Ham & Cheese Pretzel Pockets

This is a sponsored post from Fleischmann's and all opinions are 100% my own.

Hello! Remember me? I've been away for so long that I'm not even sure if I know how to do this whole "blogging" thing anymore, but, I'll give it my best shot. I'll start by telling you where i've been lately... 'cause it's a doozy. These past couple of months have been the craziest months of our lives. First off, we moved into a new house! Hooray! We love it. We're happy. It's awesome. 4 days after we moved in, hubby & I got to go on a trip to Vegas for the Rock In Rio concert featuring a bunch of amazing bands... My sister-in-law took the kids for us and we had 3 amazing days in Vegas, just the two of us. It was much-needed and even though it wasn't a relaxing trip, it was filled with a ton of fun, late nights, delicious food and tasty drinks. The day after we returned back from Vegas, we had a family trip to Disneyland planned... so it was back in the car and on the road for us! So much driving. So much walking. But, so much Fun! We had an amazing trip, the kids rode a ton of rides and we were completely exhausted by the time we got back.

Fast forward a day and here we are. In the last couple of weeks we have spent a total of 5 days in our new house and very little unpacking has been done. My kitchen is coming along slowly, but most of my pots, pans and dishes are still waiting to be unpacked. This is why I'm so grateful to have a Mother-in-Law that lets me use her kitchen whenever I need it. Oh, and did I mention her internet as well? We've had 3 technicians come out to the house already to try to get the internet set up at our new casa and none of them have been successful. Who knew it was so hard to install?

The recipe I'm sharing with you today was meant to be a Mother's Day recipe, but since we didn't really get to celebrate Mother's day this year, we're going to call it a belated Mother's Day recipe. Got it?

I had my little helpers in the kitchen with me to kick out an awesome pretzel-y treat.

First off, let me just say... I have always wanted to make pretzels but I've been a little scared. I thought it was going to be a very long, painful process, but I was lucky enough to get to test out Fleischmann's Simply Homemade Pretzel kit and it really proved me wrong. My daughter and I hit the kitchen together (with my son watching) with some of the awesome kitchen tools (and hat!) Fleischmann's sent over and we became pretzel-making-machines.

One of the best parts of this recipe is that kids can make it all by themselves! My daughter was able to whip up the dough, smash it out into a circle, fill it with the cheese and meat and roll it into a ball. She loves easy recipes that she can do all by herself!

Once the ham & cheese pretzel balls are brushed with a water/baking soda mixture and sprinkled with salt they go right into the oven!

You know they're done when they look nice and brown and pretzel-like! Aren't they cute?

Dust on a little powdered sugar...

And smear on some blackberry preserves! Ta-da! Basically, what I was trying to do here was make something that reminded me of Disneyland's Monte Cristo Sandwich *droooool*. I did it. You will thank me and all the mothers of the world will thank you for making them...

Make sure to check out the Fleischmann's website for more delicious ideas!

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Ham & Cheese Pretzel Pockets:

Ingredients:

• 1 package Fleischmann's Simply Homemade Pretzel Creations Mix
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 pound honey ham, sliced thinly
• 4 slices Monterey jack cheese, cut into quarters
• Powdered sugar, for dusting
• optional Seedless blackberry preserves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine pretzel mix, yeast, water and oil (according to package directions.) Cover bowl and allow dough to rise for 25 minutes.

Cut dough in half and roll each half into a long, log (about 1 foot.) Cut each log into 8 pieces. Take each piece, roll into a flat disk and place 1 cheese square and one slice of ham in the center. Pull all sides of the dough around the cheese and ham and form into a ball. Make sure to seal all the seams. Repeat with remaining dough.

Place pretzel balls on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Combine 2 tablespoons of baking soda (from the kit) and 1 cup of very warm water and brush over the tops of the pretzels. Sprinkle the pretzel salt (from the kit) over the top and place into oven.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until pretzel balls are golden brown and no longer doughy.

Dust with powdered sugar and serve with blackberry preserves.

Makes 16 pretzel balls.