Easy Pizza Snacks!

Pizza Bagels

We are lovers of pizza anything in this household. Even the good ol’ ready-in-2-minutes Hot Pocket!

Being said pizza-lovers, there are certain kitchen “staples” that we have: pepperoni, marinara, and mozzarella cheese. I’m pretty sure as a kid these ingredients were also found in my childhood home. Aside from rice, one of the first things I remember making was, what my dad called, a “poor man’s pizza”. It consisted of white bread topped with marinara, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni pizza. Pop that sucker in a toaster oven for 5 minutes, and voila, PIZZA!

Seriously, you could put those ingredients on practically any carb and you’ll have an easy snack. French bread, bagels, pita bread. Your pizza dreams are limitless. One of our household favorites is a la bagel!

We love getting packs of mini bagels and sprinkling these ingredients on top. Just like my poor man’s pizza, I toss it in our toaster oven for 5 minutes, and it’s pizza perfection.

Side note: Our particular toaster oven is AMAZING! I came across it while looking for a dehydrator and saw that it could function as several kitchen appliances I already had. Super important if you’re needing more counter space! It’s the GoWISE Deluxe 15-in-1 that’s an air fryer, rotisserie, dehydrator, toaster oven, plus many more specs that I haven’t tried. So far we’ve rotisseried cornish hen, dehydrated tomatoes and cranberries, and made jerky! Obviously, we’ve also used it as a classic toaster oven for these pizza babies. Laundry and Lashes is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, Amazon, the Amazon logo, and the AmazonSupply logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or it’s affiliates.

Something I really wanted to recreate was the classic pizza hot pocket. Is it just me or do those bring you back to your childhood? As a 90’s kid, I grew up on these after school treats! Sadly, we’re acknowledging that these frozen foods aren’t exactly the best for you. Okay, pizza in general isn’t that good for you, but at least ours is slightly healthier. Right? A little bit?

Anyways, here’s a simple way to make a wonderfully flaky and super yummy hot pocket!

Ingredients:

• Puff Pastry Sheets (can be found next to the ready made pie crusts)

• Organic Marinara (trying to be “healthy” here!)

• Mozzarella Cheese, shredded

• Pepperoni Slices, quartered

• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter

• Garlic Salt w/ Parsley to taste (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat a conventional oven to 375 'F

2. Roll out the puff pastry and cut into 6 equal rectangular pieces

3. Spread 2 spoonfuls of marinara on 3 of the puff pastry sheets

4. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese and quartered pepperoni on top of the marinara

5. Place the remaining 3 pastry sheets on top of each of the sheets that are covered in cheese, etc.

6. Press the sides together and crimp with a fork (crimp well and fold if needed to prevent the ingredients from coming out when cooking)

7. Create 3 slits in the middle of each pizza pocket (this creates a vent so that the ingredients don’t burst out)

8. Brush melted butter on top and sprinkle some garlic salt and parsley if desired

9. Pop them in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes (or until gold and flaky)

10. Let them cool a bit before eating!

Sisi and I made something similar to a "pizza pocket", which is the perfect after school snack.

These babies were made in the toaster oven

I tried using my GoWISE for these not too long ago, but I’ll need to figure out the appropriate setting. So far, placing the rack at the bottom (make sure to also place a pan to catch any cheese that’s escaped!) and then setting it to Bake for 20 min. at a temperature of 380 seems to work! This unit doesn’t adjust in 5 degree increments, which is kind of a bummer.

Whatever doesn’t get baked can be wrapped in parchment paper, put into a container, and placed in the freezer for the following day. And yes, I totally realize this brings us full circle.