Pizza Archives - Insanity Is Not An Option

Stuffed Pizza Skulls | Pizza Pockets

Let these Stuffed Pizza Skulls be the star of the Halloween party this year. Simple to make and frightfully delicious, these pizza pockets will impress any ghoulish crowd.

Hosting a Halloween dinner party?

My family loves Halloween. Although insanity is not an option, during the Halloween season (you know…from September 1st through October 31st), I kind of walk the line. I go ~~a little~~ totally overboard with decorations. I buy new things each year, online and in stores. I come up with new Halloween crafts to try. I make costumes and I buy costumes. And I plan Halloween menus, as every mother should! This year is a little more overboard than most (I know *gasp*) because it’s Bubby’s 10th birthday and he’s going to have a spooktacular costume party birthday bash…at my house…with like 10 to 12, 9 and 10 year old boys. Hold me. Making sure there’s plenty of good and ghoulish food on hand is going to be key to keeping these monsters at bay. These Stuffed Pizza Skulls are most assuredly on the menu!

A skull cakelet everyone needs!

It all started with a Facebook post. A friend posted a video of some super easy stuffed pizza skulls and I went on a mission to find a pan to make this happen. The damned thing was $45 on Amazon. Holy high dollar cakelet, skull man! So I did some more searching and found this beauty (and might I say it’s a super high-quality beauty) on Perigold for just $27. SOLD! Let me just say, this is not a sponsored post and I paid for this out of my pocket. I’d never even heard of Perigold before, but you can bet your witch’s ass I’ll be shopping there again. Super quick shipping, great discounts, high quality, and they have so. much. stuff! Note: You do have to pay shipping, but it was still WAY cheaper than Amazon (I know, I’m shocked too!).

Tips for making perfect stuffed pizza skulls!

Knowing I couldn’t let down a group of 9 to 10 year old boys (kids are mean, y’all), we decided to do a test run. They came out pretty good for a first shot, but here are some tips I wasn’t smart enough to figure out the first time.

Don’t overstuff. Look, I’m an over stuffer. We’re talking pizza and you can never have enough sauce or cheese. Never. Except with these Halloween pizza pockets. If you use more than the quantities listed in the recipe, you’ll have blowouts (see above photo on the left – those are the just cheese pizza skulls that I overstuffed).
Lay the pizza dough into all 6 cavities as soon as you cut it. If you try to do these one at a time, the dough gets pretty hard to work with and stretch.
If you’re making multiple varieties of these pizza pockets – we made 2 cheese, 2 ham and cheese, 2 pepperoni and cheese, place the pizza pockets with the meat in them in the outside slots. They cook better that way and the ones in the middle, with just cheese, won’t burn up.

Stuffed Pizza Skulls

Course Appetizer

Keyword stuffed pizza skulls

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 6

Author Christy

Ingredients

1 can prepared rolled pizza dough
1.5 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
6 tsp Parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup pizza sauce
18 slices pepperoni
1-2 tbsp Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb Seasoning

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Spray skull mold with nonstick spray. Set aside.
Unroll pizza dough and stretch or roll into a 21x 8-inch rectangle with the long edge closest to you. Cut into six even strips.
Lay dough into skull cavities, press down lightly, and leave flaps over pan for closing the pizza pockets.
Into each cavity, layer 1 tablespoon shredded mozzarella, 1 tablespoon of grated parmesan, 1 tablespoon pizza sauce, 3 pepperoni, another tablespoon sauce, 1 more tablespoon mozzarella, and a sprinkle of seasoning.
Fold dough over fillings and pinch dough together to seal, making sure edges are sealed tightly. Repeat for the five remaining pizza pockets.
Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven and let cool slightly, flip plan onto serving platter.
Serve with warmed pizza sauce and additional Parmesan cheese for topping.

Recipe Notes

You can use any topping you like instead of the pepperoni. Try chunked ham, diced veggies, or just add a little shredded cheddar in for a 3-cheese pizza pocket.

More freakishly fun food ideas:

We can’t wait to make these Stuffed Pizza Skulls again and I’m sure your little goblins will love them as much as mine do! We’ll also be serving up bloody witch fingers (mini sausages in BBQ sauce), Pizza Dough Spider Dip Bowls, Bloody Shirley Temples, and Eyeball Chili. What’s on your Halloween dinner party menu? I’d love to hear in the comments below. Recipe links are more than welcome!

25-Minute, 5-Ingredient Pizza Dip Recipe

By Christy Leave a Comment

You haven’t lived until you’ve tried this 5-Ingredient Pizza Dip recipe. Be forewarned, this 25-minute appetizer is highly addictive so get ready to make a batch or two for your next gathering. It’s the perfect football party food!

This simple Pizza Dip recipe is a family favorite of ours. No, it’s not low sodium (at all) like most of my recipes. This easy 5-ingredient dip is the reason cheat days were invented – for us anyway. It’s our go-to addiction for just about anything. Football Sunday? Friends coming over? Having a bbq and the food won’t be ready for a while? Rainy, depressing Saturday and we’re stuck indoors? All of these scenarios always lead to the same answer…PIZZA DIP! Luckily this simple recipe only requires five ingredients plus some spices that I typically have on hand. It pairs with just about any hearty chip too, so that’s never a big deal. It’s ooey, gooey, and oh-so-good.

This pizza dip is all about the layers!

