Ground Chicken Mini-Pizza Burgers

I cannot remember how I came across this recipe (with modifications), but it met all my criteria for a good meal – healthy, not too many ingredients, and easy for little ones to self feed with, so I thought I would give it a try!  And as a BONUS, it’s a combo of two of Little Frances’ favorite foods – pizza and hamburger.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground chicken (although any ground meat will work)
• 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup of marinara or pizza sauce of your choice (divided into two 1/2 cup portions)
• 1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning
• 3 dashes black pepper
• 2 dashes garlic salt OR 1 teaspoon garlic powder (I used garlic salt)

Steps:

1. Pour 1/2 cup pizza sauce in bowl and combine with bread crumbs, cheese, pepper, garlic salt or powder and Italian seasoning.
2. Add ground chicken and mash together for 2-4 minutes to insure that all ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
3. Spoon mixture into a 12 serving muffin tin.
4. Make an indentation into each pizza-burger with the back of a spoon..
5. Use the remaining pizza sauce to evenly fill the dents in the pizza-burgers.
6. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees; cheese and sauce will be bubbly.
7. Remove pizza-burgers from the muffin pan and set on a paper towel to let any fat drip off.

Yield: 12 pizza-burgers

Timing: This one is tricky.  According to some baby food makers, all of the ingredients can be introduced as early as 9 months, however with all of the spices, I would not have given it to little Frances until she was 12 months so I will mark it as both below and you should use your best judgment.

Difficulty: 2 out of 5, easy peasy, especially if using premade marinara sauce.

Miscellaneous:

• I made my own bread crumbs by putting brown bread into a chopper.  I have to do this with any recipe that calls for bread crumbs since you cannot buy them where I live.  Usually I season them with Italian Seasoning, but as this recipe already had a tablespoon of Italian Seasoning. I didn’t do it.
• In addition, I thought that the recipe as is, called for too much Italian Seasoning so I only used half a tablespoon.  I find a little bit of it goes a very long way.
• The next time I make this recipe, I am going to add 1/2 cup butternut squash to the mixture along with 1/4 cup milled flaxseed.  I bet it would be just as good and be even healthier!
• I also have not found a bottled marinara or pizza sauce that I like where I live so I always just make my own.  Its so easy!  Just put a 26 oz jar whole, peeled tomatoes in a blender with 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup carrot puree (optional), 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, a pinch of cayenne powder and blend.  Then add 1 bay leaf and simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes.  Its super easy. For this recipe I just skipped the bay leaf and didn’t cook it because I knew that it would cook for a while in the oven.

Epicutie Rating: Somewhat Yummy --- See right side of the page for description

I think Little Frances would like this better if served first thing.  She is usually not as receptive to new foods when she has a tummy full of foods she already likes, although the first couple of bites she seemed to like it.

Also, don’t forget about our fundraiser for Kai!  For a donation of ANY AMOUNT (even $1), you can be entered to win a 13 cup Kitchen Aid Processor!  For details, click here:

• http://littletummyyummies.blogspot.com/2011/11/help-kai-and-win-13-cup-kitchen-aid.html