If you’re tired of pizza, try calzones.
In our house, we love to make pizza. Pizza to us usually means a movie. Our kids don’t really watch TV, so we like to have a family movie night every once in a while to hang out and enjoy a good flick. Lately, we’ve been watching the LIFE series, which sounds super nerdy to do as a family, but we LOVE it. It really solidifies everything we are learning in school. Plus, it is pretty incredible to see the things God has made which we wouldn’t otherwise be able to see. God Rocks! Seriously.
Beats them watching Phineas and what’s his face…just my personal opinion.
Basically, a calzone is a pizza hand pie, so you can fill it with whatever you want. Start with a pizza dough recipe. Here is one if you don’t have a reliable one. If you don’t want to make your own dough (even though it’s super easy and you will be so happy with yourself when you try), there are many stores that sell ready-made pizza dough. Look for the kind with a few ingredients and no preservatives (Trader Joe’s has one) and just try to stay away from anything that pops out of the can like a cinnamon roll.
Divide the dough recipe into 4 parts. If you are making them for kids, you can divide it into 8 parts. Roll each part out into a square until it’s about 1/4 inch thick. If it’s too thin, it will cause leakage. Leakage is no bueno in calzone world.
When it comes to little ones and food, I have learned that they are more likely to eat something if they help to make it themselves. For these calzones, I like to put all the toppings in little bowls and let them pick what they want. Also, if you only offer healthy options, they are more likely to pick a few of them by default. We like chicken or turkey sausage around here. We have a few great local places here in SD, like Da Le Ranch meats and Homegrown Meats. You can find a really tasty Italian chicken one at Trader Joe’s if you don’t have local resources. I had previously used the Jenny-O turkey sausage but I’ve officially scratched them off my list as I think there are better options for us now in the meat department. I think we should try to find the happiest chickens and turkeys possible so they can be the healthiest for our bodies.
Great ingredients are:
zucchini
tomatoes
spinach
chicken/turkey sausage
prosciutto
mushrooms
mozzarella cheese
fontina cheese
red onions
olives
grilled chicken
peppers
 
Place the ingredients on half of the dough. Try to leave about a 3/4 inch space around the edges when you are filling them. If they get too full, they might explode…just ask my husband. Then, fold the dough over and pull the bottom edge up over the top. Press down the edges to form a seal. Brush the tops with an egg.
Just for effect (and a little extra flavor), I like to sprinkle some dried herbs and graze some parmesan on the top. Bake at 500 degrees for about 15 minutes or until browned on top.
I HIGHLY recommend these family movies if you haven’t seen them:
Secretariat
Dolphin Tale
Tangled
Then, you can eat calzones while you watch your movie.
Also, maybe turn off your phones and try not to play words with friends or check your Facebook for the 25th time that day. I know it’s hard, but Your kids will love you for it. Just try it. You might love it too.
Stick around and find us on:
F a c e b o o k // T w i t t e r // P i n t e r e s t // I n s t a g r a m // E m a i l
What every kid wants on a Saturday morning.
Kids always want pancakes. My kids get RIDICULOUSLY excited about these puppies, but that might be because I don’t make them regularly. About one pancake in (if they make it that far) they are over it, but for that 15 minutes that I am prepping and the 3-5 minutes they are eating them, they are super excited.
THAT makes it totally worth it.
I’ve tried so many recipes and I never really found “the one” until very recently. Yes, we fell in love and are quite happy together. No other pancake can come between us…but a waffle could possibly. I read similar sentiments in a post from The Brown Eyed Baker about the recipe she had found so I knew I had to try it. Anyone who loves a fluffy pancake with a buttery delicious crispy outside will devour this recipe. No cake-y pancakes here.
I added this food to my Junk Food Remade series because of the following:
 
That’s quite a few more ingredients and other…stuff. Now, I really love to use butter on my pancakes and that’s not the best choice in some ways, but at least I know what’s in my butter. I think mine still cuts it WAY under 220 calories for 3 pancakes. The cool thing is you can keep your dry ingredients in a jar or container and then add the wet on the day you make it. That’s pretty close to shake and pour, right? As long as you are making them at home you might as well make them right!
You can see the melted butter goodness and the textbook pancake bubbles.
