Greek Chicken Pita Pockets

Posted on June 26, 2014 by jacky grace

Since Greece is still alive in the World Cup and since it’s so damn hot out I thought we should have some Greek Chicken Pita Pockets.

Very little cooking involved (yay!) but very tasty results (I mean, it’s Greek. What do you know that’s Greek and isn’t tasty?)

So you can buy already cooked chicken and just jazz it up with a little lemon juice, or you can cut up some chicken breast, season with olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper and bake at 350 until done.

Then, it’s just a matter of assembling your spread. We have diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, cubed cucumbers and tzatziki.

Cut open your pita, fill with ingredients and yell Ellas!

Pasta with Broccoli Pesto

Posted on June 19, 2014 by jacky grace

Pesto is one of my favorite things in life.

It’s garlicky. Yet somehow it’s still fresh and light and perfect for steamy summer nights.

Pesto doesn’t have to be just basil.

Steamed broccoli makes awesome pesto. Steamed broccoli + 2 cloves of garlic + 1/4 cup of olive oil

Give it a spin in the food processor

Boil up some pasta to al dente and drain the water.

Top the pasta with the broccoli pesto.

Give it all a big stir

And dish it up in bowls. Top with Parmesan

Grilled Eggplant

Posted on June 16, 2014 by jacky grace

I have been horrible blogger lately. And an equally bad wifey.

I haven’t really been cooking in the last few days – my friend’s band was in a 24 hour battle of the bands (they won!) and work has been crazy! So we’ve been doing the take out thing.

Why is it that food is the first sacrifice we make when things get hectic? It should be the last thing to get the ax. Good food keeps us going. So I’m going to try and be better.

And I’m going to try to give you some really simple and easy recipes in the process, so we both have no excuses.

I’m going to be trying to simplify some of my favorite dishes, or think about how to save time as much as I can. And, as always, churn out dinner in my itty bitty kitchen.

We just recently bought a grill pan. We used it once before when we made our steak fajitas but since then it’s just been languishing in the cupboard. Hmm. Healthy. Fast. Easy dinner. With the grill pan.

How about some grilled eggplant sandwiches?

I’ve waxed poetically about my mom’s eggplant parm. plenty of times on this blog, but the thing is, it is not itty kitchen friendly (doesn’t stop me from making it) nor is it exactly something you can just whip up. So this is an easier, lighter, healthier, and did I say easier? spin. Also great for vegetarian friends if you’re having a BBQ,

You will need

eggplant, peeled and sliced
tomatoes, sliced
olive oil
salt
pepper
mozzarella
rolls (we used brioche)

Start by slicing your eggplant into 1/4 inc rounds.

Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and place on your pre-heated grill pan.

Grill on both sides. Takes about 4 minutes or so a side.

When all your eggplant is grilled, set the slices aside.

Place your rolls on the grill plan and place a slice of mozzarella on the bottom half of each roll.

Add your eggplant

And your tomato

and then carefully remove from the grill and top with the bun.

Nom.

Three Cheese Spinach Lasagna

Posted on June 3, 2014 by jacky grace

This one goes into the top 10 recipe hall of fame in our house.

Don’t ask me for the other 9. All I know is that this one is in there.

I was thinking about how long it’s been since I made lasagna.

Then I was thinking about the fact that I didn’t have any gravy on hand.

And lasagna is one of those things that I will NEVER use store bought sauce for. You can get away with it for other things, but not lasagna. Whenever a dish is only three simple components (in this case, pasta, cheese and sauce) you want to make sure that each is the best quality. And my gravy is the best quality. So lasagna was a no go.

Or so I thought.

We were watching Best Thing I Ever Ate and the one guy, Adam Gertler, was talking about his Hometown Favorite dish, spinach pizza.

And that was all I needed for inspiration.

Spinach, three cheese lasagna.

No sauce. Lots of cheese. Lots of sauteed spinach.

For this recipe you will need

Lasagna noodles (I used 9, 3 noodles for each of the 3 layers)
2 bags of baby spinach
olive oil
salt
pepper
1 egg
mozzarella
parmesan
15 oz container ricotta (why is ricotta sold in 15oz containers? why not 16? If you are doubling a recipe that calls for 8 oz or if you need 16oz you are forced to buy two containers, all for that one extra once. It’s a conspiracy!)

Okay. Sorry about that side rant.

I’m calm now.

This lasagna has a calming effect because it’s so damn good.

Preheat the oven to 400 and bring a pot of water to boil on the stove.

Drop in your lasagna noodles and cook to package directions.

Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a large skillet and toss in your spinach.

Season with salt and pepper and cook until it is wilted down.

It always amazes how so much spinach cooks down to that little pile.

Let the spinach cool down for a few minutes.

If your pasta is done drain that and set it aside to cool.

