Tag Archives: oregano

Gyros Meatloaf with Tzatziki

15 Feb

Unfortunately, the Greek restaurant we had here in town closed down, and even though there are a few places that serve gyros still, I decided to keep working on my own version at home.  I have made Gyros Burgers before, but wanted to try it as more of a meatloaf than burgers so it could be sliced and put in pita pockets.  Now, the downside to meatloaf is that it takes a while to cook without getting too dry.  So, now, when I have time I can do meatloaf, if I’m pressed for time, I can do burgers.  I also made tzatziki for the first time tonight to go with this.  It was perfect!  My husband is usually not a fan when we get gyros when eating out.  He says it’s too messy, but this was thicker, more dip-like, so it wasn’t dripping all over when eating it.  Tonight, I served it with Sweet Potato Chips, which were a nice compliment to the gyros.

Gyros Meatloaf with Tzatziki and Sweet Potato Chips

Gyros Meatloaf with Tzatziki

What you need:

Gyros Meatloaf:
1 pound ground beef and 1 pound ground lamb or 2 pounds ground beef
1 small onion
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried savory
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon dried oregano or 2 teaspoons fresh oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Dash of ground cumin

Tzatziki (original recipe with more step by step pictures at Daily Cynema:
24 oz container plain Greek yogurt
1 seedless cucumber, peeled
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 teaspoon salt
Ground black pepper to taste

How to make it:

Put the onion in a food processor for a few seconds.  Remove into paper towels and squeeze out excess liquid.  Place onions in a mixing bowl, and stir in remaining meatloaf ingredients.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325 F

Put the meat mixture back into the food processor and process for about a minute or until mixture becomes like a fine paste.  Press meat mixture into a 9 x 5 loaf pan, making sure there are no air pockets.  Place loaf pan in a larger roasting pan, and pour boiling water into the roasting pan until there is enough to reach the middle of the side of the loaf pan, creating a water bath for baking.

Water Bath for Gyros Meatloaf

Carefully place in oven and bake in the preheated oven for 60-70 minutes, or until meat reaches an internal temperature of 170 F.  Pour out any excess fat, and slice thinly to serve.

Finished Gyros Meatloaf

While meatloaf is baking, grate the peeled cucumber and squeeze out the excess liquid.  Put in a mixing bowl and stir in remaining tzatziki  ingredients.  Put in a container and keep refrigerated until ready to use (I just returned it to the container the Greek yogurt came in).  Serve with the gyros meatloaf in pita bread with lettuce, tomato, and red onion, if desired.

Tzatziki

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Spinach and Mozzarella Chicken with Lemon Roasted Potatoes

15 Jan

Spinach and Mozzarella Chicken with Lemon Roasted Potatoes

 

This turned out amazing!  I had gotten spinach from Bountiful Baskets in the juicing pack I contributed for, and wanted to make it with chicken somehow.  So, I started looking through some recipes, and came up with a marinade for the chicken, then topped with spinach and mozzarella cheese.  I wanted them to be somewhat flatter, but didn’t pound them flat very well.  Just meant that it took a little longer for them to cook.  Since I had gotten red potatoes and lemons as well in my regular basket, I thought roasting the potatoes with lemon would be a nice addition.

 

Spinach & Mozzarella Chicken

What you need:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/3 cup olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons (or about 1/3 cup)
1 tablespoon rosemary
2 cloves minced garlic
Salt and pepper
2 cups fresh spinach
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

How to make it:

In a small bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper.  Put chicken on a flat surface in between 2 pieces of wax paper and pound flat.  Place chicken in a gallon size zipper bag and pour contents of the bowl over chicken in the bag.  Seal bag and place in refrigerator overnight, or for at least 1 hour before cooking.

Remove chicken from bag and discard remaining marinade.  Preheat oven to 400 F.  Heat a large skillet over medium heat.  Cook chicken in skillet for about 5 minutes each side to slightly brown it.  Remove from skillet and place in a baking dish.

In the same skillet, put in the spinach and cook for a few minutes until spinach wilts.  Place spinach on each of the chicken breasts in baking dish.  Next, put shredded mozzarella on top of the spinach on each chicken breast.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until chicken is cooked fully through and cheese is melted.

 

 

Lemon Roasted Potatoes

What you need:

3 pounds red potatoes, well scrubbed
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Dice the potatoes, leaving skins on.  Place in a large bowl.

In a small bowl, mix together remaining ingredients.  Pour over the potatoes in the large bowl.  Toss to fully coat potatoes.

Spray a foil lined baking sheet with non-stick spray.   Spread potatoes in an even layer on the baking sheet.

Cook in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.  Stir potatoes around on baking sheet.  Continue to bake for 15-20 minutes, or until potatoes are browned and softened.

