Coconut Milk: Whip It Good!

Strawberries are my favorite fruit, hands down. My grandmother fed them to me as a child practically by the pound - I think they were her favorite too. I still love them to this day and I love that they remind me of her. They are my go-to for simple, tasty, healthy, quick desserts (as you may remember from this post) and they're a winner every time. And that is why you will see me using them often.

When I first joined Pinterest, I came across two recipe ideas that inspired me to create the one I'm about to share with you here. The first was the idea that you could whip coconut milk. How brilliant is that?! I never even thought of that, and that is what I love about Pinterest - people share their ideas. So I put a pin in that idea and decided to come back to it later. The second recipe was for these little strawberry & cream Santa Clauses. The cream was the beard and the pointy end of the strawberry was the hat and then they drew the face on with chocolate. How cute!

I decided to bring these two ideas together recently because I needed a dessert recipe that was sans sugar. That's right folks, I gave up sugary desserts for Lent. I am by no means a religious person, but the way I had become accustomed to eating sweets was getting out of control so me and my waistline decided we needed to do something drastic. I haven't missed the sugar all that much, but I am very excited that Easter is only a little over a week away at this point so that these 40 days of torture can finally be over! ;-)

I digress. Back to the recipe at hand. I chose to use the whipped coconut cream in the strawberry Santa Claus recipe just to try something different. And an added benefit of doing that for you vegans or those of you who are lactose intolerant: it's dairy free. The coconut cream recipe is also sugar-free, which, aside from it being waistline-friendly, is perfect for diabetics. My recipe uses honey, but I think you could also substitute agave nectar if you're a fan of that and have it around the house.

Because the recipe for the cream tastes so much like regular whipped cream when you're done, you can use it in so many other recipes! Strawberry shortcake, on ice cream sundaes, in trifles, as a pie topper. The possibilities are endless!

Oh, and for the record - we will not be making strawberry Santa Clauses, so no chocolate here. That would go against my no-sugar rule so we'll save that for Christmas time!

Technically there's no "cooking" in this recipe, but I'm gonna say it anyways: let's get cookin'!

Strawberries & Whipped Coconut Cream

Servings: 2-3
"Cooking" Time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients:
About a dozen strawberries
1 can coconut milk
3 teaspoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Prep work:

1. The night before, place the can of coconut milk in the fridge and leave it there until you're ready to use it. This step is imperative to the cream becoming whipped. I skipped this step the first time I made this and only had it in the fridge for a couple of hours and it didn't work at.all.

2. A half an hour before you're ready to make the whipped cream, place the bowl you're going to use in the fridge, along with the whisk attachment(s) to your mixer.

To begin the recipe, take the coconut milk, bowl, and whisk attachment(s) out of the fridge and remove the lid of the coconut milk can. Be careful not to move it around too much - the watery part will have settled on the bottom and we don't want to have too much of that mix into the more solidified part.

Using a spoon, remove the solidified cream from the top of the can and put it into your cold bowl. Leave the watery milk in the bottom of the can and discard (and by "discard" I mean recycle!).

Place your cold whisk attachment(s) onto your mixer and whisk the coconut cream for about a minute on medium speed. Add the honey, vanilla, and cinnamon and whisk again on medium for another minute until it's all combined. The mixture should be slightly stiff at this point.

Place the bowl with the mixture and the whisk attachment(s) back in the fridge for 10 minutes.

While the cream is chilling in the fridge, you can prepare your strawberries. Cut the tops (the leafy end) off by slicing in a straight line through the berry, directly under the leaves. Then, cut the pointy end off. Line the berries on your serving plate, sitting up on the fatter end and place their ends right next to them.

Remove the cream from the fridge, place the whisk attachment(s) back onto your mixer and whisk again for one minute.

Carefully spoon a dollop of the cream onto the tops of each strawberry and place the end, or cap, on top of the cream. Serve immediately.

Salute!

Healthy Happy Hour

I often do happy hours at home with my friends, especially my friend Alexis. We used to work together and see each other every single day, but now that we don't work together anymore we need to make time to visit and catch up. And what better way to do that than over a happy hour?!

