Easy Stuffed Parmesan Pizza Crust Rolls #Recipe

Since the big game is coming up, I thought it would be a great time to share this easy to make game day recipe.  These stuffed rolls were inspired by this Stuffed Pizza Rolls recipe shared by Six Sisters Stuff.  The possibilities really seemed endless with this recipe and we enjoyed experimenting with different ingredients to bake inside the rolls.  We did make a batch with pepperoni and shredded Mozzarella inside with red sauce for dipping and our children just loved it.  For my husband and myself, we wanted something that suited our tastes better . . .

Stuffed Mushroom & Onion Parmesan Pizza Crust Rolls Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

refrigerated pizza dough

4 to 6 whole white mushrooms

1 medium yellow onion

4 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1 Tbsp melted butter

2 tsp garlic or Italian seasoning blend

1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
butter or olive oil
nonstick cooking spray

marinara sauce (optional for dipping)

Step 1.  Preheat the oven according to the refrigerated pizza dough's package instructions.

Step 2.  Slice and sauté the mushrooms and onion in a little butter or olive olive oil.  Remove from heat and put aside.

Step 3.  Unroll the pizza dough and press (from the center outward towards the edges) until it has a uniform thickness of approximately 1/4".

Step 4.  Using a pizza cutter or a knife, cut the dough into squares approximately 2".

RECIPE TIP #1

You can make the squares in any size to fit your appetite.  The 2" size is easier to eat for children or for finger foods when entertaining.

Step 5.  Place a bed of shredded Mozzarella cheese onto each square.  Then top with a spoonful of onions and mushrooms.

Step 6.  Bring the four corners of a pizza dough square together with the filling inside.  Then pinch the dough so that it is completely sealed, being careful not to stretch the dough out so much that it makes holes in the bottom or sides.  Repeat with the remaining pizza dough squares.

Step 7.  Spray a glass pie pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Step 8.  Place each filled ball roll into the pie pan.  Then brush the tops with a bit of melted butter.

Step 9.  Sprinkle each roll with garlic or Italian seasoning.  Then generously top with grated Parmesan cheese.

Step 10.  Bake rolls in the oven for approximately 12 to 15 minutes or until they turn a nice golden brown on top.  (Baking time may vary from one oven to another.)

RECIPE Tip #2

If you are using filling that gives off moisture, like the vegetables we used, you may want to bake the rolls for slightly longer (without burning the cheese on top) to prevent the pizza dough from becoming soggy.

Step 11.  Cool for 5 minutes and serve hot either alone or with a side of marinara sauce for dipping.

This recipe can really be adjusted to suit your own tastes.  For example, my husband is not a huge fan of an abundance of melted cheese, so I put less shredded cheese inside the rolls.

These stuffed rolls would be a huge hit on game day!  You could try trading our onions and mushrooms for crumbled sausage, cheddar cheese, ham and cheese, or just about anything you enjoy on a pizza or in a hot sub or calzone.  What would you put inside yours?

Ad: Turn Dinner and a Movie into a Fun Smurfy Low-Stress Family Night (Smurfs 2 Free Printable) #TastyTenders #shop #cbias

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This Smurfs 2 shop has been compensated as part of a family night social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and its client.

When you think of dinner and a movie, what most likely will come to mind is a night out without your beloved children.  However, when that is not possible, it might be fun to turn movie night into family night.  If your family is busy like ours or if your children have early bedtimes, fitting in a full-length movie after dinner can be a bit of a crunch, so why not combine the two?  If allowing your children to eat in the living room is not one of your favorite things to do, let me tell you how we were able to have an easy low-stress Smurfs 2 dinner and movie without dragging out tray tables or worrying about our children spilling their food and drinks.

There were four key factors that made our family night a success . . . a fun movie, a low-mess finger food dinner for kids, a sturdy container for the food that a child can hold steadily with one hand, and a virtually spill-proof straw cup that can be lifted one-handed.  I also added some fun Smurf-themed printable labels to the food tubs and the cups.  Luckily, I was able to find everything I needed in one shopping trip to Walmart.

