Cookie Cutter Pizzas

I’m excited to share a new hands-on eating activity that’s great for lunch or dinner (or breakfast) and very kid-friendly. Thanks to our current household obsession with Curious George, I became inspired by a particular story called Curious George and the Pizza Party. If you haven’t stumbled upon this particular spellbinding story, I’ll sum it up for you; basically, George, who is a curious monkey, gets invited to a pizza party. Naturally he’s the only monkey at the party. Spoiler alert: he decides to play with the pizza dough and ends up making a big doughy mess. Silly, George! However, everyone comes together to clean up, and ends up creating interesting shaped pizzas, such as rainbows. And everyone is happy. This is a great story because not only is it about pizza, but it’s about being creative with food.

My mom recently gave me a bunch of old cookie cutters during her Marie Kondo phase of cleaning out my childhood house. I thought they would be perfect for crafting fun pizza shapes with Marin! Pizza and cookie cutters just seem like a natural fit for toddlers.

Marin had a blast cutting the “dough,” which was whole wheat naan (less clean up and no rolling out dough) and decorating the shapes with pizza sauce and cheese. Eating the pizzas she crafted was a special treat since she was the chef and in charge. As I mentioned, this is quite kid-friendly, but also a fun idea for pizza night with adults if you’re feeling crafty and want to dust off those cookie cutters. Enjoy!

Cookie Cutter Pizzas
Serves one

1 whole wheat Naan
1/2 cup pizza sauce
1/2 cup mozzarella
various cookie cutters
toppings of choice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place naan on a cutting board and gently push cookie cutters through the bread. Top each bread shape with sauce and cheese and place on baking sheet. Add toppings toppings if you like. Bake in oven until cheese is melted, about 6 minutes.