Cravings!

I haven't eaten a Mellow Mushroom in FOREVER, but my favorite thing there is the jerk chicken and pineapple calzone.  Well blame baby Jack or hormones or whatever, but I've been craving that calzone something crazy!  So I decided I was going to make it for dinner this week.  I didn't even care if my boys turned their noses up-- it was what we were having and they needed to deal with it!

But while I'm at the store, I decided that it also needed broccoli.  (Maybe I'm low in some vitamins or something?!) And while I'm at it, maybe eliminate the ricotta cheese, which would make Gabe squeal.  And while I used to be Mrs. Betty Crocker in action, between my job, church stuff, growing a human, running Bowman headquarters and taking care of Chad, Gabe, and Max, I also opted for the pre-made pizza dough in the deli section of Publix.  Thank you Publix for this wonderful thing.  (I originally planned to by pillsbury pizza crust-  lame, but this stuff was homemade (by someone else) and perfect!  I didn't even know Publix made dough for people like me, so thanks Katie for the tip!)

And from there I made it all up.  Mixing together bits and pieces of other recipes and giving into my craving 100%.... first, I got the chicken tenders washed and poured a tiny bit of olive oil over them, in a bowl.  Then I sprinkled jerk seasoning all over them, giving them a good coating and let them sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, I pressed the dough into a big circle and steamed the broccoli.



Once the boys were starting to ask about dinner, I preheated the oven to 400 degrees, grilled the chicken in a skillet, spread half the bag of mozzarella cheese down the middle of the dough, sprinkled pineapple chunks, without the juice (from a CAN!) on top of the cheese, added the broccoli, then cut the cooked chicken tenders into bites with my kitchen scissors on top of all that.  I spread that all out in a 5 inch strip down the middle of the dough, then poured the rest of the cheese on top.

Lastly, I folded the sides of the dough up, to meet in the middle of the heap of ingredients, and pinched the edges together all around.  At this point, it was completely sealed and it just looked like a long log of dough with a seam. Then I cracked an egg in a bowl, beat it by hand for 30 seconds, then painted all over the dough.  Finally, I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top and baked it for about 20 minutes.



We each got a bowl of pizza sauce for dipping, and la-te-dah, it was a HIT!!!  Gabe loved it-- ate a big piece, then had dessert, then asked for another piece, ha!  Max ate it up, and Chad devoured almost half of it. My craving satisfied us all, and was so easy that I wanted to pass it along so you all can try it!  Use whatever ingredients your heart desires, stuff it full, and eat it up.  I'm so excited about this little treasure- it will make a regular appearance on our meal plans!  And it was all the food groups (bread, cheese, veggie, and meat) in one recipe-- my favorite!