Greek Pitas

These were very good but for some reason Molly didn't want to eat the meat, which is an odd occurrence she usually eats most meat. There was only oregano in the hamburger so I guess that must have been the answer, so we took the meat out and had her eat it with some cucumber, hummus and tzatziki and she was a happy camper. Go figure!

Greek Pitas
WW 8 pts
1 1/4 pounds lean ground beef
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
4 pita breads
Toppings
3/4 cup prepared hummus
3/4 cup prepared Tzatziki sauce (cucumber yogurt sauce)
1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped
1/2 red onion , sliced
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 whole lemon(s), cut into wedges

[1] In a large mixing bowl, mix ground beef with salt, pepper and oregano.Shape into miniature patties. In a skillet, brown over medium heat, 2 minutes per side for medium.
[2] Using a little bit of olive oil, brush both sides of the pita and then quickly heat on both sides in a medium hot pan, then transfer to a tin foil packet to keep warm.

[3] Divide hummus & Tzatziki among the pitas, top with the patties, parsley, sliced red onion and feta cheese. Drizzle with olive oil and serve with lemon wedges.

*No matter how small I make the little patties they always end up big, we usually slice them in half and use those two halves inside the pita.
*Lemon drizzled on the whole thing is key!

Served with a Greek side salad: mixed greens, red onions, kalamata olives, feta cheese, balsamic vinaigrette, and homemade croutons.

Lettuce Wraps and Yaki-Soba Noodles

So I know this isn't that traditional, I am using hamburger instead of steak, I had steak but I thought I would give it a try with hamburger because frankly I have hamburger on hand much more often than steak, it is more economical, and if it worked it could be a wonderful go-to meal. Turns out it was great, meat was tender -obviously- instead of chewy and the flavor was fantastic. The noodles are fresh noodles, I found them in refridgerator section near the produce and tofu.

I realize that on top it looks like cheese in this picture but it
is actually crunchy noodles.

Asian Lettuce Wraps
1 lb hamburger
1/2 cup Newman's own Ginger Sesame Marinade
1/2 onion thinly sliced
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 raw peanuts
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 head of iceberg lettuce
1. Brown the meat add marinade when meat is almost done.
2. Pull meat out, put in a bowl off to the side. Cook onions with soy sauce and red pepper flakes until soft and then add peanuts to warm through. Put meat back in with mixture to stir all ingredients together. Put into a serving dish with a lid to keep warm, move it to the table (can garnish with some fresh green onions, sesame seeds, or crunchy Chinese noodles- I put those in a ramekin off to the side so they stayed crunchy)
3. Cut head of lettuce in half, take out just the inner core (be careful not to pull out too much because those inner smaller leafs are great for littler portions, I used the smallest for Molly) set the heads on the table for people to pick their own lettuce pieces.

Yaki-Soba Noodles
1 pkg. Fresh Yaki-Soba noodles (the brand I bought had three individually wrapped -personal sized portions)
3 green onions sliced
2 tsp sesame oil
1 pkg of seasoning packet from noodles (If your noodles didn't come with a seasoning packet you might need to add a small amount of soy sauce or sweet chili sauce would be good too, and a small- small dash of Chinese five spice)
1. Follow package directions (mine called for me to puncture the packets and microwave for 1 minute, and then put in a pan with a small amount of water with seasoning mixture)
2. After microwaving, I put it in the pan previously used for the meat mixture above and then added 1/2 cup of water and a seasoning packet, green onions, and sesame oil.

I don't think anything can sell a dinner than this picture, she ate so much - she LOVED this dinner!

 Nod to Relish for the original idea on this recipe.

Slightly Spicy Sloppy Joes

So we ran out of propane last night so my original idea for tonight's dinner didn't pan out. Instead we had Sloppy Joes, local corn from one of my favorite farm stands that is unfortunately on it's way out- it needs to be eaten, and homemade coleslaw -cabbage from CSA bag.

Hold on, pregnant pause as the say, so that I can watch Anthony's show on Rome real quick.

Ok I am back.