We recently decided to try out some healthier recipes (if you remember the last happy hour I posted about, it focused around French fries... Just sayin'...). She had just tested out a recipe for eggplant chips and I have been meaning to do a post about kale chips, so we decided to combine our efforts and make both of these recipes for our happy hour.

I first made these kale crispies after seeing them on TV last summer - I think Gwenyth Paltrow was making them - and decided to promptly try them out with my friend Paloma. I added my own flare and we both really liked them. We agreed they almost taste like popcorn if you get a bite that has more oil on them. They're a healthy favorite of mine so I really wanted to share them with everyone. I know the idea of kale chips sounds kind of unappealing, but they turn out really tasty and satisfying, and very similar to regular chips in texture and flavor. Trust me on this.

Aside from being tasty, kale - like all leafy greens - is a super healthy vegetable. It boasts high levels of beta carotene, vitamins K & C, is rich in calcium, and has potent anti-cancer properties. While there are certainly other ways to prepare kale, I think this way is pretty fun because it's simple and snack-perfect. If you're going to be snacking, why not be getting some vitamins and staving off cancer while you're at it?

OK, enough convincing. Let's move on to the good stuff: the recipes! I showed up to Alexis' kitchen, kale in hand, ready to cook the crispies and learn how to make her eggplant chips. Let's get cookin'!


Kale Crispies

Servings: 2
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
About 5 kale stalks
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne) .

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

I want to walk you through prepping the kale for baking. First you pull off the leafy green parts from the stems and tear into small, bite-size pieces. Discard the stems. Place the bite-sized leaves in a colander or salad spinner and thoroughly wash & dry.

Now they're ready for seasoning. Place the leaves onto a baking sheet, evenly spread out. Drizzle them with the EVOO, and then sprinkle with the salt, pepper, and cayenne. Toss with your hands to coat all the leaves with the seasoning. When you're done, make sure that the leaves are once again spread out evenly on the baking sheet.

Place in the oven to cook, checking often to make sure they're not burning. Remove once they're crispy, should take about 10 minutes. Let cool slightly, less than five minutes, and then place them on a serving dish. Serve warm or cool, they're delish either way!

Eggplant Chips

This is Alexis' recipe and she was so kind as to allow me to share it with everyone here. I think she heard of the idea somewhere and decided to improve upon the recipe by adding her own herbs and flavors, much like I did with the kale crispies.

Since we talked about the health benefits of kale, let's mention some of the great attributes of eggplant, or aubergine as I like to call it :-)  It's a source of folic acid and potassium and has been identified as a way to help block the formation of free radicals. Sounds good to me!

Servings: 2
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
1 eggplant, thinly sliced into rounds
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
Pinch of sea salt 1 clove garlic, crushed

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whisk together the EVOO, balsamic vinegar, basil, oregano, pepper, and salt in a small bowl until combined. Add the crushed clove of garlic and let sit for ten minutes.

Lay out the eggplant rounds on a baking sheet (or a couple sheets if you have them. If you don't have more than one baking sheet, you will have to make them in batches) covered with aluminum foil. Brush the dressing onto the top side of the eggplant rounds, just enough so that the tops are fully coated.

Place in the oven to cook for about fifteen minutes or until they're crispy and golden brown. Remove from the oven and arrange on a serving dish. Serve warm or at room temperature.

We ate our chips and crispies with a nice refreshing bottle of reisling, but I think these would pair well with any white or red wine. Salute!

Easy Cheesy Risotto Stuffed Pepps

I've always been a little apprehensive about making risotto from scratch. I love the show Top Chef and it seems like risotto is the kiss of death that ends up getting the person who made it sent home, time after time. That left the impression on me that it's very temperamental and difficult to get right. My apprehension was recently relieved though, thanks to my neighbor, Chef Scott. He decided to show his wife (and my friend), Lauren, and me the proper way to make risotto (mushroom risotto, to be exact) from scratch one night back in November, and it turned out to be pretty much the best food I have ever tasted.

