Cheese Crust Pizza Bites

While making my sausage balls using my small muffin tins I found myself short in filling up the full 24 tins so I decided to make what I'm calling my Cheese Crust Pizza Bites.  I simply filled each empty tin with shredded cheese and topped it with a slice of pepperoni allowing it to bake along with my sausage balls.  (375 degrees for 12-14 minutes).  They came out perfect and make yet another game day snack.  You can serve them as is along with salsa, pizza sauce and even sour cream.  Change the flavors by using cooked chicken, sausage, bacon, ground beef or go veggie by using mushrooms, onions and/or peppers.  You can change the flavor too by changing the cheese.  Use Italian blends, Mexican blends, or keep it straight with cheddars, etc.  These little treats are really good, easy to make and have many variations.

Tortilla Pizza

Flour Tortillas
Pizza Sauce
Favorite toppings:
  Pepperoni
  Ground Beef, cooked & crumbled
  Sausage, cooked & crumbled
  Bell Peppers, chopped
  Onions, chopped
  Mushrooms
  Etc.
Cheddar cheese, shredded
Mozzarella cheese, shredded

On tortilla spread as little or as much pizza sauce that you might like.  Top with both cheeses covering nicely, or as much as you may like.  Top with your favorite toppings.  Bake in a toaster oven on 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until hot and cheeses have melted.

Comment:  I have a friend who loves pizza but he seldom eats the crust and since pizza delivered can get quite expensive I've tried to tell him that he needs to get his money's worth and eat the crust too.  He simply won't do it so I told him he could pay me the $20.00 he spends for pizza, delivery and tip and I would make a pizza he would simply live and not have to worry about the crust.  So I used tortillas for my crust, cooked up about 1/4 lb. of ground beef and started creating his pizza.  It's perfect!  The crust is thin enough that he actually eats it and you can make it soft by only cooking it after topping or you can crisp it up by putting it in the toaster oven for about 3-5 minutes before topping.  You can add any toppings and those you don't use you simply place in a baggie to use for more pizzas later or to add to another dish.  And the pizza sauce will keep in the refrigerator for several days so you can have pizza every day.  I think this may be a little healthier than delivered pizza too since it has such a thin crust.

Cracker Pizzas

Saltines or butter round crackers
Cheese
Pepperoni
Olives

Preheat oven to Broil.  Place the crackers in rows on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or foil.  Sprinkle each cracker with cheese.  top with Pepperoni or olives.  Broil for 2-3 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and melted.

Comment:  I found a recipe for pizza appetizers using crackers.  The recipe, along with several others (3 pages), was typed using an OLD typewriter.  I have no idea how old these sheets were but I don't believe the typewriter was electric.  The original called for soda crackers (saltines) that were to be drizzled with melted butter and then topped with cheese.  These were baked until the cheese melted.  I eliminated the butter and added the pepperoni and olives.  I also changed it form baking to broiling with hope that the crackers wouldn't become soggy.  I also made some of these using butter round crackers which actually came out the best.  These are simple to make and do make great appetizers - hot or cold.  Plus, the kids would love to make these for a pizza night.

Think With Your Taste Buds - Chicken

This is another chicken recipe that will be included in Think With Your Taste Buds - Chicken.  This is a Chicken Spinach Alfredo Pizza.  It's one you won't want to miss when the book comes out.

Pizza Tidbits

 Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm.
This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza.

Newman's Own Pizza

Again, through Foodbuzz and Tastemakers I received a coupon to buy and try one of the Newman's Own Pizzas.  I buy Newman's pasta/spaghetti sauces and know how great they are so I had high expectations for their pizza.  There are 8 different flavors to choose from and all looked good but I decided to give the Supreme a try, giving me a taste of several flavors combined.  The Supreme is topped with Italian Sausage, Uncured Pepperoni, peppers and onions, which are all favorites of mine.  I had never heard of Uncured Pepperoni so was unsure of how that might taste.  After reading the package I found that Uncured Pepperoni has no added nitrate.  When I opened the package I was a bit unsure as to how this thin crusted pizza was going to taste.  It had maybe 10 pieces of pepperoni, I could see a few pieces of Italian sausage and several scattered pieces of peppers.  I really couldn't see how so few toppings could possibly create a tasty pizza.  Well, what do I have to loose?  I had already preheated my oven so about 12 minutes later I was ready to slice and eat.  All I can say is OH MY!  I don't know how they did it but this pizza had one of the best blends of taste that I've ever eaten.  I could taste the pepperoni, sausage and the sweetness of the peppers.  It was actually better than delivery pizza!  Each bite had its own taste.  It was like eating bites of several different pizzas. Now I want to try the White sauce pizza, and the Roasted Veggie, and the Roasted Garlic & Chicken.  Actually I want to try all of them!