I made up the cole slaw tonight so I thought I would share that recipe as well as the sloppy joes.
Sweet Mustard Cole Slaw
1/2 big head of cabbage

1/3 cup Mayo

1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp yellow mustard
2 tsp sugar
Salt and Pepper to Taste

1. Shred the cabbage, mix rest of ingredients in a separate bowl and then toss all together. I didn't have any nectarines but these have become my favorite thing to add to coleslaw, give it a try and tell me what you think.

Slightly Spicy Sloppy Joes

1 lb hamburger meat

1 yellow pepper, chopped
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 can Original Rotel's tomatoes with chilies
1/2 cup of ketchup, or more depending on your tastes
2 tbsp yellow mustard
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
4 hamburger buns

1. Saute meat, onions and peppers together. When meat is brown drain excess fat.
2. Add canned tomatoes, ketchup, and mustard let cook until thickened a bit.
3. Toast hamburger buns, top buns with meat mixture sprinkle with cheddar cheese to melt and top with green onions before finishing with the other bun.

** Now I find sloppy joes to be, well sloppy, so I usually have mine open faced and eat it with a fork (as seen in pic above) my husband however eats it as a true sandwich. To make it kid friendly, my two year old still has a hard time with "sandwiches" so I just gave her a bit of the meat with some cheese on top sans bun. By adding peppers and tomatoes into the mixture I don't feel too bad about giving it to her, and it wasn't too spicy (believe me I am a wuss, and my daughter never mentioned a word about it being, "Spicy momma!" So for those of you that like more spice get the hotter brand of tomatoes,or add red pepper flakes or saracha to make it to your taste buds but for my family it was just right!)

Added bonus, you have more than enough left over for lunch the next day. This is my husbands meal for tomorrow. Yet another reason why I am so passionate about cooking and eating at home it makes leftovers for lunch the next day so great and EASY! I love easy lunch boxes but all of mine are dirty, husband doesn't always bring them back, and this little box was found for $2.99 at Target in their summer section (I have seen them there the last two years be on the look out they are great!)

Slight nod to Relish, my favorite meal planning site for giving me some direction with this meal.

Linked to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tuesdays At the Table, and Tasty Tuesday.

No pictures???

So I haven't blogged in a weeks time, and that would lead one to believe that I haven't been cooking. When in fact I have! I just keep forgetting to take photos and then I feel like it is a lost cause, and such decide at that point not to post. Is it better to post without pictures, or wait for me to remember at the beginning of the meal rather than at the end to take a picture. For instance I made pancakes from scratch this morning and they were very tasty (even given the fact that I substituted soy milk vs. regular milk, you couldn't tell at all I swear!) but it wasn't until I was carrying the dirty dishes to the kitchen and cleaning the table, and my sticky daughter that I realized that I had yet again not taken a picture.

So since my last post I have been cooking the following:

• Ham and bean soup (which turned out more like red beans and rice- and we put it on top of basmati rice) These beans were dried beans left over from our CSA last year; so I was excited to use them especially since our CSA is about to start up again and we still have things that have lasted us through the winter

Now I do have to preface before I continue; Tuesday was a horrible day at work and I just didn't feel like cooking, Wednesday I went to the grocery store (and if you know me, you know how I loathe the grocery store) and as such we had frozen pizza, Thursday night I had parent/teacher conferences from 4-8pm so Brian was at home with Molly and he actually made spaghetti! So as you can see the middle of the week produced very little cooking.

• Last night I made a fantastic Mushroom Swiss burger (YUM!) it wasn't my husbands favorite he is a huge fan of mushrooms, he likes the good old fashioned onions lettuce and tomato burger. But the mushrooms had thyme, garlic, and a red wine reduction (they were sooo good). And the burgers were hand formed (we have had the preformed/prepackaged around here for a good long time, I had forgotten how good the other kind could be) It was good quality beef too, and nice and red (probably not Brian's intention as he likes to cook the crap out of anything on the grill but it was cooked to perfection this time) We also had grilled asparagus -it is asparagus season after all, and spicy home fries. Writing about it makes me think of how tasty it actually was, and of course I wish I had had the forethought to get a picture.