Open Faced Greek Salad Pockets

It is Monday. Shall we detox on something healthy?

This meal was all over the place. I was thinking of making a Greek dip-ish. Then I was thinking Greek pizza-ish. I ended up with a sort of open-faced Greek “un”Wrap.
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Ingredients:

2 thin chicken breasts, marinated
2 wheat pita pockets
1 cup ricotta
2 thin chicken breasts, marinated in Greek/Italian dressing
2 cups of mixed greens/spinach/romaine
1 tomato
¼ cup red onion
½ cucumber
2 -3 tbs Italian Dressing/Greek Dressing/Olive Oil & Vinegar
2 tbs Creamy Greek dressing (optional)
½ cup feta cheese

Directions:

Grill the chicken.
Assemble the salad by mixing the lettuce greens, chopping the tomato, chopping the onion, chopping the cucumber.
Mix in salad dressing and feta.
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Heat a skillet over medium heat. It should be sized to fit the pita pocket.
Once hot, add 2 tbs olive oil to the pan then add the pitas one at a time, flipping once.
Spread half the ricotta onto each pita pocket.
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Top with salad mix, then feta.
Slice and top with grilled chicken.
Drizzle some additional dressing over the whole thing or the creamy Greek dressing.
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I liked the crispness of the pita… toasting them up was in my best interest, since my pitas were not exactly fresh anymore. It was a great weird mix of not a salad, not a pizza. Not a pizza topped with salad. It was tricky to eat, but that’s a challenge I was happy to accept.

This is a refreshing summer meal. I love that is has some great flavors, freshness, and uses only a few ingredients. There is only a small amount of chicken in/on this. Once again, it was a good reminder that those super skinny breast pieces are useful when cut up or one normal size chicken breast would easily serve 2-3 people this way. I had some green onions hanging around so those went on top too.

I’ve proclaimed my love for ricotta, haven’t I? It is true. I love it. Ricotta on toast + avocado = delicious. I had leftover ricotta from making personalized Pizza Dip so I figured this was definitely a different use for it. Whipped feta would be great on this too.  These would be fun on little mini pitas for an appetizer. Pita bread is a great pizza crust. I need to do that again!

What I Ate: Starbucks Copycat Iced Passion Fruit Tea Lemonade

‘What I Ate’ is a series of posts for so-easy-this-doesn’t-need-a-recipe but I’m sharing with ya for the idea or inspiration.

Who doesn’t love a good ole Arnold Palmer? I saw this deviation of tea/lemonade on Pinterest. It seems to have arose to copy a Starbucks treat.

Brew 3 cups of strong passion fruit tea
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Mix up some lemonade. Crystal Light is my fav and makes this beverage have far fewer calories than Starbuck’s version. I like that this lemonade isn’t as mouth-puckeringly tart as some others. I didn’t add any sweetener. Crystal Light is sweet enough.

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Mix them together. Mine was about 1/3 tea to 2/3 lemonade, saving some lemonade asside. The mixture quantity came about according to what fit in my pitcher. #exactscience

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It is such a delightful pink in a happy-fushia kind of way. Let chill and serve on ice.  Some ruby red vodka or grand marnier would be just lovely for an evening/poolside variation as well!

Check out other What I Ate posts for easy ideas!

Italian Grilled Cheese

This summer has been pretty hot. I don’t like temperatures that start with a ‘9’, and three-digitis? #forgetaboutit

I’ve been trying to limit my oven use for dinner planning when it gets that hot. I’ve also been OBSESSED with using stuff up. Pantry items and freezer finds alike have been gracing my plates. I had some breaded eggplant hanging around (circa Eggplant Parm Pizza) and thought tucking those buggers into grilled cheese could be fun.
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Italian Inspired Grilled Cheese (for 2)

Ingredients:

4 slices of bread
3 tbs pesto (or marinara or tapanade or alfredo)
2-3 slices American cheese
½ cup shredded mozzarella
6 pieces of breaded eggplant (substitutions below)
olive oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400-degrees.
Bake the eggplant in a flat layer for about 10-minutes or until heated through, flipping once (or pan fry or pop in a toaster oven)
Reduce heat to 250-degrees if both sandwiches don’t fit in the skillet at the same time.
Heat a large skillet or grill pan over medium heat.
Spread pesto onto one slice of bread for each sandwich (or both pieces of both sandwich if you LOVE pesto).
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Layer American cheese, then eggplant, then mozzarella onto each sandwich.
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Drizzle olive oil into the pan and put sandwiches in.
Cook a few minutes, until the crispness of your preference, before gently flipping over.
Cook on the 2nd side a few minutes and serve immediately (or keep 1st sandwich warm in the oven until the 2nd sandwich is ready.

I loved this. Mr. J did too. I didn’t want the pesto to overtake all the flavors, but I could have upped it to both sides. I loved the marinara for dipping. The eggplant had a perfect crispness even surrounded by cheese.

Now, for the cheese. Don’t judge the American cheese in there. Other cheeses (more fancy, more authentic, more worldly cheeses) will not melt as perfectly as American cheese. I may have snuck a little sprinkle of Parmesan in there too. Maybe.
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The eggplant is an easy thing I grab at Trader Joe’s and keep in the freezer. It makes for a super easy & quick Eggplant Parmesan or sub, or pizza. No eggplant? No problem! Another veggie would be good too, or bread your own! I like the breaded eggplant for the crunch, so the sandwich doesn’t get too soggy, but maybe grilled zucchini/eggplant/summer squash is right for you! Chop up some artichokes or roasted red peppers or whatever you have!

