Pizza Muffins (Easy Lunchbox Recipe)
Looking for a fun back to school lunch idea that you can prepare ahead of time and pop into a lunchbox during the week? Try these savory, crowd and kid pleasing stuffed pizza muffins – an easy alternative to traditional sandwiches! Plus, you can customize the toppings based on what your kids enjoy.
Pizza Muffins
yield: 6 SERVINGS
prep time: 10 MINUTES
cook time: 20 MINUTES
total time: 30 MINUTES
Easy pizza muffin recipe that are great school lunch and easy to make as a quick snack. Adapted from My Little Gourmet
Ingredients
- 1 Pizza Dough 13.8 oz (I used a Pillsbury whole grain version) or homemade dough
- 1 cup Pizza Sauce
- 3/4 cup Mini Pepperoni (or any pizza toppings your kids love)
- 1 cup Mozzarella Cheese
Directions
1
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2
Unroll dough on a cutting board or baking sheet.
3
Spoon sauce over the top of dough and then sprinkle cheese and pepperoni (or any other toppings) on top.
4
Cut dough in half, and roll up each side. Then cut each long roll in six slices.
5
Put the slices in a well greased muffin pan with the pinwheel side facing up. Sprinkle with a little additional cheese and pepperoni if desired.
6
Bake at 400 degrees according to dough instructions for about 15-20 minutes (mine took about 18 minutes).
7
When done, let cool and then use a knife to cut around the edges and remove from pan. Makes 12 muffins.
Serve when cool or freeze for later in an airtight container or bag. I pack lunches the night before, so I’ll just take a couple from the freezer, place in the fridge with the rest of the lunch items and they will be all ready to go in the morning.
Pair one or two pizza muffins with your kiddo’s favorite fruits or veggies and you have a quick and fun lunch. Keep this recipe in mind for a great, simple party appetizer as well – perfect football watching food.
Could you just put them in muffin wrappers before baking for easy removal?
Yes! Great idea!
Thank you! My oldest is going to 1st grade so this is just what I need:) Please share more lunch ideas so rookie lunch packers like myself can get some ideas!
Thanks for your feedback! We shared another savory mini corn dog muffin that would be perfect also for lunchboxes here:
https://hip2save.com/2014/01/24/mini-corn-dog-muffins-recipe/
And Collin shared some awesome tips in a video last year in case you haven’t seen it!
https://hip2save.com/2013/09/25/video-how-to-save-money-time-on-school-lunches/
Also, I’ve used string cheeses for easy rolling and good cheese proportions.
Thank you. I will be trying this recipe. My 3rd grader wants to take lunch to school this years.
Does anyone have any tips on finding cheap deals on cheese (any variety)?
If you live near a Harris teeter keep an eye out for their buy 2, get 3 free sales. Every few months they offer their store brand of shredded cheese, so it makes it about $6 for 5 packages. I buy up all 10 packages I’m allowed and freeze most 🙂
I second the freezing. Shredded cheese freezes very well. I stock up when a bag is less then $2 for 2 cups!
Fred Meyer every couple weeks has 3 for $5 for Kroger cheese… Than Safeway often has sale B1G1F for cheese… HTH
I live on the east cost with limited shops…target, pathmark, whole foods, trader joes. 5-6 dollars a pound is expensive, so currently we are going without.
Don’t suppose anyone mail orders cheese? I was thinking I could freeze it somehow.
we get the cheapest cheddar chunk block from costco, i think it is a 2.5 pound block for $5, i shred it, then freeze in ziplock bags. hth
Sam’s Club is the cheapest where I live. It’s about $2.50 a pound.
Thank you.
Aldi’s has great prices on dairy products.
You are right Nevin, and they have lots of cheese, including shredded!
Gr8 recipe Lina! You are just awesome. Can you please share some tips on maintaining kitchen and pantry?
Thanks
More lunchbox recipe postings PLEASE!
great after school snack.
Thank you for the innovative lunch idea! Keep ’em coming. 🙂 Anyone have suggestions on how to keep lunches warm?? I’ve done a little research on pinterest. Most suggest pouring boiling water into a thermos to warm inside. Leave for a few minutes then poor out. Heat food item and place in warmed up thermos, will stay warm for a few hours. Anyone tried this? Have any other suggestions.
