Stromboli

The past week has been extremely hectic and I have A LOT of catching up to do.  I have 2 recipes to share from the beginning of the month, and then this and another one from last week.  Last week was a week of take-along-dinners for my boyfriend, since more often than not, we had to run out as soon as he got home from work.  I made grilled cheese two nights, and I made this Stromboli.  It was my first time making it, and I did make a few mistakes.  I used a prepared Boboli pizza crust, which wasn't the worst idea in the world, but it did make the Stromboli hard to keep together and a bit of a mess to eat.  Next time, I am going to buy whole wheat pizza dough (usually kept in balls in the dairy aisle of your local supermarket, it is also sold frozen in the frozen aisle or in the bakery).  I used ground beef, but you could also use crumbled sausage, and I may actually try ground chicken, and of course you can substitute the spinach with broccoli rabe.  You can serve this with marinara sauce on the side, but in all honesty, it really doesn't need it!  It gave us dinner one night and lunch the day after.  I think the next time I will be doubling this recipe, because it was absolutely AMAZING! 

Also, I need to ask everyone again to please vote for my little guy for the Gerber Generation Photo Search.  I really appreciate every one's help with this!  The link is:  Vote for Eoin!  Thank you very much!

Yields 4-6 Servings

Adapted from the Comfort Food Diet Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb lean ground beef, chicken, turkey or crumbled Italian sausage
• Prepared pizza crust or pizza dough (about 14 ounces)
• 1 jar (8 ounces) of deli-sliced roasted sweet bell pepper strips
• 1 cup of shredded, part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1 package (10 ounces) of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder or garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon basil leaves
• warmed marinara sauce (optional)

Directions:

1. Brown ground meat in a skillet until no longer pink, drain.
2. Spread meat, peppers, cheese, spinach, onion in a single layer over the pizza crust/dough.  Sprinkle the top with onion or garlic powder, pepper and basil.
3. Roll the dough up like a jelly roll, tucking edges under and pinching the seam to seal.  (If using the Boboli crust, roll up the best that you can without breaking the crust.  Take a big piece of aluminum foil and spray it well with cooking spray.  Wrap the Stromboli up tightly in the foil and then continue with rest of baking instructions.)
4. Bake on a well sprayed cookie sheet at 375 for 30 minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes, and then slice into 1 inch slices.  Serve with marinara sauce if desired.