Grilled Eggplant, Mushroom, & Kale Pitas

I made dinner the other night with no intention of it being anything worth sharing. We had some eggplant from the farm market & I wanted to make sandwiches, so I started building with what we had on hand.

We ended up loving these! They were quick & easy, with lots of room for variations based on what you have on hand. Kale could easily be replaced with other hearty leafy greens (chard, collards, spinach), eggplant could be replaced with zucchini, feta replaced with gorgonzola, and so on. We loved this particular combo & would definitely make it again, but if you have similar ingredients on hand, save yourself a trip to the store.

If you're looking for a quick dinner that doesn't require the oven, this is it! Great for summer nights. Enjoy!

Grilled Eggplant, Mushroom, & Kale Pitas
Serves 2

1 medium eggplant, sliced into 1/4" rounds
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 medium yellow onion, sliced into half moons
3-4 baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced (or use 1/2 tsp. garlic powder to save chopping time)
4 large leaves of kale, stems removed & leaves chopped into small pieces
1/2 c dry white wine
2 whole wheat pita rounds, sliced in half
1/2 an avocado, thinly sliced
4 T crumbled feta cheese

Sprinkle eggplant slices evenly with garlic powder, sea salt, & red pepper flakes. On a grill (or grill pan) lightly coated with olive oil spray, cook eggplant slices over medium heat. After about 6 minutes, flip slices & cook the other side about 6 minutes. Eggplant should be soft & lightly browned.

In the meantime, use a nonstick skillet to cook onions over medium heat until they start to soften. Add mushrooms, cook for 4 minutes, then add garlic & kale. Once kale starts to soften, add white wine. Increase heat & simmer until wine evaporates.

Once eggplant is done cooking, slice rounds into strips about 1/2" wide. Open pita pockets & stuff all 4 halves with equal amounts of eggplant. Divide mushroom & kale mixture between the 4 pita halves. Then add sliced avocado to each, plus 1 T feta cheese. Serve immediately.

Note:
Both the eggplant & the mushroom/kale mixture can be made ahead of time & stored for up to 2 days in the refrigerator. Reheat both briefly before stuffing pitas and serving.

Gnocchi with Roasted Broccoli & Garlic Vinaigrette

This is one of our favorite meals! We first had it last fall, and then I mentioned it briefly in December. At some point, we also made it for my parents, who loved it, too.

The original inspiration came from a newspaper clipping of a recipe for Roasted Broccoli. It was meant to be a side dish, but I thought it sounded like a great way to serve pasta.

I made a few changes (as usual!) & paired it with a bag of frozen gnocchi, making it a quick & flavorful dinner. It's filling but not heavy, which I think is often the problem with gnocchi. Most times, it's topped with a creamy sauce & the pasta itself is already so creamy that it really weighs you down.

The bright flavors of the red wine vinegar, the creamy gnocchi, & the earthy walnuts really come together well. It's a melt in your mouth flavor burst! :-)

I hope you try it out!

Gnocchi with Roasted Broccoli & Garlic Vinaigrette
Serves 2-4

4 T red wine vinegar
1 T lemon juice
2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, mashed into puree or microplaned
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp. salt
1 large or 2 small heads broccoli, chopped
1/3 c walnuts, chopped
1 bag frozen gnocchi
2 oz. parmesan cheese, freshly grated + more for serving

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spread broccoli pieces on a large baking pan sprayed with cooking spray and roast for 20 minutes. Stir and return to oven for 20 minutes. Stir again, add walnuts, and roast another 5 minutes.

In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to a boil and prepare gnocchi according to package directions.

Mix together vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, both peppers, and salt. Set aside until broccoli and gnocchi are finished cooking.

Toss together roasted broccoli and walnuts, cooked gnocchi, and dressing in a large bowl. Top with cheese and stir briefly to combine. Sprinkle with additional cheese if desired. Serve immediately.

Buckwheat Pesto Salad

This stuff is delicious! It's my first experience with using buckwheat in a savory dish & I'll definitely be using it more in the future. Cooked whole buckwheat groats have a consistancy similar to rice, with the slight chew, & it has a nuttier of flavor.

