Breakfast Pizza

Sometimes, I have leftover pizza for breakfast.  Sometimes, I have leftover breakfast for dinner.  Pizza and breakfast food are two of my favorite things.  The only logical thing to do, then, is to marry the two together, right?  Right.  And, that is exactly what I did.  You can thank me later.

What you need:
1 Pizza Dough*
1 Can of Sausage Gravy
1/2 Lb. cooked breakfast meat of your choosing (I used bacon)
6 Eggs, scrambled
1 1/2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese
Any veggie toppings you want on your pizza ( I added mushrooms)

*I make my own pizza dough using a recipe that I haven't been authorized to share.  You can always pick up a pre-made crust at the store or you can buy a can of pizza dough just like a can of biscuits and cook the dough yourself.

What you need to do:
1.  Cook and drain your breakfast meat and scramble your eggs.

2.  Preheat your oven according to the directions on your pizza dough.  Prepare your pizza dough and lay it out on your baking stone or pizza pan, but do not bake the dough.

3.  Spread a generous amount of sausage gravy on top of your cooked pizza crust (as if it were pizza sauce).

4.  Sprinkle your cooked breakfast meat on top of the sausage gravy.

5.  Sprinkle scrambled eggs on top of the sausage gravy and meat.

6.  Sprinkle any veggie toppings on top of the other toppings.

7.  Sprinkle shredded cheese on top of the pizza.

8.  Bake according to pizza dough directions. 

Enjoy!

Pepperoni Roll-Ups

My friend Amber bought a house earlier this year.  She had a housewarming party, like, a month later.  I bought a house last year.  I haven't had my housewarming party yet.  When I do have it, it will be more than a year later.  But, whatever.  I'm not bitter.  At all. 

Amber was nice enough to let me bring lots of food to her housewarming party.  That meant that I got to try lots of new recipes. This one was a big hit!  Everybody loves pepperoni and melted cheese.  Toss in a crisp, buttery crescent roll . . . Perfect!  Plus, these get bonus points for being really easy to make. 

Source:  The Girl Who Ate Everything

What you need:
2 packages refrigerated Crescent Roll dough, garlic flavored
8 Cheese Sticks, halved
48-64 pieces of Pepperoni
Marinara Sauce and Ranch Dressing for dipping

What you do:
1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 
2.  Place 3 to 4 pepperoni pieces on the bottom of the triangle of each 
     crescent roll. 
3.  Place one cheese stick half on top of the pepperoni on each 
     crescent roll. 
4.  Roll up each crescent roll and place seam side down on a cookie sheet. 
5.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the crescent rolls are cooked 
     thoroughly (until they are golden brown).
6.  You can put out small bowls of marinara sauce and ranch dressing 
     for dipping if you would like. 

Enjoy!

Taco Bell Mexican Pizza

Last week I decided that I wanted a Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell.  So I googled recipes and gave it a shot.  I combined the basic ideas of the various recipes I found and added my own twist.

I think it turned out really good.  And, it was surprisingly simple.  3 out of 4 people who ate them thought they tasted just like Taco Bell.  The fourth thought it tasted really good, but thought the meat was a little different than Taco Bell  (psssht.  Whatever!).

Anyway, this is my version of the Taco Bell Mexican Pizza.  It's delicious.  Try it.  Because I said so.

What I used:
2 packages of 6 -7" FLOUR tortillas
Crisco
16 Ounces Taco Bell Brand Refried Beans
1 Lb. Ground Beef
1.25 Ounces (1 Package) Taco Bell Chipotle Taco Seasoning Mix
1 Large Tomato, diced
1 Bunch of Green Onions, thinly sliced
2.25 Ounces Sliced Black Olives
8 Ounces Pepper Jack Cheese, shredded
16 Ounces Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
16 Ounces Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded
16 Ounces Enchilada Sauce

What I did:
1.  Cooked the beef thoroughly, making sure to crumble it up into very small pieces as it was cooking.

2.  Added the taco seasoning mix to the beef, following directions.

3.  Preheated the oven to 400.

4.  Put a skillet on the stove on medium heat.  After the skillet had heated up a bit, added about 4 tablespoons of Crisco.  Melted the Crisco.

    Hint:  You want just enough melted Crisco to cover the bottom of the skillet -- you don't want
      to completely submerge the tortilla in Crisco.

5.  Cooked each flour tortilla in the skillet until each side was golden brown (about 30 - 45 seconds per side).  After each tortilla cooked, I transferred it to a plate covered in paper towels to drain off the grease.

     Hint:  If air bubbles form in the tortillas while you are cooking them, pierce
      the bubbles so your tortilla remains fairly flat.

6.  Warmed the refried beans in the microwave.

7.  Assembled the pizzas in the following order:

• One cooked tortilla.
• Spread 3-4 Tablespoons of refried beans on top of the tortilla
• Sprinkled 2-3 Tablespoons of seasoned ground beef on top of the refried beans.
• Topped with another cooked tortilla.
• Spread 1-2 Tablespoons of enchilada sauce on top of the top tortilla.
• Sprinkled about 2 Tablespoons of each cheese on top of the enchilada sauce.
• Sprinkled diced tomatoes, green onions, and black olives on top of the cheese.

8.  Placed each pizza on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Placed the cookie sheet in the oven and baked it for 3-4 minutes, or until the cheeses were thoroughly melted.

