Calzone

This recipe is so simple! Talk about satisfying with minimal effort - A calzone is it. I've always been a more-cheese, less-sauce kind of girl with pizza so I'm a big fan of the cheese overload in a calzone! Ricotta = love. I love making pizza dough from scratch but if you're pressed for time you could always pick up the uncooked dough at your grocery store. Pictured here with Baked Zucchini Fries :) 

Calzone

Makes 4 servings

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

Pizza dough (enough for a large pizza)

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

2.5 oz pepperoni (and/or whatever other fillings you want)

1. Roll out pizza dough to 1/3 to 1/2 inch thickness.

2. Spread cheeses and fillings on half of the rolled out dough leaving a 1 1/2 inch gap for the crust.

3. Fold dough over and pinch ends together. Fold ends over to create a crust and firmly seal the edges. Score the top of the calzone.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes or until the top of the calzone is golden brown. Serve with marinara sauce for dipping. Enjoy!

 Roll out the pizza dough to about 1/2 inch thickness. Load up the fillings! Tonight I went with pepperoni but you could use any of your favorite pizza toppings!

Fold the dough over, pinch the edges shut, and then fold the edge like you're making a pizza crust. 

My boyfriend INSISTED that you had to score the top. I didn't feel strongly either way, so the calzone got scored just for him :P 

Side dish pictured here: Baked Zucchini Fries! Get some veggies in the meal if you can haha! Both are great for dipping in marinara sauce.

Baked Zucchini Fries

I'll admit I had never tried zucchini until about a year ago and I LOVE it! It has a nice mild flavor that can be paired with a variety of foods. You can see a  Calzone in the corner here. MMMmmm both so good dipped in marinara sauce! If you use this Italian Bread Crumbs recipe you won't need any additional seasonings or parmesan because the bread crumbs are already packed with flavor! They have fresh garlic and parsley and romano parmesan cheese and are all you need to season this dish. If you use store bought bread crumbs I would recommend adding some parmesan to the mix!

Baked Zucchini Fries

Makes 5-6 servings

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

3 zucchinis

2 cups Italian Bread Crumbs

1 cup flour

2 eggs

1/4 cup water

Salt to taste

1. Slice zucchinis in 1/2 inch thick fry-like sticks.

2. Whisk together 2 eggs and 1/4 cup water.

3. Set up 2 plates for dipping – one for the flour and one for the bread crumbs. Spread out the flour and bread crumbs on their plates. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.

4. Roll each zucchini piece in flour, dip in egg wash, then roll in bread crumbs. Place in a single layer on lined baking sheet.

5. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes. Add salt to taste. Serve with marinara sauce for dipping. Enjoy!

Slice the zucchini up!

Line your baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. This will make the removal process and cleaning up much easier!

Set up your dipping stations. Flour, egg wash, bread crumbs.

First dip/roll: flour.

Second: egg wash.

Third: bread crumbs.

Place the zucchini in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes!

Serve with marinara sauce for dipping. Scrumptious!

Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce

I've been DREAMING about enchiladas lately. I think I was going through Mexican food withdrawals because I haven't been to my favorite restaurant lately. But rather than going out to eat I decided to make an attempt at chicken enchiladas! I've never made them before but I looked at a million recipes online and put together my own little concoction. I personally prefer the green tomatillo sauce to the red sauce so I cleaned out my grocery store of tomatillos and made that from scratch too! I am not claiming that this recipe is authentic Mexican or anything, but I at least made everything from scratch and damn it, it tastes good!

Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce

Makes 10-12 Enchiladas, 5-6 Servings

Total time: 1 hour

Ingredients

2 large chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

10-12 corn tortillas

8 tomatillos

3 cloves garlic

2 jalapeños

1 white onion

1 lime

2 1/2 cups Monterey jack cheese, shredded

1 cup water

3/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup cilantro

1/2 tsp cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Husk, rinse, and cut stem end off tomatillos. In a large saucepan bring water, tomatillos, jalapeños, and half of the onion to a boil. Covered and boil over medium high heat for 10 minutes. The tomatillos will turn a more olive green color, as opposed to lime green.