I first discovered buckwheat groats through another blog I read, Edible Perspective. Ashley introduced me to Buckwheat Bakes (like this Zucchini Bread Buckwheat Bake) as a breakfast item & I really like them! They're very filling & last me through the morning without hunger pains.

When I started making the bakes, I needed to purchase raw buckwheat groats. They were not available in our local stores, so I bought a multi-pack box from Amazon.com. That was best price I found & I knew I'd use them all! The basis for this recipe was on the back of the Bob's Red Mill bag.

Buckwheat is a fairly uncommon food to cook with. It's a little misleading, because while it has "wheat" in the name, it's actually not wheat at all. It's gluten-free, in fact! Even though it's used like a grain, it's actually a seed. It's also high in protein, manganese, magnesium & fiber. Lots of healthy goodness here!

We'll be enjoying this alongside leftovers or with a big salad. I hope you try it!

Buckwheat Pesto Salad
Adapted from Bob's Red Mill
Serves 6-8

1 c Buckwheat Groats
2-1/2 c water
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 Batch Parsley Walnut Pesto
4 cloves garlic
1/4 c fresh basil
1/2 c chopped Walnuts
1 c freshley grated Parmesan cheese

 

In a medium saucpan, bring water and salt to a boil. Add buckwheat groats, cover, and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from stove and leave covered for 5 minutes. Remove lid & fluff with fork.

 

In the meantime, make your parsley walnut pesto. Clean out the food processor and pulse the garlic cloves a few times to chop. Add basil & pulse again until it is chopped and mixed with the garlic.

 

Mix olive oil, parsley pesto, and the garlic-basil together. Stir this into the cooked buckwheat groats. Add walnuts and parmesan cheese. Salt to taste, if needed. Serve warm, or refrigerate in a sealed container & serve cold. It's great both ways!

Kale & Feta Portobello Caps

Along with our cabbage side dish, I made baked portobello caps. They look kinda fancy, but they were super quick to make. This whole meal came together in about 40 minutes, most of which was baking time.

I don't like my portobellos to be too juicy, so I prefer to bake or grill them with the gill side down first to cook off some of the juices. After that, I turn them over, top them, & bake them a little longer until heated through.  The Bup likes his a little juicer, so when he's grilling, he'll keep mine gill side down for almost the entire cooking time.

Since kale really shrinks when it cooks, I pre-cooked it prior to topping the mushroom caps. That way it would stay on easier & I could fit more on there. It also cut down on the baking time, since the kale mixture just needed to be heated instead of complete cooking.

This meal had a lot of flavors, but they went so well together! It was surprisingly warming, which made for a perfect dinner on a crisp fall night.

Kale & Feta Portobello Caps

Serves 2-3

3 large portobello caps, washed & destemmed (save the stems)

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

3 leaves of kale, destemmed & chopped

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)

3 T feta cheese, divided

3 tsp. Balsamic vinegar, divided

Preheat oven to 400*F. Spray a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray. Place mushroom caps gill side down on the baking sheet & bake for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, chop the stems that you removed from the caps. Cook stems, garlic, & kale in a skillet over medium heat until the kale is wilted. Add red pepper flakes if desired.

Remove baked caps from the oven & drain juices from the baking sheet. Turn the caps over so they are gill side up. Top with equal parts of the kale mixture. Then add 1 T feta cheese & 1 tsp. Balsamic vinegar each. Return to oven and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until heated through. They can be served now, or placed under the broiler for about 3 minutes to lightly brown the feta cheese (highly suggested!). Enjoy!



Grilled Caprese Tomatoes

I have more bug bites than I can even count. Every time I go outside to garden or grill or check the mail, one gets me! Now that we're having some cooler days, I'd really like to sit on the patio & read, but I'm not willing to get eaten even more.

All the bugs haven't curbed our grilling, though. It's summer & we're going to grill no matter what!

Mom gave us these tomatoes & as soon as she offered them to us, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them. It's simple & delicious.

I'm slowly warming up to tomatoes. I don't pick them out of my sandwiches anymore, but I still don't like to eat them raw. Even though this dish is mostly tomato, I love it! The juices start to carmelize in the tomato, giving it a delicious flavor. That flavor along with the basil & cheese makes for a perfect combination.

