Recipes: Stromboli

So as I was wandering around the world wide web today I noticed an ad from Walmart that assured me in giant blue letters that at Walmart I could buy breakfast for my family for under $2 per serving!!! 


$2 per person for breakfast! I try not to pay that much for dinner. If I paid $2 per serving for my family, that'd be $1080 per month!! My price point is much closer to $1 per person, way less for breakfast. So I thought I'd start posting some of my cheap, yummy recipes, in the hopes that we can all withstand this recession a little better, together. The world war era girls had victory gardens. We have recipe swap! 


Anyway. First on the list is this yummy stromboli I made last week, because I took pictures. It's a little time intensive but all the time is spent waiting, so it doesn't feel like you're working that hard. But you can still say you spent 2 hours making dinner, and then maybe your husband will do the dishes. Maybe. 


*I've got to give credit to HeavenlyHomemakers.com, where I got the original recipe idea. Hers is a turkey/cheddar stromboli that I haven't tried but looks really good.


Stromboli (or you can call it a big Hot Pocket if it gets your kids to eat it. Incidentally tonight I made some individual ones. I haven't baked them yet but they look pretty good, so those could really be Hot Pockets. Only they don't have weird ingredients and cost way less. But I'm not sure if they'd withstand a lunch box. Anyway, this is a pretty long name for a recipe, so I'll stop now.)

For the crust:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 T. honey
1 t. salt
2 1/4 t. yeast
3/4 cups warm water
1/4 cup warm milk
1 T. melted butter
1 T. basil


For the filling:
1 pound ground beef
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1-2 cups spaghetti sauce (from a can, if you must)
Basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste


Also:
1 egg
Parmesan cheese


First, get the crust going. Combine flour, salt, basil and yeast. Stir in honey, water, milk and butter. Knead 5-10 minutes and then throw it back in the bowl and let it sit for about an hour. If you want you can cover it. Sometimes I forget but it doesn't seem to matter. 


While that's sitting, get the filling ready. Brown the pound of ground beef. You can throw some onions in at this point if you like that kind of thing. Drain off the fat. Incidentally, did you know that a pound of 80/20 ground beef really does have 20% fat? Why yes it does. I know because I drained off the fat from my pound of meat into this old salsa jar. A pound is 16 oz, which means about 3.2 oz should be fat. I cooked up 3 pounds of hamburger (that way I don't have to cook it next time I want to make spaghetti or whatever) so I should end up with about 9.6 oz of fat. Sure enough, when I poured it in the jar that's approximately what I got! Amazing, huh? 


Anyway. Put the meat in a bowl and add the spaghetti sauce and mozzarella. Use more sauce if you like it juicier. Stir it up and add seasonings if you'd like. I like. But some people don't like. So it's optional. 


After the hour is up, roll out the dough to a 15x9 inch rectangle.  Spread the filling over half of it, leaving an inch of edge. See?

Fold it up and seal the edge. Beat the egg and brush it over the top, then sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Let sit another 45 minutes to rise. It won't rise that much, but it should get kind of puffy. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes and there ya go!

It's hard to judge cost because it's not all packaged but I spend $2.50 on the hamburger, $1 for the spaghetti sauce and used half, and the mozzarella was left over from something else. Flour, yeast, etc. cost about $.50. I'd say I can make this for $5, easy. Throw together a salad and you've got dinner for 6 for about $1 per person. Of course, my 6 are not lumberjacks or teenagers, so if you have some of those, you might get fewer servings. 

Be sure to check out The Common Room for more yummy recipes and great stories!