2. Place cilantro, juice of half the lime, cumin, garlic cloves, the cooked tomatillos, jalapeños, and half of the onion in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Dice and sauté the other half of the onion until it becomes translucent. Mix sautéed onions with shredded chicken, 1/3 cup Monterey jack cheese, and 1/4 cup sour cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 4. Heat 1/4 cup vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium high heat. Using tongs fry the corn tortillas one at a time in the hot oil for 10 seconds on each side. Place fried tortillas on a plate lined with paper towels.

5. Spread a few spoonfuls of tomatillo sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Fill tortillas with chicken mixture and roll up. Place rolled tortilla seam side down in the baking dish and repeat until chicken mixture is gone.

6. Pour remaining tomatillo sauce on top of rolled tortillas in baking dish. Spoon remaining sour cream on top of tomatillo sauce. Sprinkle remaining Monterey jack cheese on top.

7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes and broil for an additional 2-3 minutes to brown the cheese (watch carefully!). Enjoy!

Husk, rinse, and cut the stem ends off the tomatillos. I cleaned my grocery store out of them! Boil 1 cup water with tomatillos, jalapeños, and 1/2 the onion covered for 10 minutes (ignore the poblano pepper - I didn't end up using it).

 The tomatillos will turn a kind of olive green when they're done!

Place tomatillos, jalapeños, half the onion, cilantro, juice of half the lime, cumin, and garlic cloves in the food processor. Blend until it is very smooth!

The sauce should not be chunky. Add salt and pepper to your liking. This would be great as a green salsa on its own!

Dice and saute the other half of the onion until the pieces are translucent.

Mix sauteed onions with shredded chicken, 1/3 cup Monterey jack cheese, 1/4 cup sour cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Using a rotisserie chicken for this recipe would be perfect! Just make sure you get a plain rotisserie chicken, not bbq or lemon pepper or whatever.

Fry the tortillas in vegetable oil over medium high heat for 10 seconds on each side. Make sure the oil it HOT or else the tortillas will just get soggy. And ONLY 10 seconds on each side! Place the fried tortillas on a plate lined with paper towels.

Spread a few spoonfuls of the tomatillo sauce in the bottom of a 9 X 13 baking pan.

Fill each tortilla with a few spoonfuls of the chicken mixture.

 Roll each tortilla and place them seam side down in the baking dish.

Here's where it gets fun... Top with the remaining tomatillo sauce!

Spoon the remaining sour cream on top of the tomatillo sauce. The sour cream and cheese balance out the spiciness of the tomatillo sauce well. I wanted to use Mexican crema but my grocery store didn't have any :(

Top with the remaining Monterey jack cheese!

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes to melt the cheese and broil for another 2-3 minutes to brown the cheese. Look at all the cheesy goodness!

Each serving should get two enchiladas (the corn tortillas are small) and I served it with black beans and rice. This DEFINITELY fulfilled my Mexican food cravings!

Chicken SouVlaki

Ah this tastes like home to me :) I grew up in a little beach town in FL that has a large Greek population and my dad’s family is Greek, so I ate chicken souvlakis OFTEN. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but my parents used to say that my little brother’s first real food was a souvlaki and when he was little he used to eat two in one sitting. Traditionally the souvlaki meat is grilled on a skewer, but I don’t have a grill so I just sautéed the chicken. The chicken is marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, and oregano and is so flavorful on its own, but once you add the tzatziki sauce – forget about it. I’ve died and gone to Greek food heaven!

Chicken Souvlaki

Makes 4 souvlakis

Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Inactive Time: 3 hours

Total Time: 3 hours 40 minutes

Ingredients (( Healthier Ingredient Substitutions ))

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts

4 pitas (( 4 whole wheat pitas ))

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp fresh oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 lemons

2 tomatoes

1/4 red onion

2 cups Tzatziki sauce: 

16 oz plain fat free Greek yogurt

1 cucumber

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp dill

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut chicken into 1 inch cubes. Mix chicken, olive oil, oregano, juice of 2 lemons, zest of 1 lemon, salt, and pepper. Seal in a plastic bag and let marinate in the refrigerator for at lease 30 minutes, but 1-3 hours is better.

2. Prepare tzatziki sauce- Wash cucumber and slice in half length wise. Spoon out and discard the seeds. Pulse in the food processor until finely chopped (or just chop with a knife). Layer 4 paper towels. Put chopped cucumber in the paper towels and squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the cucumbers. Mix yogurt, cucumbers, minced (or crushed) garlic, dill, salt, and pepper. Cover and keep in the refrigerator for at least an hour, but as long as 3-5 hours is better.

3. Place pitas in aluminum foil and heat the in oven at 300 degrees F. Sauté chicken on medium - medium high heat until cooked all the way through. Cut the thickest piece of chicken open to check that it is white all the way through. This typically takes about 10 minutes.

4. Chop tomatoes and onion. Serve chicken on pitas with tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, and onions. Enjoy!

 For the chicken marinade! (only 2 lemons actually used)

The marinade contains both lemon juice and zest! I'm a big fan of lemon. 

Cut chicken in 1 inch cubes and mix with lemon juice, zest, oregano, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Marinate in the refrigerator for 3 hours. 

Prepare the tzatziki sauce. This can stay in the refrigerator the whole time the chicken is marinating.

Cook over medium high heat until no longer pink in the middle, about 10 minutes.

Serve on warm pita with tzatziki sauce, chopped tomatoes and red onions. Nom nom nom.

Tzatziki Sauce

Boy am I happy that Greek yogurt is such a trend right now - it's much easier to find for use in one of my favorite dishes of all time... Tzatziki sauce! This Greek sauce/dip is for GARLIC LOVERS ONLY! The way my family makes it and the way it's served in my little Greek home town (in FL), it has a kick to it from raw garlic (and lots of it). This is the sauce you will find on Souvlakis and Gyros, but it's also fantastic as a dip with pitas and veggies. And it's so healthy! Greek yogurt is so good for you! Embrace the garlic and you will love this creamy dip!

Tzatziki Sauce

Makes 2 cups

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Inactive Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

16 oz plain fat free Greek yogurt

1 cucumber

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp dill

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Wash cucumber and slice in half length wise. Spoon out and discard the seeds. Pulse in the food processor until finely chopped (or just chop with a knife).

2. Layer 4 paper towels. Put chopped cucumber in the paper towels and squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the cucumbers.

3. Mix yogurt, cucumbers, minced (or crushed) garlic, dill, salt, and pepper. Cover and keep in the refrigerator for at least an hour, but as long as 5 hours is better.

4. Serve cold with pitas and veggies or on a Souvlaki or Gyro. Enjoy!

 The fresh ingredients! Like I said above, this recipe is for garlic lovers only. You WILL have garlic breath, but it will be worth it. I wouldn't recommend making this for date night unless you've been dating the person for at least a month :P

 Scoop out the seeds from the cucumber (just half of the cucumber is shown here).

Chop is large pieces so the food processor can cut more evenly.

Pulse until there are no big pieces left and the cucumber is pretty finely shredded.

This step is very important! Layer 4 or 5 paper towels and squeeze as much liquid out of the cucumbers as possible. You will be surprised at how much liquid comes out! This is crucial in keeping the dip thick!

Before Greek yogurt was so popular I used to have to buy regular plain yogurt and strain it in coffee filters to make it thicker! Greek yogurt is thick when you buy it so it makes the whole recipe much easier!

Mix all of the ingredients. The garlic crusher is my new best friend! It's so much easier than trying to mince the garlic. Refrigerate for AT LEAST an hour before serving. The garlic needs time to mix its flavor into the dip. Trust me, it might not taste terribly garlicy now, but give it a few hours and it will knock your socks off.

I'm in garlicy heaven.