I get myself in this predicament a lot. Mr. Allan is traveling and I complain and complain about him being gone. Then, all of a sudden, it's the day he returns. I look in my fridge, thinking to myself..the husband is coming home tonight, and then see that I have in there milk, coffee creamer and, maybe if I'm lucky, a piece of fruit or two. This past Thursday afternoon, I found myself in that exact predicament. I remember thinking to myself that morning as I made my coffee, wow..there's almost nothing in the refrigerator. Then, as I was sitting in Court that afternoon..it hit me..Mr. Allan is coming home tonight..what the hell is the plan for dinner???
So, somewhere between talking to clients, running in and out of Court and getting my cases done, I decided I wanted to eat spinach. A pretty random thing to decide but I think it had something to do with the Oprah episode I watched on TIVO the night before where Bob Greene talked about his 20 years younger program and super foods. So, a dinner involving spinach it was. When I ran to Trader Joe's after work, the spinach idea came together when I mindlessly put a bag of whole wheat dough in my carriage with no plan in sight for it..and it all came to me. I was going to make some homemade spinach pies..or more like calzones as they turned out. ...so here's my adventure in pictures...
I started out with a bag of frozen spinach from Trader Joe's. I let it thaw while I went to yoga class. Then I put it in a strainer and pushed out the excess water with some paper towels. I started out with a little salt and pepper and a crushed garlic clove.
My next dilemma..what could I put inside that wasn't too bad for us. I knew I needed something to bind the insides of my calzone....Fat Free Cottage Cheese did the trick. I hate cottage cheese, I won't eat it plain, but if I sneak it into lasagna, or pasta dishes, or other recipes where I don't really realize what it is..I'm good to go. I added 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar, some sliced olives for a little salt, and Mr. Allan wanted some meat..so a very small amount of leftover Easter ham made it in there. Also..for a little spice..a 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper.
Then came my battle with the dough. I cut it in half, sprinkled my counter with whole wheat flour and rolled it out into a rectangular piece.
I then lined a cookie sheet with foil, and draped the dough on there. I filled one side with the filling.
Then I folded the dough over and crimped it shut by using a fork. Here are the Mr. And Mrs. calzones ready to go in the oven.
My finished product..cooked at 425 for 25 minutes..it maybe could've used another 5 minutes.
I served it with a little side of marinara sauce to dip the doughier ends in...so filling!
My Spinach Pies or Calzones or whatever you want to call em!
1 bag whole wheat pizza dough
1 10-16 oz bag or box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
3/4 cup fat free cottage cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper
1/4 cup sliced black olives
1/4 cup shredded cheddar
1-2 crushed garlic cloves
optional--meat if desired..some turkey pepperoni..or as we did..leftover Easter ham!
Mix all ingredients (obviously not the dough!) Preheat oven to 425. Cut dough in half and roll out each half on a floured surface to a approx. a 12" long rectangle. Position dough on a foil lined cookie sheet. Place filling on one half of the dough. Fold dough over and crimp edges shut. Poke one or two holes on top. Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is a dark golden brown.
the only thing I may have done different...next time I might brush the outsides of the calzones with a little bit of olive oil to give the whole wheat dough a little something something!
Enjoy!
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