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Roast Leg of Lamb

8 Apr

 

This is one of my husband’s favorites.   Unfortunately, the price of lamb makes it so we can’t enjoy it very often, but we do splurge to get it every so often.  This leg of lamb we got at the local Farmer’s Market from San Ysidro Farms.  It turned out really good, so good that even my 3-year-old asked for seconds.  This was our Easter meal, and I served bread and celery dressing and roasted asparagus with this.

 

Roast Leg of Lamb

What you need:

5-6 lb leg of lamb
1-2 garlic cloves, peeled and cut lengthwise
Oregano
Rosemary
Juice of 1 lemon
Red wine (I usually use merlot)

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Make quarter-inch deep incisions in all sides of lamb and insert a sliver of garlic in each slit.  See picture below.

Baste with lemon juice and red wine and season with oregano and rosemary.  Place on a rack inside a roasting pan.  Cook fat side up for 1 hour, basting every 15 minutes.  You may need to add water to the bottom of the roasting pan to help with basting.  Turn leg over to brown other side as well, 1-2 hours, or until desired temperature is reached. 130 F – 140 F for rare, 140 F – 150 F for medium, and 150 F – 160 F for well done.

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Tomato Meat Sauce

8 Mar

 

Some day, I will get a chance to try making my own pasta.  For now, one of our favorites is tortellini, and I normally get the Six Cheese Tortellini from Schwan’s.  I normally use a jar of tomato sauce with this, but since I had tomatoes, green peppers, and onion from Bountiful Baskets, I decided to make my own sauce.  I didn’t really do any measurements, just added in as I went.  It turned out pretty good!

 

Tomato Meat Sauce

What you need:

1 lb ground beef
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
6 Roma tomatoes, sliced
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste

How to make it:

In a large skillet, brown ground beef.  Add garlic, onion, green pepper, and parsley.  Cook until onions and peppers are soft.  Add sliced tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, salt, and pepper.  Crush tomatoes as they cook.  Let simmer for 15 – 20 minutes.  Serve with your favorite pasta.

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Spinach, Feta, and Pesto Pizza

5 Mar

This cauliflower pizza crust is really growing on me.  I was skeptical as first, but the second time around, it turned out great again.  I did notice that with 1 large pizza, the center stays a little soft, but I think that might be solved by making individual size pizzas.  Even with it a little soft, no complaints in this house, and everyone just used a fork to eat it.  Even my kids gobbled this up, and I love getting an extra veggie in them for the day hidden in the crust.  This time, instead of tomato sauce, I made Spinach Basil Pesto for the sauce. Then, I put chopped red onion, sliced black olives, torn fresh spinach leaves, a 4 oz container of crumbled feta cheese, and a 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese.  I had forgotten how much I love feta cheese on pizza.  This was a delicious meal!

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Classic Pizza Margherita with Sausage

1 Mar

Back in January, I talked about a Johnsonville Pizza Possibilities House Party I had won a while back.  This pizza recipe is another recipe from the book that came in the party box.  I used some fresh spices, red onion, and tomatoes I had gotten from Bountiful Baskets to make this.  It was very good, a lot of sausage, but I think it’s one of those recipes you can add more or less sausage to.

Classic Pizza Margherita with Sausage
Original recipe found here 

What you need:

1 package (19 oz.) Johnsonville Mild Italian Sausage Links
1 package pizza dough crust mix, prepared according to package instructions for the dough
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon parsley, minced
1 tablespoon oregano
Sea salt and pepper
8 Roma tomatoes, sliced (divided-save 10 slices for the top)
1/2 medium red onion, minced
2 cups Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup Fontina cheese, shredded (I didn’t have these cheese, so I didn’t use it)
10 fresh basil leaves, divided
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

How to make it:

Put oven rack on lowest shelf and preheat to 425 F.
Lightly oil a pizza pan. Roll out dough as thin as possible. Let rest 10 minutes.
In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil and cook sausage until browned.  Always cook sausage to internal temperature of 160°F.  Remove from pan and slice.
In the same pan, cook onion and parsley to golden, then stir in garlic and oregano for a few seconds.  Add tomatoes to pan, crushing them as they are mixed (do not substitute crushed tomatoes). Boil, stirring 5 minutes or until thick.
Spread sauce over crust, sprinkle with half the basil, Mozzarella, Fontina, sausage, and the remaining slices of tomatoes. Spray with olive oil.  Sprinkle generously with pepper, then with a little sea salt.
Bake for 10 minutes.  Using a spatula and an oven mitt, slip the pizza off the pan directly onto the oven rack, bake for two minutes.  Slip pizza back onto pan, remove from oven.  Or, I just baked for 12 minutes on the pan.
Sprinkle with the remaining fresh basil and Parmesan cheese, cut and serve.