This is kind of like lazy-man’s pizza or pizza-leftovers in a hurry. The possibilities are ENDLESS!

Easy Sesame Noodles

I don’t make many Asian inspired dishes but I love using rice wine vinegar + sesame oil + soy sauce. It is such a great combo. It is really great in this noodle dish and I love it as a marinate for chicken wings too. This trifecta is also delicious for a salad dressing base. I saw The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for sesame noodles and thought it just looked too easy…would it have enough flavor? Turns out, it does.

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Sesame Noodles by Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

9 oz Chinese style fresh pasta (or linguini fini, or thin spaghetti)
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce (or soy sauce)
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs garlic, minced
3 tbs rice vinegar
3 tbs sesame oil
1/2 tsp hot sauce
3 tbs vegetable oil
4 green onions, chopped
3 tbs sesame seeds

Directions:

Boil water for the pasta
Cook the pasta just under according to the package (9-10 minutes if it says 10-12)
Heat a dry small frying pan over medium heat
Whisk together the teryiaki sauce, sugar, garlic, rice vinegar, sesame oil, hot sauce, and oil.
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Toast the sesame seeds in the frying pan for about 3-5 minutes, stirring regularly. Remove them from the heat once they start to get tan colored.
Remove pasta and put it in a serving dish.
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Mix in the sauce, half the green onions, and half the sesame seeds.
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Top with the rest of the green onions & sesame seeds to serve!
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I loved how much the noodles soaked up the sauce. They were seriously sesame-y. I thought the flavor was spot on. This dish had great flavors and couldn’t be easier.
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This dinner is suuuuper cheap too. I love adding some meatless wonders to my plans for the week.

Sesame Noodles Overall Cost Breakdown:
(I’m way over estimating the sesame oil & rice vinegar. Buy them! They’re inexpensive and don’t go bad forever).
Chinese style noodles: $2.99
sesame oil ($6.00 for the whole bottle): $1.00
rice vinegar ($2.50 for the whole bottle): $0.50
green onions (1/2 of bunch): $0.49
garlic could be optional in a pinch & sesame seeds are a nice-to-have, not a have-to-have
total = $5.00 for the whole thing, it serves 3 good portions or $1.66 per person.

Impressive, no? Once you have the sesame oil and rice vinegar you’ll definitely use the rest of them. These egg rolls were so stinky easy and worth it to have them freshly baked. Make this Chinese Pork in the Crockpot, it is ahhhhmazing. Or marinate chicken wings in it like these. Add sesame oil to your own crab rangoons and they’ll taste so much more flavorful.

Mexican Stuffed Peppers

My idea for these stuffed peppers was an adapting one, get ready. You’ve been warned…

I got peppers on sale at the grocery store. I always check out the discount produce. There’s so much good stuff for a fraction of the price. I got 3 peppers (red, green, yellow) for a buck-something. Crazy. Thus, here’s the foundation of this meal.
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Then, I wanted to get out of making rice. I think it is just annoying how long it takes. It gets sticky and the pot is obnoxious afterwards. I know, first world problems. I also didn’t have any rice around anyway, so it was a moot point. I had used up the couscous making a Shrimp and Couscous Salad (with the yellow pepper from this trio of peppers) so that wasn’t an option either. I wasn’t feeling the red quinoa I had around. That pretty much rounds out the options except then I spotted orzo and thought that would be fun. #winner

I added beans because a) they’re good for you and b) the beans would make it filling and I’d add less orzo which does nothing for you. The beans get the credit for started the Mexican twist.

I skipped the ground meat because turkey kielbasa is smokey and almost like chorizo, just not spicy. I thought it would make dinner feel a bit different too. This would be a really great use for the many scant packs of ground meat I freeze. I don’t usually want that meat to become a burger anyway so Mexican often wins out for their fate.

Hmmm. That’s it. I guess that’s where dinner came from. I made wayyy too much filling for just 2 peppers (4 halves). It became a sort of weird lunch the next day.

Ingredients:

½ package of turkey kielbasa, chopped
1 onion, chopped (I used ½ of a red onion)
½ cup dried orzo
1 can red beans, rinsed
1 cup corn (I used frozen)
¼ cup tomato sauce (optional)
¼ cup salsa
2 tbs taco seasoning (or your own combo of chili powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, onion powder, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes)
2 peppers, halved
⅓ cup monterey jack cheese

Directions:

In a large pan over medium heat, fry kielbasa and onion in a tablespoon of oil until the onion starts to get cooked through and more transparent. (about 5 minutes)
Boil water for orzo. Add orzo and cook until totally cooked.
Preheat the oven to 400-degrees.
Add corn, beans, tomato sauce, salsa, taco seasoning to the kielbasa and onion pan.
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Drain orzo and add to the pan with everything else.
Stir well.
sprinkle half the cheese into the the peppers.
Spoon the filling into the peppers.
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Bake for 15 minutes, then top with remaining cheese and bake for another 5 minutes.
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These were good, but not exactly life changing. I liked all the flavors and they brought a nice freshness and to the weekly meal schedule. The stuffed peppers were filling and not too heavy since there was just a tiny sprinkle of cheese. I liked the colors and textures. I don’t hate 1 pot meals either.

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I think stuffed peppers are just a bit hard to eat. The red one was thinner and ended up being better than the green one.