Instead of picking and choosing, we decided to favor ambition and make three dishes - stuffed portabella mushrooms, zucchini patty sandwiches, and Grandma's blintzes with cherry pie filling.
The result was, well, you can't go wrong with portabella, zucchini, chickpeas and feta.
Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms (with our modifications)
Ingredients:
2 large Portobello mushrooms
1.5 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup cubed feta (note: the original recipe called for goat cheese, but we used feta)
1 recipe of oven roasted tomatoes*
Note: the original recipes called for 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley and 1 tablespoons fresh chopped chives but we went without either and didn't miss it.
*For oven roasted tomatoes:
Half a pint of cherry tomatoes. Mix with a tablespoon of olive oil. Sprinkle with either fresh or - like we did - dried thyme and basil. Slice 3 garlic cloves and them to tomatoes. Salt and pepper (just a sprinkle of each). Bake at 375, preferably in a dish that will collect all the juices and roast the tomatoes in their own juices, for 20-25 minutes or until they start wrinkling a little bit.
Directions:
1. Take out the mushroom stems and scrape out each mushroom's "gills" with a teaspoon, carefully, so you don't crack the portabella itself.
2. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic and cover portabellas with it on all sides (use up the whole thing)
3. Broil the mushrooms on a baking sheet for 3-5 minutes (in an oven) until they start releasing juices
4. Take em out, and fill to the top with roasted tomatoes and chunks of feta
5. Stick in the oven on 375 for about 10 minutes (or less, if mushrooms start looking ready)
Voila! You have stuffed portabellas that are ridiculously delicious.
Original recipe at http://afoodcentriclife.com/stuffed-portobello-mushrooms-with-roast-tomatoes-and-goat-cheese/
Zucchini and Chickpea Patty Sandwiches
Ingredients:
1 15.5-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 zucchini, grated
1 small red onion, grated
1 egg, lightly whisked
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 whole-wheat pitas, toasted
1 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
Some lettuce or mixed greens
Directions:
1. Mash chickpeas in a bowl until smooth. Stir in breadcrumbs, zucchini, onion, egg, and salt. Form into 4-by-1/2-inch patties.
2. Saute patties in oil until golden and crisp, 2 to 3 minutes per side. USE A NONSTICK PAN - it makes all the difference!
3. Halve pitas and stuff with patties, yogurt, lettuce, and anything else that fancies you.
Note: we had to practically broil these in oil and many fell apart. Next time, we're going to try adding a second egg and a tablespoon or so of flour, in the hopes of reducing the amount of oil and keeping the patties together better.
And last but not least...
Someone's Grandma's Russian Blintzes
While Sonya has attempted to make HER Grandma's blintzes for ages, they never quite presented the nostalgia and similarity to her Grandma's kitchen that this recipe yielded.
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon sugar
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon sugar
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons oil
Directions:
1. Mix all the ingredients together. Leave the flower for last, as you will need to fold it in and then mix the batter until it is completely, read, completely! clump free. The measure of an excellent blintze is the smoothness and lightness of its batter.
2. Heat non-stick skillet and using one standard soup ladle per blintze, pour out each blintze onto the skillet as evenly as possible, cooking just long enough on each side for it to turn golden.
3. Eat with any filling your heart desires - we experimented with cherry pie filling out of a can (also heated in the microwave) and some left-over yogurt but recommend any sort of fruit jam/preserves, cheese, mashed potatoes, and the list can go on.
All in all, some serious grating, chopping, frying, and baking went down.
