Greek Yogurt and Goat Cheese Tzaziki Roasted Red Pepper Zucchini Rolls with Pesto Dip A.K.A. Extremely Creative and Interesting Snacks for an Unbearably Boring Mom.

Let's talk about creative energy, or rather the lack there of. For instance, I'm pretty sure that I had something rather interesting to say 15 minutes ago but since then 1 million and 1 other extremely important things have happened. Such is the life of a mom of 4. Any mom actually, but I speak for myself (disclaimer numero uno).

Case and point. In the last 15 minutes I have:

Tried to console a very distraught 4 year old little girl about a broken crayon which her 8 year old very artistic brother absolutely had to have because it was  "Imperial Blue" and the exact shade he needed to finish his bird drawing and "NO!" another shade of blue from the enormous bucket of crayons wouldn't do and excuse me please but it in fact is not a crayon but a pastel! ..............................

Stopped 3 times to put on baby doll clothes. On the same baby doll.

Tried to reason with a dramatic 6 year old over why it's not the end of the world when someone touches him, looks at him, breathes on him.

Prepared myself for yet another night of over reactive drama and whining about how grosssssss dinner is before they even know what it is.

Tried to take a picture or two of for mentioned dinner when the house we moved into several months ago does not have ONE SINGLE north facing window, or any decent window for food photography for that matter.  (note to self, look for new house immediately. post note, be in complete denial that the housing market is yet again rising faster than my strategic abilities allow.)

Exaggerating? Who me? NO. Not this time my friends, not this time. Life as a mom, end of story. 

Again, I'm pretty sure I had something very creative or mildly interesting to say in regards to this post 15 minutes ago but alas, you will forgive me as my creativity has been sucked away over the years and replaced with the cutest of cute, adorable, little, needy monsters. 

What's the opposite of boring? These super cute snack containers from Planet Box. I. heart. their lunch boxes and so when they offered to send me one of their brand new sectioned snack boxes, 

"The Shuttle" with a perfect little dipping container I was waiting by the window for the UPS guy.  

This little snack container was much roomier than I imagined and perfect for my portioned, 5 a day small meals. As you can see it held my 'second' lunch quite nicely and I won't even mention the fact that my dear husband swiped it from me the  next morning. I did get a nice text message around lunch time about how fantastic my zucchini rolls were. Cudos.

I love Planet Boxes sleek and convenient  design and that the magnets were interchangeable. My boys loved this alien one and when mommy wants to take it to work I simply take the magnets off or I can switch them out for one of their other cute magnets. These cute space guys ended up on our fridge. 

Several different sizes to choose form with eco-conscience design and cute carriers. I love it!

Back to School Time Already! Time to get a sturdy lunch box that will last through the year! 

Planet Box sent me these items, all opinions are my own.

Rosemary, Garlic and Parmesan Rustic Flatbread Pizzas

I don't know why I still sometimes think that making good, home made breads has to be difficult. After all, I am known for preaching about how simple it is to make home made snacks and meals so why not breads? I still find myself searching high and low on the bread aisle for healthy and affordable breads, usually to no avail. About half way down the list of ingredients I give up and say " Well, at least there's not any High Fructose Corn Syrup in here." even if I have no idea what the last 10 ingredients are. I have found 2 excellent bread recipes that I stick to when I have the courage time and patience to make bread. I don't know what my hang up is..... previous life baking disaster maybe?  Luckily, I do have my trusty  'Go To' sandwich bread recipe which is super easy is this  Honey Oat Bread  I've made this rustic  Rosemary Filone Bread  many times as the perfect accompaniment to soups or panini's and this  Cinnamon Spice Bread  is one of our all time favorites and perfect for Fall.



Make sure to check out these simple bread recipes and please keep in mind that I've been making them for so long that they were some of the very first recipes I posted here on Simply Healthy Family so the pictures leave much to be desired. I must retake some decent ones.... some day.

There. Disclaimer complete. Onto my latest 'Go To' bread find. Super simple and amazing Rosemary Flat bread. These flat breads take all of about 20 minutes total to make and are perfect as individual pizzas, to serve with a chopped salad such as my this one,  which is why I started the search for the perfect flat bread in the first place.

I am submitting this recipe to  Whole Foods Market Fairfield Cooking  for their 'Best Parmesan' recipe.

I would be ever so grateful if you would stop by and Tweet or share my recipe. The voting on the top 2 finalists starts next week. Thanks again for all of your support!

So, my search for a quick and delicious flat bread recipe that would come out slightly crispy and 'rustic' led me to this recipe on Smitten Kitchen which was originally from July 2008 Gourmet magazine, can't go wrong there. I adapted it by using less oil in the dough, more rosemary and instead of brushing them with more oil I used a roasted garlic spread then made it into a pizza by sprinkling with Parmesan and sliced veggies. That's it. Simple.


