Spinach, Ricotta, and Mushroom Calzones

I'm not really a calzone girl. I prefer pizza. But I like trying new pizza recipes because the extent I usually go with my pizza is mozzarella cheese, red sauce, and sometimes pineapple. Most people don't like pineapple pizza, but living in a dorm I discovered while almost any other pizza you order would get stolen-people would never ever take your pineapple pizza. Back in those days I was a Papa John's girl, now all these years later I do the whole homemade thing. Tastes much better and saves money!

So anyway, I decided to try a calzone recipe from the Budget Byte's blog. Looked simple enough. I started with my favorite pizza dough recipe from Food Network. I love it so much I can't bring myself to even try another pizza dough recipe. And it's super easy, just mix and knead until it springs back, then let it rise in a warm place for about an hour. And done!- (while it's great for pizza I might try something more suited to calzones next time).

It's easy to buy pizza dough if you aren't into making it yourself. Just the whole dough making is kind of therapeutic for me. IDK.

Then I just cooked the mushrooms in a bit of olive oil with salt and pepper. Mixed the basil into the ricotta cheese- I had no idea it was so easy to flavor ricotta. The I rolled out the dough and layered the mushrooms, spinach, mozzarella cheese, and ricotta. I didn't use any pepperoni because it wasn't in the ingredient list and I missed it. 

I made a couple so that way I had lunch taken care of for a couple days. 

The first day it was ok. Nothing I would make again.

2nd day, they were getting better. Maybe it wasn't as blah as I thought.

3rd- They actually started getting really, really good. I think the flavors just started really melding together. 

So I didn't like them too much at first, but they got better and better. And I did end up liking them

I probably should have made them bigger and did some sort of wash so it could get some color. Next time.

Still prefer just regular old pizza- I think it's the pizza sauce. But this was a nice change.