For the food tubs, I used white Limited Edition (for the Holidays) Ziploc medium square containers and placed a Great Value clear 16oz cup inside each.  I was going to use acrylic straw tumblers for the children's drinks, but then I saw these adorable handled mason jar mugs complete with lids and straws at Walmart.  They came in a variety of colors, but the blue and white seemed especially perfect for our Smurfs-themed family movie night.

To add a little fun to these functional tubs and mugs, I used a downloadable image from www.SmurfHappens.com to make these printable blank Smurfs 2 tags.  You can print them out and use them for name tags, favor tags, or whatever you like.  Instead of putting our children's regular names on the tags, we gave them each names inspired by the Smurfs.  You can write the names directly on the tags after you print them or save the image to your computer to add text digitally before you print the tags out.

TO PRINT:  Make sure your printer is on and ready to print.  Click on the image below to enlarge.  Then right-click and choose print.  Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.

My husband and I named our children Trendy Smurf, Gamer Smurf, and Hungry Smurf.  I punched holes in one set of tags and used elasticized string to tie them around the mugs.  You could also use regular string, yarn, or ribbon to tie the tags onto the handles.  To attach the labels to the tubs, I simply put rolled pieces of tape on the backsides of the paper.

I was just going to pick up the Smurfs 2 DVD for our family night, but found the Holiday Blu-ray & DVD Movie Gift Set on sale at Walmart, so I could not resist buying it.  Papa Smurf was always my favorite Smurf!

For beverages, we gave our children milk because that is what they usually drink at dinner.  Also, it doesn't hurt that it's not sticky, doesn't stain, and it goes with our Smurfy blue and white theme!

For the finger foods, we chose to serve kid-friendly Batter Dipped Chicken Breast Tenders made by Tyson in Original and in Honey paired with fries.  Both were easy to prepare in the oven and easy to serve.  The fries were served inside the clear cup, which was surrounded by the batter tenders.

This family night was a huge success because of the hot, tasty, and filling batter chicken dinner, the kid-friendly tubs and mugs, and a movie that all 3 children found to be hilarious.  We will definitely be doing dinner and a movie with the whole family again soon.  It was such a fun, stress-free, and mess-free evening.  Which movie would you recommend for our next movie night?

By the time we were done with the movie, our children were stuffed and it was getting close to their bedtime.  If you start your Smurfs movie night earlier, here are some fun activity ideas for after the movie . . .

• Play Hot Potato with your plush Smurf toy.
• Serve blue M&M chocolate chip cookies (baked in advance).
• Print the Smurfs 2 coloring pages for your children to color while watching the movie's bonus features.

What other ideas do you have for fun ways to wrap up family movie night?

3 Easy Marshmallow Pretzel Dip Recipes

Last year when my family celebrated National Pretzel Day, I bought two jars of gourmet dip and some Nutella to use as pretzel dip.  Our children did not really seem too crazy about any of the dips I chose, so I decided to come up with a must-win pretzel dip that was super-kid-friendly.  You know me though . . . whatever I make, it has to be easy with few ingredients and not a lot of prep work.  The 3 varieties of dips I ended up making were simple, but were a huge hit compared to the gourmet dips.

Recipe:  Peanut Butter Marshmallow Pretzel Dip

INGREDIENTS

Marshmallow Fluff

Reese's Peanut Butter Topping

Chocolate Sprinkles or Mini Chocolate Chips

Step 1.  Take approximately 1/2 to 1 cup of Marshmallow Fluff and put it in a small dip bowl.  Allow the marshmallow to settle.  It will smooth out on its own.

Step 2.  Drizzle Reese's Peanut Butter Topping over the top of the marshmallow.

Step 3.  Take a chopstick or a swizzle stick and swirl the peanut butter into the marshmallow without mixing it together too much.

Step 4.  Top the mixture with chocolate sprinkles or mini chocolate chips and serve.

