Meatless Hot Pockets
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Hot pockets are a great make-ahead meal for the daycare kids. They are portable, make little mess when the kids eat and are easy to pop in the oven to heat up for serving. Check out these yummy meatless hot pockets for meatless meal lunches this week.
My kids love hot pockets. They can hold them in their hand to easily eat them. I love making stuff ahead and putting them in the freezer. I make tons of stuff at once, only one time to make the mess and clean it up, and then serve it once a week for weeks. I wanted to make some meatless hot pockets because some kids don’t like to eat meat.
It saves me tons of time in my daycare business and I know what is in the food my kids are eating. I don’t have to worry about CN labels or chemicals or anything else.
Pizza pockets
Pizza pockets are a fun family dinner and a nice twist to pizza night. They also make great daycare lunches because what kid doesn’t love pizza? This meatless pizza pocket is healthy, yummy, and fun!
You’ll start with the dough. If you want the world’s most amazing pizza dough, check out Ree Drummond’s pizza dough. It’s awesome and Ree knows what’s up!
If you want a super easy version, you can get frozen dinner rolls and leave them out to thaw completely. Then you can squish 4 of them together to make a large pizza pocket. If you are making them for your daycare kids, like me, you can use two. If you use roll dough, reduce your oven temperature to about 375.
Roll your dough out into a small circle, about 6-8 inches across. Add the filling in the center and leave the outside edges free from ingredients so it will seal.
For pizza pockets, I use a tablespoon of pizza sauce. I make my own by making this roasted tomato sauce and adding 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning and a clove of crushed garlic. Mix it up, and that’s pizza sauce. So good.
For myself, because I am allergic to nightshades and can’t eat tomatoes, I melt a teaspoon of butter and add a pinch of Italian seasoning and a clove of crushed garlic to make garlic butter sauce. I use this in my pizza pockets for me and on the homemade pizza we make.
After the sauce, for meatless pizza pockets, you can add finely diced onions, thinly sliced mushrooms, black olives or whatever strikes your fancy. Then sprinkle with a large pinch of cheese. For daycare, the serving size for most kids is 1.5 ounces, so I stick with that. I use shredded mozzarella, but sometimes I even do homemade mozzarella and it’s even more delicious!
Meatless Hot Pockets
Ingredients
- 1 batch pizza dough
- 1 T pizza sauce
- 1.5 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
- assorted vegetables of your choice if desired
Instructions
- Take a pinch of pizza dough and roll it out about 6-8 inches.
- Place 1 T pizza sauce in center of dough.
- Top with desired vegetables.
- Add 1/5 ounces of shredded cheese.
- Fold dough in half over the filling.
- Pinch the edges of the dough together to make a seal.
- Brush with butter or egg wash or leave plain.
- Bake at 500 degrees for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned.
Cheese hot pockets
For cheese hot pockets, shred a few kinds of cheese that will bring lots of flavor. I might do chedder, gruyere, gouda, parmesan, or whatever cheese you like. Prepare pizza dough. Fill each with a little cheese and desired vegetables, don’t overfill, as they will leak everywhere.
Breakfast hot pockets
For breakfast hot pockets, shred some cheese (I would use cheddar again), scramble some eggs, and roll out your dough as above. Add a spoonful of warm eggs and a pinch of cheese and close as above.
Air fry hot pocket
Homemade meatless hot pockets take about 7 minutes. Frozen takes closer to 12 minutes since it has to defrost first.
Air fry at 400 for 7 minutes, flipping after 4 minutes. Remove when dark golden brown and brush with butter on top.
Cook time for hot pockets
Bake homemade meatless hot pockets in the oven at 500 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until hot pockets are browned.
Bake homemade hot pockets made with dinner roll dough instead of pizza dough at 375 for about 7 minutes.
Bake store-bought hot pockets at 350 for about 28 minutes. But beware, they will never be anywhere near homemade hot pockets.
Ham and cheese hot pockets
I make ham and cheese hot pockets all the time and my kids LOVE them. So you could try this recipe as well. Some of the other things I make in bulk and freeze are sausage balls, meatballs, and empanadas.
And for more pizza-flavored kid meals, check these out:
- Easy homemade pizza
- Air Fryer Pizza Wontons
- Easy Pepperoni pizza cups (only 4 ingredients)
- Pepperoni pizza pasta bake
For even more make-ahead freezer meals that you can prepare ahead, check out this post.