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Chicken Marsala

24 Feb

This wasn’t in the original meal plan for this week, but since I wasn’t feeling well earlier this week, I fell behind in cooking and had some things I needed to get cooked before they went bad.  So, I decided to make Chicken Marsala, something we haven’t had in a while.  For the sides, I steamed my last bunch of asparagus and made mashed potatoes with a partial bag of potatoes I had left.  Since I have herbs from the Italian themed veggie pack, I added crushed fresh garlic and minced fresh rosemary to the mashed potatoes.  It was a nice addition.  I also got to use the fresh herbs in the Chicken Marsala.

Chicken Marsala
Based on recipes here and here 

What you need:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon minced fresh oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
8 oz package mushrooms, sliced
3/4 cup marsala wine
2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary

Pound chicken to 1/4 inch thickness.  Mix together flour and oregano, and fully coat chicken with this mixture.  Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.  Add chicken and cook until no longer pink.

To the skillet, add and melt butter.  Add mushrooms, wine, parsley, and rosemary.   Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Cover, and cook for 5 minutes.  Flip chicken over, cover again, and cook for another 5 minutes.  Remove cover and simmer until sauce has reduced by half.

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Greek Salsa

16 Feb

 

This is a recipe I got from my Papou, and he had gotten it from a magazine, but I can’t remember which one anymore.  The recipe was actually Greek Salsa Chicken, this salsa served over lemon chicken and roasted potatoes.  Normally, I serve it with Lemon Herb Chicken and roasted potatoes that I’ve cooked separately.  But, I thought it would be the perfect addition to the Kotopoulo Lemonato we had for dinner tonight!  I was right!

 

Greek Salsa

What you need:

1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved (I diced one regular tomato tonight since that’s what I had)
1 jar (4.75 oz) pitted kalamata olives
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 1 Tbsp dried oregano)

How to make it:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Cover and chill until ready to serve.

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Spinach Lasagna Rollups

10 Feb

I had some lasagna noodles in my pantry that I wanted to use, but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do lasagna.  Then, I remembered the Cheese Lasagna Rollups my mom used to get from Market Day, and decided I wanted to try to make some of my own.  It worked out that cottage cheese was on sale, and I had spinach, basil, and oregano in my fridge that I needed to use.  The filling I made just like my Spinach Manicotti recipe, and the sauce was the Tomato Sauce I made a couple of days ago.  It turned out great!

Spinach Lasagna Rollups

What you need:

9 lasagna noodles
2 eggs
1 container (15 oz) ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, divided
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 lb fresh spinach, chopped
1 1/2 tsp dried basil (or 2 tsp fresh basil)
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano (or 2 tsp fresh oregano)
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
4 cups Tomato Sauce

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook lasagna noodles according to directions on box.  Drain water and cool on a piece of aluminum foil.

Meanwhile, beat eggs in a medium bowl.  Stir in the ricotta (or cottage cheese), 1/2 cup of the mozzarella, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, garlic, spinach, basil, oregano, and parsley.  Pour 1 cup of the Tomato Sauce into a 13 x 9 baking dish, or enough to make sure to cover the entire bottom of the dish.  Spread filling on each lasagna noodle and roll the noodle.  Place seam side down in the dish.  Pour the remaining sauce over the rollups, then sprinkle on the remaining Parmesan and mozzarella.  Cover tightly with foil.

Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove foil, and bake for another 5-10 minutes, or until sides are bubbling and the cheese is melted.

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Baked Ratatouille

31 Jan

 

My oldest daughter thought it was so cool to make Ratatouille like in the Disney movie, Ratatouille.  I used the eggplant from the Asian themed veggie pack I got this week, a zucchini I had left in my fridge, rosemary, oregano, and parsley from the Italian themed veggie pack a few weeks pack, and tomato and onion from this week’s basket.  It tasted really good, but my presentation needs some work.  I had wanted to use a round casserole dish, but it wasn’t fitting right, so I put it in a 13 x 9 pan instead.  But, then it was all spread out too much, but it still cooked fine.  Also, most recipes also call for peppers, which I have, but just didn’t add in since my husband doesn’t really like cooked peppers.

 

Baked Ratatouille
Based on recipes here and here

What you need:

1 large onion, cut into rings
1 medium eggplant, cut into 1/2″ slices
2 zucchini, cut into 1/2″ slices
1 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced
3 tomatoes, sliced
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp fresh chopped parsley
2 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
2 tsp fresh chopped oregano
Olive oil

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a small bowl, mix together Parmesan cheese, garlic, parsley, rosemary, and oregano.

Grease a medium-sized casserole dish with olive oil.  Make a layer with the onions.  Drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and spice mixture.  Repeat this process for the remaining vegetables.

Cover and bake in the preheated oven for 45 – 60 minutes.

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