His method was very thorough (of course it was! He's a chef!) and involved creating his own mushroom broth from scratch using a raft. While I believe that homemade broth really made the dish, I'm not quite that adventurous on my own so I'm going to skip that step here and use store-bought broth. I decided on the chicken variety, but if you want to keep this completely vegetarian, feel free to use vegetable broth, or mushroom broth if you happen to find it in the store.

This recipe was inspired by a dish I love to get at a local Irish pub that I frequent. All of their food is great, but the dish they serve there that this recipe is based on is pretty much the only entree that is completely vegetarian, so at one point it was my default whenever I went there to eat dinner along with my pint. (My default has changed periodically throughout the year the pub has been open, from a wedge salad, to fish and chips, to a blue cheese and leek tart, but that is a whole different story!) I've always wanted to try my own version at home and since I now have top notch risotto preparation knowledge under my belt, I decided to give it a go. The results were pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself...

Let's get cookin'!

Servings: 2 (there will be some left over risotto, but there is a recipe for that at the bottom of this recipe, so don't fret!)

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: about 45 minutes

Ingredients:

2 red bell peppers, tops cut off and seeds removed from inside

2 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped yellow onion

1/2 large shallot, minced

1 large garlic clove, peeled but left whole

1 cup uncooked arborio rice

3 cups chicken broth

1 sprig fresh thyme

2 handfuls of grated parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped

Paprika to taste

Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place a medium sized pot on the stove over medium-low heat. Add two tablespoons olive oil along with the butter.

Once the butter has melted into the oil, add the chopped onion and minced shallot. Immediately grate the clove of garlic over the pot, remembering to scrape off the back of your grater to get all of the pulp to add as well. Let this cook until it's all translucent, about five minutes.

At this stage, place your peppers in an oven-safe dish, drizzle them with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, and sprinkle with a pinch each of salt & pepper. Put them in the oven to cook while you finish making the rice.

Back to the risotto. Add all of the rice to the pot with the sauteed onion, shallot, and garlic. Stir the rice for about three minutes to coat in the olive oil/butter and lightly toasting it.

Now let's begin adding the broth. To start, add one cup and stir until it has soaked up into the rice. At this time (pun intended!) add the sprig of thyme, on the stem.

Once the broth has been absorbed, add the second cup of broth while slowly stirring. Once the second cup has been absorbed, pour in the third cup. Stir to make sure all of the liquid has been absorbed.

Remove the pot from the heat and pluck out all of the thyme stems. Next, stir in one handful of the grated parmesan cheese.

Take your peppers out of the oven and set them on a trivet near the pot of risotto. Turn the oven off of 'bake' and set it to 'broil.' Carefully spoon the risotto into your peppers, filling them to the rim. Sprinkle the tops with the remaining handful of parmesan (so about half a handful for each) and place them back in the oven to broil until the cheese has melted and turned golden brown. Remove promptly.

Place a pepper on each person's plate and sprinkle the tops and plates with the chopped parsley, paprika, and pepper to taste. Set the lids back on top for a pretty serving presentation. I served mine with a side of steamed broccoli, as you can see in the picture.

To eat, simply remove the top and slice into the pepper and risotto with a knife, and cut into bite size pieces, making sure you get a slice of pepper with every bite of risotto. We also cut the edible pieces from the top, so those are fair game as well. Salute!

Crispy Mushroom Topped Risotto

As I mentioned above, Chef Scott made mushroom risotto when he was teaching us how to cook risotto from scratch. I took that idea to use when figuring out something different to do with the leftovers I had from my risotto stuffed peppers. When I came up with this, I had recently been to Ray's the Steaks, an awesome local steakhouse in Arlington, VA, and gotten a doggie bag of sauteed mushrooms I had ordered at dinner. The taste of them as leftovers wasn't that great, so I decided to spruce them up with a few ingredients I had around the kitchen so that I could eat them with my risotto. I doubt you have sauteed mushrooms laying around your house, so I adjusted the recipe to be able to accomodate fresh mushrooms.

Let's get cookin' (again!)