In case you don’t know, cheese is my favorite food group, and pizza is my all-time favorite food. That makes this simple appetizer the best thing since sliced bread (don’t get me started on bread and carbs…also favorites!). The beauty of this dip is not only how delicious it tastes, but how easy it is to make. No fuss here. Just start layering, put it in the oven, let the magic melting happen, and enjoy!

Layer 1: Cream Cheese

I use Philadelphia Spicy Jalapeño Cream Cheese Spread because we like things with a kick. If you’re not a fan of spicy, you can use plain or another flavor variety. Just layer it in the bottom of a baking dish.

Layer 2: The Marinara

Use whatever marinara you’d like for this. For pasta dishes, I always make my totally-from-scratch marinara and I use that if there’s any in the fridge or freezer. Usually, though, for this quick indulgence, I go with a jarred variety and always keep Prego Lower Sodium Sauce on hand.

Layer 3: My favorite food group!

Top the sauce with some cheese. I use a mix of mozzarella, colby jack, and parmesan, then I sprinkle a little Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb seasoning over the layer for added flavor. You can never have enough garlic!

Layer 4: More sauce!

Pizza isn’t pizza unless it’s saucy and this dip is no exception. That second layer of sauce is a must!

Layer 5: More cheese please!

As with all good pizza (dips), they need to be topped with cheese, glorious cheese. This final layer is the one that gets all crispy and bubbly which is always the best part! Then you just put the dish in a 350ºF preheated oven, set the timer to 20 minutes, then once the timer goes off, leave it in the oven for another five minutes because that’s when the browning happens.

Who’s hungry?

All that’s left to do is grab some bagel or pita chips or crackers and hope you can wait long enough for it to cool down before digging in. That last part is pretty important because this golden concoction comes out hot and bubbly. I may or may not have burned my tongue a couple of times…just to test the batch to make sure it was ready for everyone else, of course!

5-Ingredient Pizza Dip Recipe

Author: Christy

Recipe type: Appetizer

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Ingredients

1 7.5-oz cream cheese spread
1.5 cup marinara sauce (adjust to how saucy you like it)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
½ cup shredded colby jack cheese
⅓ cup shredded parmesan cheese
Optional: Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb Seasoning to taste
For serving: Pita chips, crackers, or bagel chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 35ºF.
Spread the cream cheese in the bottom of a baking dish.
Top with a layer of marinara.
Add a layer of mozzarella, colby jack, and parmesan.
Sprinkle with seasoning if using.
Add another layer of sauce.
Top with cheese mixture and sprinkle with seasoning again.
Place in middle rack in preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Allow the dip to sit in the oven for another 5 minutes after the heat has been turned off, until the entire dip is bubbly and the top is golden brown.
Remove from oven, let cool about 10 minutes, serve with chips and crackers.

There you have it. Your new favorite dip is as simple as (pizza) pie. If you’d like a meatier version, top with some pepperoni or precooked ground hamburger. You can also top it with your favorite diced veggies if you want to add even more flavor and texture. Just be sure to adjust the baking time up a bit if you’re adding more ingredients. I assure you, no matter how you serve it, no one can resist this simply delightful dip!

No Yeast Homemade Pizza Dough {Low Sodium}

By Christy 24 Comments

Last night I wanted pizza. Actually, I wanted homemade low sodium pizza. I looked around the kitchen and found everything I’d need EXCEPT yeast. I mean you need yeast to make pizza dough right? I’ve been making this for years and you HAVE to have it. Well, that’s what I thought anyway. Really yeast is entirely overrated when it comes to making pizza dough and it was much quicker to make it this way and it tasted better! Pinky swear.

When I realized (seriously, I swear I live under a rock sometimes) that by adding only 17 grams of yeast to my pizza dough, I was also adding 18 calories, 5 mg of sodium, and 3 grams of carbs. That’s craziness. So I set out to make the dough without the yeast to make our pizza even better on the heart, the hearing, and the waistline.

All you need are 3 simple ingredients you already have in your pantry, plus water (yields 1-12″ pizza):

1.5 cups bread flour
2 tbsp Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb (or any no sodium seasoning of choice)
2 + 1 tbsp Olive Oil (you’ll need to separate them out)
1/2 cup water

Mixed the dry ingredients together, add in the water and 2 tbsp of olive oil, mix. Knead the dough for a few minutes and form a ball.

Place the dough ball on a pizza stone or pan, pour the other tbsp of olive oil over the dough. I know a lot of people use flour to roll out their dough but we don’t like the texture that gives it so I use olive oil instead.

Roll it out. I use a rolling pin because I feel like June Cleaver or something. You can do this with your hands just as well.

Crimp up the sides of your dough to form the well for all of your fabulous toppings. Prebake the dough in the over for 5 minutes at 425 degrees.

Cover with sauce. You can either make your own like my Low Sodium Marinara Sauce or you can use your favorite jarred sauce (that will significantly increase the sodium content in this recipe though). Then top with whatever meats and veggies you like. I put 2 Tyson Crispy Chicken Strips in the microwave for 1.5 minutes, just long enough to thaw them so I could chop them up, and added jalapenos for a little zing.

Then top with your cheeses of choice. I always put the cheese on top of the other toppings so that it melts more evenly.

Bake the pizza on the center rack of your oven for 20 minutes (for a crispier crust and well cooked cheese which is how I like mine) or 15 minutes (if you like your cheese less brown and all melty, which is how B likes his) at 425 degrees. That’s it. Low sodium, no yeast pizza deliciousness.

Serve with peppers and a side salad if you’d like, and ENJOY!