Pepperoni pockets – Which shape is best?
I clearly love cooking. I love being in the kitchen. I love trying out new recipes. I love creating new dishes or weird food art.
What I don’t love is doing it every single day.
I burn out really fast if I have to cook every day. Even if I’m just doing simple dinners every day or fixing my own lunch, I get lazy crazy fast if I do it too many days in a row. Then I don’t want to cook at all and I especially have no interest in playing with my food either because I want to get right back out of the kitchen as soon as possible.
So instead, I end up cooking a whole bunch at once and tossing half of it in the freezer or repurposing the ingredients for several dishes at one time. I used to do more of what the internet blogging world calls “once a month cooking” but I find it more realistic to simply do it when I have the chance…whether that’s once a month or every couple weeks or even just doubling up recipes when I’m cooking on one of those mundane “pasta for dinner…again” nights.
Below is an example of buying pepperoni and turning it into several different pizza pockets. My lighting was really bad in that kitchen, so I know some of it doesn’t look very appetizing, but every variation was delicious.
Most of the ingredients were the same… pepperoni, peppers, cheese, sauce, homemade dough…. but they were in different combinations and presentations. The braided wraps were great for dinner and midnight snacks because I could cut off whatever size I felt like. And the little “pork bun” style pockets were more perfect for tossing in a lunch bag for an easy packed lunch. The ones near the end where the pepperoni isn’t cut were a bit more similar to “pigs in a blanket” with a very strong pepperoni flavor compared to the rest.
Most of these variations also would’ve been great examples of when I fry my pepperoni first. Any of them that are chopped and mixed with other ingredients would’ve been de-grease-ified a little bit first because otherwise, the filling ends up with pockets of nasty orange-ness that I’m just not too thrilled with eating.
Pizza pancakes – When sweet dishes go savory
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
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!
Pizza cooked in seconds (Wordless Wednesday)
(Now if only it could actually go that fast, huh? I always hate having to wait on pizza to cook and then never want to wait for it to cool after either.)
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