Eating Better - The Green Goddess Known as Kale

Because I vowed to eat better this year, I will occasionally be sharing healthy recipes that we have enjoyed and added to our recipe repertoire. I've mentioned before that I like to plan out our meals for the week (if possible) before going to the grocery store. Some healthier dishes call for unique ingredients or vegetables I might not normally pick up, so I keep this in mind and try to work those same ingredients into other meals for the week so that we aren't wasting food.

While my career goal is optometry, my undergraduate degree was in Nutrition Science. I'd like to dig up some "old" knowledge with you to share why these recipes are good for us. Why I'm choosing these ingredients over others. And really, it isn't "old" knowledge at all. Since what you eat affects your whole body, and the eyes are attached to that body, many of these nutritional concepts arise frequently in my current studies. Plus, nutrition is something we all learn about at some point and do every day, but we often forget about the concepts and get overwhelmed by the information that is dealt to us by different dieting books. So, I will try to stick to the basics here.

This first recipe is very simple and nutritious with only a few ingredients. I love recipes that take a single ingredient and make it shine. This makes eating healthy enjoyable, and these are the types of recipes I look for. I want to make food that tastes delicious and I want to highlight and enjoy the nutrient rich foods I'm after.

This Pecan Kale Salad was introduced to us by a friend. Since then, we have made a large bowl for ourselves and I see many more in our future.

To view or print the recipe click HERE.

The lemon vinaigrette is a burst of delicious flavor, and it balances the bitterness kale can sometimes bring.  I highly suggest making this from scratch instead of a bottled version. (Remember, I'm shooting for more clean, fresh eating than processed.)  To make the vinaigrette quickly and easily, add the ingredients to a jar or seal-tight container and shake.
Kale leaves are fairly thick and stiff, so a tip to help with that (which sounds a little weird, I know) is to massage the kale to break up some of its fibers. I did this by rubbing the chopped pieces together as I added them to the bowl. Then after I added the vinaigrette, I gave the leaves a a rough stir with a fork, pressing the leaves against the side of the bowl. This allows you to enjoy the salad immediately without waiting for it to sit for 30-60 minutes, and is very quick to do.


Why this salad over basic green lettuce? Kale is frequently called a "super food." This simply means that it is packed with vitamins and antioxidants; therefore, a very nutrient-dense food. Or in other words, you get a lot of bang for your buck with foods like these. With a quick Google search I came up with this side-by-side comparison (note, my lettuce never looks this appealing, and my kale looked a lot better than that measly bunch):

The first thing you may notice is that kale has more calories than green lettuce. Let's pause right there and realize that this is good, and this lends to why we are choosing kale instead of green lettuce. It has calories because it has what we want and need to feed our bodies - protein, carbohydrates, and even a tiny bit of fat.
Let's take an educational detour for a moment, and one you may already know about to lay a basis for other recipes I may share in the future:  Your body needs nutrients to survive and thrive. Nutrients that it can't make on it's own, and we need to take in through our food - these are called essential nutrients. Essential to take in because we can't make them ourselves. There are 6 essential nutrients: protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. I keep using the terms "nutrient-dense" or "nutrient-rich" because these are foods that give us the most essential nutrients. Calories are used as a measure of the energy of a food. In our example here, the more calories, the more energy and nutrients this item of food is providing us. As I mentioned before, I'm not interested in starving my body and taking calories away. Nor do I even consider counting calories for my personal diet. (If you're on a serious weight loss mission, you are probably looking to limit calories and counting them, and are likely already doing so.) When calories become an issue is when we are eating foods that have a lot of calories in the wrong places. Let's look at a nice cheesy slice of pizza:

Notice this is data for one slice of this pizza, whatever kind of pizza it might be. Let's take into account that I'm likely going to eat not one, but two slices. I will be getting 20 grams of total fat, which includes nearly 50% of my daily intake of saturated fat (the worst kind of fat) in one sitting. I'm also getting half my allotment of daily sodium. Some carbs, some protein. And not very many vitamins at all. Am I telling you not to eat pizza? No, that's your call. I'm just pointing out that when I do eat pizza, I know this is why it is not the best food choice I could have made for the day. Am I telling you to eat a big bowl full of kale instead of 2 slices of pizza? Nope. My goal here is to find foods and recipes that offer more nutrients than other products I could consume. So for lunch, instead of two slices of pizza, I may have a chicken breast with a side of kale salad and enjoy it just as much.

