Food Makeover: Pizza Pockets

Growing up my mom would make these things called pizza pockets. She would smoosh two pieces of biscuit dough (Pillsbury Grands) together and flatten it. Then, she would top with cheddar cheese and meat sauce (sometimes there would be little smokies sausages in the sauce), fold it over to look like a little pocket, and bake them in the oven.

I know most people don't think cheddar cheese and meat sauce when it comes to pizza, but in my parents' house that's the way it was. The pizza pockets and homemade pizza usually had ground beef and cheddar cheese as the toppings.

My siblings and I looked forward to the days my mom made pizza pockets (especially my sister), not only because they were delicious but because it meant we weren't having something like... Cabbage and Spam stir fry (Hi mama!). I have changed some things, like using pizza dough instead of biscuits, but the original way is really great too - Especially if you already have biscuit dough in your fridge.

After baking and freezing, I tested these suckers out in the microwave to see how they'd taste after being nuked. Because bread gets chewy after being heated in the microwave, I wouldn't recommend doing so... Although, they weren't bad. I think it would be better to heat in the oven (Matt and I don't have a microwave anyway so we heat everything in the oven, I used the microwave at work for test purposes).

I purchased pizza dough from the Publix bakery (A lot of grocery stores carry pizza dough) and had leftover meatsauce from making freezer lasagna. I have a pretty large stock of spaghetti sauce and cheese that I purchased for really cheap (Go here to see how I shop). To keep my food cost low, I use coupons, buy what's on sale and use what I already have in my kitchen.

Here's what I used:

Pizza dough (1 lb. cut into 6 pieces)
Lean ground beef
Ground pork sausage
Onions
Garlic
Pasta sauce
Cheddar cheese
Mozzerella cheese

Cut pizza dough into six pieces and flatten with hands or rolling pin... Or in my case the water bottle pictured in the background. After you roll out all the dough the first time, it will most likely shrink. Give it a couple of minutes to rest and roll out one more time.

If you want to use biscuit dough, smoosh two pieces of bisuit together and flatten (you will probably need flour).

Make a meatsauce with whatever you like. Like I said earlier, my mom added little smokie sausages to her sauce. I used garlic, onion, ground sausage, ground beef and mushrooms. Cook it for a little while on low heat so that the sauce isn't too watery. Too much liquid will prevent the pizza dough from sealing. Make sure the sauce has cooled down before using it.