Recipe:  Chocolate Marshmallow Pretzel Dip

INGREDIENTS

Marshmallow Fluff

Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

Colorful Confetti Sprinkles or Rainbow Sprinkles

Step 1.  Take approximately 1/2 to 1 cup of Marshmallow Fluff and put it in a small dip bowl.  Allow the marshmallow to settle.  It will smooth out on its own.

Step 2.  Drizzle Hershey's Chocolate Syrup over the top of the marshmallow.

Step 3.  Take a chopstick or a swizzle stick and swirl the chocolate syrup into the marshmallow without mixing it together too much.

Step 4.  Top the mixture with confetti or rainbow sprinkles and serve.

Recipe:  Toffee Caramel Marshmallow Pretzel Dip

INGREDIENTS

Marshmallow Fluff

Smucker's Caramel Sundae Topping

Heath Bar Toffee Chips

Step 1.  Take approximately 1/2 to 1 cup of Marshmallow Fluff and put it in a small dip bowl.  Allow the marshmallow to settle.  It will smooth out on its own.

Step 2.  Drizzle Smucker's Caramel Sundae Topping over the top of the marshmallow.

Step 3.  Take a chopstick or a swizzle stick and swirl the caramel into the marshmallow without mixing it together too much.

Step 4.  Top the mixture with Heath Bar toffee chips and serve.

Although my children seemed to like them all, it appeared that their favorite was the Chocolate Marshmallow Dip.  I'm not sure if it was the chocolate they liked so much or the colorful star-shaped confetti sprinkles.  It could very well have been both.  I think anyone who likes a salty-sweet taste combination will enjoy this dip.

If you try any of these pretzel dips for your children or grandchildren, I'd love to know how they liked it or which one they ended up enjoying the most.

Easy Recipe: Chocolate Swirl Crescent Rolls

I tried making these Chocolate Swirl Crescent Rolls awhile ago because I bought this huge multi-pack of refrigerated Pillsbury Crescent Rolls from BJ's Wholesale Club and had some extra cans sitting idly in my refrigerator.  The reason I came to make these is because I personally love chocolate croissants, but my husband thinks that they are too rich and sweet.  So, I thought I would try to make Crescent Rolls with just a hint of chocolate in them to see if he would like those better.

Recipe:  Chocolate Swirl Crescent Rolls

INGREDIENTS:

1 8oz can of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls 

Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

Powdered Sugar

Step 1.  Preheat oven at 375 degrees.

Step 2.  Separate your refrigerated crescent roll dough into 8 triangles.

Step 3.  Drizzle Hershey's Chocolate Syrup onto an unrolled triangle of dough.  (How much is up to you, but if you use too much chocolate syrup, it will run out onto your baking pan.)

Step 4.  Loosely roll the triangle of dough starting at the widest point.  Then curve the rolled dough into a crescent shape and place on a baking sheet.  (I like to line my baking sheet with aluminum foil because any chocolate that runs out may burn.)

Step 5.  Repeat Steps #3 and #4 with the remaining 7 triangles of dough.

Step 6.  Bake for 8 to 11 minutes or until the crescents start to brown.  (Remember not to over-bake, which may cause your crescents to come out hard and possibly dry.)

Step 7.  Allow crescents to cool for 2 minutes.  Then dust them with powdered sugar.

Serve these easy-to-make Chocolate Swirl Crescents warm.  They are perfect for anyone who does not like their treats to be too sweet.  I might try to make these with some of the other flavors of Hershey's Syrup in the future.

All ingredients were purchased with my own funds and no compensation was received for sharing this recipe with my readers.

Easy Recipe: Hugs & Kisses Mini Pies

I made these little pies over the holidays after being inspired by Jenny's Kiss Pies on the Picky Palate blog.  The few things I had changed about the recipe are that mine use both Hershey's Hugs and Hershey's Kisses, I used a different brand of refrigerated pie crust, and I tried to raise the seams on top of my mini pies to make them resemble stars . . . not sure if I succeeded there though.  Regardless, they seemed to be a big hit at Christmas dinner, so I thought they might be suitable for a Valentine's Day dessert as well because of the hugs and kisses theme.

