Spinach and Goat Cheese Calzones and Homemade Sweet Potato Chips

With the New Year, Miss Yunks has made a small effort to eat healthier, and to use leftover ingredients in the fridge.  The idea for this night’s dinner came from the goat cheese in my fridge, a quick poll from BF of what do you want for dinner?, and Michelle’s homemade potato chips.

My what do you want for dinner? question was answered by calzones – so I thought of a calzone filling that worked with goat cheese.  I also wanted a salad with our calzones, so I found another excuse to use more goat cheese and made more of my goat cheese balls seen here.  I bought two sweet potatoes and used one in the salad and one to make chips.

I needed to snack on something while I prepared the meal, so I made the potato chips first.  I washed 1 sweet potato, sliced off the ends, and used my mandolin to cut thin round chips.  I left the skin on,  mainly because it’s easier than removing it, plus it has the healthy nutrients. I tossed the chips with a bit of olive oil and salt, and baked on a baking sheet at 350 degrees until browned and crisp.  It took about 15 minutes.  I snacked on some chips and set aside the rest to share at dinner.  My homemade sweet potato chips were crispy and full of flavor!  I like this new (to me) way to prepare potatoes.

For the calzones, I halved a box worth of cherry tomatoes, tossed with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted until soft.  I steamed my spinach but filling a bowl about 1/3 with water, adding the spinach, and microwaving it.  I then drained the spinach in my hands and rolled in paper towel to get out all of the moisture.  I enjoy spinach both raw and cooked, but I’ve read that steaming it brings out more nutrients.  I divided my store bought dough in 2 equal parts to make two calzones.  I rolled each out and layered goat cheese, spinach, roasted tomatoes, and shredded mozzarella.  After I folded the dough over, I thought to top it with some leftover seasoned Panko breadcrumbs.  I rubbed a little olive oil on top of the dough and sprinkled some breadcrumbs on top of the oil.  Bread topped with bread? Sounds good to me! While everything was cooking, I was also making tomato sauce on the stove with 1 can of skinned whole roma tomatoes, 3-4 T butter, half an onion, and this time I added extra spices to make it more like a marinara sauce for dipping the calzone.  I added oregano, basil, and Italian seasons mix from my spice rack.  When BF walked into my kitchen, I was proudly using all four tiny burners on my little stove.  The roasted tomato, spinach, and goat cheese calzones were full of color and flavor.  The goat cheese added a nice creaminess not usually found in calzones and the Panko on top added another fun texture and seasoned taste.

For the salad, I microwaved the other sweet potato to cook it quickly, peeled off the skin, and sliced it into chunks.  Potatoes take about 7 minutes to cook in the microwave.  I spread baby spinach and arugala on plates and topped with sweet potato chunks, goat cheese balls, and maple vinaigrette dressing.  This post is so overdue that I forget exactly how I made the dressing, but I think I mixed about 2-3 T red wine vinegar,  1-2 T  Dijon mustard, 1 T olive oil, and 2 T maple syrup.  The dressing was delicious! Sweet and tangy, it went really well with the goat cheese and sweet potato.  BF added some extra roasted tomatoes to his salad.

It takes a while to prepare a whole meal, but it’s also fun and rewarding to eat and to share!

What’s the best dish you’ve shared lately?