Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

Posted on April 3, 2014 
Filed Under Snacks

I hope this post will make sense. Right now, my computer screen is split, with me writing this post on half of it and my 3-yr-old Megan watching Dora on the other half (currently, Dora is singing a song about Winter turning to Spring and as she’s singing, all the snow around her is melting and the grass is greening up and flowers are starting to bloom… I wish finding Spring in real life would be that easy, sing a song and there it is, especially this year). Anyway, I’ll try not to accidentally drop little Spanish phrases here and there as I’m writing this.

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs. I discovered this recipe a couple years ago on Lick the Bowl Good and have made it SO many times! You can go from walking into the kitchen to serving in 30 minutes. They are great for snacks or lunches. They freeze well too… which means you can go from walking into the kitchen to serving in 5 minutes instead of 30!

I have been asked for the recipe multiple times after serving them. In fact, one time someone who had never had them asked for it. I was cleaning school with a group when I got a phone call from someone calling to get this recipe. I make it so often that I know it by heart, so I gave it over the phone while wiping down a desk. When I got off of the phone, one of the other cleaners said “I was listening and that recipe sounds good and easy. Could you write it down for me?”

I don’t make them exactly like Monica does on Lick the Bowl Good, but very close. I’ll post them here how I make them, which is basically with a little less kick because my kids prefer them that way.

Hmmm, looks like I need to take a better picture next time I make them.

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs …adapted from Lick the Bowl Good

3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup whole milk (I like to use whole, but it works great with any milk)
1 egg
1 heaping cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup chopped pepperoni (if I don’t have pepperoni on hand, I skip it. They love em without it too. Tiffany actually prefers them without it, so sometimes when I’m making them with pepperoni, I fill a few muffin cups for her before adding the pepperoni to the batter)
Pizza sauce for dipping

Whisk everything together, except the cheese and pepperoni. Then, stir them in. Divide the batter evenly between 24 greased mini muffin cups. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Warm the pizza sauce in the microwave and serve with the puffs for dipping.

I tried these one time in regular muffin cups instead of mini… aaaaaaaaand then went back to always making them mini. They seemed to not be quite as fluffy, and well, they lost some of their charm by being big.

I just heard something on Megan’s movie that was said in an annoying voice and I copied it in an exaggeratedly annoying voice and she said, “Mom, stop. You’re embarrassing me!”

If you pack lunches for your school kids, here’s an idea for you with these pizza puffs. Make a bunch of them, buy little 6″ paper plates and small condiment cups with lids. Package them in a sandwich bag like this and stack them in the freezer.

It’s so handy to whip them out and throw them into lunch boxes. If the kids have access to a microwave at school, they can take the lid off of the pizza sauce, and microwave the plateful for 30 seconds.

I hope you like these as much as we do! Have a good day.

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This is a perfect summer snack. It’s easy to throw together and it’s cool. Perfect summer snack, as in, if you’re going to make it, summer would be the perfect time to do it. Not everything about the snack is perfect…. the taste and flavor combo is just amazing, BUT the. kids. had. sticky. e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. I mean, when you’re talking melted caramels and marshmallows, it’s pretty much a given that it’s gonna be sticky.

And it’s also pretty much a given that it’s gonna be yummy.

So, consider the ’sticky’ a warning and the ‘yummy’ a recommendation, and then you decide from there. Maybe the time to serve it would be while the kids are out running thro’ the sprinkler or on the Slip ‘n Slide… think all mess outside and then getting washed off. Now we’re talkin’!

The main thing is that we all kept coming back for more, and they are SO good… which is why I’m posting them and will definitely make them again!

Apple Nachos …recipe taken from Taste of Home Oct/Nov 2010 magazine (and going by the picture they have with it, they only put on about an 1/8 of the topping quantities and their apples aren’t peeled)

36 caramels
1 Tbsp. water

30 large mashmallows
1/3 cup butter, cubed

4 medium tart apples, peeled and cut into 1/4″ slices
1/3 cup chopped dry roasted peanuts
1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
3 Tbsp. Halloween sprinkles (I skipped this)

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt caramels with water; stir until smooth. You could probably use caramel ice cream topping, but I think melted caramels would taste way better.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, melt marshmallows and butter. I think next time I’ll do these in the microwave too… I do it in the microwave when I make rice crispy treats, so why not for this? I also want to try just putting a a jar of marshmallow creme in the microwave and see if it melts and becomes pourable.

