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Mini Pizza Bites {grain-free, dairy-free option}

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The weather in Colorado is a strange thing. Having spent the majority of my life in Florida, I was used to fairly consistent weather year-round. Our brief stint in Minnesota taught me that there were, in fact, 4 seasons each year. Now that we’re in Colorado, I have discovered it’s possible to have all 4 seasons in one day. Like I said, Colorado weather is strange.

That said, this February has been stranger than normal. Yesterday, Denver set a new high temp record of 73°F. Up here in Fort Collins, we were just shy of 70°. Go back about 2 weeks ago, and we had lows in the single digits and got 2 feet of snow. The funny thing about all this is that back in November, we bought a wood-burning stove. Through a series of unfortunate events (read: the company sent us some wrong parts) we didn’t get a contractor scheduled until Feb 2nd to come help us install it. Wouldn’t you know that’s the day we got the 2 feet of snow. Yeah, cutting a hole in the roof during a blizzard just isn’t going to happen. So we rescheduled it for nearly 2 weeks later. And now that we have our wood stove installed, our forecast is nothing but 60°-70° days. Does that stop us from lighting the fire? Of course not.

So the day the stove was installed, we had about 30 kids at our house. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but it was still a lot of kids. Including our own, I think there were 9 or 10. And lunch time was quickly approaching. I don’t know about you, but when we have non-paleo kids over, I always worry that they’re going to think the food I make is strange and not eat it. So I decided to try and paleo-ize these little pizza bites that I made way back when we were pre-paleo.

Thank goodness for Otto’s Cassava Flour. The reason I never attempted to convert these to grain-free before was because I didn’t have a suitable flour replacement. Almond flour just wouldn’t be right with this recipe. The other problem was getting around adding a ton of cheese because I wanted to keep it dairy free. Fortunately, both of those problems have been solved and all the kids loved these little mini pizzas.

If you’re not dairy-free, definitely add the mozzarella, but trust me when I say these are still cheesy delicious without it. As far as when to eat these pizza bites, might I recommend the following occasions:

  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Appetizer
  • After-School Snack
  • Mid-Day Snack
  • Late-Night Snack
  • Is there ever a bad time for pizza?

You have to be sure you’ve got a really great dipping sauce, because as pizza-y as these are, you still need a great pizza-tasting sauce to dip them in to really complete the flavor. You could make your own, which is a really great option, but to keep this quick and easy, I really prefer a pre-made sauce and the new Thrive Market Tomato Sauces are my absolute favorite. The Tomato Basil Sauce is just the perfect compliment to the pizza bites, but I think the Marinara or Roasted Garlic would be great too. The best thing about Thrive Market’s tomato sauces is that they don’t have any added sugar, because who needs that?!

And just a tip, you might want to make a double or triple batch so you always have these on hand. They refrigerate and freeze well, so they make the perfect snack to just pop in the oven and have ready in under 20 minutes.

Mini Pizza Bites {grain-free, dairy-free option} by Our Paleo Life

Mini Pizza Bites {grain-free, dairy-free option}

Yield: 24 bites
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Sometimes, kids (and adults!) just need some good old comfort food. These mini pizza bites taste just like a pizza, rolled up in one tiny bite-size morsel. The dairy-free version tastes just as cheesy, thanks to the nutritional yeast.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup (90g) Cassava Flour, Otto's - if you don't have a kitchen scale, sift the flour, spoon and level to get a more accurate measurement
  • 3/4 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
  • 1/8 tsp Sea Salt
  • 1/8 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, it's not too spicy, just right for kids
  • 3/4 cup Almond or Cashew milk, or other dairy-free milk
  • 1 Egg
  • 1/2 cup Nutritional Yeast
  • 4 oz (about 1 cup) Pepperoni, diced (see notes)
  • 1/2 cup Grass-Fed Mozzarella, shredded or diced (exclude for dairy-free)
  • 1/2 cup Tomato Sauce, basil

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cassava flour, baking powder, Italian seasoning, salt, red pepper flakes, and nutritional yeast.
  3. Stir in the egg and milk until fully combined. Mix in the pepperoni and mozzarella (if using). Let the batter rest while you grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan. My preferred method is using a pastry brush to coat the cups with melted coconut oil.
  4. Divide the batter evenly between all 24 mini muffin cups. They should be slightly over 3/4 full.
  5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and they have puffed up.
  6. Remove from oven and gently remove them from the muffin pan. Serve hot with the warmed tomato sauce.
  7. Extra pizza bites can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Make-Ahead and Reheating Directions

  1. To Reheat from Frozen: warm in preheated oven/toaster 350°F for about 15 minutes, or until heated through.
  2. To Reheat from Refrigerated: warm in preheated oven/toaster 350°F for about 5 minutes, or until heated through.

Notes

Make sure to carefully read labels when looking for pepperoni. There are some nasty hidden ingredients in some.

Nutrition Information
Yield 24 Serving Size 1 mini pizza
Amount Per Serving Calories 65Total Fat 2gSaturated Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 13mgSodium 150mgCarbohydrates 7gProtein 2g

Nutrition is calculated by a third party and may not be 100% accurate

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Kelly

Friday 28th of July 2017

Can you subsistute tapioca or almond for the cassava flour?

Kendra Benson

Sunday 6th of August 2017

I haven't tested this recipe with either of those substitutions, but they both have very different properties than cassava flour. Tapioca would definitely not be a suitable sub but almond flour might be okay, though the texture will probably be slightly different (and may not hold together as well as it would with cassava).

Kendra Benson

Friday 6th of January 2017

@Esperanza, yes, the link to the Bragg's Nutritional Yeast is correct. It is not like the type of yeast you use in breads, but is light and flaky, kind of like fish food. It has a cheesy flavor and completely replaces the cheese which is why the quantity is higher than you'd expect for a typical seasoning. You can cut back on it the first time if you're not too sure about it though.

Esperanza

Friday 6th of January 2017

Hi, i'd like to try these. is the link for the yeast correct? is it actual yeast or just seasoning? 1/2 cup of seasoning sounds like a lot. Please let me know, thank you.

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