Sunday, July 31, 2011

Cooking with the Kids: Bagel Pizzas and Root Beer Floats

As most of you know, I have 3 daughters, 2 of them are old enough to help out in the kitchen. They absolutely love to help me cook and they both have a lot to say about what I should put on my blog. I realize that there are a lot of kids out there with dairy intolerance or allergies, and I like to share recipes and meal ideas that are kid friendly. So I am going to do (hopefully) a weekly, or close to weekly series of posts that will feature cooking with my kids. So here's the first one for you.



Yesterday while we were out grocery shopping my oldest daughter completely shocked me and asked if we could get some bagel pizzas. I was shocked for two reasons: 1.She's my little health nut in the family, and 2.she didn't used to like pizza. Obviously we can't eat the premaid ones in the box, so my husband and I thought it would be fun to make our own for dinner. So we grabbed some Pepperidge Farm mini bagels (they are dairy free) and some fresh pepperoni. (I already had the veggie shred cheese in the fridge).

I make my own pizza sauce- it's super easy, better for you, and you can control what is in it.

Ingredients:
1 can plain tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 package Pepperidge Farm plain mini bagels
1 package pepperoni of your choice ( we used Trader Joes)
1 package dairy free cheese of your choice- Veggie Shreds is my favorite, Daiya is a good one too.




Directions:
1.Preheat the oven to 350F. Cover a baking sheet with foil ( makes for easier clean up). Place the bagel halves on the sheet, cut side up. Put them in the oven to toast, for about 10 minutes.


2. While the bagels are toasting, put your sauce together. Mix the sauce, tomato paste, oregano, and garlic powder together in a small sauce pan. Cook on medium heat until it begins to bubble, stirring often to prevent burning.


3.Once the bagels are lightly toasted, remove them from the oven and start adding your toppings. Since the bagels are so small, I used a pastry brush to put the sauce on-it worked really well!






Dairy free cheese alternatives do not melt quite the same as regular cheese does. The pizzas will take about 15 minutes, and are done when the cheese is the consistency you like.


For dessert we had a special treat- Root Beer Floats. Trader Joes has the best Vanilla soy ice cream. Since we had already had a fun dinner, we decided to finish it off with a fun, summertime dessert.






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