Great Balls of Pizza!

M and I had great fun making "pizzaballs" in the kitchen yesterday.  The plan was just to make a couple of regular pizzas.  I made the dough early in the morning and we waited for it to finish rising.  Actually, we went outside to play while we waited.  After spending a solid hour searching for sparkly rocks and running up and down the hill (with J asleep in her stroller), we came inside inspired.

 To be fair, it was M who decided that he didn't want regular pizza, he wanted "little pizza".  Hence we created this yummy and toddler-friendly variation!  It's not hard to make, but since we made everything from scratch it took a little while longer.  Forgive the lack of measurement; with some ingredients, you just have to play by ear depending on your taste (ie: we love cheese, so we used lots of it as you can see).

PIZZA BALLS

• 1 recipe of pizza dough
• 1 cup pizza or pasta sauce
• cubes of mozarella and/or cheddar cheese
• several fresh mushrooms chopped up 
• any other preffered toppings (zucchini, peppers, olives, onions, pepperoni, etc.)
• a mixture of: 1 tsp sea salt, 3 tsp basil, 4 tsp oregano, and 1 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 400.  Cover a large baking pan with waxed paper and coat it lightly with olive oil (or spray with cooking oil).  Take a ping-pong-sized amount of dough and flatten it into a circle.  Spoon a small quantity of sauce and mushrooms (*and any other veggies) into the middle.  Add a cube of cheese on top and fold up the edges of dough into a ball.  Place the balls seam side down on the waxed paper.  Brush them with the spice mixture and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown on top.  This recipe makes about 30 balls, and they're delicious both warm from the oven and as cold leftovers from the fridge.  :o)