Pizza pancakes – When sweet dishes go savory

Pizza pancakes with suasage, pepperoni, and mushrooms in the batter without sugar along with pizza sauce and parmesan on top instead of syrup

Pizza pancakes are pretty self-explanatory, but in case you’re not sure what you’re looking at…. those are Bisquick mixed with standard pizza toppings like pepperoni, sausage, and mushrooms, fried until cooked like normal pancakes, and then topped with marinara/pizza sauce and cheese.

This may be a brand new concept for some people, but if you’ll remember, I’m already acquainted with adding meat to waffles when my sister makes them for our dog. He’s never complained before and considering he’s the pickiest animal I have ever met (and then some!), I know they must be good. :P

Waffles with ham and other savory ingredients instead of sugar. Great as homemade dog food.

As for the pizza ones, I’m a fan of using pizza toppings/flavorings in/on vehicles other than a pizza dough crust that takes at least an hour of rising time. I like quick and easy, ya know? So tortilla pizzas (like Hello Kitty, to boot), crockpot pizza, pizza biscuits, and even pizza zucchini appetizers are all fair game.

I’m not really feeling the pancakes specifically, though. I’m sure they taste great, but I kind of prefer the “set it and forget it” style for pizza alternatives, so standing over a griddle, making dozens of pancakes (as if I ever make just one, pfft), doesn’t exactly sound that enticing.

I do love one of the suggestions in the comments, though. One of her picky eaters used them as a lunchable style snack, microwaving them the next day with sauce and mozzarella in between. To think of them as quick snacks for any time is actually a great idea!

Wilted lettuce, beef bread rolls – Stuffed stir-fry rolls?

Beef or pork rolls with lettuce, onions, peppers, and then sliced like cinnamon rolls for dinner

 
I don’t know what these are.
 
I mean…I know what they are. I made them. I tasted them. They were delicious!
 
Cooked beef or pork rolls with wilted lettuce, onions, peppers, and then sliced into rolls for dinner
 
But I don’t know what they’re called or what exactly I put in them or what recipes I used to gather inspiration.
 
Yes, it’s one of those posts where I tell you how yummy a dish was but that because I made it so long ago and didn’t record all the details, I can’t help you recreate it.
 
I’ll tell you what I do know, though:

 
Browned ground beef, pork, or turkey plus a bowl of bread down that has been left to rise
 
I know that it’s a basic bread dough in that bowl. And I’m pretty sure that’s either ground pork or beef, but I’m not entirely sure which. Either would’ve worked well in this dish, though.

Wilted lettuce recipe - Sautee for a few minutes and then dry off

 
I know this is where it all started – lettuce. I had a bunch leftover and didn’t want any salads. I had wilted spinach before to use in various dishes, so I went looking for the answer to if it was possible to wilt lettuce (it is) and recipes for it (like this one…but with an actual recipe instead of only guesses).

Cooked beef or pork rolls with wilted lettuce, onions, peppers, and seasonings all diced up in a bowl

 
I know I ate way too much of the filling while I was working with this. It was delicious! I used up some leftover peppers and onions in there, too.

Bread dough that has been flattened out with fingers and rollnig pin to be ready to be filled and rolled

 
I know this made a huge mess. I should have done two rolls probably, but well, I didn’t.
 
Hindsight is 20-20, right? Or in this case, more like 20-300 because I can’t remember much of anything. :P

Filling for dinner rolls laid out on thin bread dough

 
I know that I was nervous about rolling this up. The bread dough stretched pretty thin and the filling wasn’t exactly dry.

Help! My bread dough and cinnamon rolls tore in the middle. How can I save it?
I know that I was right to be a little nervous. The above picture proves that it was easy to tear.

 
I know I also corrected this by making it my first cut so that none of the pieces ended up with any actual holes in them.

Beef or pork rolls with wilted lettuce, onions, peppers, and then sliced into rolls for dinner

 
I know that I thought they looked really cool once cut.

How many pictures should I take of the exact same dish?  Filling falling out of rolls

Slice these with dental floss? It would probably fall apart even more because the filling wouldn't be cut at all.

 
I know that I took way too many pictures of them because of that, too. They just looked so cool! They actually looked a lot better than the pictures I managed to take, too. Typical.

It makes 12 rolls/slices but the last couple are more like 'old maids' because they aren't real rolls

 
I know this “recipe” made roughly 10 beef rolls…and two “old maids” that I ate as soon as they came out of the oven.

The best of the cooked Cooked beef or pork rolls with wilted lettuce, onions, peppers, and then sliced into rolls for dinner
I know I was only slightly disappointed when these came out of the oven looking way uglier than they did when they went in.

Cooked beef or pork rolls with wilted lettuce, onions, peppers, and then sliced into rolls for dinner
 
I know it was only “slightly” because I can still remember the smell as they came out of the oven, even though it was over 2 years ago when I made them. So good.

Yay, cooked beef rolls or stirfry rolls with wilted lettuce and fillings 
And last but not least, I know that even though I don’t know the exact ingredients or ratios, that this is the kind of dish that you can make using whatever you have leftover in the fridge. I would use up stir-fry leftovers especially because the onions and peppers would already be prepared and wouldn’t lose too much by being cooked more.

Layered sushi cake

Layered sushi cake with salmon, avocado, cucmber and sesame seeds. Basically it's a California roll or Florida/Seattle roll made into layers to look like a cake instead of sushi rolls. Ice it with wasabi and soy sauce maybe?

I am always amazed when people repurpose and redesign dishes into ways that I never would’ve imagined. Sure, people do all sorts of crazy things with sushi and they’re always awesome, but how awesome do you see a beautiful cake like the above? This is a first for me.

It’s actually really easy to recreate yourself, too. There are only 8 main ingredients and if you make sushi at home at all, you probably have most of them already. You’ll need sushi rice plus rice vinegar and sugar for its preparation, and then these for the layers:

  • Nori sheet
  • Fresh salmon
  • Avocado oil
  • Cucumber
  • Avocado
  • Sesame seeds

I have never even heard of avocado oil and it’s just for the coating on the fish where the seeds stick, so I’m betting you could use another light or flavorless oil (maybe olive oil?) for this and it’d taste just as good.

My biggest concern would be how to cut this sushi cake and serve it without tearing it apart. I know I’d want a sharp knife to help slice right through without hanging up and squishing any of the layers. I feel like it’s going to be rather soft like cinnamon rolls would be, so I’d surely make a mess of it. It’d look beautiful before that, though! And if you like sushi at all, I’m sure it’d taste great, too. It’s more or less a deconstructed Seattle roll, but you could do it with other similar ingredients if not all of these are your favorite.

How would you eat it, though? As it crumbles on your plate, would you use chopsticks to piece some together and eat? Or would a fork be appropriate? Fingers are acceptable for sushi rolls, but I think this might be too messy to dive in with your fingers alone. I’d love to see maybe a wasabi and soy sauce “dip” or “icing” to pair with this, too.