I'm thinking I will make these with roasted eggplant and feta next time. What do you think you would put on them or serve them with?



I doubled this recipe.

TIME 20 MINUTES YIELDS 4

You will need: 

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil + 1 teaspoon
3 tablespoon chopped rosemary
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 400°F with a baking stone on the middle rack.
Slice the top 1/4 inch off of a head of garlic and drizzle with a teaspoon of olive oil. Place on a baking stone (you will need the pre-heated stone for the pizzas). Roast the garlic for about 20 minutes, remove from heat and let cool so you can handle it. 

Meanwhile....
Stir together flour, chopped rosemary, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Make a well in center, then add water and oil and gradually stir into flour with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. Knead dough gently on a work surface 4 or 5 times.
Divide dough into 3 pieces and roll out 1 piece (keep remaining pieces covered with plastic wrap) onto a lightly floured work surface into 8 inch rounds (shape can be rustic; dough should be thin). 

Using your fingers, gently pop the cloves of garlic out of the skin and put into a small food processor. Add a dash of salt and a bit more oil if needed. Pulse until smooth. Using a brush, spread garlic onto flat breads. Sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese and top with thinly sliced tomatoes and zucchini.
Slide pizzas onto preheated baking stone and bake until pale golden and browned in spots, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer pizzas to a rack to cool.

Mix your 3 dry ingredients and chopped rosemary in a medium bowl.

Add water and oil and stir

Divide into 4 equal size pieces and flatten out with your hand then a rolling pin.

Mean while, you will want to roast your garlic. Simple cut off a bit of the top,
drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil onto exposed garlic head and put onto a baking sheet and
into a preheated oven at 400F for about 20 minutes.

Voila! Deliciously sweet roasted garlic.

Put into a small food processor {I love my new manual one from P.C.}
Drizzle about a teaspoon of olive oil and a dash of sea salt into processor and pulse till blended.
You can never, EVER have to much garlic IMHO.

Brush the tops of each flat bread with your garlic spread

Sprinkle with shredded Parmesan and keep an eye out for sneaky baby fingers!
Top with your veggies of choice and bake as directed above.

Bon Apetite!

I'm thinking I will make these with roasted eggplant and feta next time. What do you think you would put on them 

or serve them with?

Simple Corn Cakes with Zucchini-Tomato Salsa

This is one favorite summer recipes. It's quick, easy and very versatile. It's a twist on pancakes and can easily be made into a complete meal by adding salmon or crab meat into the batter. For a more indulgent cake you can simply add shredded cheese. You can add peppers, onions and cilantro to turn them into Mexican corn cakes and serve with black beans or as I do during the summer months, top them with a simple zucchini-tomato and black eyed pea salsa.

You Will Need:

2-4 Tbsp vegetable or grape seed oil {can substitute w real butter}
corn cut off of 3 ears or 2 cups frozen corn
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c corn meal
5 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp honey
salt and pepper to taste

Make the batter by whisking together eggs, corn meal, milk, corn kernels, sugar and a dash of salt & pepper. Add oil the bottom of the hot pan. Fry cakes in batches as you would pancakes, about 2 minutes on each side.  Set aside.

For the Salsa:

4-5 Roma tomatoes
2 zucchini
1 can of black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup red onion finely diced
2 tablespoons fresh Basil
1-2 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 tablespoon EVOO
salt and pepper to taste

Optional:
Jalapeno pepper, minced



Toss all ingredients in a bowl to combine. Serve on top of Corn Cakes.

Santa Fe Style Stacked Enchiladas Verdes ~ Vegetarian

Let me just tell you how serious I am about Mexican food, I don't mess around. I won't eat it at most restaurants and I live in the southwest where Mexican food is abundant. Unfortunately, I've been spoiled. I've eaten Mexican food cooked by people who know what they're doing and now I can't go back to the imposter's at most chain restaurants. Good Mexican food consists of just 2 or 3 important factors in my opinion.

1. The sauce. Canned stuff is out of the question and it's NOT hard to make your own.
2. The tortillas. I implore you to stop buying the thin, cardboard tasting stuff from the store. Again, seriously easy to make your own in just minutes.  Masa. Water. Boom, corn tortillas!
3. Good Cheese. Nuff said.

I made these vegetarian and they were filling and delicious. Why, because of for-said reasons. Also, I made these in my pressure cooker for fast, flavorful, and even cooking. Feel free to use a casserole dish if you don't own a pressure cooker. Layer the same, cook in a 400F pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes. ( I cooked mine in 8 minutes)

So here you go, my simple enchiladas verdes recipe. Oh, the Santa Fe style comes in because of the thicker, moist corn tortillas which are stacked and also the smoked Poblano peppers.  Enjoy.

