Stuffed Breads That Make A Meal

Stuffed Spaghetti Bread

Ingredients for stuffed bread spaghetti are simple : spaghetti, spaghetti sauce and pizza dough.

This one looks amazing when presented, but it’s not really that difficult to make, especially if you cheat… We went with ready-made ingredients and ended up with a great homemade taste.

We started this one with a package of Trader Joe’s herbed pizza dough, sold in their refrigerator section. You open the package and let it rise for 20 minutes while you cook the spaghetti. We chose their herbed pizza dough to wrap the red sauce spaghetti and then we made a second one with their plain pizza dough and wrapped up spaghetti with pesto sauce and chicken.

Instructions for Spaghetti Stuffed Bread

1. Either make or un-wrap some fresh pizza dough and allow it to rise while making the spaghetti.


2. Boil some spaghetti according to package directions for “al dente”.


3. Drain well the spaghetti and then toss in a jar of your favorite pasta sauce (use just enough sauce to coat the spaghetti). We used a Marinara sauce and then chopped up some leftover roast pork and threw it into the mixture.


4. Toss & stretch the dough until thin and then place onto a baking span sprayed with a little oil.


5. Spread the spaghetti and sauce mixture onto the top of the prepared dough in the center.

6. Slice the dough edges (beyond the spaghetti pile) diagonally as shown above then criss-cross the cut edges across the top of the spaghetti mixture.


7. Bake at 350° for about 20 minutes (or until browned).

8. Slice and serve while warm (but can also be eaten cold).

Stuffed Breads That Make A Meal

Sourdough Soup Bowl

If you’ve ever been to Panera Bread or Boudin Bakery, you’ve probably had a bowl of fresh hot soup served in a round bowl of bread. You probably also saw a lot of bread bowls in the trash can. It’s a lot of bread for one person to eat in one siting, and it’s difficult to eat without either getting it all over your face or breaking plastic silverware. We’ve tried bringing the leftover bread home, but it was so mushy by that time that the appeal was gone. So, we decided to start making them at home. That way, we can cut the loaf of bread in half if we want.

Sometimes, we fill the bowls with a can of New England Clam Chowder, a best seller at Boudin Bakery, and sometimes we make Broccoli Cheese Soup, a best seller at Panera Bread. Although we prefer the combination of clam chowder with sourdough, this soup is pretty tasty on its own.

Ingredients for a copy-cat recipe of the Broccoli Cheese Soup at Panera Bread:

5 Tbs Butter

1/4 Cup chopped Onion

4 Tbs Flour

1 Cup Milk

1 Cup Cream

3 Cups Chicken Broth (low sodium)

2 Bay leaves

1/4 tsp grated Nutmeg

4 Cups chopped Broccoli

1 large diced Carrot

2 Cups grated Cheddar Cheese (half white, half orange)

Kosher salt & freshly ground pepper

4 small Sourdough Rounds (Trader Joe’s sells nice ones for 99 cents)

Instructions to Make Broccoli Cheese Soup

1. Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot on medium-low heat.


2. Add the chopped onion and cook (about 5 minutes) until tender.


3. Whisk in the Flour until golden (1-2 minutes).


4. Whisk in the milk & cream (or 2 cups half & half) until smooth.


5. Add the Chicken broth, Bay leaves, Nutmeg, salt & pepper.


6. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered until thick (about 20 minutes).


7. Add the Broccoli and Carrot to the mix and simmer until tender (about another 20 minutes).

8. Prepare your bowls at this point. [Depending on which bread you’ve bought and how fresh it is you may want to bake your bread (we like to heat ours regardless) . We sprinkle it with a little water and place it in a 350° oven for about 10 minutes until the crust gets crispy.] Take a sharp (pointed) serrated knife and cut a circle in the top of the bread while angling your knife toward the bread crust and cutting in a circle just to the bottom of the loaf (but not through!). Stick your fingers in there and pull the circular cap from the bread leaving a large cavity for the soup. You can do what you like with the center of the bread… butter & eat it, serve it alongside the soup for dipping, make bread pudding for dessert or a french toast casserole for morning.


9. Discard the Bay leaves and blend the soup until smooth (just flecks of broccoli & carrot remain). An immersion blender works well or you can pour the mixture into your blender (you will have to do a few batches as to not overflow your blender) and then back into the pot or just whisk like crazy.


10. Add the cheese to the soup and whisk over medium heat until melted.


11. Scoop into the prepared bread bowls, garnish with more cheese and enjoy!

Stuffed Breads That Make A Meal

Pretzel Dogs

These pretzel dogs rival Auntie Anne’s Pretzel Dogs for sure. They are pretty easy to make, actually fun to make if there’s more than one person, and even easier to serve. They freeze beautifully to provide a quick meal anytime the urge to visit a mall needs suppression.

To make these delicious dogs at home, using simple staple ingredients, just follow this foolproof pretzel dog recipe.