Arrange apple slices on a large platter.

Drizzle with caramel. Love that phrase, the word ’drizzle’ bumps it up a level. “Put the caramel on” just wouldn’t have the same ring to it.

Top with marshmallow mixture.

Sprinkle with peanuts, chocolate chips, and sprinkles.

Serve immediately. Not kidding about serve immediately… we didn’t eat the entire thing and a couple hours later, it was kind of milky and liquidy between the apples and caramel and the marshmallow stuff firmed up. It was fine, just not as easy to eat because huge chunks of toppings wanted to come along with each bite. Still tasted great, though!

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Posted on September 2, 2009
Filed Under Snacks

Well, it’s that time of the year again. School has started, or is starting soon (unless you’re in Peru, where I just found out that ‘summer vacation’ is in the winter).

The kids come home from school,

…and they are STARVING!!!!! Or so they think.

I remember that when I was a schoolgirl too. I NEEDED a snack. I was starving. We lived 1/2 mile from school and half of that distance was our 1/4 mile long lane. We’d often walk to school and sometimes Mom would put the snack on a platter and walk out to meet us, disperse the snacks, and we’d all walk together to the house, munching away. Good memories. My favorite snack of all is when she’d mix peanuts, chocolate chips, and marshmallows and put them in little cups.

Renita was telling me about an after school snack that she makes sometimes for her boys. So, yesterday I stole her idea and made it too. Here it is.

Biscuit Donuts

1 can refrigerated biscuits
Oil or shortening for frying
Powdered sugar

I put about a cup of shortning in a small pan and heated it to about 375 degrees. Take each biscuit and make a hole in the middle with something round.

If you use the Grands biscuits with flaky layers, split them in half (where 2 of the layers meet)… makes so they aren’t doughy in the middle when the outside is done. And it also makes twice as many donuts that way. ???? Is donuts spelled ‘donuts’ or ‘doughnuts’? I’ve seen it both ways, not sure what the difference is except that one way is shorter, so I’ll stick with that one. Fry the donuts in oil for 45 seconds – 1 minute per side.

Drain on paper towel.

Coat with powdered sugar.

Easy.
Yummy.
Only 3 ingredients.

Other after school snack ideas:
— Apples with peanut butter
— Cookies and milk
— Their leftover lunch ????
— Nachos with salsa (serving of tortilla chips spread out on plate and sprinkled with shredded cheese and microwaved for about 20 seconds to melt the cheese)
— Fruit
— Pudding
— Graham crackers with milk
— Reeses Puffs ????
— Popsicles
— Salties (chips, pretzels, Cheetos, party mix, etc.)

That’s all that came to my mind right now. What do you give your kids for an after school snack? Or do you say, “Go look in the kitchen, see what you can find.”? Today, I was in the middle of doing laundry, so I said that and they found goldfish crackers and drank chocolate milk.

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Posted on August 21, 2009
Filed Under Snacks

I just realized I don’t have an ‘Appetizers’ category on here! What’s up with that?! Shows how often I serve an appetizer before a meal. Actually, I think I did it only one time so far this year. It was a couple Sundays ago. I called everyone to the table and set the appetizer down for them to eat while I dished up the meal. The appetizer was…
these Stuffed Mushrooms. ????

I love stuffed mushrooms, but have never made them before. Seems like every time I see a recipe, they always have crabmeat or are tomato-y or something. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not my favorite kind.

Then, one day, as I was browsing Tasty Kitchen, I found a cheesy, cream cheesy, bacon bits recipe. Perfect! Here it is.

Stuffed Mushroom Caps

25 whole mushrooms
½ of a small sweet onion
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
½ of a bell pepper
5 Tbsp. grated parmesan
1 tsp. fresh or dried sage
4 oz. cream cheese
3 Tbsp. seasoned bread crumbs (I used cracker crumbs with some Italian seasoning mixed in)
2 Tbsp. shredded mozzarella
¾ cup hamburger or sausage or bacon (I used bacon)

Clean and stem the mushrooms. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a foiled cookie sheet.