(Click any photo to enlarge)

Recipe:  Hugs & Kisses Mini Pies

INGREDIENTS:

1 package of two refrigerated pie crusts

12 Hershey's Kisses (unwrapped)

12 Hershey's Hugs (unwrapped)

1 egg

1 Tbsp water
granulated white sugar

powdered sugar
nonstick cooking spray

Step 1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2.  Unroll one room temperature pie crust on a large piece of wax paper.  Cut out a dozen 3" circles using a cookie cutter, glass, or an egg poacher like I did.  You will need to combine and roll out the scraps of dough to make the last 2 or 3 circles.

Step 3.  Place a single Hershey's Hugs or Hershey's Kisses in the center of each circle.  Then wrap two sides of the dough up and around the candy, pinching the two edges together.  Repeat this with the remaining two sides.  Then seal in the candy by pinching all the seams together.  Place the formed mini pie on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil sprayed lightly with cooking spray.

Step 4.  Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the second refrigerated pie crust.

Step 5.  Separate the egg white from the yolk.  Discard the yolk and whisk together the egg white with a tablespoon of water.

Step 6.  Lightly brush the top of each mini pie with the egg wash.

Step 7.  Lightly sprinkle granulated white sugar on each mini pie.

Step 8.  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the crust has browned to your taste.  Once they start to brown, you should watch them carefully because they go from a little brown to very brown quite quickly.

Step 9.  After the mini pies are completely cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar.  I used a mini spoon-size strainer, but you can use a sifter also.

For a large party, I doubled this recipe to create 48 mini pies.  Because of the raised seams, these browned more quickly on top than Jenny's original Kiss Pies.  Like I said, they were a huge hit.  They are very tasty and I do think people feel less guilty to indulge in a miniature pie than to take part in full-size servings of pies, cakes, and cookies.


All ingredients for this recipe were purchased with our own funds and no compensation was received for sharing this recipe with our readers.

Easy Recipe: Sausage-Onion-Pepper Scoops

This is a super-easy contraption that I created by accident.  I figured it would be a tasty finger food to create for Super Bowl Sunday, so I thought I would share it.  We often make sausages with onions and peppers to either serve whole on sub rolls or cut into pieces on top of rice.  Well one night, my sausages and veggies were almost cooked perfectly, but I did not realize we were out of rice until I opened the cupboard.  I was forced to improvise and this is what I came up with . . .

Recipe:  Sausage-Onion-Pepper Scoops

INGREDIENTS:

1 package Sweet or Spicy Italian Sausage

1 large yellow onion

1 large yellow pepper

1 large red pepper

butter

Tostitos Scoops! Tortilla Chips

garlic salt

black pepper (optional)

Step 1.  Slice onion.  Then cute slices into quarters to create short strips.

Step 2.  Melt enough butter to coat the bottom of your frying pan or French skillet.

Step 3.  Add cut onions and cook over medium heat until onions begin to soften, stirring occasionally.  Sprinkle with garlic salt.  Then turn heat to low and allow onions to cook until tender.

Step 4.  While the onions are cooking, cut the peppers into small bite-size pieces.  Then add them to the skillet and sprinkle with garlic salt and black pepper, if desired.  Continue to cook the vegetables on medium-low heat until the peppers start to get tender.

Step 5.  While the peppers are cooking, place your uncooked sausages (approximately 6) on a microwave-safe plate.  Then microwave the sausages for 3 minutes on high or until there is very little red visible on the outside of the sausages.

Step 6.  Add the whole sausages to the skillet and continue to cook on medium heat until sausages are fully cooked.  You can cut them open to check for redness in the centers.

Step 7.  When sausage is thoroughly cooked, remove them and cut them into small chunks and combine them with the onions and peppers.

Step 8.  Fill a large plate or platter with empty unbroken Tostitos Scoops! Tortilla Chips.  Then fill each cup with the sausage, onions, and peppers.  It is important for taste and presentation for you to put some of each in every cup, including both colors of peppers.