9.  Removed pizzas from the oven and cut into four smaller pizza slices.

I served these with a side of Mexican rice and condiments such as sour cream and picante sauces. 

This made a TON of food.  I got 7 pizzas out of this recipe and I found them to be quite filling.  I was able to eat a serving of rice and 1 slice (1/4 of each pizza) before I got full, so be prepared.

Enjoy!

Pizza Bites

This is another one of the recipes I tried for my bookclub meeting.  These were pretty good and relatively easy to make.  They were also a super simple snack food -- easy to pick up and eat, delicious, and not too messy -- that earns them extra points in my book!  I served them with a side of warmed marinara sauce. 


Another recipe adapted from: The Girl Who Ate Everything (I can't get enough of this girl!)


Here's what I used:
1 Roll refrigerated Pizza Dough

4 Ounces grated Parmesan Cheese

1 Tablespoon melted Butter

3/4 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/2 Teaspoon dried Italian Seasoning

12 ounces diced Mozzarella Cheese

Peperoni pieces, quartered

Marinara sauce for dipping

Here's what I did:

1. Preheated the oven to 425 degrees and sprayed a large glass pie plate with cooking spray.


2. Dusted my counter tops with flour.


3. Unrolled the pizza dough onto the floured counter tops. 


4.  Stretched the pizza dough into a rectangle.  I then cut that rectangle into smaller squares using a pizza cutter.  I ended up with 26 squares.  Those of you who are better with that silly science stuff might end up with relatively evenly sized squares.  I did not.  :-) (Look at the picture above for proof)


5.  I put a block of cheese on top of each square.


6.  I placed pieces of peperoni on top of and around each block of cheese.


7.  I gathered the sides of each square together and pinched the edges together to create a seam and to hold everything inside the pizza dough bite.


8.  I put each bite into the pie plate.  There were enough of them that they were touching by the time I got through with all of them. 


9.  I melted the butter then added the garlic powder and Italian seasoning.  I mixed all of those ingredients together well.


10.  I used a pastry brush to brush the butter mixture over the tops of the pizza bites.


11.  I sprinkled Parmesan cheese on top of the rolls.


12.  I baked the bites for about 15 minutes.  Remove them from the oven when they are golden brown.


Obviously, you could modify this recipe as much as you'd like to suit your tastes.  The next time I make these bites, I'll be adding more ingredients.  As I stuffed the bites and pulled the edges together, I thought that I might have put too much cheese and pepperoni in each bite as they seemed to be bursting at the seam.  However, after I pulled them from the oven, I saw that they were not even been close to being over stuffed.  So, fill 'em to the brim!


Enjoy!

Biscuit Pizzas

I used to make these little pizzas with my mom and my sister when I was growing up.  I totally forgot about them until a couple of months ago when I was trying to come up with some ideas for heavy appetizers to serve at one of my book clubs.  These just randomly popped into my head.  So I made them, and I was reminded of how simple and delicious they are.  They can be served as an appetizer or as a main dish.  I’ve eaten them as both in the last couple of months.  As is the case with any pizza, you can modify the toppings to fit your tastes.  And, they’re a great food to let the kiddos help make -- I remember how excited I’d get when my mom would let me help with these. 

Here’s what I used:

1 Can of Biscuits

1 Partial Jar of Pizza Sauce

1 Partial Package of Pepperoni Slices

1 Cup of finely shredded Mild Cheddar Cheese

1 Cup of finely shredded Italian Cheese Mix

1 Small Can of Black Olives, sliced

1 Small Can of Mushrooms, sliced

Here’s what I did:

I preheated my oven according to the directions on the can of biscuits.

At my local Wal-Mart, I couldn’t find a single can of regular biscuits.  If I wanted regular ole’ biscuits, I had to buy a four pack.  What am I going to do with four cans of biscuits?  I don’t know either.  So, instead, I bought 1 can of Jumbo Flakey Buttermilk Biscuits.  That whole rant was to tell you that if you buy the jumbo flakey biscuits, you should divide each biscuit in half-ish horizontally before you get started. 

After dividing my biscuits in half horizontally, I laid each half biscuit on a cookie sheet (if you have a regular can of biscuits, use the full biscuit, don’t half it).  I put down parchment paper because I’ve learned that parchment paper makes my life easier. 

Then you need to find some apparatus in your kitchen to push down the center of each biscuit, creating a wall to hold the pizza sauce in.  I used the bottom of a plastic measuring cup.  When I was little we used the bottom of child sized Tupperware drinking cups.  I dipped the bottom of the measuring cup in flour (to keep the cup from sticking to the biscuit) and then gently pressed down on each biscuit to create an indention with walls to hold the sauce in. 

Then, I spooned a little bit of pizza sauce into each biscuit.  I’d say I used about 1 to 2 Tablespoons of sauce per biscuit.

Finally, I added the toppings.   

 

  

Some of the pizzas I made had just pepperoni and cheese.  Others had black olives and mushrooms as well.  Just use your imagination – the possibilities are endless! 

After I had all the toppings on the pizzas, I threw the pan in the oven and let them bake for about 8-10 minutes. 

     HINT:  Keep an eye on your pizzas and be sure to remove them when the biscuits

                get a golden brown color and your cheese is melted. 

Here are what mine looked like fresh out of the oven:

Let them cool a couple of minutes before you eat them.

Enjoy!