Date Night Dinners

1/03/2014 tringel 0 Comments

Calzones were on the menu for this weeks dinner and they did not disappoint. I found a recipe for homemade dough which inspired the meal. We didn't end up making the dough because we were being lazy, but it still turned out delicious. We used store bought pizza dough, which resulted in one giant, braided calzone. You may be sad at first because it is not a personal, individualized calamine, but that will quickly pass when you realize how much more calamine you get. Enough to feed a small army, or at least have as left overs for a couple of nights.

This recipe is great because you can pretty much alter it however you want - I mean you could pretty much eat this calamine every night of the week but still have seven totally different meals. We chose to ours with cheese (of course), onion, bell peppers, and turkey sausage. But I think next time we will try pepperoni and then meatballs and then next time maybe a breakfast one…with eggs! Oh my so yummy. When are we making these again?! Seriously! Brenden and I have found so many great recipes through our date night dinners that we really need to start making a schedule…and having more then one date night dinner a week. In fact I think we need more then seven nights a week to fit all of our meals into our schedule. I'll get on that. Until then, I hope you enjoy these "yummy in my tummy" calzones. Let me know what ingredients you use to fix yours up!

Braided Calzone
Recipe adapted from twogirlscookingblog.com, Homemade Calzone

Ingredients

• Store bought whole wheat pizza dough
• Cooking Spray
• Spicy Italian Turkey Sausage
• 2 red bell peppers, sliced
• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• Fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
• Pizza sauce

Directions

1. In a large skillet, cook the turkey sausage fully (there should be no pink)
2. Once cooked, remove, drain and set aside.
3. In the same skillet that you cooked the sausages, cook the onions and pepper until they start to soften (about 5 minutes).
4. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Preheat the oven to the recommendation on the pizza dough package.
6. Roll out the pizza dough into a long rectangle shape to desired thickness, just make sure there is enough room for all of your fillings and excess dough on the sides to cover the top.
7. Place the rolled-out dough on a backing sheet sprayed with cooking spray (it is much easier to transport now then when filled).
8. Add a few slices of mozzarella cheese in a line down the center of the dough.
9. Add the veggies on top of the cheese.
10. Cut sausage into slices and add on top of veggies.
11. Place another layer of mozzarella cheese slices on top of veggies and sausage.
12. Cut the dough, on both sides of the fillings, in 3/4 inch strips.
13. Criss cross each strip over the ingredients, covering the top and connecting to the opposite side of the dough to form a braid like appearance.
14. Fold the ends of the dough over so that everything is covered.
15. Bake for the time recommend on pizza dough package.
16. Remove from oven and cool until able to handle.
17. Cut into slices and enjoy the goodness - a gooey cheese filling and crunchy bread crust.
18. Serve with heated pizza sauce for dipping.