You will need:

3 Poblano Peppers
10 Tomatillo's
1/4 cup white onion, finely minced
1/4 cup cilantro, plus more for garnish
1 tsp salt
2 zucchini, thinly sliced
handful of mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 cup Jack Cheese, shredded
1 cup corn kernels

'Easy Home Made Corn Tortillas' ~  recipe here

Putting it all together:

Place Poblano peppers on a broiler sheet and put in oven, 3 inches from top broiler. Cook for 10-12 minutes, turn with tongs, cook another 8-10 minutes till very charred. Remove from oven, put in a paper or plastic bag, roll closed and let skins steam off, at least10 minutes. Remove from bag, set aside until cool enough to handle. Pinch off stems, smush out seeds, peel off skins {they will peel off very easily!}. Don't worry about getting every last bit.

Husk and wash tomatillos under warm water to remove natural sticky film. Pat dry and place on broiler pan. Preheat broiler and put tomatillos on the middle rack. Cook for 10-12 minutes till browned. Remove, set aside in a bowl. Some recipes I've seen say to remove peels. I seriously don't see how that's possible,  I don't bother. Throw tomatillos, 1 cup roasted poblano, cilantro and salt in a food processor or blender and pulse till smooth. Save the rest of the poblano's for layering into enchiladas.

In the bottom of a glass dish meant for pressure cookers (or casserole dish if baking) Spread a bit of Salsa Verde (tomatillo mixture). Layer tortillas, then zucchini, mushrooms, onion, corn and chopped poblanos. I usually throw all of these veggies into a bowl together, toss then just add by handfuls to the enchiladas to make things easier.  Sprinkle with cheese, drizzle more salsa verde. Again, tortillas, veggies, cheese, salsa. Top with tortillas, salsa and then more cheese.

 Place trivet in bottom of pressure cooker if using, and add 1 cup water.

 Fold a piece of foil long enough to use as a handle to help remove casserole dish when done.

 Cover casserole dish with foil, fold foil handle over top. Lock lid onto pressure cooker. Over high heat bring pressure to 2nd red ring. Lower heat, stabilize at 2nd red ring. Cook 8 minutes.

*If baking, bake at 400F for 40-45 minutes.

Zucchini-Tomato "Tart" with Herbs and Parmesean

I'm not sure I can call this a tart. But Tart sure does sound cute if not fancy even. I don't have a tart dish. It's on my wish list....cursed wish list. Too much junk, who needs it? Really, other than looking fancy, one does not absolutely have to have a tart dish in order to make a tart of sorts.

In fact, I told my kids we were having zucchini PIE and they were thrilled! It worked out well, I had just a bit of dough left from my main dish and made the kids a " Cute little baby pie." Whatever works. ;-)

So a couple of things I learned when making this pie.

1. The more shallow the pan/dish the better. I ended up having to use twice as many eggs as I wanted to and so it was more like a quiche than a tart. Not to mention it took about an hour to bake instead of 30 minutes. Look how deep my casserole dish is on the bottom of this post. Traditionally, tart pans are pretty shallow, plus they have pretty little ridges. ;-)
2. When rolling out your crust try to get it as thin as you can. Mine was really yummy but pretty thick. So, more like a pie than a dainty tart. I added dried Thyme to my dough while mixing it and it was so wonderful! This was probably the best crust I've ever had! Ever.

adapted from Anja's Food 4 Thought

SERVES 6     TIME 15 MIN ACTIVE, 45 MIN BAKE
Ingredients:
Crust

1 cups rolled oats

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons dried Thyme

2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup olive oil

2/3 cup water



Filling

3 zucchini, thinly sliced

3 tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 cup shredded Parmesan-Romano cheese- divided.

2 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

3 large Organic eggs

2 tablespoons low-fat milk

Salt and pepper to taste

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Preheat oven to 350F


Putting it all together:
Tart Crust

Spread the oats and sesame seeds on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 8 minutes. Transfer the toasted oats and sesame seeds to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the flour, thyme, baking powder, salt, and pepper, and process until the oats are finely ground.

In a medium bowl or Mixer, whisk together the water and oil. Mix in the dry ingredients to form a dough.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Place the dough (folding in thirds if necessary for transfer) into the tart pan. Press it down evenly, making sure to fill in the fluted sides of the pan. Trim the tart of any excess dough. Cover with foil or damp towel and keep refrigerated for 30 minutes.
*save foil so you can cover the tart in the oven if it starts getting to brown




Tart Filling
Thinly slice the tomatoes and zucchini, I used my Kitchen Aide slicer attachment for the zuk.
In a large bowl, combine the zucchini with thyme, basil, salt, cracked pepper and 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil. Arrange the zucchini mixture in one layer onto tart crust. Sprinkle a layer of the cheese on top followed by one more layer of zucchini slices. Arrange the tomatoes on top of the second zucchini layer.

Whisk together the eggs and milk, add remaining cheese. Pour egg mixture evenly over the top and let it sink into the tart.

Bake the tart for 35-40 minutes. Let set for 10 minutes before serving.



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