Game Day Snack Week 3 - Spaetzle Pizza!

Whew... I am a little late posting this week's game day snack - it's only 25 minutes before the first kick-off here on the east coast and I am just sitting down to write this!!

Anyway, this week's treat is Spaetzle Pizza.. and it's a two step post! I will post the recipe I used to make my own spaetzle, and then what we did to create our little pizza's.

Once the spaetzle is made, you can bring this on the road and make while tailgating on those little grills. or you can pre-assemble the whole pizza and just grill it up or reheat it there.

I was surprised that my spaetzle turned out decently, not being anything close to German, and not usually enjoying working with dough. In fact, most of my dishes I attempt where I make my own dough turn out only so-so. But this worked for once, and I was happy.

The spaetzle is easy to make. It took me about a half hour total from set up to when I finished off sauteing the spaetzle. It was delicious on its own as well, and I could see my husband and I eating this for dinner with a side of our favorite sweet and sour meatballs.

Here is the spaetzle recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground pepper (recipe suggested white, I used black because it is what I have, only difference is color)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Bring about a gallon of water to boil.

Mix together flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Beat the eggs well and add it alternately with the milk into the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth.

Press the dough through a spaetzle maker if you have one. Or you can use a large holed sieve or metal grater. I used a spaghetti colander. It worked totally fine.

Drop a few spaetzle dough pieces into the boiling water at a time and cook 5 to 8 minutes - drain well.

Saute the cooked spaetzle in butter or margarine. If eating plain - sprinkle some fresh parsley on top and serve!


And now, the pizza's.

I had bought whole wheat pitas to use as our base.

For the "sauce," we used Philadelphia's Cooking Cream in the Italian Herb flavor. Spaetzle went on next, followed by some mozzarella cheese and those crunchy onions that come in a can.


The little pizza was baked in the oven at 375 degrees F for about 10-12 minutes until the cheese began to brown slightly.

Serve warm!

This was a very satisfying dish and my husband really enjoyed his treat!

Italian Night Part II - Pizza-like food!

So, continuing in what I made for Italian night with our friends and their 2 and a half year old, in addition to my pasta bake (and I also made my eggplant patties!), I made little stuffed pizzas.

Granted, they weren't the prettiest things on the table. I was trying to use crescent roll dough because we had a few tubes frozen in the house, and no pizza dough, but they weren't cooperating very nicely. Oh well - they still tasted fine. In fact, these little stuffed pizzas are perfect for game day appetizers too! I don't think they came out quite how I pictured... I am not sure what I was thinking. But, it worked, and it was easy!

I knew the little girl wouldn't eat my stuffed pizzas because 1) they probably looked really strange to her, 2) many kids are just picky to begin with, 3) there was some spinach in them which, many kids might not enjoy. So, I used something else we had in the house... our new Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Sandwich Bread!! (Comes in white or wheat).


The goldfish sandwich bread is basically like their deli flats, just in the popular shape of their goldfish crackers. I saw a coupon and ad for them last weekend and a store by us had the entire Pepperidge Farm line on sale so I sent my husband to get me a pack - he managed to grab the very last pack!! It was white bread, which is fine, I like that, but wished they still had some wheat left since I am trying to eat healthier these days.

Anyway, so I took half of the sandwich bread and I put a very light layer of sauce on it, and then some shredded mozzarella cheese. I used a pea for an eye and a green bean for the mouth (which I knew she would pick off, I just hoped she would still eat it since a vegetable touched it!). I baked it for about 10 minutes in the oven. When our friends arrived I showed the mom and she thought it was so cute, and she was so touched that I thought to make something special for her child. She said that many times people don't think about the kids and our friends got used to toting her food around - but they didn't need it at our house! Bunny pasta and fishy pizza did the trick.


The little girl DID pick off the veggies..."I'm taking the eye and mouth off..." but she ate the pizza - almost every bite! I was psyched. I don't have kids, but many of our friends do, and my husband's youngest nephew is quite the challenge during feeding time...I guess he'd rather play than eat. So to watch her eat my creation made me feel good. And my friend said to me, "your kids will eat when you have kids - you are so creative!" Well, I hope that is the case - I don't feel like fighting when them to get some nourishment!

Anyway, I digress - next up - my "stuffed pizza" recipe!

Ingredients:

1 tube crescent rolls
tomato sauce of your choice - jarred, homemade, whatever!
shredded mozzarella cheese
ricotta cheese
frozen spinach
olive oil
sesame seeds
crushed red pepper flakes

Directions:

In a bowl, mix together ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and spinach. Amounts are to your taste.

Unroll crescent rolls. Split into 4 rectangles and separate the triangle pieces. Match up the pieces that were stuck together as they will be the most even.

On one triangle, spoon a little tomato sauce on. Cover the sauce with the cheese and spinach mixture.


Then, place the matching triangle piece of the crescent roll dough up with the one that has ingredients on it. Seal all edges completely together.

Once the 4 little stuffed pizzas are done, brush lightly with some olive oil and sprinkle sesame seeds and crushed red pepper flakes on top.


Bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees F for about 9-12 minutes, or until golden brown and slightly crunchy.

Sunday Game Day Snack - Halloween Theme! (Pizza Mummies)

So, Halloween is a week away and I decided to make my husband a fun little snack for football Sunday today.

He was out all morning at a baseball show so he didn't really eat lunch and I knew he would need a bigger snack. I found this adorable recipe on FamilyFun.Go.Com and I just had to make them!

This snack is a perfect family snack and is easy to make. The kids will love them and well, guys will eat anything relating to pizza!

Enjoy these pizza mummies!!

Ingredients:

English muffins
Pizza sauce
Black olives
Red or green pepper
Cheese sticks or slices (I used string cheese and pulled pieces to use as the wrappings)

Directions:

Heat the oven to 350º F. For each mummy, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce onto half of an English muffin (toast it first, if you like).

Set olive slices in place for eyes and add bits of red or green pepper for pupils.

Lay strips of cheese across the muffin for the mummy's wrappings.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the muffin is toasty.

Sunday Game Day Snack

I know it's a little late in the day already but I'm posting today's Sunday Game Day Snack!

Today I made pizza pockets. They were very easy to make with some things I had lying around the house and my husband really enjoyed his little afternoon snack.

It took me about 10-15 minutes to put them together and then I baked them for 20 minutes. These are great for party appetizers, for people watching the game or as snacks for the kids after school.

Ingredients:
1 container of Pillsbury Crescent Ready Dough
Green pepper - diced
Onion - diced
Perdue ready to eat chicken cutlet - sliced thin
Pasta Sauce
Ricotta Cheese
Mozzarella cheese


Pillsbury has this new product called Ready Dough - it's right next to where the crescent rolls are. It's great to use because you can cut it any way you want.

I cut 6 squares and filled the middles with all my ingredients.



I then folded them into triangles and sealed the edges. I used a little olive oil spray on the top for a golden brown effect and sprinkled some Italian Seasonings on the top before sliding it into the oven.


After baking at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes they were ready to eat!

Enjoy your football games!