Dump the ricotta into a bowl and add your cooled spinach and one egg. We let the spianch cool a bit so it doesn’t cook the egg.

Mix well.

Now it’s time to assemble.

Lightly oil a 9×13 baking dish and place your first layer of pasta down.

Spoon over half the ricotta spinach mixture.

Then add another layer of pasta.

Then the remaining half of the ricotta spinach

And another layer of pasta

Top with parmesan and mozzarella.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes.

The cheese will melts, the pasta will brown ever so slightly, and the layers will all sink into each other.

Let it cool for a few minutes before you slice so it doesn’t just melt all over the place.

And there you have a spinachy, cheesy plate of comfort.

PS. This is a great make ahead. I actually made it on Sunday, baked it, then popped it in the fridge. After a crazy work day, I just came home and popped it in the oven for about 10 minutes to heat it up.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

Posted on May 29, 2014 by jacky grace

I saw this recipe over at Sally’s Baking Addiction and immediately started drooling.

I sent it over to the fiance and asked what he thought of it.

I don’t know why I even wasted time asking!

I made it last night figuring it’d be good hockey food. And it’s totally great for watching Stanley Cup playoffs and will definitely be in the rotation once football season starts. The only slight problem is it’s so good and we ate so much of it that we kind of hit food coma and may have missed the overtime period for Kings vs Blackhawks.

But, hey, there’s always the highlights!

So this pizza combines a few simple ingredients for a taste that is out of this world.

You will need

pizza dough (frozen dough that’s been thawed is fine)
shredded mozzarella
shredded smoked gouda
1 red onion, sliced
1 chicken breast, shredded
barbecue sauce

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together the chicken and a tablespoon of barbecue sauce.

Stretch your dough and place on a pizza pan. A cookie sheet flipped over works too. Drizzle the dough with barbecue sauce.

Layer on the mozzarella and the smoked gouda.

next add your barbecue sauce tossed chicken.

Last, top with your red onion slices

Bake for about 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden.

Slice, and enjoy.

Potato and Leek Frittata

Posted on May 28, 2014 by jacky grace

Whenever I have no idea what to make for dinner, I turn to frittatas.

They’re the perfect meal when you’re stumped because 1. they’re really easy and no one wants to be stumped and faced with an impossible recipe 2. they’re really versatile so you can easily just grab what’s in the fridge or what looks good at the grocery store and 3. they’re a one pot meal! and who wants to wash more than one pot?

I’m a big fan of potato leek soup, but with the weather finally warming up, I wasn’t in the mood for a hot bowl of soup.

So, light bulb! I turned my favorite soup into a frittata, and boom, dinner!

For this dish you will need

2 leeks, sliced and thoroughly cleaned
3 yukon potatoes, boiled until just tender, then cubed
4 eggs
a splash of heavy cream
olive oil
salt
pepper
gruyere

Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of an oven proof skillet. If you don’t have one then you will need to use a skillet and a baking dish. Not the end of the world. If you do have an oven-proof skillet, go with one that has a bit of depth to it so you can pile in the ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 400.

Toss your potato cubes and leek slices into the pan.

Le them cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes or so. Then season with salt and pepper and more oil if needed.

Meanwhile, beat together 4 eggs and splash of heavy cream and pour the mixture over the potatoes and leeks.

Le this cook for about 5-7 minutes, just so the eggs start to set. The sprinkle with grated gruyere.

Pop in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the eggs have set.

Slice and voila.

The dinner conundrum, solved.

Pad Thai and Thai Iced Tea

Posted on May 22, 2014 by jacky grace

Let’s take a little break from the pizza and the pasta.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all the yummy Italian food that my mom and grandma always cook.

But sometimes, I want to get a little adventurous in the kitchen.

Plus, our favorite Thai restaurant started to suck.

So instead of ordering again and be disappointed again, I took matters into my own hands.

I decided to make a simplified pad Thai. It’s noodles. Noodles are familiar! And then I decided to get a little fancy and make some Thai iced tea. Both were surprisingly easy. And delicious.

And required very few ingredients.

For the iced tea you will need 6 black tea bags, 6 cups of water, 3/4 cup sugar and some coconut milk.

Bring the water to a boil and then add the tea bags and the sugar. Let boil for about 3 minutes, then turn off the heat. Let the tea steep for about 30 minutes.

Remove the bags and pour the tea into an ice-filled pitcher and pop in the fridge to chill.

When you’re ready to serve, fill a glass with ice, and pour iced tea about 3/4 of the way up.

Add coconut milk to the top.

And stir.

Thai iced tea! The perfect accompaniment for some spicy pad Thai.