Best Pancakes Ever
2 cups flour
2 T granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 cups milk (plus 1 tsp vinegar)*
2 eggs
¼ cup sour cream
3 T butter, melted and cooled a bit
butter or oil for the pan
Mix the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, whisk the milk/vinegar combo, eggs, sour cream, and melted butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined…it’s ok if there are a few lumps (resist the stirring!). Let it sit while your pan heats up. Hot pans make the best pancakes :) I prefer butter for my pancakes because I think it tastes Awesome the best perfect irresistible pretty good, but oil is totally cool too. Just grease your pan either way and cook until the bubbles start to pop . Flip and cook 1 minute or so more.
Remember to grease your pan in between batches.
*Normally buttermilk is a great ingredient in pancakes, but who really has buttermilk when you need it for a spontaneous Saturday morning pancake session? The old trick is to use 1 tsp of vinegar for every 1 cup of milk. The milk “turns” a bit from the vinegar and ends up pretty darn close to buttermilk.
To top it off…
…grab some preserves (like these that I made this summer) or jelly instead of maple syrup. If your kids (or you) prefer the pouring motion, try to use REAL maple syrup from the tree (I know it’s more $ but it’s totally worth it), honey, or heat the jelly up so you can pour it on.
Here is what’s in your old pal Auntie Jemima’s syrup:
INGREDIENTS: CORN SYRUP, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, WATER, CELLULOSE GUM, CARAMEL COLOR, SALT, SODIUM BENZOATE AND SORBIC ACID (PRESERVATIVES), ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL FLAVORS, SODIUM HEXAMETAPHOSPHATE
She’s not watchin’ out for you anymore :/ Do you ever notice that we try to call it maple syrup but the closest thing to maple syrup it will ever be is sitting next to maple syrup on the shelf. Just a few things we can ALL think about. Know what you’re eating!
That’s why you are gonna make some pancakes from scratch right?
I thought so :)
So, lately I have been in a soup funk. I guess it’s not really a funk because everyone around here seems to be happy with it. Basically, I seem to be only thinking in soups these days when it comes to cooking. I even convinced my newly minted 3-year-old to have 2 kinds of soup for his birthday party. It was a “soldier” birthday party and I wasn’t really lying when I said it was perfect soldier food, ya know? In the past few weeks, I’ve made tomato soup, roasted tomato and fennel soup (x2), potato and leek soup, potato soup, roasted vegetable soup, and this asparagus soup. I can’t help myself. It is perfect for lunch or dinner, whether it’s cold or hot.
I wish I had made this today and not last week because we caught the not so very elusive airplane cold on our trip back east this week. It started with me last Wednesday and now it has 5/5 of us. Needless to see the mood is a little irritable amongst the troops. Soup would be awesome right now. I was supposed to go to a food truck gathering tonight to get a butter-poached lobster grilled cheese, but I decided taking 3 kids with runny noses to such an event would be a bad idea for us and the people around us. Too bad because it’s the first time this truck, Devilicious, was going to be at this otherwise quiet get-together. We don’t get the good trucks down in south San Diego very often. Instead, I threw together a tomato and goat cheese tart. I guess it worked out.
Yes, it’s not your computer. The picture is a little weird because it was late and the sun was down. I’m only saying that because I don’t like looking at this kind of lighting but really wanted to share the easy recipe. I hope that’s ok.
I love asparagus so very much. My Mom even knows how much I love it because she put some in my fridge for our return home.
Thanks, Mom :)
Start by sauteing all of the veggies, except the asparagus, in olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 10 minutes or until soft.
While that is cooking, prepare the asparagus by trimming the ends. The best way, I’ve found, to remove the ends is to hold the woody/hard end with one hand and grab the whole spear halfway down with the other. It will just snap where the tender part meets the hard part. It just lets you know because it’s that fabulous.
You can add it to the other veggies.
Add the vegetable stock and simmer for 20 minutes. Then, puree in the blender or with an immersion blender and season again if needed. I tried this with the immersion and the consistency ended up being a little coarse for me, but I’m sure it would have ended up fine in the blender.
I made up a bunch of grilled bread (with olive oil and salt and pepper) and a few poached eggs for everyone. I love me some poached eggs!
