Oven Fried Mozzarella Sticks

Here is the final installment from our appetizer night. We also had a cheese dip, but I wasn't super pleased with how it turned out, so I'm going to try it again sometime and post it once I get it right. These cheese sticks had really good flavor & Adam & my in-laws really loved them. They just need a few adjustments...I used Laaloosh's method of making my own bread crumbs, but my bread wasn't stale enough I guess because they were a bit soft, so I changed the recipe below to just use regular bread crumbs or panko. I also needed to bake them a bit longer so the cheese gets nice & gooey. I will definitely make these again, but making these couple of changes. Sorry for the crummy pictures...we were in a hurry to eat these!:)

Oven-Fried Mozzarella Sticks Recipe

Source: LaaLoosh

Makes 8 sticks

Ingredients:
Olive oil cooking spray
8 oz canned tomato sauce
2 tsp ground oregano, divided
1-1 1/2 cups bread crumbs or panko
1 tsp dried thyme
8 oz part-skim mozzarella cheese, cut into 8 finger-like strips
1/4 cup egg substitute or 1 egg, beaten

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, set aside.

In a small pan, simmer tomato sauce & 1 tsp. of oregano together for 10 minutes.
In a small bowl, add bread crumbs, remaining tsp. of oregano, & thyme and stir to combine.

Place bread crumbs on a small plate. Place the egg in a separate shallow bowl.

Dip mozzarella sticks in egg & then bread crumbs, coating liberally.

Place cheese sticks on prepared baking sheet & bake until lightly golden brown & cheese is completely melted, about 5-6 minutes. Serve immediately with the marinara sauce for dipping.