Stuff Your Own Pita!

If your kids are anything like mine, they love any meal they get to "prepare" themselves--like tacos or sandwiches.

Stuff Your Own Pitas works because you mix it all up, put it on the table and kids get to fill their own pita pockets.  For even more fun, don't mix it up, but it out on the table and let them pick and choose what to stuff their pita with!  This may be a way to get picky eaters to try new things.

Ingredients:

(feel free to tweak this to your family's taste)

artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
capers
kalamata olives (or any olives you like)
feta
chopped tomatoes
chopped roasted red peppers
chick peas (I use dried and soak them overnight, but you can use canned)
fresh parsley
lemon juice
olive oil

Roasted Tomato & Goat Cheese Tart

Ingredients:

8-9 cherry or cocktail tomatoes (on the vine is great, but not necessary)
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 tbsp butter softened and cut in chunks
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. ice water
7 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
3 oz. goat cheese
salt
pepper

Prep:

1.  Heat oven to 400.  Place tomatoes in small roasting pan or crock, drizzle with olive oil, balsamic, 1 tsp. sugar and 1/2 tsp. salt.  Place in oven and roast for 25 minutes.

2.  Meanwhile, in food processor, mix 1 1/2 cups of flour, 4 tbsp. butter, 1/2 tsp. salt on pulse until well blended.  Add ice water to form a nice dough.  DO NOT FORM A BALL.

3.  Take a piece of plastic wrap.  Place dough in center and flatten into a 4 inch disc.  Wrap in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

4.  Take dough out, unwrap.  Place two piece of cling wrap on top one going left to right and the other up and down.  Roll dough out to fit in your tart pan.  You can flip the whole thing over and roll it on either side to get it nice and even.

5.  Remove wrap from one side.  Place dough side down in your tart pan.  Carefully peel off the wrap from the other side.  If you have trouble, stick the pan with the dough in the freezer for 15 minutes and it should remove easily.

6.  Once the tomatoes are out of oven, cook the crust for 15 minutes.  Use pie weights or beans to keep it from puffing.

7.  Mix 7 eggs with the half cup of sour cream and half cup of milk.  Add a pinch of salt and ground pepper to taste.

8.  When crust has cooked for fifteen minutes, arrange roasted tomatoes on top of crust in tart pan.  Pour the egg mixture over and dot with goat cheese.

9.  Bake at 325 for a half hour or until egg is set.

10.  Enjoy!

I usually serve this with a big tossed salad.

California Omelet

This is a simple, quick weeknight meal.

For our family of four, I use:

Ingredients:

2 avocados
8 eggs
1 tomato
hot sauce
milk
1 tbsp. butter

Preparation:

Peel and mash one avocado.  Chop up half of a tomato.

Scramble all 8 eggs and add some milk, like you normally would for scrambled eggs.  Add the avocado and tomato.

Melt the butter in your non-stick pan.

Add the egg mixture.  When it starts to look a little dry around the edges, flip it.  I don't always have the greatest luck with this, sometimes it ends up more like scrambled eggs.

Chop the other half of the tomato.  Cut the other avocado in sections.  Top the omelet with the chopped tomato and sectioned avocado.  Pass with hot sauce.

Sometimes we eat this with tortillas, sometimes with toast.  Usually we have some kind of melon to accompany it.