I’m excited to kick off our new Make-Ahead Lunch Box series with a fun new recipe I recently tried for my family. We all love these Whole Wheat Pizza Swirls. Here are my favorite perks to this recipe, and why I think this is perfect for your Make-Ahead Lunch Box:
- You can make Pizza Swirls ahead of time, wrap them individually, and store them in the freezer until you need them.
- You can fill the Pizza Swirls with any of your favorite toppings, making this recipe versatile and ideal for accommodating food preferences.
- These taste great both hot and cold.
- Pizza Swirls are simple to make.
- Pizza Swirls are filling and easy to eat.
Whole Wheat Pizza Swirls
1 recipe of Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
1 cup pizza sauce
2 cups shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese
3 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
variety of pizza fillings – your choice – like meat, olives, and veggies
2 Tablespoons olive oil (optional)
Mix Whole Wheat Pizza Dough as directed. On a clean, well floured surface, roll dough into a long oval until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Spread pizza sauce over the dough. Sprinkle with cheeses and your favorite pizza toppings. Roll the dough up, beginning on the long side. Tuck the ends under. Place on a cookie sheet. Spread olive oil over the top if you like. Bake in a 375° oven for about 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Slice and serve. Makes about 8-10 Pizza Swirls.
Bonus Tips:
- Want to pack these Pizza Swirls to go? Once the swirls have cooled completely, wrap them individually and place them in an air tight container in the freezer. Set frozen wrapped Pizza Swirl in the fridge overnight to thaw to pack in a lunch box the next day.
- Need to eat Gluten Free? Copy the idea and use your favorite gluten free dough recipe.
- Tired of pizza? Skip the sauce and use turkey or chicken with cheese to make Meat and Cheese Swirls.
Great to Serve with Pizza Swirls:
- Fresh fruit like apple slices, orange slices, peaches, cantaloupe, pineapple, or pears
- Carrot sticks, sliced cucumbers, celery, or sweet peppers
- Olives or pickles
I double, triple, or quadruple this recipe so that I can make lots at once to make my getting-ahead efforts worthwhile. This also means I can make a variety of different Pizza Swirls to have on hand. Our favorites are:
- Pepperoni and Cheese
- Combination (meat, cheese, green peppers, mushrooms, olives)
- Hamburger and Green Pepper
- Pepperoni and Olive
This will be good to pack frozen then by lunch it will be ready to eat. I’m sure my picky eater will love this with just cheese and sauce. Thank you!
Thank you for this and so excited about this series. With school starting in a couple weeks I really want to get ahead.
Sauce, Parmesan, and that random handful of leftover chicken. It’s like rolled up Chicken Parmesan!
Love it! Great idea.
Does anyone have a good gluten free dough without bean flours that can roll up to make these? All the GF doughs I’ve made are like thick cake frosting.
We call these Stromboli. When my children were little we would make pb&j or pb & honey ones for our trips to the park. Now in their twenties they like to take the pizza ones to work. We have to send extras for their coworkers because they were feeling left out with their drive thru lunches!
For the dairy allergic, these taste very good without the cheese, too.
This sounds like a winner…..will have to try this one out soon with my guys! Thanks Laura!
This looked so great I tried it for dinner! Epic fail! I have no idea what I did wrong followed recipe exactly but it was really blah! Unfortunately we ended up at a restaurant instead! :(
Oh no! Did the dough not rise? So sorry they didn’t work for you. :(
What a clever idea! I’ve never seen a recipe like this before. Things that can be frozen are my favorite things to make. I think it would be really good with chicken and Greek flavors like kalamata olives, artichokes, sundried tomatoes, etc. Thanks for the recipe!
I made these for dinner last night. My kids thought they were “weird” at first, but in the end, gobbled them up! Let’s see if the leftovers fare as well :)
I saw a similar recipe but they sliced the roll and baked them like cinnamon rolls. Looks yummy.