Friday, January 29, 2010

Pizza Muffin Bites


This Freezer Friday I am coming to you live from the plate of a full happy-happy-joy-joy. This is one meal my sons jump up and down for when it's time for lunch. Really. Whenever I make pizza muffin bites, I might as well dawn a gleaming crown of glory for the "dance of joy" my kids do around the Queen. It's like the good witch in Munchkin Land. La la la la la la la la la la. It's almost embarrassing to admit that I like it. I do. I like it when my kids kiss my shoes and mutter through lips of dumbstruck awe, " we're not worthy"...perhaps I'm taking it a bit far. Maybe they don't mutter anything. Come to think of it...my kids may be a little too loud to mutter. In my delusional mind, they do. They worship the quicksand I walk on. Poor dears. Their wives will either hate me, or praise me forever for raising little chefs. Is it wrong that I don't really care at this point what the future DIL's think? Probably...it's probably also very sick and wrong that I made this freezer meal from white flour. I was caught up in the bliss of the homemade perfect freezer dinner rolls with String Cheese...and we just morphed a few into this little blob of love. Mmmm. Pizza.

In case you missed Wednesday's post on dinner rolls, it may be well worth your time to at least pretend to read it. I think it has a very wonderful recipe for dinner rolls that are one hundred percent freezer perfect.
(http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/2010/01/perfect-freezer-friendly-dinner-rolls.html) Perfect Freezer Friendly Dinner Rolls

The dough can be made into 24 dinner rolls...or 24 of these little love muffins.


The secret is just mashing the dough into a lightly oiled muffin pan (after you make the 24 balls of dough). One ball of dough to a single muffin slot...in a standard muffin pan. Now I'm not saying you have to use my dough recipe to do this, I'm just saying I like the flavor the best. I wouldn't be surprised if someone saw this and decided to use the tubes of biscuit dough to make these...but I'm not going to vouch for the flavor.
Push the dough up the sides a little like this, so the sauce has a place to go.

I have been know to put 2T of cooked wheat or sometimes even...meat in the bottom of the dough cup. Depending on who I'm feeding. My darling kiddos don't know the difference yet and I'm not telling them. I've also been known to make the dough from whole wheat. They don't seem to mind that much either. Both ways they like the flavor, as long as I call it pizza.

Plain old regular spaghetti sauce. 1Tablespoon scooped right into the middle of the dough. You can use homemade or canned as long as your family likes the flavor. My kids like olives. Put a couple of tablespoons of toppings your kids like in there with the sauce. Again, make it something your family will eat. My kids also eat whole cloves of roasted garlic...but it's taken me years of careful training to ensure they will eat almost anything healthy. Nutritionist say it takes 15 exposures to a new food before kids will like it...so don't give up. Just keep giving them options. You will finally find a way they will eat it. They eat olives. Did I say that? The first time Little Man had olives on pizza we where visiting a friend's house. He was 2. He came walking into the room I was in, black teeth and mouth full of emaciated olive. All he could say was, "bugs mama..."Come to find out, it was actually not an olive, but a beetle. Eeewww! However, he to this day, adores olives. Probably because, again, he is a boy. Had I a girl...I doubt we'd ever have an olive in the house again.

Top each muffin with 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese and a dash of seasoning (optional). We like sprinkling garlic powder or Italian seasoning on top of the cheese. I preheat the oven to 425 degrees. These are one of those freezer meals I pre-bake. Why? Well...they do make such a handy ready to eat lunch straight from the freezer to the broiler or microwave. It seems a shame to not bake them right away. Bake 15-20 minutes.


Two of these are the perfect little lunch addition for my kids. I may have had a few of them myself. Be sure to scrape the pizza muffins around the edges of the muffin cup with a knife after baking.

There you go.

8 comments:

Dori said...

And you've done it again...posted something so amazing and simple that I can't believe I haven't thought of it before! Off to make a batch of these right now (not that I won't give your dough recipe a go at some point, but I keep batches of dough in the 'fridge--my own take on "bread in 5 minutes a day")

Erica Miles said...

Now this I could do and love. Great one, Steph. Can't wait to be able to afford cheese again. :)

Chef Tess said...

Dori, isn't it funny how sometimes the simplest ideas are right under our noses?! Honestly any dough will work here.
Erica, totally going to make cheese this week just for you. I'm thinking homemade cheddar and homemade mozzarella. What do you think?

J. P. said...

these never make it to the freezer in our house. 24 of them lasts about 3 days by the time Gabe has had 2 for lunch and a 3rd for after school snack, and JP has had 2 or 3 throughout the day and takes 2 more for his dinner. --- Lisa

Dori said...

Wowie! Thanks, Stephanie! They were a hit! Kept it simple for my wee little picky eaters...sauce and cheese. The oldest is thrilled with the idea of being able to take pizza to school for lunch! Whenever we dig ourselves out from under this blizzard and they have school again...

Coby said...

I will definately be making these this week! I have tried to make homemade hotpockets, but my filling never stays in. I always have a blow out! These will eliminate that problem. My hubby will be so excited! What a great superbowl food too.

cribs said...

Wow! This really looks so perfect! I love it! I can't wait to try this one at home.

Jennifer said...

So this may be a dumb question, but how do I freeze and reheat these? Can I put a batch in a freezer bag? How long would I reheat them in the oven?