Kids in the Kitchen Monday--Meatball Pizza!

We have had company this week, so I am a bit late in posting our latest cooking lesson. But as they say, better late than never, so here goes--pictures from Austin's most recent cooking adventure. For this week, he decided to make "Meatball Pizza", which is a recipe the kids love for me to make. Austin truely did a great job. He started out with getting the "meatballs" ready--actually, these are vegetarian, so there is no meat in them but that's the simpliest title to give them. Anyway, he mixed up the meatballs, and started out happily scooping them. It was great to have someone else doing this job. It's not hard, but is definately time consuming. I had to laugh, because when I came back into the kitchen a bit later I was just in time to overhear Austin muttering to himself something along the lines of "I'm not going to make meatball pizza again for a LONG time!" Ahhhhh. Music to my ears--more mother appreciation for things that I do! ;) Of course, we all LOVE meatball pizza, so I actually think that now that he knows how to make it, he should make it all the time for us, don't you all agree?

After the meatballs were made and baking in the oven, it was time to move on to the pizza dough. Austin used to have his own bread business, but his bread was always mixed up in my Bosch kitchen machine. Other than that and doing bread machine bread, he hasn't had a lot of experience in mixing bread dough by hand--and it's a bit of a challenge, even for adults who have good use of two hands! But he did a great job, mixing, mixing, mixing, mixing and it finally was kneaded pretty good.

Wait a minute! Don't you think it looks like he is having TOO much fun? I mean, this IS supposed to be school, so maybe he should at least look more serious......

Every famous chef needs a lovely assistant, so Alison graciously stepped in to fill the role. She's a good little kitchen worker, and I think her favorite medium is dough!

Yummmmmmmmm! I can almost smell it just by looking at the picture! The finished product--with crust, tomato sauce, meatballs, olives, and onions. Of course, you can add whatever you like on top, but we sure gobbled this pizza up!

Mini Meatballs

1 12.3 ounce package Mori-Nu Silken Tofu

1 medium onion

1 tsp. imitation chicken seasoning

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1 T. Braggs Liquid Aminos or soy sauce

1 c. pecan meal

2 c. crushed saltine crackers or bread crumbs

In blender put the tofu, onion, seasoning, garlic powder and soy sauce. Blend until smooth. Pour the blended mixture into medium size bowl. Stir in the pecan meal and cracker crumbs. Shape the mixture, one teaspoon at a time, into 100 mini meatballs. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray and place the meatballs on the tray. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

These meatballs freeze great, so when I have the time I try and make some up ahead of time so I can have them in a flash when needed. Enjoy! :D