This is why dough in the can is the dough for meeee

Now that we've all recovered from the shock of my cloth diaper announcement, we can move on to much easier-to-handle subjects, like making really simple recipes from the dough inside of the exploding cans. I love this dough because I open the can (OK, I get Steve to open the can for me because that loud pop scares the bajeezus outta me), pull out the dough, and it bakes properly EVERY TIME. I don't have to sit on the floor in front of the oven while it bakes, biting my nails nervously in anticipation of flat, dense bread.

To tie in why I'm talking about the biscuits from the exploding can, recently a friend of mine was asking about some money-saving meals, and I just so happened to create two of them without Steve's knowledge, so I thought I'd share. (Steve hates to skimp on food. He would probably prefer we burn our own trash for heat instead of cutting the grocery budget by a buck.) So without further ado, here are my totally original, money-saving, easy, cheap, did I mention easy, dinners.

Last week, I cooked spaghetti. Wah wah. I cooked an entire box of noodles, browned one pound of ground sausage, and used an entire jar of spaghetti sauce. Cheap. Easy. I'll admit, not entirely original. But (but!), before I served either one of us, I divided the meat (which had sauce mixed in) and immediately scooped half of it into a ziploc bag to be stored in the freezer for a future meal. I did the same with the noodles (except stuck them in the fridge for the next night's dinner). I then served us both in smaller bowls (so it appeared that we each had more than we really did) and left something like a quarter of a serving of both noodles and meat on the stove so that Steve could go back for seconds. Because if the man doesn't have access to seconds (no matter how small those seconds might be), you would think he never ate at all. So the spaghetti dinner was mostly about mind games and trickery. That is where my "original-ness" came in. But maybe you do the same things at your house too and I'm not so original. Either way, humor me here.

I have apparently been playing mind games with myself lately because every time I go to the grocery store, I pick up a tube of Grands biscuits thinking we have none in the house. And when I get home and open the fridge, I immediately slap myself in the head and wonder how I was unaware that there were already five cans in there!? So I put the biscuits to use last night, along with the leftover meat from spaghetti night. We had some friends over for the National Championship game and I needed to make "football food." I ended up making homemade hot pockets (recipe to follow! yippee!), pigs in a blanket (I hope you don't need a recipe for that), and white trash dip. Alabama was playing, so I figured that the dip was quite fitting, don't you agree?

On with the recipe! I have to admit, this recipe is not really original either. My mom made these all the time growing up. I don't know how she had the patience (and finger power) to make so many all at once, but there were always plenty and they are SO much better (and cheaper!) than the store-bought hot pockets.

So here we go. You'll need at least one tube of Grands biscuits.

Some spaghetti sauce and a meat of your choice (I had the leftover sausage, but usually use pepperoni)

(Note: Everything looks really unappetizing in my kitchen at night, what with the weird fluorescent lighting and faux wood countertops, but I promise these things are goooooood.)

You will also need some sort of cheese.

Get your husband/brother/dad/friend to open your can of exploding biscuits for you. Then smush the biscuit out until it is flat.

(Note: If your husband/brother/dad/friend owes you one, get them to smash out all the biscuits for you. You can spend this extra bit of free time admiring the pile of dirty dishes awaiting you once you finish slaving over this homecooked-almost-from-scratch meal.)

Here is an unsmashed biscuit next to the flattened biscuit that's ready to be filled to give you an idea of how smushed these things need to be.

Put a little bit of sauce onto the biscuit, but don't go crazy because you are going to have to fold this thing up eventually and you don't want a bunch of sauce seeping out the sides and permanently fixating itself to your "no-stick" pans.

Do not be grossed out. My sauce had veggies in it and that is why it is chunky. (Gotta sneak 'em in where I can!)
Next, add your meat. I did a spoonful of sausage, but if you're doing pepperoni, I usually use about 3-4.

Then add some cheese, but again, not too much because this sucker has to zip up eventually.

You are now at the point where you can fold this sucker over and press the edges together with your fingers.

And because we want to be fancy and look like we spent hours in here making these mini-calzones, take a fork and press the tines down around the edge.

Put all of these little babies on your pan and bake them at 350 for 15ish minutes, depending on your oven.

While I had never made them with sausage before, they were very good, and quite the hit at the football get-together. You can make these with any filling you'd like- ham and cheese, roast beef and cheese, turkey and cheese.... Ok, pretty much any lunch meat you have on hand that's needing to be used up can go into these biscuits.

I also recommend the white trash dip (especially if you're having Bama fans over as this will make them feel right at home), because it was easy and called for very few ingredients. This picture is not my own (remember, I was slaving away over these HOMEMADE hot pockets), but I got the recipe off of Pinterest, of course, so here ya go.

via Pinterest

Did you forgo your usual 9pm bedtime last night to watch the National Championship? Did you regret it this morning? Do you wish that the Tigers had played like the number-one-ranked team we all thought they were? Or do you just want to sink your teeth into this deeeelicious dip? Come on over- there are PLENTY of leftovers.