Stuffed Pizza Bites

Wow I can't believe it's September, my favorite month! We apologize for not posting recently, we both were trying to enjoy the last few days of summer while being busy with other things. John and I celebrated our 3rd Wedding Anniversary yesterday by going to the Yankee Game. Owen is almost 6 months old so I don't have as much time on my hands now that he's trying to crawl, sit up and play with everything by putting it in his mouth! I also started to make homemade baby food for him so if anyone is interested maybe I'll post about that later on this month. My mom was busy helping my youngest sister get ready to start her last year of college down at Loyola. And to top it all off my 3rd sister Kelly is pregnant with her 1st baby and today we get to find out what the sex is which is super exciting for our whole family!!

I saw this recipe on an episode of The Chew about three weeks ago. We like most families always have pizza dough, marinara sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese in the fridge. But after watching The Chew that afternoon I decided to give these a try instead of traditional pizza. They are prefect for an after school snack, lunch with a salad or served as an appetizer for an upcoming football game. Be sure to serve them with a side of marinara sauce for dipping. The other great thing about these stuffed pizza bites is you can fill them with whatever your favorite pizza topping is or whatever you already have in the house.

Ingredients:

1 package of pizza dough
1/4 Cup Flour

1/2 lb Italian Sausage

1 Head of spinach

1 1/2 Cup Shredded Mozzarella

1 Small Onion - Diced
2 Garlic Cloves - Minced
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese
2 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
S&P
1 Cup of Marinara Sauce for Dipping

Start by preheating your oven to 425 F. On a lightly floured surface roll out the pizza dough until it's about a 1/4 in thick. Using a large biscuit cutter or the bottom of a glass cut the pizza dough into rounds. Ball up the dough, roll it out and continue to make pizza dough rounds until all the dough has been used.

Depending on what you want to put in your stuffed pizza dough bites depends on how much prep work you'll need to do. We stuffed ours with spinach, onion, garlic and Italian sausage but you can put anything in them you'd like. I broke up and browned the sausage, letting it sit on paper towel to soak up some of the grease and then sauteed the onion, garlic and spinach in a little bit of olive oil with some salt and pepper.

In a large bowl combine your pizza toppings with the shredded cheese and mix it all around till its completely combined.

Grab your pizza dough rounds and place a heaping Tbsp of your toppings in the middle of the dough. Pull the dough around the toppings and seal the dough together using your fingers. Do the same for each pizza bite.

Grease a large pan or a cast iron skillet with a little bit of olive oil before placing your pizza bites seam side down in the pan. They will obviously expand a bit when they bake but you can put them right next to each other making concentric circles.

Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning on top of the stuffed pizza bites. Bake in the over for about 25-30 minutes, they will begin to become golden brown on top. If you want you can place them under the broiler for a minute to further brown the cheese. Let them cool about 5 minutes and then serve them with Marinara sauce for dipping. 

Quick side note for you - the left overs are just as tasty cold as they are warm just like regular pizza ;)

Enjoy!!

Linked at: http://apeekintomyparadise.blogspot.com/, http://www.notyourordinaryrecipes.com, http://www.thecountrycook.net, http://www.foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com/, http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/, http://www.whatscookingwithruthie.com, http://www.flourmewithlove.com/, http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com, http://iamaddictedtorecipes.blogspot.ca, http://insidebrucrewlife.com/, http://www.mandysrecipebox.blogspot.com/, http://www.chef-in-training.com/, http://www.nap-timecreations.com/, http://www.hungrylittlegirl.com, http://www.ducksnarow.com, http://www.momstestkitchen.com/, http://thenymelrosefamily.com/, http://www.ladybehindthecurtain.com/, http://www.bunsinmyoven.com/, http://www.housewivesofriverton.com/, http://www.lifewiththecrustcutoff.com/, http://www.mandatorymooch.blogspot.com/, http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/, http://www.mizhelenscountrycottage.blogspot.com/, http://www.posedperfection.com/, http://happyandblessedhome.com/, http://whoneedsacape.com/, http://www.thejennyevolution.com/