Are you looking for a super fancy menu plan that you can use next time you have super important people over for dinner? Fantastic! I suggest you look here, here, and here. Are you looking for a quick dinner you can make ahead of time that your minis will actually eat? Keep reading.
I want to first say, I realize this is not the healthiest dinner you can feed your minis. I get lots of emails each day and my favorites are the ones that say, "Heids McGhee, that recipe you posted is deplorable. How dare you recommend that recipe to your readers? How can you call yourself a nutrition blogger when you are blogging about trash"
Well, sheesh. The reality of my life is every single meal I serve my family isn't perfect. And, this meal is one of those imperfect recipes. It's not super healthy, but I am desperate this week. And we all know that with desperation comes a lowering of standards. So, this is me lowering my standards. I found a recipe for pizza puffs a while back. I love this concept and have plans to rework the recipe to "healthify" it. But, for now, I prepared it pretty much as written.
Sausage & Pepperoni Pizza Puffs
- 3/4 cup flour (I used King Arthur White Whole Wheat)
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 3/4 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
- '\4 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1 cup)
- 2 oz mini turkey pepperoni, (about 1/2 cup)
- 4 oz low-fat sausage, cooked and crumbled (I left this out and added green and black olives instead)
- 1/2 cup pizza sauce (I had frozen bags in the freezer)
2. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, garlic powder and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella, sausage and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.
4. Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping.
I served my pizza puffs with crispy edamame and fruit salad.
Crispy Edamame
- 1 (12 ounce) package frozen shelled edamame (green soybeans)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
- Bake in the preheated oven until the cheese is crispy and golden, about 15 minutes.
Don't make the mistake I did and buy edamame in the shell. You will have to defrost the edamame and de-shell them.
As you can imagine, that is a very tedious process.
My minis love edamame. When I put this edamame on the table, they asked, "why did you make fancy edamame?" I discovered tonight, my picky minis don't like fancy edamame.
For dessert, we had frozen chocolate bananas. Slice bananas. Freeze slices. Dip frozen bananas in dark chocolate. Sprinkle with toppings (I used walnuts on some, sea salt on others).
Dinner tonight was not delish. It was sufficient. Some nights, sufficient is success.
