Ham & Green Pepper Calzones

hi friends! it's been a while since i've posted a recipe post hasn't it? life has just been so much fun lately getting ready for baby boy alexander and our big move back to spokane, that cooking and photographing recipes sort of fell on the back burner.

the next few weeks as we get through the move will continue to be a little crazy, but eventually i'll get my cooking mojo back ;0)

in the meantime, here's a super quick and super easy recipe for a homemade calzone. the pictures aren't the greatest, but i'm a pretty firm believer that the recipes that taste the best, photograph the worst ;0)

we had a TON of ham leftover from easter a few weeks ago. so much so that i was worried i was going to have to throw a lot of it away, and i hate throwing food away...but i did a quick internet search and learned that you can actually freeze it for up to two months and still use it. so that's just what i did. i chopped it up, put it into individual serving size baggies and stored a bunch in my freezer.

i took a baggy out of the freezer and placed it in the fridge to slowly defrost (note: all my research told me that you need defrost the ham slowly in the fridge, no microwaving and no leaving it out on the counter to bring it up to room temp). 

then i stopped by my local grocery store to pick up some pre-made pizza dough, sauce, cheese, green peppers and a jalapeno. i divided the dough in half (one baggy of dough is the perfect amount for two large calzones), rolled it out into two "circular" shapes, topped one half of each rolled out circle of dough with marinara sauce, shredded cheese, ham, green peppers and jalapenos.

then i folded the untopped side of dough over the toppings, pinched the two sides to seal up the calzone, and popped them in the oven at 415 degrees for about 15 minutes.

they came out slightly browned, oozing with cheese and so stinking good and rather "rustic" looking dontcha think. and you better believe this pregnant lady finished her entire calzone all on her own. baby likey ;0)

i'm not posting ingredient measurements because i think pizza and calzones are best made when you eyeball the ingredients. some people like LOTS of cheese on their pizza, other's like a little....same thing with the veggies and your protein of choice. you could also easily adapt this to your pizza toppings of choice instead of using ham and green peppers! get wild with your bad cooking self;0)