Soon I will share the recipe for the grilled butternut squash you see in the pics, but it's not quite there yet. We let the squash marinade over night in what should have been a delicious combination, but it just didn't go as well with the squash as I had hoped. I'm going to tweak it & then I'll share!

Our dinner on the patio. What you don't see: the bugs under the table eating our legs. Dinner for all!

Grilled Caprese Tomatoes

Serves 2-4

5 small, ripe tomatoes (a little bigger than golf ball sized)

10 fresh basil leaves

10 chunks (1/2"x1/4") of smoky cheddar or mozerella cheese

Slice tomatoes in half & remove the hard white part by the stem. Lay a basil leave on the cut side of the tomato. Top with a chunk of cheese. Grill for 5-8 minutes on the top shelf of a grill (medium to medium-high heat). Tomatoes are done when the bottom skin starts to shrivel up and the cheese is melted.

Grilled Zucchini and Gorgonzola Tortilla Pizzas

Last night I took my very first hot vinyasa yoga class. I was dripping with sweat by the time it was done! When I got home, I wanted a quick meal. This was healthy, quick & much tastier than I expected! I didn't have any sauce, so I was worried it might be bland, but it was anything but that.

We had a little issue with the grill in the middle of cooking the zucchini - our propane ran out! Neither of us wanted to wait for dinner long enough to get it refilled, so we finished cooking inside on our grill pan.

I'm sure these & similar tortilla pizzas will be on the menu a lot this summer. It was so simple to prep & the whole thing could be prepared outside (if you have enough propane!), eliminating the dreaded hot stove in a hot kitchen on a hot day.

We used brown rice tortillas, which are my new favorite. While we don't need to eat gluten free, I think it's important to have a variety of grains in our diet. This variety of tortillas is amazing! It's chewy & crispy at the same time. I'm going to stock up the next time we're at Trader Joe's.

Combined with all the nutrients in veggies & the protein in the cheese, this meal is well balanced. I've been working on keeping our meals vegetable strong while still including a variety of healthy fats, carbs & proteins.

I opted to fold mine in half like a quesadilla for easier eating. These could also be sliced & served in bite sized pieces for an appetizer. I'm already thinking of the many variations available. I didn't add seasoning to the zucchini before grilling it, because I wanted the basil & gorgonzola to be the predominant flavors. If I was using a more mild cheese, I'd amp up the herbs. I can't wait to try another combination!

Grilled Zucchini & Gorgonzola Tortilla Pizza
Serves 2

2 small zucchinis, cut into 1/4" slices
2 T fresh basil, chopped
1 c kale, cut into small pieces
1/3 c gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
2 10" round tortillas (I used Trader Joe's Brown Rice Tortillas)

Preheat grill to 400*F. Cook zucchini for about 5 minutes, then flip and cook another 5 minutes. Zucchini should be cooked, but still crisp. Remove from grill.

Turn grill temperature down to about 250*F. Place tortillas on grill. Once warm, flip and top with basil, kale, zucchini and gorgonzola. Close lid and cook for a few minutes to allow cheese to begin to melt. Keep a close eye on the pizzas, as the tortillas will burn quickly.

Serve hot, either open faced or folded in half like a quesadilla.

Avocado & Cheese Pretzel Sandwich

I realize that you don't come here to see pictures of my half-eaten food. Sometimes, though, I don't realize how good something is going to be until I'm eating it! I just had to share this sandwich with you.

This lunch was a thrown together, need to eat at my desk type lunch. We have a local company that does fundraisers through selling subs & pretzel sandwiches. Bonus - they have an "all cheese" variety. Not everyone includes that on their sale sheets, but once in awhile it pops up.

It's really a splurge...$4 for a pretzel roll w/ some cheese on it. Especially since I peel off the American cheese & just eat the provolone. I don't always have time to make my own (although those are scrumptious & totally worth the extra effort, plus I know all the ingredients in them) so sometimes I spend the money. If you've never had a pretzel roll, you need to try one right away. They're sooooo good!

Today I spread the roll with yellow mustard, sliced up half an avocado, & used the provolone cheese. It's creamy (avocado), tangy (mustard), chewy (roll) & cheesy (provolone). Every bite made me think, "mmmmmm!"

On the side I had carrot sticks with homemade roasted red pepper hummus & a pear. Tasty, healthy, & delicious!  Sometimes the spur of the moment meals are the tastiest.