Let's get back to the kale. Other things kale has to offer include: beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, which are all antioxidants that have beneficial effects on our bodies. When our bodies break down food, the reactions that occur let off chemicals called free radicals. (Free radicals are also taken in from our environment and on food sources themselves.) Free radicals can be damaging to cells and our genetic material (DNA), because they are little scavengers looking for electrons to steal from these other molecules. Antioxidants work by "oxidizing," meaning they are willing to give up an electron to these nasty free radicals, which helps protect healthy cells from their damage. (If you dig a little deeper, you will find that free radicals are one of many factors that can lead to cancer.) Vitamins C, A, and E also have antioxidant properties. Since breaking down food causes free radicals to form, foods that are high in antioxidants are great because they work to fix the problem they have caused. Beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin happen to all be antioxidants that are good for protecting your eyes as well!
Kale also offers more fiber than green lettuce. Why fiber? I'm so glad you asked. :)  What do we all know about fiber? "It keeps you regular."  But that's not all fiber does! Fiber helps regulate your body's use of sugar and also helps manage your sense of feeling hungry.

So next time you're at the grocery store, give kale a try. Make this salad, or throw it in your normal salad, or even a soup. Then be proud of yourself for picking this powerful ingredient!

High Five for Friday

Two Friday posts in a row! You guys are so lucky. ;)

1. Last weekend we celebrated our friend Mike's (aka Brother's) birthday! A group of his friends surprised him at one of his favorite restaurants where we ate, laughed, and even played Mike Trivia. Embarrassing senior photos also made an appearance. Then, we went home to Luverne just long enough to visit our parents and go to our dentist appointments. (You know us, living on the wild side!) It was so nice to be home, even for just a little while. I love that we are from the same town and can have our parents all together for dinner while we are there.

2. Monday and Tuesday I was off of school for "fall break." When it's only two days, I'm not sure you can call that a break...more of an extended weekend. When it's not enough time for professors to refrain from giving you assignments, it's not a true break. Monday was spent in the dentist office, and Tuesday I finally got my hair trimmed. No drastic photo to share; and I'm keeping the bangs for a while! Mostly because I really have liked them, and secondly because it's likely to be the most awkward hair grow-out of my life and I'm not looking forward to figuring out how to transition that.

3. Jesse finished his second class of his MBA program this past week! Taking one at a time has seemed to be just the right pace. He's in no hurry to complete it (he will finish when I graduate), and this way he is not overwhelmed after work on a regular basis.

4.  Be babysat our favorite toddler this week. She's getting bigger and smarter by the day. Much of our night was spent rolling around in the floor to her direction to "exsh-cise" after seeing Jesse's weights. She continued on, doing yoga poses, then rode on Jesse's back while he did push ups, then she just climbed and jumped all over him, repeatedly yelling "more!"

5.  I made two new meals and one repeat this week that we really enjoyed. I think I enjoy cooking more in the fall/winter months than laboring over a hot stove/oven in the hotter summer season. Plus, soups are easy and delicious and warm the soul. From left to right we have: a butternut squash, lentil, barley, kale soup I threw together (recipe HERE), Pioneer Woman's Spinach Artichoke Pasta, and spaghetti squash with these very flavorful chicken meatballs which are super fast to make. The last dish also taught me that if you forget to buy the spaghetti sauce, one 8 oz can of tomato sauce and one Roma tomato blended in the food processor with a few shakes of herbs for a few seconds can make do! Also I would like to rave (again) that our Aldi grocery store had these squash for 99 cents a piece (not a pound)! Take that, Publix,

From Our Kitchen - Pinterest Inspiration

With my more relaxed summer schedule I recently experimented with a few new recipes.  I have a whole board on Pinterest dedicated to numerous recipes I thought looked delicious, with the hopes of one day making them all. My school schedule the past two semesters has not given me much time to spend in the kitchen during the week, so this summer I've been throwing in new dishes to try, and I marked a few off the list. Surprisingly, nearly everything we've tried turned out good.

When compiling this list to share, I realized all of my picks were from my top 3 food blogging sites: Damn Delicious, Chef-In-Training, and The Pioneer Woman.  All three of these use simple ingredients to create delicious meals, and then they photograph the food so well you just want to lick it off the screen. For real.

In each description below, click on the picture to take you directly to the original site. There is also a link to my personal printable version for my recipe binder under each image. (All images are those of the original blogger.)

Lemon Chicken (by Damn Delicious) - a quick & easy way to change up the ordinary chicken night. The only thing you might not have in your pantry is a couple of lemons. After zesting them for this dish, give 'em a squeeze and make yourself a glass of lemonade!

