The making of these broccoli cheese bites was a random and spur-of-the-moment treat that came together Saturday afternoon.

Sometimes when I don’t want to go food shopping, I get creative with the things I do have lying around.

There was no meat in the house. No tofu. Not even any fresh veggies. Just a bunch of frozen stuff and a giant bag of mozzarella cheese in the fridge. So right when I was thinking about making a mozzarella cheese melt for dinner (which would have been perfectly acceptable), I saw these in my Pinterest feed. From the pictures, I thought, “Oh I probably don’t have all the ingredients for these anyway….” but! Then I looked at the very short ingredient list — and — YAY! They were all in my barren fridge/freezer! I hopped off to make them.

And…gracious. a.) They smelled wonderful when they were cooking. b.) Sinking my teeth into them brought me back to my college days and the broccoli cheese balls we would devour at 2 a.m. and c.) They’re stupidly simple to make.

Broccoli Cheese Bites

Adapted from Stacy Snacks
Makes 15
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 (16 oz) package of frozen broccoli florets, cooked according to package directions
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. Cook your frozen broccoli — let cool and cut up any big pieces in the bowl.
3. Mix together the broccoli with the cheese, eggs, and breadcrumbs with a wooden spoon.
4. Form the mixture into 15 – 20 balls. Place on cookie sheet and flatten slightly with the back of your hand. Bake for 15 minutes. Flip the patties, then bake for an additional 10 minutes. Let cool slightly and enjoy!

My Two Cents

I made these much bigger than the little bite-sized broccoli cheese balls that are filled with fake cheese from your college pizza places. But you can easily make them into smaller balls — and there’s no rule anywhere saying you can’t add more cheese

But wow. I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on a homemade version of these since my college days.

Filling. Addictive. A little sinful. But a lot of good.

Enjoy!