Meatball Bites aka Pizza Pites

As you may already know, we just moved into a new home and we are in the transition period. We have some amazing friends, some who came and helped us to unpack the majority of our house (unplanned) in a day, and others who brought us a meal Tuesday. I have been struggling with some concerning health problems over the last two weeks and it has made it difficult for me to handle getting some proper meals prepared for the family. Needless to say, I was in need of a "quick fix" meal for the kiddos last night when my husband was at the church helping build a new stage set and I was at home with three of the four, handling homework, finishing a paid creation, and wrangling Little Man while he was throwing his temper tantrums...

 I knew that I had the ingredients to make this recipe I had come across on Pinterest a couple weeks ago, so I decided it would be easy enough to attempt. Thus, you have before you "Pizza Bites" as they will be called in our house. The original pin leads to Kathie Cooks - Meatball Bubble Biscuits. Here is a picture of Kathie's Bubble Biscuits:

To make the recipe as directed for 10 Pizza Bites, you need the following ingredients. 

5 Italian style "fully-cooked"meatballs (defrosted and cut in half)

***The original recipe calls for 10 meatballs cut in half, but there are only enough of the other ingredients to make 10 total, not 20, so I assumed she meant 5 cut in half***

2 sticks of mozzarella string cheese (cut into 5 pieces each)

1 can of Pillsbury flaky layers biscuits (5 count)

approximately 1 cup marinara or pizza sauce

garlic powder

onion powder

grated Parmesan cheese

italian seasonings (I used basil)

EVOO

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. First, in case you didn't pay attention (like I didn't when I first read the recipe), make sure you have thawed out the meatballs before using them. I threw them in a small bowl and used the "defrost" feature on the microwave. Then, cut them in half. 

I didn't have string cheese since my kids already ate all of them, but I did have a small block of mozzarella cheese, so I cut up 10 small cubes of cheese. 

Next, peel apart each of the 5 biscuits into 2 pieces, totaling 10 biscuits. Look for the estimated halfway mark in each one and slowly mess with it until it starts to separate. 

Then you place a chunk of cheese in the center of a biscuit, top it with a halved meatball, and bring all of the sides/ends in. Pinch it good so it doesn't open when cooking. Place them in a cake pan (I used a regular 9" pan) and space them out. 

Next, you will need to splash a little EVOO on top of each pizza bite so that it browns nicely and keeps it from drying out. 

Then sprinkle a little of each of the seasonings you are using onto the pizza bites as well as a little bit of grated Parmesan cheese.

The blog recipe said to bake for 18-20 minutes, but mine came out a little overdone. I would recommend about 16-18 minutes at max to avoid this. Let them cool 1-2 minutes before serving as they are VERY hot inside. 

Serve with a little bit of the sauce you chose (warmed up) on the side. 

My kids loved these things and they were really easy, even considering I had a screaming baby in the kitchen with me. :) I would definitely recommend them to others, especially parents with young kids. From start to finish, it only took about 30 to make. I will be making this again, and I think I want to change a few things. Maybe having alternate "toppings" like canadian bacon, pepperoni, bell peppers, etc. Things you would like on a pizza, you know? Definitely a keeper, this one!