Pad Thai is basically noodles, bean sprouts, scallions eggs and Pad Thai sauce. I added bok choy to mine because I always like to add veggies when I can. And I used jarred pad Thai sauce because, well, why not allow a few shortcuts? I made the tea from scratch so I’m justified in using jarred sauce. Kitchen logic.

I used a griddle like you would make pancakes on for this and it worked lovely.

Drizzle with olive and toss on your chopped bok choy. I just sliced mine into thin ribbons. Cook over low to medium heat.

When the bok choy has wilted down, add your sliced scallions and your bean sprouts and let these cook together.

Meanwhile, bring a pat of water to a boil and prepare your noodles according to the package directions.

Next, beat two eggs and pour the mixture over your veggies.

Let cook over low, stirring often, until the eggs solidify.

When the noodles are done, drain and place in a bowl.

Top with the veggie and egg mixture

And add your Pad Thai sauce.

You can garnish with chopped peanuts if you want an added crunch.

And there you have it. Thai food on the table with no pricey takeout!

Clams Oreganato

Posted on May 14, 2014 by jacky grace

This is a super simple, 3 ingredient dish that can be part of an antipasto spread, serve as an appetizer, or can be a light dinner with the addition of a salad on the side.

All you need are Italian-seasoned bread crumbs, grated parmesan and canned clams.

For two people for dinner, I used 3 cans of clams. This made 7 large-ish servings. If you were doing these as antipasto or appetizers, I’d make them a little smaller. I’ll explain.

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a large bowl, dump the clams and their liquid.

Next, start adding bread crumbs and stirring. This is one of those no measurements because we gotta go by feel kind of recipes. You want something almost like stuffing but a little looser.

Add cheese and stir

Now, you can be all fancy and bake these in clam shells or special serving containers. But I’m doing what my mom always does and making little cups out of foil.

Fill each cup with clam mixture

And place them on a foil-lined baking sheet.

Into the oven for about 25 minutes.

And ta-da! Clams oreganato.

Your friends will be very impressed

Steak Fajitas and Margaritas!

Posted on May 6, 2014 by jacky grace

It was Cinco de Mayo yesterday, which totally trumps Meatless Mondays.

I mean, we had to have a Mexican inspired dinner.

Yes, we had to. Absolutely imperative.

And yea, I kind of wanted to make margaritas.

Christopher was slightly skeptical when I said I was going to make margaritas.

He’s not the first person to feel this way. And let me let you in on a little secret. Most people who wrinkle their noses at margaritas do so because of a bad experience with that sickeningly sweet sour mix we’ve all had in bars at some point in college.

Put down the sour mix. And don’t even think about buying margarita mix.

I’m about to change your life.

To make an absolutely delicious margarita, you just need to make your own simple syrup.

Which, as the name implies, is super simple.

One cup of water and one cup of sugar go in a pot.

The heat goes to medium and you stir until the sugar is dissolved into the water

That goes in the fridge and is the base for your margarita.

When it cools down, fill a glass with ice and add one ounce of tequila, the juice from two limes and 2 ounces of sour mix.

You can salt your rim or not, as you prefer. The guacamole, however, is not optional.

Okay, onto the fajitas. Because as amazing as margaritas and guacamole are, it’d get a sloppy in here without some real food.

I was on drink duty, so Christopher cooked.

Drizzle some olive oil in a pan and toss in 1 white onion and 3 red bell peppers, julienned. Season with salt and pepper and let them cook down.

Meanwhile, slice hangar steak into bite-sized chunks and toss onto your grill pan. Season with vegetable oil, salt and pepper. The steak cooks fast. Only a few minutes on each side.

When the steak’s don, toss it in with the peppers and onion.

Assemble your fajita. Guacamole, shredded cabbage and the steak mixture was our combo of choice.

Fajitas and margaritas.

Life is good.

Jacky’s Greek-Inspired Salad

Posted on May 5, 2014 by jacky grace

Anyone who is actually Greek (my fiance and future father in law included) will probably cringe at this salad. It’s not a real Greek salad. Notice how I call it Jacky’s Greek salad.

It takes some of my favorite elements of a Greek salad and Greek food and some of my favorite things in general (like an egg with a runny yolk) and combines the two to make a salad worthy of a meal.

Start by preheating your oven to 400.

Slice up some white button mushrooms and some zucchini and lay them on a foil-line baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Toss those in the oven to roast for about 10 minutes.

Prepare the base for your salad. I layered baby spinach, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts and feta cheese on a big plate.

Then I added the zucchini and mushrooms when they were done roasting.

I love the combination of cool crisp spinach with warm and slightly mushy zucchini.

Top the salad with two fried eggs

And there you have my Greek inspired salad.

Itty Bitty City Kitchen

tiny kitchen, BIG CULINARY ASPIRATIONS

Category Archives: Weeknight, One or 2 Pot Wonders