Skinny Baked Mozzarella Sticks

Ingredients:

12 sticks part-skim, reduced sodium mozzarella sting cheese (Sargento) *

1 large egg, beaten

2 T. flour

5 T. Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

5 T. panko crumbs (confused? just a fancy word for Japanese bread crumbs.) **

2 t. Parmesan cheese

1 T. dried parsley

olive oil cooking spray ***

* I just used the cheese sticks I had in the fridge.

** Didn't have any on hand, so I didn't include them.

*** Just used the cooking spray I had on hand

Recipe:

1. Cut cheese in half to give you 24 pieces. Place cheese in the freezer until cheese is frozen.

2. In small bowl, whisk the egg. Place the flour on another small dish. In separate bowl, combine bread crumbs, panko, Parmesan cheese, and dried parsley.

3. Dip the frozen sticks in flour, shaking off excess, then into the egg, then coast with the crumbs. Repeat this process with the remaining cheese placing them on a try with wax paper.

4. Place cheese back into the freezer until ready to bake (this is a must or they will melt before the crumbs get golden.)

5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly spray with oil.

6. Place frozen cheese sticks on baking sheet. Spray the stops of the mozzarella sticks with a little more oil and bake in the bottom third of your oven until crisp, about 4-5 minutes.

7. Turn and bake an additional 4-5 minutes watching them closely so they don't melt.

Rating: 3.75 of 5

Well, our mozzarella sticks completely melted out. I should have taken them out at 5 minutes rather than sticking them in for the second 4-5 minutes. They were already pretty melted when I turned them. That went wrong, and I think my parsley is a little old. I kept tasting dirt. Gross. So, the melted cheese part was good, but new parsley and less cooking would make these really good.

Source: skinnytaste.com, Skinny Baked Mozzarella Sticks