Dinner
One of my favorite flavors is balsamic. I use it in marinades and dressings and if I am eating out its usually top on my list for a salad dressing! Sweet and tangy! In today’s recipe, balsamic vinegar is used in a marinade for the roasted chicken! This recipe needs some marinade time and is great to start in the morning and you are one step closer to dinner later in the day. I served this dish with a side of rice pilaf and it was just right!
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 clove of garlic, minced
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
DIRECTIONS
Mix balsamic vinegar, oil, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper in a Ziploc bag or in a baking dish. Add the chicken breasts and let marinade in the fridge for at least 4 hours. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Place the chicken in an oven proof baking dish, roast chicken in heated oven for 30 minutes. Add tomatoes to the baking dish and continue to cook until chicken is cooked through and no longer pink in the center. Mine took 10 more minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with lemon zest and juice. Serve warm.
Enjoy!
This recipe can be found at www.allrecipes.com
My Greek week is wrapping up with this quesadilla! Although this does take a little prep work, it does come together easily. I recommend If you are making the Tzatziki sauce you make that in advance to let the flavors set up, or you can easily buy the sauce as well! I also like using the smaller tortilla’s for a couple reasons. I can do more than one at a time using a large pan and they also seem to hold together a little easier, but if you have the larger tortillas go for it. I might recommend using a little more cheese with the larger size so everything holds together well!
INGREDIENTS
1/2 pound ground lamb
1 Tablespoon Greek seasoning (found in the seasoning aisle)
Pinch of red pepper flake (optional)
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Handful of spinach
7-8 sun dried tomatoes, diced
12-15 large green olives, diced
1/2 cup that not sliced red onion
Tortilla’s
Butter or margarine
TZATZIKI SAUCE
1 cup plain Greek yogurt, drained
3 Tablespoons shredded cucumber
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon fresh chopped dill
1 Tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
Pinch of black pepper
DIRECTIONS
Starting with the Tzatziki sauce, drain yogurt. Once drained add the remaining ingredients mix well and store in fridge until ready to use. I suggest keeping in the fridge for at least one hour.
In a large fry pan over medium heat, brown the ground lamb until about half way cooked. If needed, drain fat from pan. Add Greek seasoning to the lamb and red pepper flakes, if using. Mix well and continue cooking until cooked through.
In another large fry pan over medium heat, lightly butter one side of your tortilla and place butter side down in the pan. Depending on the size of your tortilla, add desired amount of both mozzarella and feta cheese, using more mozzarella than feta. Add desired amounts of cooked lamb, olives, onions, sun dried tomatoes and spinach. I like to add a little more mozzarella to the top to help keep it together. Add the second tortilla on top lightly buttering the top side to of the tortilla. When the bottom is golden brown flip and let the second side cook until golden brown. Do this for each tortilla. When both sides are golden, remove from pan and serve warm with Ttzatziki sauce.
Enjoy!
It’s been all Greek to me this week! I’ll be honest I don’t eat a lot of Greek food so when I was asked to come up with some original recipes, I really had to do some research. I also wanted recipes that are simple and without a million ingredients, but still had lots of flavor. This recipe did take a little bit of time and the Tzadziki sauce needs some time to come together in the fridge. I started with the sauce first and everything comes together very simply after that. This was a fresh and flavorful recipe that we really enjoyed. It was definitely a little different from my usual recipes, but very tasty!!
INGREDIENTS
Pizza dough (your recipe or store bought)
1/2 pound ground lamb
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons Greek seasoning (found in the spice aisle)
2 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
4 Roma Tomatoes, seeded and diced
4 sun dried tomatoes, diced
12 large green olives, sliced
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons thinly sliced red onion
1 Tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
One big handful of spinach/arugula mix
TZATZIKI SAUCE
1 cup plain Greek yogurt, drained
3 Tablespoons grated cucumber
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon fresh chopped dill
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Pinch of black pepper
DIRECTIONS
Starting with the Tzatziki sauce, drain the yogurt. Once drained go ahead and add all of the other ingredients mix well and store in the fridge until ready to use.
For the lamb: in a large fry pan add the ground lamb breaking up as it cooks. When it’s about half way through cooking, drain the fat if needed and add minced garlic, lemon juice, Greek seasoning, salt, and pepper. Mix well to combine and finish cooking through. Remove from heat.
Preheat your oven according to your pizza dough (mine baked at 425 degrees for 15 minutes). Spread out your pizza dough on a baking sheet or pizza pan.
In a medium bowl, add the chopped tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, green olives, garlic, red onion, olive oil and a pinch of red pepper flakes if using. Mix well and spread over your pizza dough. Top with your ground lamb mixture covering your pizza, top with the feta cheese and bake through until your pizza dough is cooked through and everything is warmed through. Remove from oven top with the spinach arugula mix and drizzle with Tzatziki sauce and serve immediately.
Enjoy!
Summer is almost here and what is better than beer and spicy sausage? How about raspberry beer? This is so easy and you can easily double the amount of sausages with the amount of sauce this makes! I love the combination of sweet and spicy and the raspberry beer really brings some sweet flavor to the spicy sausages! This is an easy party dish that uses your slow cooker so you can spend time with your friends and family and not over the stove!
INGREDIENTS
1 bottle raspberry wheat ale
1/2 bottle of honey BBQ sauce (from an 18 ounce bottle)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 large sweet onion, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 orange pepper, sliced
6-10 spicy Italian sausage links
Hot dog buns
DIRECTIONS
Place the raspberry wheat ale, BBQ sauce, ketchup, onion, and peppers in a slow cooker and mix well to combine ingredients. Turn slow cooker on low and cook for six hours. In a large skillet add your sausage links and brown over medium- high heat until all sides are browned. Transfer to the slow cooker and continue to cook until fully cooked through. Serve warm in the hot dog buns.
Enjoy!
Another great recipe from Taste of Home Magazine! This became an instant favorite of mine so much that I made it twice in two weeks! The recipe calls to make the chicken in a slow cooker, but this would be great with grilled chicken as well. I served this with a choice of ranch and blue cheese dressing and that worked out very nice. This would also make a great pocket sandwich too. My husband will put anything on bread and this is a great recipe for that too! The only ingredient that I left off was bacon, but feel free to add that to yours!
INGREDIENTS (6 servings)
1 bottle (18 ounces) of your favorite BBQ sauce
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
12 cups chopped romaine
3 plum tomatoes chopped
2 avocados peeled and chopped
2 small carrots, diced
1 medium red or green pepper, chopped
3 large hard boiled eggs, chopped
6 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled (optional)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Blue cheese and/or ranch dressing
DIRECTIONS
In a greased 3 quart slow cooker mix the BBQ sauce, brown sugar, garlic powder, and paprika. Add the chicken breasts and coat with the sauce. Cook covered on low 3-4 hours until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the slow cooker, cut into bite size pieces. Add back into the slow cooker and coat with the sauce.
Place romaine on a large serving platter, arrange chicken, vegetables, avocado, hard boiled eggs, bacon and cheese. Drizzle with dressing or let everyone add their own dressing.
Enjoy!
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