Dice the bell pepper, mushroom stems and onion and toss in a food processor with the garlic and sage. Process until all is mixed together well and remove. Heat a pan or skillet with a little bit of olive oil and cook the meat (of your choice) with the bell pepper and onion and garlic mix. When the meat is browned, remove and pour into a mixing bowl. To the bowl with the meat mixture, add three tablespoons of the parmesan, the mozzarella, and cream cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. With a melon scooper, fill each mushroom cap with the mix.

Mix the remaining parmesan and bread crumbs and sprinkle on top of stuffed mushrooms.

Drizzle a little olive oil on each one and bake for 15 minutes in the oven.

Mmmmm! These were rated ‘Definitely make again’. I was afraid they’d be too garlicky because I could smell the garlic while they were baking. But… they weren’t.

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Posted on June 23, 2008
Filed Under Snacks

Back again. I survived the week of the 4-yr-olds. There were 7 of them… you know the McCaugheys that had septuplets around 10 years ago? Now I know a little bit of what the mom was going through when they were 4. Only, she couldn’t send them home mid-afternoon and then go home herself and take a nap.

The week actually went good though. The first day, they were all low-key, then they got progressively roudier each day as they learned the ropes a little better and we got used to each other. By the end of the week, there were more sommer-saults going on and more ‘falling’ off the bench during assembly and bringing an inchworm to class. Do you want proof of an inchworm in class? Here you go:

It’s the light green thing on the leaf. It was Sammie’s worm and she’d rip up little leaves for it to eat. That’s what she’s doing on the picture.   ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Teaching these little people was definitely more like being a mom than a teacher. For example, at lunchtime: “Can you open my juice/yogurt/pudding/lid for me?” “I don’t like this green stuff on my sandwich (lettuce). Can you get it off?” “I spilled my chocolate milk on my dress.” “Do you have a napkin? Look at my hands.” “I’m gonna go play now” as the lunch bag is thrown down beside me and on and on.

We had snacktime every afternoon… cookies, finger jello, rice crispy treats, pretzels, fish crackers, chocolate milk, juice, iced tea, etc. So, in honor of this post, I’m posting a rice crispy treats recipe. It’s nothing special, just the usual, probably what you’d get off of the rice crispy box.

Rice Crispy Treats

Printable recipe

1/4 cup butter
10 oz bag of marshmallows
5 1/2 cups rice crispy cereal

Melt the butter and marshmallows in the microwave.

Stir cereal in.

Press into a greased 9×13 pan. I spray cooking spray on a sandwich bag and put my hand inside to press the mixture into the pan.

Let sit for awhile till it cools and firms up. Cut into squares. If you’re making squares for 4-yr-olds, take extra time to cut the squares as evenly-sized as possible… this cuts down on the “Hey! She got the biggest piece!” and pawing through them, touching every piece, looking for the biggest one.

Serve with pretzels and chocolate milk.

Comments

Dreamy Fruit Dip   …from the 2004 Quick Cooking annual cookbook

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, sftened
1/2 cup marshmallow creme
1 carton (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed
Assorted fresh fruit

In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in marshmallow creme. This works too…
…I don’t usually have marshmallow creme on hand, so one time I put marshmallows in the microwave, then got them out when they puffed up, scraped them into the mixing bowl, and they beat in nicely. Just be sure to beat them in before they cool. Fold in whipped topping. Serve with fruit. Store in refrigerator. Yield: about 4 cups.
  One thing I tried this last time that I made it was to put some of it in the freezer. It worked wonderfully! When I was ready to use it, I put it in the fridge the night before to thaw, then served it for lunch the next day. It was as good and creamy as it was when it was freshly made.

I saw layered finger jello on misssteph101’s site awhile ago, so I asked her for the recipe. We have our school program/picnic today, and I made it for that. It’s fun and easy and very pretty! Thanks Steph!

Layered Finger Jello

Printable recipe

For each colored layer:
1 3 oz pkg of jello
1 pack (or Tbsp) unflavored gelatin
1 cup boiling water

For the white layer:
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
4 packs (or 4 Tbsp) unflavored gelatin
2 cups boiling water

Mix each layer separately in containers. Let stand till room temperature, stirring occasionally.

