Pizza bagels recipe: Budget recipe

In this economy, we have all entered survival mode and are trying to hold on to the money we have. Gas prices are increasing. The costs of food in supermarkets are increasing. This includes the simple staples such as rice.

Pizza with its Italian origins has definitely been adopted as an All-American food. It is also one of the cheaper foods you can find. Papa Johns, Pizza Hut and Dominoes are just some of the pizzeria chains that are often running specials as low as $10 or lower for a large pie. The cost of an already made pizza is usually quite good but after the cost of tax, delivery and tip, many of us are still left complaining about the price.

Supermarket pizza such as DiGiorno are able to capitalize on this in their marketing with "it's not delivery, it's DiGiorno." One of the things they pride themselves on is offering the pizzeria taste at a great price without the cost of delivery.

If you want to take saving money on pizza even further or if you simply enjoy cooking and are looking for a minimalist cooking project that takes hardly any time, this pizza bagels recipe is the one for you.

I must honestly say, the finished product here is so delicious but you are not doing any of the homemade pizza work. You do not need to prepare pizza dough from scratch. Although, when I make traditional homemade pizza, I do not prepare it from scratch. I have found a great already prepared pizza dough at Trader Joe's if you would like to go that route but I digress.

For this recipe, you will need fresh plain bagels, tomato paste, sliced cheddar cheese (or mozzarella cheese), pepperoni slices, and a few spices/seasonings especially garlic powder, black pepper and optionally just a dash of salt.

For this recipe, specifically, you can purchase very fresh plain bagels that you have already tried before and you know them to be tasty. You can usually find such bagels in the fresh bakery section of your supermarket.I have purchased them at Food Lion for $2.99. The $2.99 bag contains 4 bagels.

1. Slice each bagel in half. Two bagels can serve two people. Prepare a larger quantity as needed.

2. Open a can of all natural tomato paste. Add just a sprinkle of salt, black pepper and garlic powder to it. Stir and spread onto the open bagels with a butter knife.

3. Next take generous pieces of sliced all natural medium cheddar cheese and layer on top of the bagel with tomato paste. Seven pieces of cheese (each about the size of a quarter) should be sufficient for each bagel half.

4. On top of the cheese, layer four or five slices of supermarket bought pepperoni which can typically be found in the aisle with other packaged meats such as tukey and ham coldcuts or hotdogs.

5. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for just 12-15 minutes. After it is prepared, you can optionally sprinkle additionally with garlic powder, oregano, red pepper flakes and/or parmesan cheese as many people would with pizza from the pizzeria.

Enjoy!