Remember Hot Pockets, those toaster oven/microwave quick snacks? The ones that you’d grab when you were starving, had no desire to eat a nutritious, balanced meal, or were just too lazy or broke to order pizza? I spotted Snow Days Pizza Bites and thought immediately of them. Only smaller. And gluten-free. Feeling sentimental 90s Gen X food vibes (and kind of hungry as I was grocery shopping), I picked up a package to try.
The front of the package looked promising, as Snow Days Pizza Bites checks a lot of boxes, including being organic, humanely raised chicken, and, of course, that tantalizing list of ingredients. I envisioned cheesy, stringy goodness and tasty nano-diced or pulled chicken with spicy Buffalo sauce. You know, like Hot Pockets. Only miniaturized. Or maybe baby micro calzones.
The back looked great! Snow Days Pizza Bites had many decent organic ingredients and 8 grams of protein. Plus, you get 5 pieces for 220 calories, which was not too bad…let’s try this out!
This was a small side plate, and those Snow Days Pizza Bites are TINY. I mean, the package did show them, but I thought they’d be a tad bigger. Since I’m a trooper (and hungry), I persisted onwards, though, and wouldn’t allow this minor disappointment to deter me! The package said 5 minutes in an air fryer, and that’s exactly what I did.
So this is what they looked like after 5 minutes in the air fryer at 400 degrees. As you can see, some Snow Days Pizza Bites guts leaked out, but that didn’t stop me for one second. (Spoiler alert: this is what the whole interior of them looks like.) They were indeed a golden crust, as promised on the package. I plated them up for a taste test.
Since they were Buffalo chicken flavor, I figured that Walmart Great Value Ranch dipping sauce was a good choice. Sadly, I was wrong. I also realized it was expired, although the taste wasn’t affected. I tossed it and the remaining bottle in the trash and swapped it for Helluva Good Dip instead, which was much, much better. And not expired. So let’s pretend that this picture shows the Helluva Good Dip and not the expired Walmart salad dressing. Good. Now that this is settled, we shall never speak of it again…
I wish I could report that I loved Snow Days Pizza Bites, as they have thousands of 4.5-star reviews on Instacart, and clearly, other people loved them. But while they were ok, I really didn’t fall in love. Why?
No, it had nothing to do with their tiny size. Yes, they did have a very nice kick to them. The crust was not as crispy as I imagined it would be based on the initial appearance in the air fryer, but it was fine. It was due to their choice of a slurry-style filling and lack of Buffalo chicken taste. Because of this, there was no visibly stringy mozzarella cheese, and overall, it was like eating baby food inside an extremely miniature calzone.
Accordingly, I won’t be counted in the thousands of 4.5 star reviews. And while I do appreciate Snow Days for making gluten-free quick snacks that have humane and healthier for you points, they weren’t the kind that I was looking for.
While it’s definitely a hot meal sort of option when a sweet snack isn’t what you’re looking for, I think I’d reach for something different next time.
What about you? Have you tried Snow Days Pizza Bites? If so, leave in the comments how you felt about them. It’s totally ok if you loved them!
Happy Eating! x