Put 1st color in. Put in fridge until firm.
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Put a third of the white layer in next. Refrigerate until firm.
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Repeat layers until done.
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When all mixtures are at room temp, it takes about 7 minutes till it’s firm enough to put the next layer on. As you can see below, I didn’t let the green get quite hard enough before putting the white on, or the white was still too warm, or both.
Mix and match and have fun!

Diabetic?… To make a sugar-free version, use sugar-free jello for the colored layers. For the white layer, use evaporated milk and 6 packets (or however sweet you want it) of Equal or other sweetener instead of the sweetened condensed milk.

This jello can be so fun! Use it for any occassion…

 Valentine’s Day: red and white. You can even cut it out with a heart-shaped cookie cutter.

Christmas…red and green (and white). ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

–St. Patrick’s Day… green and white.
–4th of July… red, white, and blue.
–Easter or Spring… pastels (4 colors of jello, and instead of having a white layer, mix 1/4 of the white part with each color, making them a more pastel color).
–School colors… if your school has colors.
–Or to make it more colorful, you can make 2 pans and make sure that the top and bottom colors are all different, then have some flipped over so all 4 colors show. Like this:

Comments

Here is the perfect snack. We make it alot! And we have also made it for company. It’s a knock-off of an appetizer we had at a restaurant. We call it…

Nachos

Turn the oven to 400.
No measuring here… Cover a plate with tortilla chips (not more than 1 or 2 chips thick).

  Then cover the chips with a layer of cheese (we use pizza cheese or mozzarella cheese).
  Repeat the layers.

Whether the oven is preheated or not, put the nachos in the oven. Leave in till cheese is melted to your liking. This is how it looks after about 7 minutes.

And this is how it looks after about 10 minutes.
Serve with salsa and sour cream.

Sometimes we do these variations: Add sliced jalapeno peppers on top. Sprinkle crushed red pepper on top.

If you’re doing it for a group , use a cookie sheet instead of a plate. Also, we have Corelle plates, but we don’t use them in the oven. Our Coke plates are about twice as thick and it was an experiment the first time to see if it would break or melt but it works fine… why don’t we just use a small baking sheet? I don’t know.

I have a meat and potatoes meal done, pictured, and ready for posting, so you can expect that later this week.

And, as usual, thanks so much for your encouraging, fun, helpful, humorous, and interesting comments! You guys are great!!!

Posted on November 26, 2006
Filed Under Snacks

That describes this new recipe. It comes from a ’95 Taste of Home magazine. My mom-in-law planned dinner and supper for T-giving Day, then assigned us to bring stuff. This Hot Pizza Dip was one of my things to bring for supper. She had never tried it before, but thought it looked good. And it was!!!!! It’s so easy to make too. I don’t have progressive pictures because I was hurriedly putting it together because people were already in the kitchen snacking and it still had to bake for 20 min.   Then, while it was baking, I thought, ‘Hey, that’s a new recipe’. So the only picture is after I took it out of the oven.

  Hot Pizza Dip

1 package (8 oz. ) cream cheese softened

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

2 cups (8 oz. ) shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup ( 4 oz. ) shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup pizza sauce

1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped sweet red pepper

Tortilla chips or bread sticks

In a bowl, combine cream cheese, italian seasoning and garlic powder;

spread on the bottom of a greased 9-in. pie plate. This was easier AFTER I greased my spatula. Otherwise, it sticks to the cheese mixture.

Combine cheeses; sprinke half over the cream cheese layer.

Top with the pizza sauce and peppers. Sprinkle with the remaining cheeses. I saved some peppers to sprinkle on top, just for looks.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Serve warm with tortilla chips or breadsticks. We used tortilla chips.

Yield:  about 3 1/2 cups.

The “hot” in the title means because it was in the oven… it has no ‘zip’ to it. When (yeah, when ) I make it again, I’m going to try adding some chopped pepperoni, jalepenos, or crushed red pepper seasoning to it. When we were talking about making supper, there were some groans and comments about still being full from the main meal. But, it still got licked clean and raved about anyway! Just delicious! Definitely going in my not-so-blank-anymore cookbook!

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