Asparagus soup
(adapted from Jamie Oliver)
2 onions, chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
2 leeks, chopped
2 lbs of asparagus
2 liters organic chicken or vegetable stock
sea salt and fresh pepper
Gluten-free bread or rustic bread, sliced and grilled
poached eggs
It’s Fall and also October as far as the calendar goes, but it could not be further from cool and scarf-worthy here. That will not keep me from enticing it with spices my kitchen and soup on my stove. I made this recipe from good-looking seasonal veggies from my fridge and tons of garlic. It was perfect for a quiet Sunday evening at home after a long week. It was good for the soul. Check out the playlist at the bottom of the page for this recipe :) I’ll try to add that when I think of it.
I love my Grandma’s dishes with this soup. I think she would have liked this soup, too.
Go out and find yourself some great looking tomatoes…organic heirloom if you can. The reason I get that specific kind is not because it sounds cool…even though it kinda does. The heirloom varieties are grown from seeds that are from an old variety of tomato plant which hasn’t been altered by cross-pollination or hybridization. Basically, the person who saved the seeds for future plants saved them in a way (involves covering the tomato blossoms to prevent cross-pollination) where they were not changed. They are pure, which I love.
Toss the tomatoes with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, to taste.
Do the same to the fennel, onions, and garlic. Roast them both in the oven at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until browned.
While you’re cleaning, beware of battle-scenes. You never know when they might happen.
After they are finished roasting, pour both pans of food in the blender and puree. I poured about a cup of vegetable stock in to thin it a bit. That’s it. I didn’t even have to season with extra salt and pepper or add any herbs. When the vegetables roast, they create their own rich flavor from the slight caramelization. The cool thing is that you won’t have to add any cream. making this a vegan dish if you leave out the creme fraiche. Maybe that’s not cool to you, but I have some friends who will think it’s cool. Plus, I think it’s cool.
Roasted Fennel and Heirloom Tomato Soup
5 pounds of tomatoes, chopped in large chunks
4 large pieces of fennel, sliced
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 red onions, chopped in large chunks
10 cloves of garlic, halved
Salt and pepper
olive oil
1 c. vegetable stock
chives, for garnish
Creme fraiche or sour cream, optional
I guess it was nice to enjoy it on the patio with a tank and flip-flops, instead of inside with no fresh air. Wherever you are, I hope you enjoy it!
New! Just added these playlists so you can rock out to it too…if you feel like it.
Matthew West Pandora Station
One of my very favorite things to cook is roast chicken. It’s one of the few things I enjoy making over and over again, the same. For this version, I wanted to mix the flava’ up a little.
My oregano is so overgrown so I decided to use that along with some lemon thyme for the butter rub.
First preheat the oven to 425. You can chop up whatever herbs you happen to have and add them to 1 stick of softened butter. Mix.
Inside the chicken cavity, put the aromatics shown above. The goal here is just pump some flavor into the meat as the ingredients are steamed inside.
Salt and pepper the chicken and rub the outside with butter. I REALLY don’t like to look at pictures of raw meat but wanted to show how the bacon gets laid out on top next. I’m so thankful our local Trader Joes store started carrying the uncured bacon only. So nice.
Cook the chicken until the temperature reaches 165. When you get to about 140 degrees, take the bacon off and let the chicken brown. Normally, “they” say to tuck those wings underneath, but I was being lazy. Oh well. It tasted the same.
Summer Roast Chicken
1 whole free-range organic chicken
1 orange, halved
1 red onion, halved
1 head of garlic
6 sprigs of herbs, whole
1 stick of butter
3 T. fresh herbs, chopped (I used thyme and oregano)
1 lb./ package bacon
… … … … … …
Some lovely and EASY side dishes I’ve been serving lately are:
Sautéed English green peas with bacon. Trader Joes carries these peas seasonally, but you have to ask for fresh ones from the back if you want them to last more than 5 minutes. They get slimy super-fast.
Polenta with thyme.
Roasted asparagus with olive oil, salt, and pepper. I eat these like french fries.
Grill some market-fresh summer veggies.
Creamed corn. One of my favorites.
Gnocchi sautéed with garlic and rosemary.
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