Healthy Treat for Today: Homemade Pizza Pockets
ByLunch time around here can be a hectic time…
These Pizza Pockets are a perfect treat that you can make ahead put in the freezer…then throw in the oven at lunchtime.
Here’s how I made these:
I used my regular pizza recipe…
Crust
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 t. sea salt
1 cup melted butter
1 cup plain yogurt
Stir ingredients together until thoroughly mixed.
Pizza Sauce
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
1/2 t. garlic powder
1 1/2 t. oregano
1 1/2 t. basil
Stir together and simmer for a few minutes.
Pizza Pocket Fillings
Grated mozzarella or white cheddar cheese, cooked hamburger, pepperoni, olives, peppers, mushrooms
To form a Pizza Pocket
Roll a small ball of dough into a circle. Place one tablespoon of pizza sauce in the center. Put in a small amount of your choice of toppings. Fold the dough in half. Use a fork to pinch the edges together.
Lay Pizza Pockets on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Freeze for about one hour. Pop them off the cookie sheet and put them into a freezer bag…and back into the freezer.
Bake your Pizza Pockets
For frozen Pizza Pockets, bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. If the Pizza Pockets are thawed, bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
I love the convenience of this nutritious ”fast food”! Serve them with fruit and veggies(God’s fast food!)…and you’ve got yourself a quick and easy lunchtime treat!!
You’ll find more healthy treat recipes here.
Those look like fun! I’m going to print this out and try my hand at it. I actually tried to bake bread yesterday. I thought it came out too doughy and heavy…but everyone in my family raved about it. Not too bad for a first attempt. (I don’t have a bread machine, but I did use my Kitchenaid for the kneading!)
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Yummy!!!
I make these too! Usually I just use some canned biscuits…flatten the biscuit and then add fillings. When I make pizza dough, my family thinks they actually need a big round pizza! LOL
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Wow looks really yummy and not too difficult either! THX
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Yummy… I may wait until next week to make these, because I’m sore from making 46 berocks last night, and making crust and rolling dough doesn’t sound fun today! LOL
Thanks for always sharing such great, yummy recipes!
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Great idea!
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I was hoping you would share this recipe. :)
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What a great idea for a fast lunch!
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These look like something we would really enjoy! Thanks for the all the great recipes you share! Have you thought about putting together a cookbook and submitting it to a publisher?
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Okay- what did I do wrong? My dough was sooo flaky/crumbly, it wouldn’t roll out, and could not make pockets out of it…
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How many pockets does one recipe make? Thanks.
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I made these last night and they were yummy! I froze half for some quick and tasty meals. Great idea!
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I made these and got about 20 nice sized pockets. The dough mixes up very well and is easy to work with. I used 1/2 cup olive oil/1/2 cup butter, as that seemed a little healthier. The finshed product tasted very good! We’ll see if the kiddos agree tomorrow!!
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I’m doing a spin on these for dinner tonight. Barbecue chicken pockets. I chopped the chicken and added some barbeque sauce and chipotle seasoning.
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What about freezing them? Do they work in the microwave for re-heating (thinking school lunch!)
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Laura Reply:
September 7th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
I freeze them all the time. I’m not a big fan of microwaves so I haven’t personally warmed one this way, but if you bake them first, then re-warm them in the microwave, I’m sure they’d do fine!
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DO you soak your grain for this?
I am thinking about making these but my son is gluten ree…can I soak the grain to make easier to digest. or should I just use gluten free flour?
thanks
Tara McMillan
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Laura Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
I do soak my grain for this and it works great!
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thank you!! i have been looking for make ahead and freeze meals! these look so yummy and are surely better for you than the store bought pizza pockets! YUMMY!
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Sounds great! I love that you put directions for heating from frozen and unfrozen. I also like that the recipe doesn’t call for cooking, freezing, then heating in the microwave. We got rid of ours due to health concerns, so when I see recipes like that, I’m thinking…”okay, how do I reheat it without a microwave? Will it be overcooked if I try it in the oven?”
So thank you!
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I also had trouble with the dough being flaky and crumbly and difficult to roll out. The ones I did get together are in the oven baking at the moment, so we’ll see how they come out…they smell good!
I love this idea, though I may use the breadmaker pizza dough recipe I usually use for our pizza & movie nights, as I didn’t have much success with this dough recipe (perhaps it is my flour? My flour tends to be on the grainy side…)
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Laura Reply:
March 3rd, 2010 at 8:36 am
Might have been the grainy flour. I know that I usually have to work my dough (like playdough) for a while sometimes to make it nice enough to roll. Hope yours tasted good anyway!
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If I used a yeast dough for the crust do you know if it would freeze and work as well?
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Laura Reply:
March 11th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Yes, I think it would work perfectly!
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Just a tip I’ve found when making mass amounts of pizza pockets: You can roll out a huge amount of dough and cut it with a pizza cutter into desired size squares. Then top the dough and fold over or pull up edges and tuck all the ends under sorta like a bread roll with the filling in the middle.
Love looking over your recipes and can’t wait to actually get busy and make some!
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I read above that you said you soaked the flour. Do you soak it before you add the other ingredients or do you just mix all the ingredients and let it sit? If you soak it before what do you soak it with?
Thanks, I am trying to soak my grains and learning how to convert recipes so this is helpful. I can’t wait to try these!
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Laura Reply:
March 31st, 2010 at 7:53 am
I mix all the ingredients together and let it soak. You don’t have to add anything because the cultures in the yogurt break down the phytates!
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Wow, I just found your site…I’ve been skimming through and saving tons of recipes and links! Love it, thanks so much!
Sorry to have you repeat yourself, but when you freeze them how do you reheat them?
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Laura Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:14 am
For frozen Pizza Pockets, bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. If the Pizza Pockets are thawed, bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
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I bake these off and THEN freeze them so I can give them to my husband for lunch. Works well for us!
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These are a hit in our house! My dough also was crumbly and fell apart the first time I made these. I think it’s because my butter was not completely melted. However, I just kept kneading it and working it, and it softened right up after about 5 minutes.
I now use this concept to make pasties. I can get 5-6 out of the dough recipe. Instead of pizza fillings, just fill with ground beef, carrots, onions, potatoes, spices and 1 T. of butter. Serve with gravy.
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I made these last night with pizza toppings. Was thinking to make some with breakfast items, eggs, cheese, sausage…for breakfast pockets. Also, apples with butter and cinnamon for a desert or breakfast pocket. Can’t wait to make batches of them for the freezer.
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I have a batch of the mini pizzas ready for the oven. A genius tip occurred to me late last night: roll the dough out as one piece and use a jar mouth to cut each piece. I’m sure someone else is smarter than I and already thought of that ;)
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