Ninety-six points. I stared at the number on my meal plan, as if by willpower alone I could precede that 96 with another digit. That night, I sat down with my favorite snack, mozzarella sticks, and realized the horrible truth: those bites of cheesy, breaded goodness were the culprit. My mozzarella stick addiction was draining all my points.

The problem is, mozzarella sticks aren’t even completely satisfying. If I’m actually hungry, I have to buy something in addition to the mozzarella sticks. They are also expensive: the standard price is $4.50 for six sticks. You can get them at WesWings, Late Night, and a variety of food trucks. In short, they’re far too accessible for my own good.

I set out to make my own mozzarella sticks, hoping that producing them myself would help to conserve my remaining points. Though, being completely honest, I was also rather frustrated by those few hours a day when I couldn’t access mozzarella sticks and felt a need to fix this limitation. I have a problem, I know.

I looked up recipes online, and created the recipe below based on availability of ingredients. After I enlisted the aid of a few friends, we set up shop in the Butterfield A kitchen.

The results were good (of course, admittedly, I’ve yet to encounter bad melted cheese), but not quite up to restaurant-purchased-mozzarella par. Part of the problem might be that the sticks were baked, as opposed to fried. Or maybe part of the mozzarella stick experience is getting to sit back and be lazy as someone else makes them. Either way, I’ll definitely need to be adding some points to my WesCard.

Mozzarella Sticks

Ingredients

6 pieces of string cheese, cut in half lengthwise
1 egg
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1 tsp. unsalted butter
Garlic powder (to taste) 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 420 degrees. Grease baking sheet or line with parchment paper.

2. In a small bowl, beat egg until frothy. Place breadcrumbs on a plate.

3. Dip each piece of cheese in the egg, then roll in breadcrumbs. Repeat.

4. Place each piece of cheese on the cookie tray, leaving space between the pieces. Bake for four minutes, then flip and cook for an additional three minutes.

5. Season with garlic powder if desired. Serve with marinara sauce and enjoy!