I think if I had pretzel rolls every day I wouldn't appreciate them nearly as much. They're a great treat for a heartier lunch. I hope you like them, too!

Avocado & Cheese Pretzel Sandwich

Serves 1

1 pretzel roll (you can buy these by the bag in most grocery stores)

2 T yellow mustard

1/2 an avocado, sliced

2 or 3 slices provolone cheese

Open the pretzel roll & spread mustard on one of the halves. Top with avocado slices & cheese. Put the roll back together & eat.

Enjoy!

Vermont: Day 2

It rained overnight so the conditions for skiing on Tuesday weren't great. We decided to go touring around the area.

Breakfast was delicious again, with apple pancakes, homefries, apple slices & pineapple. 

Dad fueled up with the "Big Sandwich," complete with grilled ciabatta bread, 2 eggs, potato, corned beef hash & swiss cheese.

Mom was on the lookout for quilt shops, & this was the first one we saw. It was closed, so we kept searching.

We stopped at the King Arthur Flour Baker's Store & Cafe. They had a huge selection of flours & other grains, plus tons of baking supplies.

I was really tempted by the spreads, but decided to try to find some recipes to make them at home.

The Bup found pizzelle mix! He & Dad have their own secret recipe, so he was comparing ingredients. 

Their bakery display was really tempting. Maybe if we hadn't just eaten our weight in breakfast we would've tried something. :-)

Our next stop was at the Hen House Fabric shop. Mom was excited...the rest of us just tagged along.

She bought these pretty fabrics to make a table runner.

After the fabric shopping, we stopped at the Simon Pearce gallery & shop.

Everything was gorgeous & super pricey.

The first floor used to host glass blowing sessions for people to watch, but it was washed out in the recent flooding. We saw a video instead. The techniques are really cool!

They have an attached restaurant with a glass enclosed patio. The dam below was full of ice blooms.

Even the covered bridge was washed out by the flood, the water came up so high!

Dad really wanted to go to the Quechee Gorge so that was our next stop. The lady inside the welcome center said we weren't to take the walk to the vista because the conditions weren't safe with all the ice.

I noticed a winery shop across the street from the gorge, so we checked that out.

The Charlotte Village Winery had a nice selection of wines. Their main attraction is a series of blueberry wine - dry, semi-sweet & dessert wines, all made from blueberries grown on their property.

My favorite was the Peach Blossom, a combination of chardonnay & peach wines.

Next up, we stopped at the Sugarbush Farm. The horses were outside, enjoying the warmer weather.

An authentic "Vermont Cowch." Haha!!

They had an impressive cheese selection. I really liked the Hickory & Maple Smoked Cheese, but each one we tasted was full of flavor.

They package their cheese by wrapping it in foil & then dipping it in wax. The process allows it to be stored & shipped without refrigeration.

I tried the Vermont Maple Seltzer & was amazed!

100% pure filtered & carbonated maple sap! It was like drinking subtly sweet maple fizzy water. Refreshing & interesting. I wish they sold it around us!

Our final stop was the Long Trail Brewing Co., home of the eco-brew.

They have a self-guided tour room where we were able to watch them packaging & bottling the Blackbeary Wheat beer. My favorite! 

We each order a sampler platter that included their 5 year-round beers & the winter beer, Hibernator.

I love that they bring them out in a cupcake tin!

In order of favorite to least favorite: 1, 5, 2, 3, 4, 6.

So serious.

Mom also ordered the Coffee Stout & a mini-sample of the Triple Bag (delicious!!) & the Centennial Red.

After all those tastings, we weren't really hungry for dinner, but Roger cooked such a good meal that we managed to finish every bite!  

First up -  Cream of Broccoli soup followed by a small salad tossed with a light vinaigrette.

 The main course was manicotti with garlic bread & warm cabbage salad. I LOVED the salad, so Roger told me how he made it. He takes shredded cabbage & ribbons of carrot, lightly sautes them in olive oil, & then tosses it with salt, pepper, garlic & Parmesan. He said that he also makes it with soy sauce, when eaten with a different combo of foods. I can't wait to make it at home!

 Dessert was baked apples with granola filling & French vanilla ice cream drizzled with maple syrup.

It was a great day, but I was stuffed!!!!