It’s going to be a light week for the JFP blog. I haven’t had any recent weddings or portrait sessions to share, but that’ll all drastically change in the next couple of weeks! I’m actually waiting on this baby to arrive for a newborn session, I have an engagement session this weekend and one the following weekend. After that, my wedding season will be in full force, so there will be plenty of beautiful pictures to blog very soon! In the meantime, like I said, it’ll be a light week on the blog… “light” like these skinny mozzarella sticks I found on Pinterest!

I’m a huge fan of recipes that involve minimal ingredients and if they are labeled “skinny”, “light” or “low fat”, I’m an even bigger fan! These mozzarella sticks had all of that. Well, there were a number of ingredients involved, but I had everything but the eggs and the making was a pretty simple and familiar process.

Skinny Mozzarella Sticks

INGREDIENTS
12 sticks light mozzarella cheese sticks
1 large egg beaten
2 tbsp flour
5 tbsp Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
5 tbsp Panko crumbs
2 tsp Parmesan cheese
1 tsp dried parsley
Cooking spray

Cut cheese sticks in half to make 24 sticks and place cheese in freezer until frozen (mine were in for a few hours, but I’m guessing it takes less time than that). Place the beaten egg in a small dish, the flour in another and combine both bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and parsley in a third dish. Create an assembly line – flour first, then egg, then breadcrumb mixture. Dip the frozen cheese sticks into flour, then into the egg and finally the breadcrumb mixture (coat completely). Repeat for all cheese sticks (it’s a smidge time-consuming…warning!) and place all sticks on a cookie tray covered in wax paper. Place cheese sticks back into freezer or they will melt in the oven! (Mine were in for the amount of time it took the oven to preheat). Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line another cookie tray with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Place frozen sticks on aluminum foil tray and spray with a little more cooking spray. Bake in bottom third of oven until golden and crisp, about 4-5 minutes. Turn the sticks and bake an additional 4-5 minutes. Serve with warm marinara sauce!

Recipe adapted from here.

FINAL REVIEW: Eh, these were ok. Brian thought they were delicious, but he tried one shortly after they came out of the oven. We were taking them to a party, so I had to reheat about an hour later. After sitting for a little while, the sticks seemed to lose shape and of course they lost their cheesy gooey-ness. So I’m guessing you’ll maximize taste if you eat them right out of the oven. Also, the cheese sticks were a little pricey. A pack of 16 sticks was $7.19! I’m not a huge cheese purchase-er, so I wasn’t sure if this was a lot or not, but it seemed like a lot for the semi-small amount the recipe made! I served 24 sticks at a party of about 18 and they were gone pretty quickly.

You can see more of my food finds on my FOOD Pinterest board!