Game Day Crunchers

Appetizer, Snack

Ingredients

24 pepperoni slices

1 cup Italian blend cheese shreds

Directions

In a food processor, add the pepperoni and cheese. Process on pulse until the pepperoni is finely chopped and mixed in well with the cheese. Drop mixture by teaspoons onto parchment. Choose your cooking method.

Oven - Place parchment on a cookie sheet and bake 5 -6 minutes at 400 degrees. Remove from oven and let cool.

Toaster oven - Place the parchment on the oven pan. Scoop 6 mounds of the mixture onto the parchment. Using the toaster function, use two cycles. Remove from oven and let cool.

Microwave - Place parchment directly on the rotating plate. Add scoops of the pepperoni mixture at least one inch apart. Heat at full power 15 seconds. Check for doneness. Some may cook faster than others, so remove the browned Crunchers and cook the others for an additional 5 seconds. Ovens may vary, so try a test batch at 15 seconds and adjust your time from there. Larger batches may take a bit longer.

Notes

I know that packaged shredded cheese has some starch to prevent the cheese shreds from sticking to each other. If you shred your own cheese, the mixture will be much stickier my test batch, so the outcome could be a little different. It may work just as well, I just haven't tried it to be sure. Let me know if you try.

Nutrition

A serving of 3 Crunchers has <1 g carb,  60 calories,  5 g fat,  4 g protein