Servings: 1

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

Handful of mushrooms - any variety of your choosing

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon butter

a dash of red wine - whatever you have open

Leftover risotto

Pinch of chopped fresh parsley

Place the leftover risotto in a microwave-safe bowl and cover with a damp paper towel. Heat in the microwave for two minutes, pausing at the one minute mark to stir. When it's done reheating, leave it sitting in the microwave until you're done cooking the mushrooms.

Melt the butter into the olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. As soon as the butter is melted, add the mushrooms and saute for about two minutes. Next add the red wine along with some pepper to taste. Keep moving the mushrooms around with a spatula to prevent them from burning, but the goal is to get them nice and crispy. Once they've reached that crispy texture, sprinkle in a pinch of salt and push them around the pan one more time before taking them off the heat.

Get the heated up risotto from the microwave and spoon it onto a serving plate. Distribute the mushrooms along the top of the risotto and sprinkle with a bit of chopped parsley. Now those are some bangin' leftovers you can look forward to coming home to all day!

Greek Week: Day Three - Gyros!

Being a vegetarian, I have never had a proper gyro, so I was excited to make one at home. I'm allergic to yogurt, so I had to use hummus instead of tzatziki for mine, but I was excited just the same. I figured I could substitute lamb for chicken, and make mine using a meatless fake chicken patty and it would be as close to the real thing as I could get. Even though I couldn't eat the tzatziki, I knew my boyfriend would like it so I decided to have a go at making my own version instead of buying it at the store.

I think it turned out really tasty and it is definitely being added to my recipe repertoire!

Let's get cookin':

My Homemade Tzatziki

Ingredients:
1 small container of plain Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon of dill - fresh or dried (chop if fresh)
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/4 English cucumber, peeled

Place the yogurt in a small mixing bowl. Add the salt, pepper, dill, and red wine vinegar. Stir.

Next, mash the clove of garlic into a paste with the side of your knife. Stir that into the yogurt - well - making sure there are no large lumps/pieces.

Finally, grate the cucumber directly over the bowl of yogurt and stir to combine. Place plastic wrap over the top and set in the fridge to chill and let the flavor marinate while you're preparing the gyros.

Veggie & Chicken Gyros

Servings: 2
Prep time: about 20 minutes
Cooking time: about 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 small vine-ripened tomato, seeded & sliced thin
1/4 of a white onion, sliced thin
1/4 red pepper, sliced thin
1/4 English cucumber, peeled & cut down the middle length-wise, seeded, then cut into slices
1 handful of kalamata olives, sliced
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1 for veggies & 1 for cooking chicken
1 heart romaine lettuce, shredded
1 veggie chik'n patty
1 chicken breast
3 slices of flat bread
tzatziki sauce
about 1 1/2 tablespoons of hummus - any kind
1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

After all of the veggies (except the lettuce), olives, and parsley are chopped, combine them in a mixing bowl and toss with a teaspoon of olive oil and S&P to taste. Stick the bowl in the fridge to keep fresh while cooking the chicken.

Because my boyfriend eats meat and I do not, I used a MorningStar Farms Grillers Chik'n veggie patty for my gyro and a real chicken breast for him. If everyone is a meat eater, obviously get one chicken breast per person. I cooked my chik'n patty first. Heat in the microwave for one minute. Then, place in a non-stick skillet with a teaspoon of olive oil and let it cook on each side long enough for it to get slightly brown and crispy. Remove when it reaches this stage and cut it into thin strips. Set aside.

To cook the real chicken breast, sprinkle both sides lightly with salt and pepper and place it in the same skillet you used to cook the meatless patty. Cook on both sides for about five minutes. Make sure to check that it's cooked all the way through by cutting into the thickest part and making sure there's no pink in the middle. When it's all cooked, remove from the skillet and set aside for a few minutes before cutting it up so that the juices can redistribute throughout the meat. Cut it into strips, set aside to cool a little while you're warming the flat breads.

Place the flat breads on a baking sheet and warm in the preheated oven for about five minutes.

