Another round of: "What to do with those random ingredients?"

As suspected, Sunday morning started out the other day with a Pumpkin donut muffin for breakfast...

...on a cool morning where we got to enjoy breakfast out on the sunporch.  I think Penny enjoyed it the mostJ  hehehehehehe...

I'll never forget the first time we found her up on that furniture.  She had the LOOK that she KNEW she was doing something wrong, looking all around for us, but perched pretty comfortable on those chairsJ  She's, obviously, grown more comfortable about knowing thier "her chairs" now J  Who can disturb the Princ-ess? J

And after a round of dessert, breakfast and divvying up the delights with my fellow co-baker, after breakfast there were no more muffins to be had in our house.  That was until I spied 4 near-dead bananas on my kitchen counter and decided to whip up some banana muffins....

But not just any muffins.  Oh no...these were BROWN BUTTER Banana muffins.  As in butter going from this...

...to this!

Less than 10 minutes on the stove and the butter turns to a brown, salty & nutty flavored masterpieceJ  A few more ingredients and a sprinkle of cinnamon & vanilla and these babies were hot out of the oven!  Perfect for snacks & breakfasts this weekJ  I loved the little extra taste of savory to the muffins thanks to the browned butter...YUM!

Dinner that night came together from a whole mess of ingredients we had laying around the kitchen.  What to do with all of those random ingredients?  Well, aside from making a pizza, panini or pasta...you can also make: Calzones!

PS-for the record: I'm aware that those things were MASSIVE!!!! I normally would only eat HALF of one...but since the rest of my day involved that breakfast muffin, a baked potato (I'm obsessed!) and an apple, I was pretty hungry by the time dinner rolled aroundJ Just thought I'd clear that up since even MY eyes bulged when I looked back and saw the picture! hahahhahahahahahahaha

Anyway!  Back to my random ingredientsJ  I whipped up a leftover cup of ricotta cheese, a (defrosted & DRAINED) box of chopped spinach, 3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and salt & pepper....

And since I'm been obsessed with all things spinach & white bean (and spinach & artichoke...stay tuned for another recipe involving THAT later this weekJ), I thought another tasty layer to my calzones would be some toasted, mashed white beans.  And to REALLY kick it up a notch...I mixed em up with roasted garlic!

Roasted garlic is SERIOUSLY the EASIEST thing you can make (see recipe here).  The most difficult part?  Remembering to pop it in the oven an hour before it's needed.  But it is JUST. SO. WORTH. IT!

I squeezed the cloves into the beans and let them all toast up in a dry skillet until the beans began to split...

Once they were toasted, I mashed all of that creamy & garlicky goodness into a smmmooooth bean paste...

And while the beans were toasting, I got to rolling out my pizza crust into long ovals...

...then began layering my 'zones with a bit of the white bean/garlic spread...

...a large scoop of the ricotta/cheese mix...

...and a sprinkle of shredded mozzarella before sealing them up...

I transferred all of them to a foil wrapped cookie sheet, drizzled with olive oil....and gave a little drizzle to the tops of the 'zones as well...

Pop em in the oven for 35 minutes at 375 and you are GOLDEN...

...literallyJ 

While the 'zones were cooking, I made a small little "dipping sauce" with a can of diced tomatoes & a few shakes of liquid smoke (not needed, but I love the taste).  I let those cook down till some of the juice was absorbed and it made a great partner with all that cheese/doughy goodness....

Did I say cheesy goodness???

Scott TOTALLY flipped for these...esp. since he was sorta hesitant about them when I mentioned it earlier in the dayJ He ended with a "we need to make calzones more often!"  Score one for me!  Wohoooo!

Alight...it'll be back to our regularly scheduled Wednesday program tonight:)  Hope you guys are having a great Tuesday and I'll see ya tomorrowJ  (Is it bad I woke up in the middle of the night last night and thought it was THURSDAY, already??? YeeshJ)