An Easy Dinner: Pizza Balls

Life's been busy lately. Relay for Life went well and I am still waiting on the verdict of my volunteer program. I am still hoping and still have my fingers crossed for good news! We planned out the Memorial Day grilling feast and will attend a concert in the park later in the evening. It should be a good time. Otherwise just the same ol' same ol' around here!

The funny thing about this post is that it was delayed because of the pictures. Of all things, the pictures. Just let that sink in for a few moments. I didn't feel like adding the text into the photos so I put it off... and thus... a later post then I wanted. Oops. Hopefully the minor delay has you craving some delicious food!


 From the title of this post, you might be thinking "Pizza balls? What are those?" Well my friends, they are delicious pockets of pizza goodness. I have seen multiple versions of pizza balls floating around on Pinterest and I wanted to see what the hype was all about. Oddly enough, I tried the recipe that isn't pinned as often. *shrug* I really don't know why it isn't pinned more. This recipe is delicious and simple! I like to use this recipe when I am out of ideas or when I just don't feel like doing anything extravagant. I made one batch with cheese and another batch with cheese and sausage. I definitely liked the second batch better, but the cheesy ones oozed cheesy deliciousness!

The best part about these pizza balls? They are totally customizable! If you want pineapple, then add some! Ham? Throw that in too! Onions? Just use them! You get my point. If you don't want meat, then by all means feel free to exclude it. If you don't want to use meat, then definitely add other toppings of your choice to make these super delicious.

Pizza Balls (Pinterest)

Ingredients:

• Canned biscuits
• Garlic powder
• Mozzarella or Italian blend shredded cheese
• Other toppings (onions, pineapple, peppers, sausage crumbles, bacon, etc.) 
• Marinara sauce (for dipping), optional

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to the temperature stated on the biscuits.
2. Put each topping into a bowl.
3. Take out each biscuit and stretch it out some to make a thinner circle. 
4. Take out one biscuit and sprinkle some garlic powder on it. Remember, you want enough to make it taste pizza-like, but you don't want it to explode with garlic powder either.
5. Add your toppings and cheese into the middle of the biscuit and then seal the edges together. Roll it back into a ball shape if necessary.
6. Roll the outside of your pizza balls in cheese or toppings, if desired. 
7. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the tops are lightly browned. 
8. Serve with marinara sauce, if desired, and enjoy! 

Have you ever made a recipe that you found on Pinterest? How did it go? Let me know with a comment below! 

Love it? Hate it? Want to make it? Let me know what you think with a comment below!

As always...

Bon appétit!

Stuffed Mushrooms: A delicious appetizer

Yikes! April just seemed to fly by! For Cinco de Mayo I made turkey tacos and chicken taquitos. It was delicious and a great mini-celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Really, any excuse to eat Mexican food is good in my book! Life's been about the same. I got taco seasoning for free the other day because of a coupon and a good sale. Woohoo!

We didn't do much for Mother's day, but we did get mom a card and a hammock. She was happy. We had homemade burgers, baked beans, pasta salad, veggies, and fruit for dinner. It was so yummy!

The recipe for today doesn't take as long as you might expect (especially after seeing how many steps this recipe includes). As usual, I tweaked the recipe a bit... mostly because I didn't have cayenne pepper the first time I made them. Mom actually preferred the tweaked recipe instead of the normal recipe. She decided that the cayenne pepper gave them a bit too much kick for her tastes. As usual, use what you believe you can handle and you can have the spicy level you want. :) The best part about Allrecipes is that you can tweak the recipe according to how much of one ingredient you have (example: It will tweak the recipe for you so you don't have to calculate how much of everything you will need for only 6 mushrooms).

Stuffed Mushrooms (recipe from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

• 12 whole, fresh mushrooms (I used white mushrooms and baby bella mushrooms) 
• 1 TBSP vegetable oil or any neutral oil
• 1 TBSP minced garlic (approximately 3 cloves of garlic)
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 TBSP bread crumbs, optional
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. onion powder (I used dried and chopped onion)
• 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne pepper (I used red pepper flakes for a little less heat)

Instructions:

1. Clean your mushrooms. Dampen a paper towel and wipe off any dirt. I don't suggest rinsing the mushrooms directly under the faucet because they are supposed to turn out less tender. 
2. Carefully break off the stews of your mushrooms and put to the side. 
3. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
4. Lightly spray a muffin tin with cooking spray or use some vegetable oil to oil the muffin cups.
5. Place your mushroom caps into the muffin tin.
6. Finely chop the mushrooms stems.
7. Heat tablespoon of oil in a pan and then add the garlic and chopped mushrooms stems. Cook until garlic and mushrooms are fragrant and the mushrooms have shrunk some. Be careful not to brown the garlic! Set aside to cool.
8. In a bowl, combine the cream cheese, Parmesan, pepper, onion powder, bread crumbs (if you are using them), and ground cayenne pepper. Add the garlic and mushroom stems once it has cooled. 
9. Spoon a generous amount of filling into each mushroom cap.
10. Bake for 20 minutes or until mushrooms are hot and liquid is forming under the caps.  

If you need to tweak this recipe, feel free to do so. I took the other recipe and tweaked it to make delicious mushrooms! 

Did you do anything special for Mother's day? Let me know with a comment below! 

Love it? Hate it? Want to make it? Let me know what you think with a comment below!

As always...

Bon appétit!