Cinnamon Breadsticks and Leftover Pizza

Every time there's a get together and pizza is ordered, everybody wants some of those delicious cinnamon breadsticks and icing. Yeah, they're yummy, but they're expensive! There are lots of recipes online for them, but I never remember to grab the right ingredients. So here's my favorite versions:

1) For my picky eaters who don't like pizza crust, I trim that off before giving them their slices. I make sure to cut away all of the sauce, so all that's left is just the bread.

-or-

2) Use whatever bread is handy in the cabinet.


I like the phrase "whatever is handy"!

It's pretty much a no-brainer at this point, but there are a few variations that (in my conceited little brain) kind of make a difference in the end. I preheat the oven while I'm using the stove top- around 350 will do the trick. I heat some oil in a pan, and then drop the bread, or the crusts, into the pan and get them nice and toasty, almost like a grilled cheese sandwich. (You know your pan is ready for cooking when a few sprinkles of water make the oil sizzle.) Then I put them in a sealable bag with lots of cinnamon and sugar.

Lots of shaking makes this a fun project for the kids!

Next, we shake the bread out onto a pan, and pop them into the oven (that's a grown-up job, though). I let them bake for 3-7 minutes, then I switch the oven to broil for no more than 2 minutes. I watch them closely, because broil can burn things easily. Whip them out of the oven (don't hit anybody with that hot pan, sister!), let them cool, and voila! You have a cheap, toasty, and fresh way to make lots of yummy breadsticks without that hefty pricetag.

Oh, and the icing? I melt a little butter in either the microwave or on top of the stove and stir in enough sugar and milk until I have just the perfect consistency. Warning: it takes a tiny bit of butter, an even smaller amount of milk, and mostly sugar. It couldn't be much easier at all. And another fun way to let the kids in on the snack is to give them their own little bowls of icing and add food coloring, or sprinkles, or any other fun toppings you can think of.

I like this because I can substitute soy milk for regular milk, brown sugar for regular sugar, and wheat bread instead of white. Also, I love mixing honey, peanut butter, and apple sauce in different combinations for yummy dipping sauces instead of sugary icing.

If you're looking for a more salty snack, try toasting your bread in the pan as suggested above, and then shaking them in a bag of fresh parmesan with a little garlic, salt, and pepper before baking them.

There are so many ways you can change this idea and mold it to your individual tastes. And quit throwing away all of that pizza crust!