(Click HERE for my printable version of the recipe.)

White Chicken Enchiladas with Green Chile Sour Cream Sauce (by Damn Delicious) - rich and creamy enchiladas; toppings optional, but not really.

(Click HERE for my printable version)

Crab & Quinoa Spring Rolls (by Damn Delicious) - the original recipe called for shrimp, but since I'm allergic, I changed this to imitation crab. Don't turn up your nose! You can always buy fresh lump crab, but that can get pricey. Although I don't think imitation crab taste much like real crab, I like it's own flavor.  I know I said most of these recipes have common ingredients. This one calls for quinoa (which I've talked about before) and rice paper wrappers. I did have to go to an Asian market to get these wrappers, as Publix did not have them, but you might luck up and find them in Walmart or elsewhere?

(Click HERE for my printable version.)

Baked Corn (by Chef-In-Training) - I love corn. This stems from a deep love of my Memaw's freshly creamed corn from her garden. And I mean fresh. I remember helping bringing in piles of corn from the garden as she sat at this old wooden table outside her house shucking and washing corn cobs. Then they would get creamed by hand into glorious perfection. There was and is nothing like it to this day. Okay, okay... back to the recipe. It takes plain ol' whole kernel corn (which nearly makes me gag to just serve alone as a side) and dresses it up.  Similar recipes call for mayo and/or sour cream, so I like this recipe better since it cuts out on more fattening things like that.

(Click HERE for my printable version)

Spinach Artichoke Pasta (by The Pioneer Woman) - throw the "less fattening" idea out the window for this creamy pasta dish from Ree. She, butter, and cream are a love triangle that will not be broken. But, this classic dip turned pasta recipe was a hit at our Community Group one night, so I think you will like it too! You could also throw in diced chicken to make this dish more filling.

(Click HERE for my printable version)

Share any new recipes you have tried in the comments below, or let me know if you make any of these dishes and how well you like them!

From Our Kitchen - Sweet Potato & Quinoa Soup

A little while back I posted this recipe on quinoa stuffed bell peppers. The stuffing was great, but the peppers were kind of a flop.  That was the first time I tried quinoa, and I cooked way too much for my recipe, so I had all of this quinoa leftover. I tasted it to see if I could just serve it up as a side, like rice, but it wasn't very flavorful.  In my opinion, it's definitely an ingredient I enjoy, but it needs to be dressed up a little bit.

So I turned to my old ways, and used to to create a spin on one of my favorite soups. (I didn't realize it had been 2 years since posting that recipe. The photos show our old stove in Auburn... so reminiscent!) Sorry, back to the point: quick and simple! All you need is 1-2 diced sweet potatoes,

a can of black beans (drained and rinsed),

cooked quinoa (a cup or so),

shredded chicken (mine was from leftover rotisserie chicken; 1-2 cups),

chicken stock (one carton), and the most important ingredient to make this soup a hit: cilantro! Roughly chop a small handful and through it in right at the end. I promise you won't feel like you are eating salsa. Cilantro is a frequent ingredient in Thai and Indian soups, and it brings a great refreshing flavor to the dish.  You can also season this soup however you'd like with salt and pepper, thyme, or other herbs.

A few tips:  I made this a second time with low-sodium chicken stock and it just wasn't the same. I'm usually all for healthier options, but if you're making a soup that is heavily based on it's broth, the broth itself needs to have good flavor, and unfortunately for our palettes, that means salt.
Also, I finally tried preserving my cilantro by placing it in a cup of water in the fridge with a damp paper towel over top. This made the cilantro last SO much longer! Definitely do this to extend the life of this fresh herb so you can use it in other dishes without rushing.

Click HERE if you'd like a printable recipe version.

From Our Kitchen - Breakfast Quiche

This week I made a quiche for Jesse and I to eat for breakfast. I've been inspired for months (maybe longer) to try to make quiche. My mother-in-law has made it a couple of different times while we've been home. Then my friend Kelsey served up a variety of quiche for Community Group one night. I've even marked Pioneer Woman's Cowgirl Quiche in my cookbook I received at Christmas. But it was during our "snowpocalypse" that I got the final nudge to boost the inspiration. My friend Rachel whipped up a quiche to serve us for breakfast with just the few ingredients she had on hand. I told her I love quiche but have never tried to make one. To which she said, "It's so easy!"  So I put her words to the test on Sunday night and tried to use up some ingredients hanging out in our fridge.

