, cut into 12 pieces. (One time I made this, I got 12 out of the dough.  Another time, I got 16.)  Layer the toppings in the center of each square of dough; about 2-3 Tb total of toppings on each. Now stretch and fold the dough around the toppings, pinching to seal edges. This is the tricky part - the more toppings you use, the harder it gets to tuck them all within the dough! (fyi: pepperoni and cheese or ham and pineapple are much easier, as you can imagine.) Now place seam side down in a lightly greased casserole dish or glass baking dish. Brush with melted butter (I used spray butter) and sprinkle with garlic salt. (I used Lawry's garlic salt with parsley.) Bake in a 400 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until rolls are light brown. Serve with your favorite marinara sauce for dipping.

Choc.Chip Pancake Bites

Recipe Source: bakerella on thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen

Here's another kid-friendly recipe that I tried in the absence of dad.  The first time I tried these didn't actually go very well.  I KNEW I had a bag of mini-chocolate chips, so I didn't add them to my grocery list.  Mysteriously, I could not find the bag anywhere when I began making these on the appointed night.  Frustrating!  What I did have was a bag of mini m&ms.  So I tried those....bad idea!!  Once I stirred them into the batter, the colors all bled together, and the batter turned a muddy swirl color.  Then while baking, the m&ms all sunk to the bottom and stayed in the bottom of the pan when I took the pancake bites out.  So, DON'T follow my bad example and be sure to use mini chocolate chips for this recipe!  The original recipe calls for regular milk chocolate chips, so those would work, too.

These were a big hit at our house. (More so the second time around.)  The recipe says to use maple syrup for dipping, but we loved ours dipped in strawberry yogurt.  The strawberry and chocolate go really well together!  The first time around we had these with strawberry yogurt fruit salad.  The second time we had them with peanut butter maple granola over vanilla yogurt and bananas.  (I'll share the granola recipe soon.  It is SO good!!)


1 cup Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Baking Soda
¼ teaspoons Salt
2 Tablespoons Sugar
⅔ cups Buttermilk (You can make your own buttermilk by putting 2 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice in a measuring cup. Add enough skim milk to make 2/3 cup. Let sit for 5 minutes.)
1 whole Egg
2 Tablespoons Pure Maple Syrup (I bet you could substitute pancake syrup, but I haven't tried it.)
2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
½ cups Mini Chocolate Chips
More Maple Syrup or Strawberry yogurt For Dipping

 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


Generously grease a 24 cup mini muffin pan with nonstick spray.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk. In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the top of muffins before placing in the oven.

Bake for 8-9 minutes.

Let cool slightly and remove from the pan. You may need to use a toothpick around the edges to separate the pancake muffins from the pan.

Serve immediately with more warmed butter if you like and/or a small bowl of maple syrup for dipping.

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

Recipe source:  cassiecraves.blogspot.com

Russell has been super busy getting ready for his exam coming up in June, so he hasn't been able to make it home for dinner lately.  Usually when he eats with us, I love trying new recipes and some oldies and favorites.  Sometimes that means the kids don't care for what we're eating.  Sometimes they are hungry enough to try what we are having and are so surprised when they actually like it!  Since Russell isn't around for dinnertime right now, I have been trying some new kid-friendly recipes out on the kiddos.  Tonight we tried these pepperoni pizza puffs.  They are basically mini pizza muffins.  I don't know about your kids, but mine love to dip things, so they liked having these to dip in pizza sauce.  They turned out really yummy, everybody ate, and everyone was happy. :-) 

Of course, you can mix in whatever pizza toppings your family prefers, but we were safe and stuck with pepperoni.  I doubled the recipe and did one tray with those cute little baby pepperonis and one tray with chopped turkey pepperoni to be calorie-conscious.  Both were delicious.  Pair these cute muffins with whatever fruits and veggies you can get your kids to eat, and you've got a great kid meal.  My kids love fruit salad.  TOTALLY EASY and delicious.  Chop one apple, one banana, and 5-6 strawberries and mix with
1/2-1 cup of strawberry yogurt.  YUMMY.


3/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon pizza seasoning
3/4 cup whole milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (or whatever you've got. I used a monterey jack/colby blend.)
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup mini pepperoni rounds (or 1 cup cubed pepperoni)
1/2 cup store-bought pizza sauce (I used a jar of spaghetti sauce.)

 
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and pizza seasoning; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella, parmesan and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.


2. Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping.