SHORTCUTS: Comfort food for back to school

I was bowled over when I opened my August/September 2009 issue of Food Network Magazine and saw five of my published recipes. It is very difficult to claim originality of a recipe. Tweak it here, tweak
it there and it’s yours! That’s just what I did with a recipe from the current issue and I’m claiming it as my own!

Just in time for back-to-school, how about a nutritional breakfast for your scholars to rev up their idle minds and bodies for the school year? Turn one of their favorite snack items — pizza — into a healthy
way to start the day with individual muffin pizzas.

I keep precooked, diced turkey bacon on hand for spinach salads, soups, and any other use I can find. The tomatoes I’m harvesting from my homegrown plants this year are small but tasty. I always have
a sleeve of Thomases light multi-grain muffins in the fridge and a drizzle of olive oil keeps these oven baked pizzas moist. Choose a cheese that appeals to your brood but I’ve recently discovered chipotle
cheddar in the deli section. It’s tasty with a zip!

These handy breakfast treats go together in a minute with precooked meat (The magazine recipe used Canadian bacon. Precooked sausage crumbles or diced ham would work as well), and bake crisp in
a preheated 450 degree oven in less time than it takes you to get those kids out of bed and into their duds. Even cold, they would be great packed in lunches.

Be creative by turning the four topping ingredients into family favorites, (broccoli bits, Parmesan cheese, slices of turkey dogs, etc.).

BACK-TO-SCHOOL     MUFFIN PIZZAS      

1 multi-grain English muffin, split

1 small tomato, diced

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 tablespoons precooked diced bacon

12 (2-inch) strips chipotle cheddar cheese

Thinly sliced green onions for garnish

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place muffin halves on baking sheet, split-side up. Top with equal portions of diced tomato and drizzle with oil. Sprinkle with bacon and arrange 6 strips of cheese on top of
each half; dot with onion slices. Bake for 6-8 minutes until cheese is melted and muffin edges are crispy. Serves 1.

Mary Ann Kauchak lives in Lake Ridge. Her third cookbook, “SHORTCUTS, TOO” is available at Mom’s Apple Pie in Occoquan. She can be reached at .