I used the Pioneer Woman's cookbook as a guide, but I didn't really follow the recipe. I wanted to throw in the ingredients and see what came out. Rachel was right, it's SO easy! I chose to add red bell pepper, onion, spinach, and bacon.

I didn't want to have big chunks of onion, even diced, so I used my food processor. (A secret from my mother-in-law because Jesse doesn't like bites of onion in dishes... it only took me 2+ years of marriage to try this and make his dish more pleasing...) It took about 3 seconds and I had very finely diced onions, and no watering/burning eyes. This was a life-changing moment. I will be doing this forever more. I've always thought it was unnecessary to dirty up the food processor just to chop an onion. I was wrong. Totally worth it.  Then I did it to my red pepper, and smiled again with satisfaction.

For my quiche: it all started with bacon. Everything's better with bacon.

All I did was whisk some eggs (I did 6), added some heavy cream I had on hand (milk would obviously work and be a healthier option).  Then I added in the bacon, onion, red pepper, spinach, salt, and pepper. I used a pre-made pie crust to make it quicker.

I mixed all the ingredients together in one bowl.

Then poured into the pie crust.

I covered it with foil and baked at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Then I removed the foil and cooked for another 15. It should just barely be "jiggly," so pop it back in covered if it's not ready.

I will say that all the spinach floated to the top, and the bacon to the bottom. I'm not sure how to fix the bacon, but next time I might saute the spinach before adding it into the quiche mixture.  But the flavor on this thing was excellent! Even if you don't like onions, by chopping them so finely in a food processor or blender (or by hand!) you couldn't pick out an actual onion flavor, but it added so much depth to this simple meal.

We both ate a slice each morning throughout the week. I loved having a warm and delicious breakfast without any work in the morning!  Let me know if you decide to make one too!

From Our Kitchen - Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

I've been trying to knock out some of the recipes I've saved onto Pinterest recently.  I have an ever-growing list of things I want to try.  Some of them are more involved and time-consuming than others, but I rounded up a few that looked like quick and delicious weeknight meals.  This was the first I tried, and while we didn't love it, I'm still sharing it anyway.

I am more of a pepper-and-onions kind of person than Jesse, so when I saw this recipe I didn't think he would go for it.  I knew eating the whole pepper along with the filling would mean consuming a large amount of pepper in each bite, which I thought I would like. I was wrong. It was too over-whelmingly peppery that I didn't even finish my first one. I ate only half the pepper, and dumped the filling out of a second to even things out. My sweet husband, who doesn't care for peppers, finished the whole thing. Bless him.

So why would I even share this?
1) The filling is so yummy I ate it alone for lunch the next day. It's packed with flavor and texture!  I packed up our leftover that day by dumping out the filling for the remaining peppers and dicing up only one pepper to add into the mix. So, with all that said, I would make this recipe again but as a side dish this way.  So, if you are a pepper person try this as is; if not, make only the filling and add in one diced pepper. The pepper does bring in good flavor that blends with the others.

2) This recipe calls for quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) - which I have never cooked, nor eaten before this. But it's been all the rage in food-land for a while now, and I've been interested in trying it. I like that this recipe was packed with a variety of other flavors, in case I wasn't too fond of quinoa. Why quinoa and what is it? It cooks like a grain, like rice, but it's technically a seed. Many recipes use it as a healthier alternative for rice because it has nearly double the protein content and a lot more fiber, while remaining lower in carbs. (Quinoa is higher in fat, but it's of the unsaturated variety which is "good" fat that can help lower cholesterol.) Quinoa is a little pricey, but it's nutrition benefits make it worth it in my opinion, especially to sub for rice every once in a while.

Let's cook!

First, you will need 3 cups of cooked quinoa. If you were as unfamiliar as I was, read how to cook quinoa HERE. Sources I read varied, but I can attest that it more than doubles when cooked. I cooked 1.5 cups hoping for an even 3, but wound up with at least 5 cups of cooked. Cook up however much decides to cook, then scoop 3 cups into a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

Once you have your quinoa, take six bell peppers (whichever colors you prefer; I think the red and orange are a little sweeter and work well for this recipe).  Cut off their tops and spoon out their seeds. Line a 9x13 baking dish with parchment paper and sit them inside.

Into your mixing bowl with the quinoa, add your green chilies, whole kernel corn, black beans, diced tomatoes, pepper jack cheese, cilantro, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Now give that all a toss to distribute everything evenly.

Scoop the filling into each of your peppers, then top with a little shredded cheese. Bake until the peppers are soft and the cheese has melted on top (about 30 minutes).

If you are making this as a side dish without filling the peppers, either chop up one raw pepper and through it in, as is. Or saute them before adding in, if you prefer.
(Original recipe found HERE @ damndelicious.net)

I used my leftover quinoa in a soup a few days later, and it was delicious! Maybe I will share that soon, too.

From Our Kitchen - a recap

We've been trying a few new meals lately.  Most of which were found via Pinterest.  I love trying new recipes, but I'm always a little skeptical of how it will turn out.  People pin everything they see on Pinterest, sometimes without even reading a recipe to know if it's actually worth making. In other words, just because it's a popular pin doesn't mean it's a great recipe.  However, I have pinned my share of recipes and am now trying to weed through them. I am also working on reorganizing my recipe binder and making it more uniform looking, so I have typed up the recipes we like in a simple format with an image. You can print these by clicking the corresponding link under each description below.
I thought about sharing some of these as step-by-step instructionals like I have before, but the ladies from each of these blogs do a better job of that with better images than I can, so their links are also below each image.
Here are those that we've tried lately:

Chicken Tikka Marsala

(original recipe found here)

(printable version here)

I decided to be adventurous a few weeks ago and "whip up" some Indian food at home.  I also tried my hand at the naan mentioned in the post - some of which turned out okay. The chicken was delicious. This meal is packed with flavor and some kick (reduce the amount of jalapeno if you're not a spicy fan.) You must marinate this - it makes all the difference!  We cooked rice to go along with this.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

(original recipe post found here)

(printable version here)

This one will definitely make it into our regular series of meals.  It was quick to prep (even though I took the time to pound out the chicken breast halves to all be fairly even). I'm always looking for a new way to cook chicken, because let's face it, it can get boring. The panko breadcrumbs are what give this meal a special touch, so make sure you have those on hand. We served the sauce on the side. Since it is toasted breadcrumbs on top, this meal does not make the best leftovers - so make this for a crowd, or just reduce the amount of ingredients. These are all ingredients you probably have on hand anyway, so it's easy to modify for less.

Hawaiian Roll Ham Sandwiches

(original recipe post here)

(printable version here)

I'm sure you've seen these before somewhere. I made these this past weekend for Sunday lunch with Matt and Heidi. They were tasty, but once you see the amount of butter that goes on these, you'll know why I won't be regularly making them.  However, I'm sure I could change it some to help reduce clogged arteries. A few things to note: 1) there are lots of onions involved, but even if you don't like onions (Jesse) you may still like this dish. The onions are finely chopped and cooked until soft,  to bring out their sweetness which pairs really well with the sweet bead and other ingredients. 2) If I make this again I'll probably reduce the amount of cheese on top because my slices were kind of thick and it was a bit heavy. 3) You must use the Hawaiian sweet rolls - they make this dish.  (The bread always makes the sandwich no matter what you have going on inside.)

Apple Yogurt Cake

(original recipe post here)

(my printable version here)

This one is seriously as delicious as it looks. Make it for your family when they visit (like I did) or make it for yourself to eat all week, because the longer it sits the better it gets!  I did make several modifications for this as I was making it (fingers were crossed that it would come out okay).  There was just too much oil and sugar in the original recipe for me to be okay with serving this for breakfast, so my printable version has my rendition.

Give one of these a try and let me know how you liked it, or if you changed anything!
Have you tried any new recipes lately that you would make again?  Share a link to the recipe in the comments section.

From Our Kitchen - Italian Pie

I can't take credit for this recipe at all.  I discovered it in Publix of all places.  The first time I went to Publilx for a big shopping trip, I went hungry (always a bad idea).  But as I rounded the corner, the good people of Publix offered me a whole little plate of food, which included garlic bread, salad, and this Italian pie!  Occasionally they will have someone doing a cooking demonstration and I always get a little excited when I can catch their offerings of a good sample!  

Although the name sounds like a dessert, it's actually the main course and it's delicious and pretty easy.  I love having a meal where you just mix everything up together, throw it in a dish and wait for the kitchen timer to ding.  This is what comes out:

(photo of a photo because mine wasn't very pleasing to the eye)

What you'll need:
(from Publix Apron's Simple Meals)

3/4 lb ground beef

3/4 lb ground pork

1/4 cup (turkey) pepperoni

6 slices hard salami (this is much cheaper cut at the deli than a prepackaged pack- I'm talking 0.75 instead of $3.00 according to how it's cut and of course the price/lb!)

