Meatless Monday: Spinach and Basil Calzones

Meatless Mondays is a weekly feature which will showcase some of my hits and probably misses with living a meatless life. Many of you know I stopped eating meat about a year ago for personal reasons. While, I haven’t had any desire to go back to eating meat, it has been a struggle to find healthy foods to eat.

Everywhere you go, meat is the main dish. Since I was new to this lifestyle, it led me to eating unhealthy options. I’m on a path now to cook healthier options at home without meat. While going meatless is a personal choice for me, you can still save money by having one meatless meal a week.

Will you join me on this journey by preparing one meatless dish every week?

Spinach and Basil Calzones

Ingredients

• Ingredients on the Whole Wheat Dough List
• Tomato Sauce or Pizza Sauce (I used a jar sauce we had that I believe was 6 cheese)
• Spinach Leaves
• Basil Leaves – FRESH!
• Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
• Pampered Chef Garlic Infused Canola Oil (Optional – you can just use olive oil if you would like!)
• Parmesan-Romano Cheese

I’ve purposely left out quantities on this recipe because I have no clue how much I used as I made a “mix” of meat filled calzones and vegetarian ones.

First, I love to use my Ninja chopper to make freshly grated Parmesan-Romano Cheese. I buy this by the block, chop it in the chopper and then store in the refrigerator in a container. Sofia says this is the best! It is so much better than the fake parmesan blend you can buy that sits at room temperature in the stores! ;)

Make your Whole Wheat Dough. I made mine the previous day, stored in the fridge until the next night when I was ready to use. Roll out the dough using a rolling pin coated with a sprinkle or two of flour. You will have to experiment on the size you want your dough. It really helps to roll it out as thin as you can.

Put some sauce to your taste on the rolled out dough, add a few spinach leaves and 2-3 basil leaves, and mozzarella cheese. Fold up into a calzone…I basically roll it like a burrito. Sometimes they don’t end up that great looking but they are still tasty! The main issue is you don’t want them overflowing.

Use a pastry brush to apply the canola oil. Sprinkle a bit of the Parmesan-Romano cheese. Cook at 375 for 10-15 minutes.

Serves: Varies.

Post Dinner Analysis

I only made myself one vegetarian calzone and I totally regretted it. I can’t wait to make this recipe again as it was filling and delicious. I love spinach and fresh basil leaves are a new favorite of mine. This recipe was great.

Freezer Friendly

After cooking flash freeze several on a baking sheet. Then you can store in your freeze in a gallon ziploc bag. Warm up in the oven or microwave.

Meat it Up

The kids (except Eli) enjoyed the meaty versions I made of this. Basically, I omitted the basil and spinach and added pepperoni.

Vegan Option

Use vegan cheese.

If you have any questions about the vegetarian lifestyle, you can read more about it at GoVeg.com. They offer a free starter kit.