PHEW! Today was busy!!! Took the eldest to swim practice, got a workout in, scarfed down a bowl of soup, showered, and flew to work for the afternoon. I had a great day with the kids - We finished a conversation about Amy Tan and started Robert Frost. It's always a great day when I can talk about metaphor, simile, and apostrophe (the lit device as opposed to the punctuation) - It's an even better day when my kiddos can identify each appropriately! Lots of high fives and attaboys/attagirls! It's awesome! I love my job soooo much!
When I got home; THIS was waiting for me....
Is my man awesome or is my man awesome??? None of My Menfolk eat beans - at all - but he even heated me up some canned baked beans. Oh happy dance!!!
We have been working out really hard lately. Last weekend, we decided to swim laps at one of the high school pools. My sister went with us and during one of our rests, we were reminiscing about our childhood swimming memories. Our Grandma 'Rain used to take us swimming every Saturday morning at the Y. We'd swim around and then she'd take us out for pizza and salad. Every time I swim, I get a craving for pizza and salad... Hello Pavlov????? Not only pizza - supreme pizza loaded with sausage, peppers, onions, and olives! The husband isn't a fan of loaded pizza like that so we compromised on calzones.
I can't have pizza (or calzones) without a salad. (Again, Grandma 'Rain's influence!). I have just started to dabble in making my own dressings and I have to say that I will never buy another bottle of dressing again.
I threw whatever salad stuff I had in the fridge (slim pickin's right now!) - Spinach, cucumbers, bell peppers, carrots, blueberries, & capers (I'm addicted to the briny almost lemony flavor of capers!). I made a simple lemon dill dressing to accompany the salad.
Lemon Dill Salad Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon (about 1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
dash garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
Whisk all of the ingredients together. Pour over salad when ready to serve.
Doesn't that look tasty???? I made a quick marinara sauce to serve with the calzones. It's soooo easy and fast!!!
Marinara Sauce
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1/2 onion
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons italian seasoning
2 teaspoons Mrs. Dash italian seasoning blend
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (more or less to taste)
1/8 teaspoon black ground pepper
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Add the onions. Lower heat to medium. Cook 2 - 3 minutes. Add the garlic. Cook another minute. Add the tomatoes. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low until the calzones are ready. We used less than half of it for dinner so I put the rest in a freezer container. I'm super excited that we have some marinara for another meal!!! Woot Woot!
Calzones
I cheat when it comes to pizza dough... I have a really great recipe for pizza dough. I'm the only person in the house who will eat whole wheat. I've tried. My Menfolk just won't eat it. They've tried it but they really hate it. So, we compromise. We buy pre-made dough from Trader Joe's. They have whole wheat for me and plain for my guys. It's win-win. We use half a package of dough per calzone. (To make this easier, we cut the dough in half when we bring it home and freeze so we just have to grab one serving at a time). The husband is the dough rolling master.
While he's rolling out the dough, I cook the chicken italian sausage and prepare the rest of the toppings. Then I turned on the grill to preheat.
The great thing about calzones is that you can top them with anything you want. We had a package of hot italian (chicken) sausage so I cooked that. I love the supreme combo from childhood - sausage, pepperoni (turkey), peppers, onions, and olives. I also love green olives and jalapeño peppers so I put them on there too. I use very little cheese because I don't need it with all those flavors.
Once the dough is rolled out, top the dough with the toppings.
Then add the cheese
Fold over and crimp the edges to keep it together.
Place on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Put the foil and calzone on the grill. Cook until crust is done - about 10 minutes. (You can cook these in the oven as well. We prefer to cook them on the grill because we like that grilled flavor - it isn't really a smokey flavor but it's so good! Cook in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes (or until crust is cooked).
When it's done, let it cool for a few minutes. It's hard because it's so good. Cut it in half. Don't share. You can if you want to but that's why we all make our own. It's too hot to eat right away so that's when I dive into the salad!!!
I ate half and saved the rest for later in the evening when I wanted a snack! :) The only thing better than cold pizza is a cold calzone!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment