The good news is that a many of her ideas still work, I just need to sub ingredients to make them vegetarian. And she does have some good meat free dishes- like calzones with veggies & beans. I didn't use her ingredient list exactly- I used whatever I had on hand. But seeing the calzone recipe in Rachael Ray's cookbook did inspire me to actually make calzones- which turned out great! Making these isn't that much more work than making pizza, plus then you get the fun of dipping your calzone into sauce. It's the little things, right?
Here is my calzone recipe for four:
Ingredients:
1 store bought ball of whole wheat pizza dough
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed & drained
2 big handfuls baby spinach, chopped
1/2 cup black olives, sliced
8 oz package mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 cup mozerella cheese
1 15-oz can of your favorite pizza sauce
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat a little olive oil in a skillet, then saute mushrooms until soft and golden brown. Add garlic, spinach, black olives & beans, heat until spinach wilts and ingredients are incorporated. Season to taste with pepper, and set aside. Cut pizza dough into 4 pieces, then roll each dough piece into a circle. Make sure to coat your hands, work surface, & rolling pin with flour so things don't stick. Put 1/4 of the bean mixture on each piece of dough, then top with 1/4 of the cheese. Fold the top of the dough over, then crimp the edges of the dough with a fork to seal. Spray your baking sheet with cooking spray, then place calzones on the sheet- spraying the top with cooking spray as well. Bake for about 20 minutes, until nice & golden brown. Serve with heated pizza sauce on the side.