Recipes: Basic pizza pockets

Looking for a fun and easy meal to do with your kids? You might try this one. The other night, I was watching a girlfriend's kids, and I needed to come up with a simple but kid-pleasing dinner and I was pretty sure this one would pass that test. I'd seen multiple recipes for pizza pockets, but knew most of them basically break down into the following (which allows you to work with what you have on hand):

~ refrigerated pizza dough (I used Pillsbury's Thin Crust Pizza Dough)
~ pizza sauce (or make your own with one small can of tomato sauce seasoned with dried oregano and basil)
~ grated cheeses (cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan, etc.)
~ cooked meat (pepperoni, sausage, anchovies, chicken, bacon, etc.)
~ other condiments (garlic, olives, sliced or chopped onion, bell peppers, etc.)

To serve my husband, me and four kids, I used three rolls of pizza dough, unrolled them on three flexible cutting boards and sliced each into four pieces with a pizza wheel (which yields a total of 12 pieces of pizza dough). I put all the fixings and the sauce into separate bowls (I used grated mozzarella and mild cheddar, chopped cooked bacon, olives, and sliced onion). Then I let the kids make two each, starting first with pizza sauce and then adding layers of cheese, bacon and any other condiments, making sure they were careful to pile them on only one half of each slice (see photo at top). Then they folded the other half over their layers of ingredients and used a fork to pinch the sides together (see photo above, left). They also used the fork to poke their initials in the top each "pocket"--which not only lets heat escape from the pockets as they bake but also identifies them for consumption afterwards! I put four on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray and baked them at 400F for about 10 minutes (I began checking on them at the seven minute mark).

I'm sure there are many fancier and more elaborate ways to do this, but sometimes keeping it simple as possible is all I can handle. And, at least with this recipe, the kids have fun, too!