Meatless Monday: Spinach Calzones with Blue Cheese

A couple of weeks ago, both my husband and I were really busy with work. With our limited time, I knew putting together dinners for the week was going to be a challenge. My solution was to find and print out a bunch of yummy sounding but simple recipes with limited ingredients lists. I did all the shopping at the beginning of the week. Then, each night when Matt called to say he was on his way home, I'd take a break from work and prep the ingredients for one of the recipes. When he got home, he'd take over doing whatever mixing, constructing, sauteing, etc. that was needed to finish the recipe and I'd go back to work. In this manner, we put together some tasty dishes that neither of us had to exert too much effort to make.

This next dish is one of the one's from that week's menu. It only calls for 7 ingredients, two of which (cooking spray and garlic) you'll likely already have in your pantry!

Spinach Calzones with Blue Cheese
Recipe

When I think of calzone, I think of the traditional calzones I grew up eating in a very Italian suburb of Boston, the kind that look like large flat logs that you cut into slices to eat. The calzones we made with this recipe looked very different from those traditional ones, but I liked them because they were very pretty (see pic) and were sized for individual consumption.

We used gorgonzola (an Italian blue cheese) because we had it left over from two dishes we'd made the previous week. And we drizzled some fresh pizza sauce from a local Italian market on top. They were pretty good! When I make these again though, I will probably try a more traditional cheese like mozzarella or provolone and a bag of fresh pizza dough from the bakery. I thought blue cheese might be a little too strong a choice for a recipe like this, and, while the canned pizza dough is quick and convenient, real pizza dough has a better taste and texture.

Another option you might consider - make much smaller versions of these as hors d'oeuvres for your next gathering!

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Caramelized Pear and Sage Crostini

About a month ago, the mister and I were trying to decide what to bring to a gathering at the house of our friends. Our friends mentioned that someone else who was coming was planning to bring a pear-flavored cocktail, so I thought "Perfect!" when I saw this recipe. Not only did it look like it would go really well with that drink, but I was also excited because the prep work sounded easy, there were only a few ingredients listed, I could make everything ahead of time, and it seemed like it would travel well. Killer bonus? It turned out to be delicious.

Caramelized Pear and Sage Crostini
Recipe

This recipe is so simple to make. You can easily be done with the whole thing - chopping to topping - in about half an hour. I'm telling you, you can't go wrong. We liked it so much ourselves, we couldn't wait for an excuse to make it again and so had it at a gathering at our own house a couple of weeks later.

After the crostini were toasted, we let them cool off for about ten minutes and then put them in a Ziploc bag. And, after the pear mixture was cooked and had cooled, we scooped that into a disposable plastic container. When we were ready to go, we just popped those two things and the little tub of crumbled blue cheese in a bag and were off. At our hosts' house, we microwaved the pear mixture for a minute, scooped it and the blue cheese on top of the crostini, sprinkled them with salt and pepper, and voila! Done.

My one complaint about this recipe? It's almost scandalous that there is no mention of blue cheese in its title! Blue cheese is such a crowd-pleaser, and it complements the subtle flavors of the pear and sage so well.

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

Other Meatless Monday posts

Meatless Monday: Butternut Squash Gratin with Blue Cheese & Sage

WARNING: This is yet another Meatless Monday post about squash. . . . Hey, if I'm going to have an addiction, at least it's a healthy one - I don't have to feel guilty about eating it to my heart's content and I also don't have to feel guilty about getting you hooked. Oh, and you will be hooked after you try this next recipe. HEV-UN!

Butternut Squash Gratin with Blue Cheese & Sage
Recipe

And I thought squash with goat cheese was good! This makes an amazing side dish and works well as leftovers (provided you reheat it in a conventional oven - the bread crumbs lose something in the microwave).



Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

Other Meatless Monday posts