This past weekend was so great because Halloween landed on a Saturday and made for a whole day of fun! We went to our neighborhood Halloween party where there was a costume contest and then from there we went trick-or-treating. My son is old enough now that he was able to walk around to quite a few houses while the baby napped in the stroller. He got a whole bag full of treats! Then we came back home and passed out candy to the older trick-or- treaters, and all-in-all it was a wonderful night.
On Sunday, we packed away the Halloween decorations and started to pull out Thanksgiving decorations. I can’t believe this year has flown by so fast! It’s just a few short weeks until Thanksgiving, and I’ve hosted for years, but with the new baby, I’m going to let someone else take the reins this year. With my mother-in-law in charge of the festivities and main spread, my sister-in-law and I will be in charge of the little extras. Because of this, I want to put together a few things that are quick and easy with just a few, simple ingredients.
One of the things I’ll be making at her house is this convenient (and delicious!) appetizer pizza. This is so easy and a crowd pleaser! My mother turned me on to frozen Totino’s pizza years ago, since they were her favorite brand of pizza to “dress-up.” She would buy the little party cheese pizzas and use them as a base for lots of different types of pizza. She always told me the secret to making these pizzas even more spectacular was to keep them simple, and always use three toppings or less. Too many toppings of meat can make them greasy, and too many toppings of veggies can make them watery.
My favorite item to see this time of year in the grocery store is butternut squash. They make me so happy! You can simply roast them and serve them as a side dish, blend into a soup or add to fun recipes like this pizza. For this dish, I found pre-prepared, diced butternut squash in my grocer’s freezer aisle, which removed all the dirty work and saved tons of time. If you can’t find it already pre-prepared, it’s also easy to roast in the oven and will make your whole house smell amazing!
To start, I take the Totino’s Cheese Party Pizza and place it on my pizza pan. Then, I top it with the frozen butternut squash and some fresh sage.
The sage really makes this pizza come alive and adds such a pretty green color.
Next, you have to add more cheese. I love using Borden 2% Mozzarella Shreds Cheese. It’s inexpensive and tastes unbelievable.
Then, I just place the pizza in the oven and bake until it’s gooey, melty and delicious.
To serve it as an appetizer, I just slice into smaller pieces.
Then, place the pizza on a nice serving platter. And trust me, this will be your first appetizer to disappear. You might want to make more than one!
Butternut squash and sage are my favorite fall flavors for a pizza appetizer, but you could customize with any flavor combination you like, using Totino’s Cheese Party Pizza and Borden 2% Mozzarella Shreds Cheese. Some more tasty combinations could be:
Many of these toppings are available frozen and pre-prepared like the butternut squash I used for my pizza, so be sure to check out your grocer’s freezer section for these and other great options! And for more mealtime inspiration, visit www.EasyHomeMeals.com and follow on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest too!
Yield: 12 appetizer slices
1 cup Borden 2% Mozzarella Shreds Cheese
2 tablespoons freshly chopped sage
1 cup cubed butternut squash (either frozen or fresh and then roasted)
Heat oven to 450°. Assemble pizza by layering on cubed butternut squash fresh sage and shredded cheese.
Bake pizza according to package directions, adding a few additional minutes for the added toppings. Pizza will be golden brown around edges and cheese will be hot and melted in the center when it's done.
Cut in 12 slices to serve.
NFRA is a non-profit trade association representing all segments of the frozen and refrigerated dairy foods industry, including distributors, logistics providers, manufacturers, retailers/wholesalers and suppliers. Headquartered in Harrisburg, PA, NFRA is the sponsor of March National Frozen Food Month, June Dairy Month, June/July Ice Cream & Novelties promotion and October Cool Food for Kids educational outreach program. NFRA provides consumer information such as food safety guidelines, meal preparation tips, recipes and sweepstakes opportunities at EasyHomeMeals.com. For additional information on NFRA or to find recipes or tips, visit NFRAweb.org or EasyHomeMeals.com.
This post sponsored by NFRAweb.org. I was compensated for my time. All opinions 100% mine.