These should be served freshly assembled because they taste best warm.  Also, the cups will eventually soften from the moisture of the vegetables.  If you have extra filling, you can refrigerate it and save it for a snack the next day.  You can also make this the day before and reheat the filling right before serving.

It is difficult to say how many the recipe yields because I served it to my family as a meal and did not think to keep count at the time.  I must say that my children loved it!  They found it much easier to eat than a whole sausage and peppers on a roll.  If you try this recipe, let me know how you like it.



All ingredients for this recipe were purchased with our own funds and no compensation was received for sharing this recipe with our readers.

Tyson Any'tizers Made Girl's Night In Fun & Easy

Tyson is a long-trusted company that primarily makes chicken and chicken-related products. Tyson had offered to send me a Super Bowl Party package for the mega-popular football game, but due to bad weather conditions in my area, the package didn’t make it on time. Tyson graciously allowed me to keep the package, which included full-value coupons for Tyson products and a $50 gift card for supplies, and to use it for another event.  So I hosted a "Girl’s Night In" for some friends.

For the party, I made Tyson Any’tizers, which included Tequila Lime Flavored Chicken Wings, Popcorn Chicken, Buffalo Style Popcorn Chicken, and QuesaDippers Fajita Chicken and Cilantro Lime Salsa, as well as a fruit tray, a chocolate fondue fountain, and some mixed drinks, all purchased with my gift card from Tyson. The party was a hit and the Tyson foods were delicious. I really, really liked the QuesaDippers, but the chicken products were really good too. The Buffalo popcorn chicken was much better than I expected and the sauce wasn’t too spicy, in my opinion. My husband, who came along and devoured our leftovers later, loved the Tequila Lime Wings. As expected, Tyson delivered with great, high quality products that were delicious.

If you haven't already, you are invited to become a fan of Tyson Any’tizers on Facebook. You can purchase Tyson products at most major grocers.  To learn more, visit Tyson.com .

Thank you to Tyson for sending us complimentary product vouchers and a gift card to help facilitate this review.

Ruby Tuesday: Petit Fours

After knowing my husband for 15 years, I just recently discovered that he has a weakness for petit fours. It just goes to show that there is still more to learn about each other, even after ten years of marriage.

The petit fours shown below with the red on top have red velvet cake inside, but my favorites are the ones directly behind them. Those have lemon cake inside. YUM!

If you'd like to see more Ruby Tuesday photos, go visit Mary at Work of the Poet!

Ruby Tuesday: Onion Strings

I bet you were expecting to see red onions, but that's not what we have here. These are seasoned fried onion strings. They are so delicious that regular onion rings pale by comparison. I could just sit and eat a barrel full of these. Who cares how I'll feel afterwards, right?

If you'd like to see more Ruby Tuesday photos, go visit Mary at Work of the Poet!

A New Discovery . . . TOSTITOS Creamy Spinach Dip

Recently, Frito-Lay sent us an assortment of snacks . . . some better-for-you and some better-for-the-environment. Included in the package were Lay's Lightly Salted Potato Chips, Multigrain Tortilla Chips, and Multigrain Sun Chips in a 100% compostable bag. Normally, I opt for chips with some type of flavoring, so for plain chips like these, I required some kind of dip. So I asked my husband to pick up some while he was out.

My husband loves salsa and Salsa Con Queso, but he knew I liked more traditional creamy dips. He ended up coming upon something perfect at BJ's Wholesale Club . . . a 3pk of dip containing salsa, con queso, and something I had never seen before . . . Tostitos Creamy Spinach Dip. At first I thought it would be similar to spinach artichoke dip, but it was more like onion dip with spinach added. I was very pleased with this threesome because there is something for everyone in the family.

Visit FritLay.com to see what other snacks are available in lightly salted, low-fat, and multigrain versions.

Thank you to Frito-Lay for sending us complimentary samples to base this article upon.