When the flat breads are done warming, remove them from the oven and begin assembling your gyros. Line up all of your ingredients to make for easy assembling. You'll need your tzatziki sauce, hummus, lettuce, feta crumbles, veggie salad, and chicken.

Have your plates out and place a short piece of aluminum foil on each plate. Then the flat bread on top of the foil, leaving about 1/3 of the flat bread exposed. This will be the opening of your gyros.

I started by smearing each pita with either tzatziki or hummus. Then sprinkle a bit of feta and add the veggies. Next I did the lettuce and lastly the chicken. Sprinkle with extra bit of feta and extra sauce or hummus if you like on top of everything.

When all ingredients have been added to your flat breads, pinch the back two sides of the flat bread together and roll one side on top of the other. Hold in place while you wrap the back end tightly with the foil, leaving the front end open. Make sure the back end is completely closed up with the foil. This makes for a more enjoyable, mess-free eating experience. As you eat, simply pull the foil aside to make room for your bites (and to make sure you don't eat any of the foil!)

If you're wondering what that third piece of flat bread is for - it's for you each to have a second half of a gyro! There should be enough ingredients for you to cut the third flatbread in half and each enjoy a half gyro. Salute!

Greek Week: Day Two - Kabobs!

It's day two of Greek Week and it's time for delicious kabobs. I love kabobs because they are so easy but they come out tasting amazingly flavorful. And indoor grill pans make it easy for you to enjoy that grill flavor through the char the veggies or meat develop. It feels like summer time whenever I cook on it.

I like this recipe because it's easy to make everyone happy: my boyfriend gets meat and I get plenty of vegetables to fill me up. You can substitue chicken or lamb for the steak, and you can include any type of hardy vegetable you want. If you have a picky eater who doesn't like tomatoes or onion, you can make a skewer that includes them and one that doesn't so everyone is getting what they want. It's a very easy to adjust recipe and that's what I love about kabobs. For the record, zucchini or squash would go well with this recipe.

Alright, let's get cookin'!

Veggie & Steak Kabobs

Servings: 2 + (recipe to follow for leftover veggies if you don't have room for them on the kabob skewers)
Prep time: about 25 minutes
Cooking time: about 15 minutes

Ingredients:
1 red onion, diced in large chunks
1 red pepper, diced in large chunks
1 green pepper, diced in large chunks
about 12 cherry tomatoes, whole
1/2 small carton of button mushrooms, stems removed & cut in half
1 single cut chuck steak, cut in bite size chunks
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (1/4 cup for veggies, 1/4 cup for meat)
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano (1 tbs. for veggies, 1/2 tbs. for meat)
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper (1 tsp. for veggies, 1/2 tsp. for meat)
1 teaspoon salt (3/4 tsp. for veggies, 1/4 tsp. for meat)

Let's begin with a little prep work.

1. If you are using wooden skewers, you must soak them in water to prevent them from burning once you place them on a grill pan or real grill outside. Fill a casserole dish with water and submerge your skewers in it so they can soak for at least a half an hour before you're ready to use them. If you're using metal skewers this is unnecessary, so go ahead and skip to the next prep step.

2. Preheat your stovetop grill pan (or outdoor grill if you're lucky enough to have one) over medium-high heat while you're prepping the veggies & meat.

Onward to the main event! Cooking!

Place the meat chunks in a small mixing bowl and add: 1/4 cup EVOO, 1/2 tsp. pepper, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tbs. oregano, and toss (using a spatula) to coat all of the meat. Set aside. Don't forget to wash your hands before moving on to touch anything else.

Combine all veggies in a mixing bowl and add: 1/4 cup EVOO, 1 tsp. pepper, 3/4 tsp. salt, & 1 tbs. oregano, and toss to coat all of the veggies. Set aside.

Start skewering!

If you're in a "mixed household" as I like to call it (that is one with a vegetarian and a meat-eater) keep the veggies and the meat on separate skewers. If you're both meat-eaters, go ahead and mix the meat in with the veggies on all of the skewers.

