Topic: H
​ ow to make pizza bites.  
*out of selected list*  
 
General purpose:​ To teach  
Specific purpose:​ To demonstrate the steps involved in making a pizza snack 
suitable for vegetarian friends  
Central idea:​ Vegetarian dishes are very easy to make and just as tasty as their 
meat based counterparts  
 
Introduction 
I. ​Attention device​ - After a long day of work or school no one wants to spend 
hours over the stove. But, we still have to feed ourselves and, usually, our family 
too. Luckily I have the magic recipe for pizza bites, which feeds five people, 
costs less than $15, takes less than an hour to make, and will be loved by your 
vegetarian friends.   
II. C​ entral idea​ - Vegetarian dishes are way easier than people think, and taste 
just as good as their meaty counterparts.  
III. P ​ review of points​ - In the following minutes I will explain  
1) how to prepare ingredients for the pizza bites 
2) what ingredients I think are best   
3) how to assemble the bites   
4) how to plate and garnish your dish 
IV. ​Motivator ​- (Relate to audience needs) More and more people are choosing 
to become vegan or vegetarian and this dish is a delicious way to include those 
food choices in your meal times! In addition, this quick and easy dish is perfect 
for after a long day of work, school, or just life.  
V. ​Credibility​ - I’ve grown up cooking with my mom, and for a strict vegetarian 
dad gained professional experience in restaurants, and perfected my craft by 
practicing almost every day. A girl has gotta’ eat right?! 
 
(Transition: Now let’s get cooking!) 
 
 
 
Body (70% - 80% of your speech)  
***​For time and presentation purposes I do not plan to cook in front of my 
audience, I plan to make the dish ahead of time while saving small portions of 
ingredients to use as examples. The part I plan to do in front of my audience is 
the plating portion. *​ ** 
 
1) Picking your ingredients 
❖ Premade pizza dough  
➢ You can choose gluten free, vegan, low fat, doesn’t matter.  
❖ Egg 
❖ Marinara sauce  
➢ NOT a meat based sauce  
❖ Minced garlic  
❖ Red wine 
❖ Italian herbs  
❖ Olive oil  
❖ mushrooms, spinach, olives 
❖ Italian blend cheese  
➢ Daiya or Chao cheese works for your vegan friends! I prefer 
Chao because it melts much easier.  
❖ Parmesan cheese ***GARNISH ONLY*** 
❖ Baking sheet  
(Transition: once you have all your ingredients, you have to prep them for 
cooking. It’s best to do this ahead of time to make the actual assembly process 
go more smoothly) 
2) Preparing your ingredients 
❖ Beat the egg  
❖ Shred the spinach  
❖ Pit the olives if they didn’t come unpitted  
❖ Twist the bottoms from the caps of the mushrooms and slice into 
slivers.  
➢ Wash by gently by rubbing the tops in a circular motion, if 
the skin begins to tear you’re pressing too hard 
❖ Mix the sauce with garlic, herb, and red wine to your taste 
preference  
➢ Remember it’s easy to add things in and hard to take them 
out - start small. 
❖ Now is a good time to oil your baking sheet as well. If you don’t use 
olive oil, be sure to check the burning point of the oil you use to 
make sure that you won't be starting a grease fire.   
(Transition: Now that everything is prepped, we are ready to begin our 
assembly and baking process.) 
3) How to assemble and prepare to bake  
❖ Start by preheating your oven to 400 
❖ Cut the pizza dough into squares about 2 inches by 2 inches pieces.  
❖ Put a teaspoon to a tablespoon of sauce in the middle of the dough  
➢ Depends on how saucy you like pizza 
❖ Layer the veggies onto the sauce. 
➢ Your choice of what you use. 
❖ Add the cheese onto the dough.  
❖ Then start with a corner and fold each side into the middle. You 
want to make sure that the cheese and sauce have no holes to seep 
out from.  
❖ Put the pizza bite on the baking sheet with the tucked corners 
facing down.  
❖ Do a LIGHT egg wash on the top ***optional: makes the top 
crispier and shiney** Too much egg is going to make a weird film 
on top of the dough. 
❖ Allow the pizza bites to bake for about 15 minutes, checking on 
them every five minutes. When the balls are golden brown, take 
them out of the oven and allow them to cool.  
 
 
(Every chef I’ve worked with has told me that presentation is everything. A 
simple dish can be a five star meal with the right garnish and plating.)  
**plating refers to how you literally put your food on your plate** 
 
4) How to plate and garnish your dish 
❖ Inevitably some sauce has seeped out during the baking process. 
The best way to mask this is as follows:  
➢ Put a half cup of the remaining sauce into a small snack bag. 
Cut the smallest hole you can into the corner of the bag.  
➢ In small sweeping motions, drizzle the sauce onto each little 
ball.  
➢ Make a small bed of spinach arranging the leaves so the tops 
point out. Put two or three pizza bites onto the spinach 
leaves.  
➢ Put a light dusting of parmesan cheese onto the dish.   
❖ If you would like you can also use a small spoon to place a drop of 
sauce onto the plate.  
 ➢ If you feel extra fancy use the back of the spoon lightly but 
quickly dragging it through the sauce making a more artful 
petal type shape.  
 
(Transition: Now everyone try a little bit and try to think of three things that 
you would like to do differently than I did when you try this dish yourself. By 
thinking about things you would like to change every time you cook you can 
positively critique yourself, and provide yourself motivation to make the next 
dish. Onward and upward always!) 
 
Conclusion (10% - 15% of your speech) 
I. ​Summary ​- You can take or leave whatever you want with this dish. That's the 
most fun part! Just remember that all veggies cook differently, so you may need 
to research how long to cook some ingredients.  
II. C​ lincher​ - I hope you all have a chance to make this dish. I find that it’s the 
perfect meal after any kind of long day.