The Candid Appetite

Where Cooking Meets Photography

pizza recipes

Mediterranean Chicken Calzones

I love calzones so much that I’m surprised I don’t eat them more often. I’m always like, “I should eat calzones every week. Every single week.” Whenever I’m stumped for what to cook for dinner my immediate response should be to make calzones. You would think that this is a normal reaction for me. That isn’t the case, though, and I end up never making them. Which is sad, because a life without calzones is a life I don’t really want to live. It’s okay because whenever I do get to making calzones, it’s literally the best day ever. The best week ever. I’ll end up cooking up a lot more than I should, and keep them in the fridge for the week. If I want to enjoy them over a longer period of time, I’ll pop them in the freezer and just reheat whenever I’m craving a hot cheesy calzone. They make for great lunches or easy dinners or midnight snacks. Just serve them with a salad on the side, and then they instantly become healthy. That’s how it works, right? I’m almost positive that I’m doing this whole healthy New Year New Me thing right. It’s the only way to do it.

My favorite calzone will always be a simple pepperoni calzone. They get me every time. I wanted to branch out a bit for this post however, and pretend that I’m more sophisticated than I actually am, even if it’s just for a moment.  These are filled with many of the great Mediterranean flavors we all know and love. Chicken, artichokes, spinach, sun-dried tomato and feta. If you so wish, you could take them a step further and add olives to them. And because there really isn’t a sauce in these calzones, I thought it would be the best idea to drench them in tzatziki sauce. It’s a cool and creamy cucumber sauce that is loaded with so much flavor, it’ll knock your socks off. No more socks. Cold feet for life. You could also serve them with hummus (just saying). 

If you’re in need of even more calzone deliciousness, remember that time we made two kinds of calzones on the blog? Of course you remember, you would be crazy not to. There’s a BBQ Chicken Calzone and a Sausage and Peppers Calzone for you to try. Now that you have three different calzones to eat, there’s no excuse. Get your life together and start eating all the portable pizzas you’re destined to eat. I’m rooting for you. 

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Pizza Pretzels

2016 is all about pizza and pretzels, but most importantly it’s about pizza and pretzels coming together to create one MEGA snack; the Pizza Pretzel. This is what happens when a soft pretzel meets cheesy pepperoni pizza. They have a crazy night together and then BAM, 9 months later the pizza pretzel is born. I’m almost positive that’s how it happened. Regardless of how they came to be, I’m just happy that they were invented, but I’m more happy that I can’t ever go to a mall without craving one of these…for shopping fuel, of course. The best part is the warm pizza sauce on the side for dipping and dunking. So rather than continue going to the mall to spend money on things I really don’t need, just as an excuse to buy the snack of my dreams, I thought it would be more beneficial to both you and I, if I were to make them at home from scratch. That way we can have them at our fingertips whenever we need them. 

These are a take on a post from way back when; a post I like to call, Soft Pretzels. It’s a super old post that I’m not too found of because the photos aren’t that all that good, and I really didn’t know what the heck I was doing in the first place, but I was doing it anyway. I thought it would be a good idea to share it either way because you’d be able to get a better understanding of how to make and shape pretzels from scratch. So with that being said, follow that link above and you’ll have a more detailed post on all you need to know about making soft pretzels in the comfort of your own home. Go ahead and make them in your pajamas. No one is here to judge you. 

These soft pretzels however, are even better than the original because they’re topped with lots and lots of shredded cheese and sliced pepperoni. A simple pepperoni pizza will forever be a guilty pleasure of mine. Sometimes, simple is best. And just when you think that things couldn’t get any better, I’m serving these pizza pretzels with pizza sauce on the side for dipping, just like those mall joints we’ve all fallen in love with do. So let 2016 be the year we get adventurous in the kitchen. Let this be the year we overcome our fear of making homemade bread dough from scratch. Soft pretzels right from the oven are one of life’s greatest pleasures. Don’t miss out. They’re especially more pleasurable when turned into pizza. That’s all I have to say. 

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