You want to alternate each veggie on the skewers so that you get an even number of all of them. (If you have any veggies left over that don't fit on the skewers, don't worry: check out the recipe below for a quick & simple salad you can use them in the next day for lunch.)

Once all skewers are ready, place them on the hot grill pan, leaving a little bit of space between them. Keep rotating the skewers every four minutes or so throughout the cooking time to ensure one side isn't burning. It's Okay if they get a little char on them though...

When meat is cooked to your taste, take it off the grill and allow it to rest for at least five minutes before serving. When the veggies are softened, they're done, so take them off the grill at this point. This whole process should take around fifteen minutes.

Using a fork or tongs, pull the veggies/meat off the skewers and place them on the serving plates. Serve with a rice side dish, such as this Rachael Ray one I used (Yum-O!). Salute!

Now, for those leftover veggies.

You already marinated them in EVOO, oregano, and S&P, so just put them in the fridge with some plastic wrap over the top of the bowl to keep them fresh and waiting for you until the following day.

The only additional ingredients you'll need are:

1 handful of baby spinach leaves

a splash of red wine vinegar

a sprinkling of feta cheese

Take the bowl with the veggies out of the fridge and remove the plastic wrap. Add your handful of baby spinach and splash of red wine vinegar directly to the bowl, then sprinkle with feta. Toss with a fork and serve. Doesn't get much easier than that!

Greek Week! Day One - Greek Salad & Accoutrements

I'm going to be doing something a little different this week. I was talking with my boyfriend about easy ways to stretch a dollar and told him about something I used to do when I was single and cooking for myself. I'd do some research and planning (that's the analyst and organizer in me!) ahead of going to the grocery store, and try to find recipes that all used similar ingredients. This makes your meals for the week both cost-effective and efficient. You spend less money on fewer things AND get to use all of your ingredients instead of having pieces leftover you never end up getting to that inevitably go to waste, which I hate. It just makes good sense all around.

We decided to implement this idea in the form of a theme that I dubbed "Greek Week." We came up with three or so meals that were all Greek inspired, thus pretty much all use the same ingredients, and built our grocery list around them. On top of the money & waste saving benefits, it also gave me a chance to cook something different and to experiment a little. We were both excited to get started - he more so for the eating, and me for the challenge. (... Okay, me too for the eating!)

Day one is my Fresh Greek Salad with Flatbread Chips & Travis' Greek Dressing to go along with it. I don't know if it's because I am a vegetarian, but I love a good salad. They can include pretty much anything you want, they're often healthy, and pretty filling. Before I broadened my horizons and palate, my meal of choice when eating in restaurants was a salad, and often times, a Greek salad. I love feta and olives and the tangy dressing always appealed to me. My favorite Greek salad I've ever tasted was in Tarpon Springs, FL, while on spring break in Tampa one year. It had potato salad at the bottom of it, under all of the lettuce and veggies! It was quite the culinary surprise and I mean to recreate that one day, but for now, this fresh veggie and cheese version is a great substitute.

Let's get cookin'!


Flatbread Chips

Servings: 2
Prep time: 2 minutes
Cooking time: about 10 minutes

Ingredients:
1 piece of store-bought flatbread (or homemade if you're that talented!)
1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 pinch of ground red pepper (cayenne)
Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place the piece of flatbread on a cutting board and cut it into eight equal slices. Drizzle with the EVOO, sprinkle with S&P and cayenne. Spread out the flatbread slices on a baking sheet so they all have room to bake, and place in the oven to toast for about ten minutes. Check periodically to make sure they're not burning. Lightly touch them with your fingers (don't burn yourself though!) towards the end of the cooking time to check, and if they feel toasted enough to you before the ten minutes is up, go ahead and remove them from the oven. Serve alongside or crumble them over (like a crouton) a Greek salad (recipe to follow) for a little extra crunch.


Fresh Greek Salad

Servings: 2
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 0 minutes!

