As a Mom I am constantly on the look out for quick and healthy lunch solutions for my kids. Lunches that aren't too complicated to throw together during the morning rush. Lunches that are wholesome, while at the same time affordable. Lunches that the kids will actually eat...but are also healthy!

While looking to add a little bit of healthy variety to our lunch menu, my sister in law shared a pizza bun recipe with me and it was just the thing I was looking for!

We've made a few batches of these delicious pizza buns now and they never disappoint! My kids love them and I love the convenience having them on hand in the freezer when we're in a hurry. I've since switched the dough recipe that I use for the buns. The original recipe called for sour cream, which I didn't really want to use. With the last batch of buns we made I tried out one of my favorite, no fuss dough recipes from Our Best Bites and it worked great, so I'll be sticking with it.

Scroll down for the recipe along with a quick how-to, a printable version of the recipe and a list of some of my favourite online resources for kid friendly {and healthy} meal ideas.

Dough recipe shared with permission from the gals at ourbestbites.com

Homemade Pizza Buns

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp yeast

1/2 tsp salt

3-4 1/2 cups flour

In a bowl combine water, sugar and yeast. I usually throw these ingredients directly into my Bosch. Let stand for about 10 minutes. 

Add salt. Stir. Add half your flour and mix well. Gradually add more flour until dough pulls away from edges of the bowl when mixing and it isn't sticky. 

Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rise for 45 minutes or until double in size. Remove dough from bowl. Separate into three equal parts.

Prepare your pizza ingredients. For the pizza buns pictured we use garlic sausage, mozzarella cheese and pizza sauce, but anything goes! This is going to be just like making cinnamon buns from here on out - only with pizza fixings! 

Take one portion of the dough and roll out on a lightly greased or floured surface. I typically spray my working surface with a little cooking spray or use a small amount of oil to keep the dough from sticking. Roll dough into a long skinny rectangle as you would for cinnamon rolls.

Once your dough is rolled, you can begin layering your pizza ingredients starting with the sauce. Spread sauce over the dough leaving the very edge of one of the long sides of the rectangle free from sauce so the edge will seal when rolled up. Layer meat, cheese and any other pizza toppings you'd like.

As mentioned, we used garlic sausage in our pizza buns. I prefer to cut the meat into small portions for the buns vs. using round slices. I find the smaller pieces a little more manageable and less messy when it comes time to slicing the uncooked dough filled with pizza stuff but its just a matter of personal preference. My husband had the idea to use the Universal Slicer/Shredder for our Bosch to shred the meat and it worked like a charm. If you're going to do this, flash freeze your meat for a few minutes so its a little more firm and it will shred easier and you should use the largest size shredding attachment you have.

After all your pizza toppings have been added, begin rolling up the dough starting at the long side of the rectangle where the sauce is all the way to the edge - you want to leave that sauce free edge to be rolled up last. Roll all the way up and then pinch the edges to seal.  Now using a small length of dental floss, slice off equal sized rolls.

Place rolls in a greased baking dish. Cover and allow buns to rise 30 minutes. Bake in the oven at 350 for 25 - 30 minutes or until golden brown.

For a printable version of this recipe click here.

This recipe makes a large batch and what I do as soon as they've cooled is package them in freezer ziploks in quantities of two in the freezer. Having them on hand on those days when we need to grab lunch and go is the best thing ever! 

I typically put the buns in the kids school lunches frozen, that way the meat and cheese stays chilled until lunch time. I pack all their lunches in these 3 compartment containers from Easy Lunchboxes. I absolutely love these containers! I add a few other healthy things to their lunch along with a little treat then put the containers inside their insulated lunch bags along with a freezer pack and that's it!  

The lunch bags we  use are from Costco, they're the perfect fit for the Easy Lunchboxes, but I can't find them sold online. They look like this and are by ROOTS.

I hope you enjoy this yummy recipe as much as our family has! What are some of your healthy, go-to lunch solutions?

I'd love to hear in the comments!

I'm linking up with these fabulous blogs.

Here are a few of my favourite online resources for healthy, kid friendly meal ideas: 

Easy Lunchboxes Blog

Meet the Dubiens

Super Healthy Kids

Wee-licious

Picky Palate

Lisa Storms Blog

This Lunch Rox

You can also check out my Cute Lunches board on Pinterest for all kinds of fun and healthy kids lunch ideas!

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