Facelift Number Twelve - [vegan!] Calzone

As I said in my last post, I am challenging myself to eat a vegan diet (note: not a moral thing, just a dietary thing) so I've made over a huge-portioned dish from one of the largest pizza fast food chains: the P'Zone from Pizza Hut!

BEFORE THE FACELIFT



(click to view full-sized image)

And that's just half a calzone!

INGREDIENTS

1 bag Trader Joe's Whole Wheat PIzza Dough
2 oz Trader Joe's Soy Mozzarella Cheese
4 oz Gimme Lean Ground Sausage Style
3 cup Spinach
.5 cup Tomato Paste (so salt added variety)
1 cup Zucchini, sliced
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tsp Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb
2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (more or less, to taste)
1 tsp olive oil
a bit of whole wheat flour (for dusting your work surface)








LET'S COOK!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.


Cook the spinach, zucchini, and Gimme Lean in a pan. (I cooked each separately, despite being shown together here.)


Lightly flour your working surface and flatten out half of the pizza dough into a circle, like a mini-pizza. Hopefully yours will be rounder than mine, haha.

Then top half of the round with half of each of the following ingredients...


garlic...


tomato paste & seasonings...


spinach...


zucchini...


Gimme Lean...


and cheese!


Fold the empty side of the dough over, roll the edges, and press with a fork to seal. Brush a little olive oil on top and repeat all of this with the other half of the ingredients.


Lightly flour a cookie sheet and put the calzones on it. Bake for about 25 minutes until golden. But... keep an eye on them! When I was baking them, about 10 minutes through I noticed they were browning really fast, so I put foil on top for the rest of the baking. I liked them when they looked nice and golden like this...


Of course, the best part is the inside...


Now, eat!!! This makes 4 servings (1/2 calzone per serving, just like Pizza Hut). Yum!

FACELIFT RESULTS

Though it varies on which P'Zone you compare it to, this vegan version has around half the Calories, 1/4 the fat, ZERO cholesterol, twice the fiber, and even though the sodium is much higher than I like to have even in two meals, it's still between 200 and 600mg less than Pizza Hut's P'Zone! There's a bit less protein, but when you're not eating a half-pound of Italian food, that should be a given! Think about it: ignoring the sodium, you could basically eat an entire vegan calzone (2 servings) and still be consuming less fat, Calories, cholesterol, and carbs as well as more than quadruple the fiber than Pizza Hut's!

You can find the full recipe HERE!

Enjoy, and continue sending me emails at FastFoodFacelift[at]gmail[dot]com and commenting in this blog!

I haven't forgotten about you!

The past month has been pretty crazy. I've been sick since New Years Day and I'm still not 100% over it. Also, I went on a cruise two weeks ago (sick, but I wasn't going to skip out on it just because I was under the weather!) which took me away from my internet all together.

This weekend has been crazy, too; catching up on my chores, cleaning a lot... then we got snow and I had no power until 3pm Saturday. I had to throw out a lot of the food in my refrigerator so I don't exactly have much to work with concerning cooking.

But, I have news.

Starting February 15th I am going to eat a vegan diet until March 15th (the ides of March) just for fun. I did something similar back in April 2009 where I only ate a vegetarian diet. I like challenging myself, and now that I have this blog, it'll be even more interesting.

Now, for that month-long period, I will make vegan alternatives to dishes... making it all the more challenging!

So, stay tuned, be patient, and I will be back with all sorts of yummy stuff. Keep the e-mails coming, too!

Have a great Super Bowl Sunday and a fabulous Valentine's Day, everyone!