That is the method that I use to warm the Thermos. My daughter has always said that food stays warm.
We do the same thing and my daughter also says it’s still warm at lunch time. I have even done a burrito, cut it in half and wrap in aluminum foil before putting in preheated thermos. She loves those:)
Great idea!
Where were you when I had a super picky kiddo in elementary school? He’s now a junior in high school and will eat anything.
I’m trying these for sure! Look yummy!
Ha I know! My kids are picky too and I dislike when food comes back in the lunchbox. I hope they outgrow!
I saw a similar recipe in Kiwi magazine but these look even better. Kiwi had some other good lunchbox ideas too, fyi for those who mentioned needing more.
Kraft has lots of coupons right now for cheese. And hormel pepperoni is $1 at dollar tree. One jar of pizza sauce would probly make a couple batches or more.
So much better than lunchables pizza. I usually put blended up spinach in a store bought sauce for kids pizza. Stretches it a little bit and makes it a little healthier.
Great idea! I’m trying that
I am definitely going to try these. I sometimes use whole wheat English muffins, put on some pizza sauce and some cheese and heat in the toaster oven then either use immediately or freeze for later. My son says they aren’t bad cold!
LOVE THIS! My son has food allergies and can only eat food from home. I try to come up with fun foods for him using safe ingredients–and he will love these little pizza bites! Thanks Lina!
Thanks Lina 🙂 I use puff pastry or fillo dough and do similar like this:-) But there is more coupon for Pillsbury;-)
Oh yum good idea too!
Yay! I love peanut free lunch ideas
Great ideas, my daughter is going to love these!
Has anyone tried making something like this gluten-free? TIA
I make gluten free biscuits with GF Bisquick and then make pizzas out of them, she loves it
I’ve made these and the ham pinwheels recipe with the Trader Joes whole wheat pizza crust!!! $1.69 and healthy!!!
can you freeze these?
Yes! Place in an air tight container. Thaw the night before you want to use them in the fridge.
Yes! I make several batches of each kind for lunches on Sundays and freeze them to use during the week!!! Great and healthy time saver😄.
I use pesto as pizza sauce
and I never buy shredded cheese anymore, a friend told me casin(spelling may be wrong) is added to shredded cheese to prevent clumping and it is not anything you want to eat
My sister recently told me this about shredded cheese, so now I get block cheese and shred it myself. It freezes just as well and there are normally coupons for block cheese 🙂
Sams is the cheapest for me to. I buy blocks and shred the chesse in the food processor and frezze on a cookie sheet. It’s easy and I always have cheese. I love this idea.. Who does love pizza.. Need easy this yr.. All my 3 babies are starting school…..:(
Thank you for this! Def honing to try. Also the thermos heating is supper helpful! I tried sending Pizza Rolls for my son who’s super picky but they just turned soggy. 🙁 so I’m going to make this and cross my fingers! But I have a question do I just heat the term is them wrap them up or ???
Going to try these today for lunch and see how they go over. One of my kids is picky so just a little sauce and just cheese. Thanks!
Use foil liners if you use them, and spray them a little. I only had 6 foil liners and the other 6 kinda stuck to the paper ones. But they were yummy and kids liked them!
I should have read to the bottom of the comments! I just made these and used paper. It was a mess! A delicious mess though! Next time I’ll just use my oldest muffin tin and spray it.
Anyone try these using a mini-muffin tin?
Just made them in mini tins. They are amazing, bite-sized deliciousness. Baked at 400 for about 15 minutes. I was able to get 48 out of the exact same recipe!!
wow that sounds great!! i like the bite size idea a LOT! thanks for sharing
Me too!
How do you cut them to get 48? are they too smal to roll?
can I make the recommendation that you include the recipe pictures in the printable file? That would really be helpful in recipes like this on.
Hey,
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! I think this is a great and easy dish to make! I think this could also be a great way to sneak veggies into a kid’s diet by adding some peppers to the mix! Having easy meals like this that you can prepare ahead of time is a great tool to keep your mental health at ease on stressful mornings!
Best,
Dennis
Do you send this to school cold or warm them and then in a thermos?