Ingredients:
1 romaine heart stalk, sliced thin into bite-size pieces
1 vine ripened tomato
1/4 English cucumber, halved lengthwise & sliced into half moon shapes
1/4 red pepper, sliced thin
1/4 red onion, sliced thin
1 handful of pitted kalamata olives, chopped
2 pepperoncini, sliced thin
1/4 cup feta cheese crumbles

Note: If you're making this salad with the flatbread chips (which you should be!), make the salad while the chips are in the oven toasting. Just make sure you set a timer and check on them so they don't burn.

Combine all of the ingredients, except the feta, in a medium sized mixing/serving bowl. Toss with your hands to combine. Dish the salad into individual serving bowls. Top with desired amount of feta and dressing (recipe to follow) for each person's preference, slap a few flatbread chips alongside, and munch away!

Travis' Greek Dressing

I'm lucky enough to have a boyfriend who always wants to be in the kitchen with me while I'm cooking. We have a lot of fun joking around and I tease him that he's my sous chef. He actually likes to cook too, but when it's my turn, I know I can always count on him to help me out by whipping up some really tasty salad dressing. Why buy dressing in a bottle when you have a sous chef who loves to make it himself?! haha He's been kind enough to share his recipe for the dressing he made to go atop the Greek salad. Thanks Travis!


Ingredients:
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
Salt & pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bottle (or tupperware container) with a tight fitting lid and shake until all is combined. Drizzle over the Greek salad in the amount of your choosing. How easy was that?! Salute!

Stay tuned this week for a few more Greek Week recipes. I'll be posting a veggie & steak kabob recipe, as well as a great simple salad to use up leftovers, and finally some chicken & vegetable gyros with homemade tzatziki. Don't miss it!

Edamame, My Favorite Way

One of my all time favorite snacks to make for myself is this chili-garlic edamame. I've been making it for years and it was inspired by a sushi restaurant I used to frequent, located in Annapolis, MD. Annapolis is about 50 minutes from my house, so it's much more economical to make this for myself at home rather than drive all the way out there when I have a craving. It's quick and easy and the flavor pay-off is incredible.

This recipe is to my taste, therefore it's not quite as spicy as it is served at the restaurant. When you have it there your nose is running and you're guzzling water just to be able to make it to the next bite. While that spiciness is definitely delicious, I think my version provides a much more enjoyable eating experience. But if you really like spice, go ahead and add another quarter to half teaspoon of the chili paste. Also, I made the serving size as one since I often eat it as a snack, but it's very easy to multiply this recipe if you're planning on serving it as a dinner side dish or at a party.

Some of these ingredients might be hard to find at a regular grocery store, so make a trip to an Asian food market and stock up. A small change I made from the original recipe is the addition of the black soy sauce. I like that it brings a slight sweetness, which pairs well with the spiciness of the chili paste. But if you don't have an Asian food store nearby and can't find it at your everyday grocer, go ahead and use regular soy sauce. The measurement should be about the same.

Let's get cookin'!

Chili-Garlic Edamame

Servings: 1
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: about 20 minutes

Ingredients:
1 cup frozen edamame, still in their shells
2 teaspoons peanut or sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon chili paste
1 teaspoon black soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus an extra sprinkle at the end

Fill a sauce pan about half way with water, place the frozen edamame in it, and bring to a boil.

Once the water is boiling, cook for about ten minutes or until the edamame start turning a less vibrant shade of green, almost light brown. Strain and set aside.

To save time, begin cooking the sauce while the edamame is boiling. Heat the peanut or sesame oil and garlic in a skillet over medium-low heat. Let the garlic cook until it becomes very fragrant, about five minutes. Then stir in the chili paste and let that cook with the garlic for about three minutes.

Finally, stir in the black soy sauce and remove the skillet from the heat, turning the burner off.

Add the edamame directly to the sauce and place the skillet back on the warm burner (with the burner still turned off). Add the salt at this time and toss the edamame to coat in the sauce.

Pour the edamame into a serving bowl set atop a slightly larger plate, making sure to scrape out all of the little bits. Don't want to lose any of that flavor! This way you can discard the shells onto the plate after you're done sucking the edamame from their pods. Sprinkle with a final pinch of salt and serve hot. Salute!