$15 Cheap Party Meal for 10 People: Stromboli, Garlic Bites & Cookies

Ingredients

Walmart groceries (prices as of October 2022):

• Flour 5lb - $2.12
• Margarine - $1.48
• Confectioners sugar - $1.70
• Mozzarella cheese (16 oz block) - $3.98
• Crushed tomatoes - $1.36
• Pepperoni- $2.14
• Pepper - $0.68
• Onion - $0.59
• Yeast - $0.86

Total: $14.91

Spices 

We'll be using salt, ground cinnamon, onion powder, crushed red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder, as well as some mint, garlic, and imitation vanilla flavoring. 

1. Make the dough

A single batch makes 2 loaves - I doubled this recipe.

• 2 cups warm water
• 5 tsp rapid-rise yeast
• ½ cup sugar or powdered sugar

Combine and look for the yeast to begin bubbling. Once it does, add additional ingredients (should bubble in about 5-10 minutes). If it's not bubbling, you're going to want to scrap it and try again.

• 2 tsp salt
• 6 cups of flour
• ¼ cup melted margarine (or oil)

Knead until the dough is smooth. Make a second batch and knead as well if you're feeding 10 adult people. Allow rising 1 hour, or until doubled in size. Separate into 4 pieces, then divide one piece in half. Flatten the 3 large pieces into oval flat pieces.

2. Divide the dough

Now we finished making two batches of our dough, and I went ahead and took them and divided them into four different pieces. Then I took one of those four pieces and divided them in half. Those will be our cheesy garlic bites, and the other one will be our cinnamon sticks.

3. Make the sauce

I flattened out one piece of dough, and then I got to work on our sauce. We're going to add in our crushed tomatoes, a mix of Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, and a few red pepper flakes, which are optional, and some salt to taste.

Then I gave it all a good stir, and I put about a third of it onto our crust and spread it out. 

4. Add cheese and pepperoni

I added mozzarella cheese in a thin layer across the top. Then I added some pepperoni. Some of the other ones we made were just cheese, pepper, and onion, as well as pepperoni-loaded stromboli. 

5. Fold and crimp

I flipped the stromboli in half and went ahead and rolled the edges and pinched them together. I rolled them up in that way. It has a little lip, so if it does separate in the oven, it's very unlikely that the sauce would pour out over the edge. 

I let it rise again for about 30 more minutes just to let it have a second rise and then popped it into the oven that I preheated to 350 degrees. Now we're doing our other two strombolis, the plain cheese one, and then the loaded-up one with onions, peppers, and pepperoni. 

Cheesy garlic bites

Now we're making our cheesy garlic bites. You're just going to pinch off about an inch of dough, flatten it out, lay it on your parchment paper, then you're going to brush it with just a little bit of chopped or minced garlic and about a teaspoon worth of your shredded mozzarella. You could also put a pepperoni piece in it if you wanted to. 

Then you're going to wrap those ingredients around until it's sealed and pinch it shut, and then lay it seam side down on your parchment paper. You're going to want to leave a little bit of room around each of them so that it has room to spread out and rise. 

Cinnamon sticks

We're also getting started on our cinnamon sticks. You're going to take about one inch of dough and then just kind of roll and stretch it until it's a long, thin strand and place them next to each other. Again, leave room for a little bit of rise.

While they sat in rows, I went ahead and got to work with our coating, which was a cup of powdered sugar and a tablespoon of cinnamon. 

I also got to work on our other coating that we're going to be brushing all the savory things with, which is melted margarine and Italian seasoning. 

Our first stromboli and second stromboli out of the oven.

Our third one is about to go into the oven along with those bites and sticks that we just finished making. 

We're going to just brush these strombolis with some of our melted Italian butter.

Now our garlic cheesy bites are out of the oven, and we're just brushing them with that Italian butter.  

Now, I brushed the cinnamon sticks with a little bit of butter to help everything stick to them. Then I popped them all in a bag and gave it a good shake just to get everything coated.

Our last stromboli is out of the oven and ready to be brushed with that butter again. 

Butter snowball cookies

Now I'm making some delicious butter snowball cookies. This recipe is delicious and very simple. It just uses powdered sugar, margarine, or butter. I went ahead and mixed it up with some salt, a little bit of that vanilla, and some flour, and we roll these into little shapes and balls. 

You're going to go ahead and line them up. They don't spread out too much, so you don't have to worry about having too much space there. 

I set all of my warm cookies into my bag with powdered sugar and just shook it around and coated all those cookies as best as I could and then I fished them out.

Cheap party meals

This Stromboli recipe with garlic bites and cookies makes a great party menu on a budget. Everyone loved the savory and sweet offerings. Which do you prefer, savory or sweet? Comment below, we love to hear from you!