Smoked Chicken and Spinach Calzone

It is not all that often that I prepare a quick, healthy and economical recipe that pleases my whole family, especially when it includes green vegetables! As it turns out, the whole family raved over this recipe and they continue to request this one be on the menu week after week.


The Smoked Chicken and Spinach Calzone recipe makes a wonderful family meal. It includes foods from all of the food groups on the United States Department of Agriculture's food guidance system, MyPyramid and the preparation is easy enough to allow your children to play an active role in helping prepare and serve this meal. If you have school age children, talk about the 5 color bands on MyPyramid and help them identify which color band each of the foods in this recipe would fit into. For older children and teenagers, consider talking with them about eating a variety of different foods from all of the color bands. Explaining why this recipe would benefit them personally is also important to older children and teens. For example, you could explain how eating foods from the milk group, like the mozzarella cheese in this recipe, helps keep our bones strong, the vitamins from the spinach and tomato keep our skin looking healthy and the protein from the chicken is full of protein which is good for strong muscles. Most of all however, use the time you spend in the kitchen preparing meals to communicate with your children and enjoy your time as a family together!


This recipe is a wonderful addition to your list of healthy family recipes and I hope that your family will enjoy it as much as mine does!