Chicken Spinach Alfredo Pockets

I made this recipe a few weeks ago from A Chef in Training, it was delish, even my husband thought so. Brent does not like chicken pizza, a he really liked it.

SPINACH CHICKEN ALFREDO POCKETS

• 2-3 cups cooked chicken-shredded (I used a rotisserie chicken just to save on time)
• 1 (16oz) jar Alfredo sauce
• 1 (10 oz) bag fresh spinach
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 (8 oz) bag shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup mushrooms (optional) - I didn't use this because my hubby doesn't really like them
• I threw in about a 1/4 cup of sun dried tomatoes for more flavor, but it is completely optional
• 3 (13.8 oz) cans refrigerated pizza dough*

*I don't know that I'd use the pizza dough cans again, I think next time I'd use the homemade pizza dough recipe I like from Allrecipes.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Mix shredded chicken, alfredo sauce, spinach, salt, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, and mushrooms together by hand in a large bowl.

I rolled out the dough and cut to make rectangles for pockets. Place some of chicken mixture on one half of the rectangle dough leavining a 1 inch border. Fold the other half of dough over and press edges together until sealed.

After stuffing and folding each pocket, place on baking sheet. Whisk egg and 1 Tbsp. water together and brush over the top of each pocket. Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes or until very golden brown on top. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

If you don't want little pockets, another option you could do is:

Unfold one can of dough onto prepared baking sheet. Gently stretch or roll into an 11-inch square; cut in half diagonally, forming two triangles. Place about 1 1/2 cups chicken mixture in the center of the triangle, leaving a 1 inch border on each side. Fold 1 side of triangle over filling, rolling up edges of dough to seal. Cut a small slit in top of calzone to allow steam to escape. Repeat with remaining dough and check mixture. Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes or until Golden Brown.

HEARTS and Calzones

For our Valentines breakfast I went super simple: heart shaped nuttella toast and strawberry milk.

For lunch: peanut butter and jelly heart shaped sandwiches with juicy red strawberries.

And for dinner I decided to make my family heart shaped calzones. They turned out to be super yummy. I didn't end up doing a dessert as NUBI frozen yogurt was having a buy one get one, so we headed over there, before dinner :)

First I made the crust:

1 C. warm water
1 T. sugar
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 t. salt
3 T. olive oil
2 1/2 C. flour.
1/2- 1 t basil
1/2- 1 t. oregano
1/2- 1 t. garlic powder
1/2- 1 t. thyme

Filling:
pizza sauce or marinara sauce
mozzarella cheese
pizza topings (pepperoni, canadian bacon, olives, pineapple, green peppers, etc.)

Combine water, sugar and yeast and mix until yeast is dissolved. Add salt and olive oil and mix. Slowly add flour and mix until well blended. Lest rest covered for 10 minutes.

Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and put a little olive oil on your fingers and press the pizza out flat making a rectangular shape. You are now going to sprinkle your basil, oregano, garlic powder and thyme over your dough until it is evenly covered. Now at this point you can either get out your cute heart shaped cookie cutter and make enough hearts as your dough allows for both top and bottom. Taking the excess from around the hearts and pressing it out again to make additional heart shapes or your can cut your dough in fourths making four larger calzones. If you are doing hearts then you will only do the following to half of the hearts, if you are doing larger calzones then you will only cover half of each of your rectangles. okay.

So first you spread your pizza sauce, or marinara sauce, then you place a nice layer of mozzarella cheese, followed by pizza toppings of your choice. Our toppings included turkey peperoni, canadian bacon, green peppers, and olives, Everyone built there own, so they were all different. Followed by a little more mozzarella cheese.

Now if you made heart shaped calzones you will place the hearts with nothing on them on top of your pizza layered hearts and press the edges to seal. If you made standard rectangular shaped calzones you will fold the dough in half and seal the edges.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Easy peasy and my whole family loves them. I cut my 2 year olds heart in half and she ate it just like a sandwich.

Happy Eating!