Wicked-Good Pizza Muffins - Perfect for school!

My 4 year old just started Junior Kindergarten. Tomorrow she's going on her first field trip to an apple orchard to learn about apples and go on a wagon ride. Normally she eats lunch at daycare before they take her to her afternoon class at school, but tomorrow, the kids are all required to bring a lunch to the farm and the weather is supposed to be fairly warm. My first choice would have been a peanut butter and jam sandwich but all the schools and childcare facilities here have no nut policies so that won't work.

I sat here thinking about what else I could send with her that might be able to stand a few hours out of the fridge. I came up with nothing off the top of my head so I headed online to visit my friend Google. Google turned up a recipe for Pizza Muffins. What kid doesn't like pizza?!

I'm drooling.

Ready to go into the oven.

All done and ready to eat!

Just look at that crispy cheesy goodness!

Lunch is packed. If they were staying indoors, I probably wouldn't put an ice pack in, but since they'll be outside all day and I don't know how hot it'll get, I'll put the ice pack in just in case. I'll also freeze the juice so when she goes to drink it it'll be nice and cool.

Wicked-Good Pizza Muffins - Perfect for school!

Adapted from CANADIAN family.

Makes 20 mini muffins

Ingredients

• 1/8 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon pizza sauce
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese cubes (Mine was heaping! I love cheese.)
• 1/4 cup minced red bell pepper
• more pizza sauce
• 1 mozzarella string cheese, cut into 20 pieces

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray or line 20 cups on a mini muffin pan. You may be able to get 6 regular muffins if you want. Just adjust the cooking time accordingly. 20 minutes should do it.
2. In a large bowl, mix butter, egg, 1 tablespoon pizza sauce and yogurt until well combined.
3. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Add dried basil and oregano. Mix the dry into the wet just until combined.
4. Stir in the cheddar cheese and minced pepper. It will be thick, almost like a dough.
5. Divide the batter into 20 muffin cups. Drop 1/2 a teaspoon of pizza sauce onto each one and top with a piece of the string cheese.
6. Bake for 15 minutes until bubbly.
7. Apparently they freeze well according to the original recipe, but I plan to eat them all by the end of day tomorrow. Yum yum yum! I'll share them with my family and send some to the farm of course!