Homemade Spicy Cheeseburger Hot Pockets

Starting in elementary school, I became one of "those" kids that absolutely refused to eat school lunches. School lunches were always some heavy gross-looking form of comfort food swimming with high calories and canned/preserved foods. Well, I didn't exactly choose to stop eating those lunches for that reason, it was more like "it tastes bad". (Hey, cut me some slack. I was in 3rd grade. I didn't exactly have the most extensive food vocabulary at that point.) But looking back now and knowing how those meals are prepared, the whole heavy lunches made out of non-fresh food is what really got me. I have always been like that -- I'm not a person that likes big lunches. I'm a big dinner kind of gal.

I became notorious for always bringing the same thing for lunch. Every.Day. All the way through high school. Some form of sandwich (or woooo switch it up and do a bagel with cream cheese), a bag of chips, a dessert, and some drink or another. And I liked it that way. Weirdo, party of one, right here.

While I have gotten better about what I eat, to some degree, I tend to lean on old habits when it comes to lunch. I am very much a person that likes a quick lunch. I do not stand around cooking elaborate meals in the middle of the day. Not even on the weekends. (Tough luck Adam.) Occasionally I will find myself wandering down the freezer section, looking something to fit the bill of my quick-fix lunch. (It's either that or sandwiches... still.) I have to admit, I am a fan of hot pockets. We never had access to a microwave at school (at least that I knew of) so this was a later find for me. 2 minutes in the microwave and done. Time to eat.

Upon discovering that I had 3 (count 'em, 3) boxes of puff pastry tucked away in the freezer I knew they had to go. So I decided to give making my own version of hot pockets a shot. After all, at least I would know everything on the ingredient list -- rather than potassium sorbate, dextrose, titanium dioxide and the like.

Homemade Spicy Cheeseburger Hot Pockets
From: Original Recipe

2 sheets (1 17.2 oz box) pastry puff
1 pound ground beef (85%)
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 jalapeño, diced
1 (10.75 ounce) can Healthy Request cream of chicken soup

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Lay the puff pastry out on another sheet of parchment paper. Roll each sheet out to about 12x12 inches. Cut both sheets into quarters (8 total quarters).

Brown the beef in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. When it is almost done, add the jalapeño; sauté for 5 minutes, or until tender. Add the soup and cheese; mix well until soup is heated through and cheese is melted.

Place 1/8 of beef mixture onto each puff pastry square. Fold excess dough over beef mixture; sealing well.

Place "hot pocket" seam side down on the prepared baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Serves: 8

So this may or may not be classified as a Lean Pocket, but at least you know what's in it. This is just a super basic bare-bones recipe that is begging to be played with. We actually had these for dinner, although it would be fairly easy to throw these together sometime, wrap tightly in wax paper followed by foil and then freeze and enjoy for lunch whenever you wanted (just please remove the foil before putting these in the microwave if you choose to do so).

Nutrition Facts
Amount per serving
Calories 470	Calories from fat 186
% Daily Value
Total Fat 26.3g	40%
Saturated Fat 13.9g	40%
Cholesterol 68mg	23%
Sodium 623mg	26%
Total Carbs 29.1g	10%
Dietary Fiber 1.5g	6%
Sugars 2.8g
Protein 26.6g
Vitamin A 14%	Vitamin C 5%
Calcium 11%	Iron 17%