Mini Spinach Pizza Pockets/Calzones

Okay.. I have a new obsession that is called freezer cooking. I have always loved the idea of making things and eating leftovers for a while from initially the fridge and then from the freezer if the batch is large enough. I think I started doing this Super Bowl weekend of 2006 when I made a huge pot of Grandma's Chili a Super Bowl party that I threw in the Enclave (Go Seahawks... if any of you remember that game). It was a great turnout, but we still didn't even get halfway through that big pot. I ate chili for the rest of the semester - which was glorious on cold, snowy days to come home to.
Lately - this idea was sparked by mom's getting back into food storage and showing my some food storage and parenting blogs with great recipes. There really are some gems out there with great recipes that taste not only normal, but really delicious, but also pretty darn healthy. I had been craving a spinach calzone for a couple weeks so I grabbed the necessary components at the store and whipped up a whole wheat dough to make homemade pizza pockets. I used another blog for ideas on the best way to freeze them would be... I even found this blog on how to make pretty and clean looking calzones. Other things I've been freezing lately - belgian waffles that I pop into the toaster in the morning and little single servings of broccoli that I can just dump into a bowl and steam in the microwave with dinner.
I doubled the batch and the filling made it almost all the way through - the last ones ended up being cheddar-sausage-mushroom-broccoli pockets for kicks. I've included what I used to make these little pieces of heaven as well as the links above where I found the recipes and my inspiration. Enjoy - and really - you should make a bunch of these up and kept in your freezer for a quick lunch or a quick dinner on a busy night. So good and so quick to throw in the microwave or the oven if you have a bit more time.

Mini Spinach Pizza Pockets/Calzones

The Dough:

• 2 pkgs yeast
• 2 cups warm water
• 5 cups flour4 TB oil
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt

1. Dissolve yeast
2. Stir in remaining ingredients
3. Knead
4. Rise

Note: I doubled this dough recipe and used a single batch of the spinach filling and it worked really well in terms of proportions between the two.

The Filling:

1 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1 box (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed
15 oz. part-skim Ricotta cheese
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
4 oz. Mozzarella cheese in sm. cubes

1. Melt butter and cook onion and garlic until soft. Add oregano. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Squeeze liquid from spinach and chop even smaller. Heat oven 425 degrees.

3. In bowl combine onion mixture, spinach, Ricotta, Parmesan, and Mozzarella cheese.

Assembly:

1. Separate dough into 16 balls
   
2. Flatten into circles with rolling pin
3. Stuff with ingredients and fold dough over, sealing at edge.
4. Cut edges with a pizza cutter to clean up and seal the calzones
   
5. Cut two or three small “steam” slits across the top with a knife. If I’m making different varieties, I cut twice for hamburger, 3 times for pepperoni, etc.
6. Bake at 350*F for 8-12 minutes, or till crust begins to brown.
7. Cool completely, place in freezer bags.

I also added an egg wash on top to give it a more golden color when done baking.

What I thought: They were GREAT! I even shared them with the girls the next day after church with rave reviews. I made these up late at night as a way of de-stressing and froze all, but one - which left me with more than a month's worth of quick and appetizing lunches. They worked great to flash freeze them on a cookie sheet and then throw them in a big freezer ziploc bag. I just pulled out one of them and put a little tomato sauce on a plate in the microwave and about 2 minutes later I had a warm and delicious lunch. You can do any filling you want or make them bigger, but little baby ones were consistent with what I was interested in making at the time.