Veggie Bacon Calzone On a Budget Recipe

The above picture inspired me to make calzones which would be bigger versions of the cute mini-pockets in the picture. I follow my instincts according to the color of the food and craving at the time. I like cute, colorful meals. I like them on the budget. Here's how it all breaks down.

Crescent Rolls - less than $2.

Pizza Sauce - around $3 or less, depending on the brand. We typically use this sauce for a lot of other budget meals as well so it really stretches. Other meals include bagel pizzas for the kids and SognoPiccolo's homemade pizza.

Shredded Cheese - $8 or more. Most expensive purchase on the list, so we try to make it count and go for the biggest bag for cheapest.

We had left-over bacon from the last time we went to the store, but I'll go ahead and say from tentative memory that it is usually between $6 to $13 depending on amount of sliced bacon, type of bacon, and brand.

We always keep fresh veggies on hand and you can get great deals on them at your local stores. Our favorite staple is green peppers and the colorful variation of peppers. We always keep on stock yellow onions, sweet onions, or green onions. That will last us for 2 weeks if we store and use them properly. That's important to any budget: The proper use of ingredients and planning of meals. That usually is $.99 per green peppers, along with $1 or more per lb of onions (which ends up being a total of 10 large onions).

Everything else we already had stocked, which is the norm for many households on a budget.

So, are you ready?

Ingredients

• A whole, medium green pepper; diced. Yellow or red is fine, especially since I used yellow for this particular recipe.
• Half an onion, diced. If it seems to be smaller in amount to your peppers, go with color and preference. Perhaps adding another quarter or half an onion, if you want to balance it out.
• A whole tomato diced.
• Less than a cup of pizza sauce.
• 4 cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese, give or take.
• A large pinch of parsley flakes. (I'd say tablespoon, to be safe).
• Tablespoon of butter.
• Teaspoon or less of each, depending on your taste preference: Garlic powder, seasoning salt, oregano, salt, pepper.
• 2 package of Crescent Rolls - makes into 12 or so triangle pieces.
• 6 slices of bacon.
• One egg yolk.
• Less than 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4 - 6 people. Recipe makes 6 large calzones. It takes 10 minutes to prepare and cook ingredients, 15 to 20 minutes to bake the calzones. Overall, 30 minutes!

1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Lay out 6 triangle pieces from the Crescent Rolls dough on a greased cookie sheet.
3. Heat up the pan and melt the tablespoon of butter in it. Toss in your diced peppers when the butter has melted. Begin tossing in the garlic powder, pepper flakes, oregano, salt, and pepper. Cook for two minutes before throwing in the onions. Cook a while more until onions are slightly translucent.
4. Put those in a bowl and put aside.
5. In the same pan, throw in your bacon. Cook until crisp, then put them on a paper towel. When they've cooled enough, shred the bacon into pieces and transfer to plate.
6. Start layering each dough thus: a) A thin layer of pizza sauce, b) sprinkle of parmesan, c) a very small handful of shredded cheese, d) diced tomatoes, e) peppers and onions, and f) the bacon pieces.
7. Take 6 more triangle pieces of Crescent Rolls dough and place each triangle ontop the prepared triangles. Use a fork to press sides and corners so they merge.
8. Brush egg yolk over the top and sprinkle the parsley flakes on.
9. Bake! It usually takes 15 - 20 minutes.
10. Serve hot.