Pizza Puffs

As you know, I'm continually on a quest for fun kid lunch ideas. I just hate giving them the same old peanut butter and jelly everyday. Now don't get me wrong, there isn't anything wrong with a good old fashioned pb&j, but we were eating A LOT of them.  The kids were bored, I was bored, our kitchen was bored. So off hunting I went for new quick and easy lunch ideas.  I've already written up the quesadilla craze we had and we love anything wrapped up in a tortilla but I wanted something that didn't require a tortilla this time. Enter - pizza puffs.

These took me very little time to prep and they only needed to bake for about 20 minutes.  Plus, these little guys provide a great opportunity to sneak in veggies. Today I got spinach in them and my kids never knew the difference.  SCORE!

Here's What You Need:

 -3/4 C flour (I used whole wheat)

-3/4 tsp baking powder

-1 cup shredded cheese

-couple pinches of spinach

-3/4 C milk (I used 2%)

-1 egg lightly beaten

-Pizza sauce for dipping

Here's What You Do:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a mini muffin tin pan.

2.  Whisk together flour and baking powder.

3.  Whisk in milk and egg. Then add cheese and spinach and stir together. Let this sit for about 10 minutes.

4.  Pour into individual muffin tins.  This was supposed to make 24 but mine only made about 20 so maybe I filled mine too much.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and puffy.

Serve these with a side of warmed pizza sauce for dipping.  

Now the original recipe called for one cup pepperoni as well. We didn't have that so I just left it out but I'm sure it would be delicious in there too. I think you could really chop up any veggies and add them in - red bell peppers, tiny bits of broccoli, green peppers and the list goes on and on.

I had about 20 of these little pizza puffs. My oldest ate two and my son only ate one but he is sick so not much of an appetite.  I kept out about 6 or 7 more for the rest of the week. Then I stuck the other ones in the freezer. I will update you later as to how that turns out. Seems like they would freeze well and be something you can grab at a moment's notice.  

Try it and let me know what veggies you sneak in your kids' lunch today!

original recipe here:  http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-search/budget-recipes/pepperoni-pizza-puffs