Bubble Up Pizza Bites

These Bubble Up Pizza Bites are a great addition to school lunch boxes or bento boxes. The recipe is super easy and super delicious, I've been instructed to keep these on hand all the time. They're great to have on hand so I don't mind, especially if you have kids who don't like a sandwich in their lunch box or a husband who grabs one for breakfast on the way out the door. My good friend Cara was giving me lots of ideas for other versions such as ham and cheese or feta and spinach, even peanut butter and jelly would be great. Infinite variations on a theme for sure.

Bubble Up Pizza Bites
1 loaf of bread dough-use your own, mine or frozen bread dough
12 slices of pepperoni
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup pizza sauce

preheat oven to 350˚
grease a muffin tin
divide dough into 12 pieces
place each piece in a muffin cup
place a pepperoni slice on the top of each piece of dough
use you fingers to shove it right down into the dough
then add a little dollop, about a teaspoon of pizza sauce
sprinkle the top of each bite with cheese, about 2 teaspoons
then press down on the cheese well into the dough
the dough will bubble up around the filling, you want it to do this
bake about 15-18 minutes until the bites are cooked though and beginning to brown lightly
keeps 2-3 days

Here's an easy way to divide the dough:

• tear it in half
• then each half in half again this gives you 4 pieces enough for each row of the muffin tin
• then simply divide each piece into 3 and there you have 12 roughly the same size pieces of dough

Take this basic recipe and play with it, make variations that suit you. More pepperoni? YES! More cheese less meat? Sure! Olives? Heck yeah! This is just the tip of the iceberg for this recipe. I hope your kids enjoy it half as much as my family.

Oh and talk about kid friendly to make? My five year old loves to help 'shove' the goodies down inside the dough. It must fulfill some primal urge and I'm just glad he's not taking that out on his brother, heh.

Peace and Love--