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.
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