1 box frozen chopped spinach

2 eggs

2 cups shredded Italian-blend cheese

1 pie crust (I made homemade - quick, easy, and much tastier!)

1/4 cup diced pimientos

1 (13.75oz) jar bruschetta spread (I just drain a can of Italian style diced tomatoes)

1 tsp dried Italian seasoning

What to do:

Brown your meat, adding Italian seasoning while browning, then drain meat.

While meat is browning, run cold water over your spinach to thaw, then squeeze out all water.

Stir pimientos, pepperoni, salami, spinach, and bruschetta (or tomatoes) into ground meat.

Cook until heated through.

Transfer mixture to a bowl and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Stir in egg to mixture, then stir in cheese.

Pour mixture into 9x13 baking dish and top with pie crust, sealing edge against side of dish.

Cut a few slits in the top of crust, then bake for 25-30 minutes - until bubbly and golden.

Serves 8.

Tips:

• If you make your own pie crust, do that first then allow it to sit in the fridge during cooking.  Roll it out when your mixture has made it into the 9x13 pan.
• Don't skip on pimientos, even if you think you don't like them. They add SO much flavor to this dish. They are only jarred red peppers, by the way.
• I've made this with only 1/2 lb ground beef and pork and it turned out fine.  Use more pork than beef to cut back on the fat.
• Use turkey pepperoni and low-fat cheese to cut out some fat. Also, I used only 1 to 1 1/2 cups cheese and didn't miss the rest.

In case you want to know:

1 serving:  520 kcal; 36g fat; 130mg chol; 720mg sodium; 22g carb; 2g fiber; 25g protein

From Our Kitchen: Greek Quesadillas

Welcome to the first food post from our "new" kitchen!  I will admit we have done a lot of eating out since we moved, but we finally went and stocked up on fresh ingredients and were ready to dig into some good home cookin'!

I have been saving recipes (mostly from Pinterest) to try, and these Greek Quesadillas caught my eye.  Now, if you've ever been to Auburn you know that Niffer's is one of the places to be.  They are known for their variety of delicious burgers and corn nuggets.  Yep, corn nuggets... those yellow, breaded bites you could find on your cafeteria tray back in 6th grade. But they are so good.  They also have awesome fried pickles.  Sorry... I got a little nostalgic sidetracked.  What you might not expect while you are trying to decide between the Cam Newton Burger or the Niffasaurus is that one of their Specialties are Greek Quesadillas. And they are special indeed.  So when I saw this recipe, I jumped on it! The Niffer's version has chicken, but I didn't take the time.  I just chopped up all the veggies and threw on some cheese (and then a little more cheese...) and we gobbled them up!

Chopped your veggies and prep any other ingredients you want.

Layer your tortilla with as much mozzarella cheese you think your shell can handle. :) Then add your toppings.  Of course, you can make this with whatever you want.  I added chopped olives for the hubs because he loves them. (Ew.)  The recipe also calls for Feta cheese which the grocery store was out of. (How dare they.)  Since I couldn't have feta, I smeared ricotta on the top tortilla.  Two cheese are better than one...right?

I realize the coloring in this photo does not make these super appetizing.  I was lazy and took these with my phone. (You have and will be witnessing much more of this type of laziness for it is just too convenient.)  However, these were delicious! Plus, it's simple - a little of this and a little of that. So try them yourself if you're in the mood for something a little different. 

Greek Quesadillas

adapted from: http://www.acouplecooks.com/2012/01/greek-quesadillas/

Chopped tomato

Finely chopped fresh spinach (It's easiest to stack a few leaves, then roll them up and thinly slice. This technique is called "chiffonade."  I learned that from the original post.)

Chopped mushrooms

Mozzarella cheese

Feta cheese

Dash of oregano

Any other toppings of your choice:  chicken, olives, onion,...

Add your cheese to your bottom tortilla, followed by your toppings.  Then a little more cheese if you'd like. (I won't judge.)  

This time, I sprayed my pan with non-stick cooking spray, then sprayed the top of the quesadilla before flipping it, but next time I probably will use butter to give the outside more flavor and crispness.

Enjoy!

Let us know if you make them and if you put your own spin to it!

From Our Kitchen

I have to admit, we have not been eating very healthy this week.  I miss the fresh fruits and veggies of summer, and my disappointment in the produce section is leaching over into my kitchen - causing me to loose a bit of interest in cooking.  I have been craving a nutritious meal, and came up with this soup while in the grocery store.  I've had something similar to this once, but never knew the recipe, so I came up with my own.  Meet my Sweet Potato & Spinach Soup: