Recipe: Skinny Baked Mozzarella Sticks

Part-skim mozzarella sticks coated with crispy seasoned breadcrumbs and baked until hot and golden. Serve them with my quick marinara sauce and you have yourself an appetizer everyone will love.

Hot mozzarella sticks, I can't think of a more popular finger food with both kids and adults alike! I mean, what's not to like? Baking them as opposed to frying and using part skim cheese doesn't effect how good these are. The cheese still melts, see for yourself!

Low-Fat-Baked-Mozzarella-Sticks

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Of course, you'll want to serve them hot right out of the oven, because like any cheese, as they cool they harden.

It actually took me several attempts to get these perfect. I played around with different brands of light string cheese to see which yielded the best results. The winner was Sargento part-skim, low-sodium. Although it's not the cheese with the least amount of fat compared to some other brands, it had the best flavor and wasn't as salty as I found some brands to be.

These are freezer friendly, in fact these MUST be frozen before you bake them or you will have one big cheesy mess in your oven! The good news is you can bread them all ahead of time then place them on tray with wax paper and freeze them until you are ready to bake. Make the marinara sauce a day ahead as well. Happy Superbowl Sunday!!

Skinny Baked Mozzarella Sticks

Servings: 12 • Serving Size: 2 pieces • Old Points: 1 pts • Points+: 2 pts*

Calories: 86.8* • Fat: 4.8 g • Protein: 7.4 g • Carb: 3.5 g • Fiber: 0.2 g • Sugar: 0.2

Sodium: 168.6 

Ingredients: 

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

1 large egg, beaten

2 tbsp flour

5 tbsp Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

5 tbsp panko crumbs

2 tsp parmesan cheese

1 tbsp dried parsley

olive oil cooking spray (I used my misto)

Directions:

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

Breading station

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.

How-To-Make-Low-Fat-Baked-Mozzarella-Sticks

Dip the frozen sticks in flour, shaking off excess, then into the egg, then coat with the crumbs.

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How-To-Make-Baked-Mozzarella-Sticks

Repeat this process with the remaining cheese placing them on a tray with wax paper. Place cheese back into the freezer until ready to bake (this is a must or they will melt before the crumbs get golden).

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

Place frozen cheese sticks on baking sheet. Spray the tops of the mozzarella sticks with a little more oil and bake in the bottom third of your oven until crisp, about 4 to 5 minutes. Turn and bake an additional 4 - 5 minutes watching them closely so they don't melt.

Makes 24 pieces.

Notice: There will be extra crumbs and flour after breading, I've deducted them from the nutritional info.