Hummus and Roasted Vegetable Wrap

Okay, I've recently discovered my new favorite lunch wrap. It's been hiding out in one of my Ellie Krieger's cookbooks, and I just happened to stumble upon it almost by accident. I was looking for a particular recipe, but my eyes wandered to this Hummus and Roasted Vegetable Wrap before I got there. A few hours later, this lovely meal was perched on my table for lunch.



First of all, can I point out how beautifully colorful and vibrant this wrap is? Look at that red, that green, that yellow! It's so fresh and delicious, not to mention super easy to assemble. All you need to do is grill or roast some fresh zucchini and squash (Ellie just used zucchini, but I had the yellow squash so I did half and half), then allow the veggies to cool a bit. Next, you put together the wrap by spreading hummus on the bottom, then sprinkling spinach leaves, pine nuts (toasted or untoasted, your choice), the zucchini and squash, and some roasted red pepper. Roll and wrap, and there's your lunch! Try it with some cheese or olives, too. The possibilities are vast!




Hummus and Roasted Vegetable Wrap
adapted from The Food You Crave
makes 4 wraps

Ingredients
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/8-inch-thick rounds
1 medium squash, cut into 1/8-inch-thick rounds
2 tsp. olive oil
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 cup hummus (store-bought or homemade; I used my Roasted Red Pepper Spread)
4 pieces whole-wheat wrap bread or whole-wheat tortillas
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 jarred roasted red peppers, drained, rinsed, and quartered
2 ounces baby spinach leaves (2 cups, lightly packed)
1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced into half-moons (I didn't use any)
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Toss the zucchini and squash with the oil and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Roast the veggies on a nonstick baking sheet for about 15 minutes, until tender. Set aside to cool slightly.

2. Spread 1/4 cup of the hummus over each piece of wrap bread. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp. pine nuts on top. Top with 1/4 of the zucchini and squash, 2 pieces of red pepper, 1/2 cup of the spinach, a few sliced onions, and 1 Tbsp. of the mint. Roll each of them up and cut in half on a diagonal.

Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Spread (Plus a Birthday Cake!)

This weekend is my oldest son's sixth birthday. I can't, for the life of me, believe that I have a child going into first grade! It seems like only moments ago, he was born and I was holding a little baby (okay, maybe not so little. He was nearly 9 pounds when he came into the world!). But enough of me strolling down memory lane. We have a cake to discuss here!

I blogged about this Butterscotch Krimpet cake a couple months ago, and I mentioned how much my son loved it. Turns out, he loved it enough to request it as his birthday cake this year! It actually works out great, because orange is his favorite color, and the butterscotch frosting is naturally orange. I did add a couple drops of orange gel food coloring to make it pop a bit more, and I think it turned out nice and vibrant. I baked the cake in two round 9-inch cake pans, slathered a generous helping of frosting in between the layers, and piped a teal border around the top and bottom of the cake. Since his favorite TV show is Scooby Doo, he wanted there to be some sort of Scooby theme. So, orange and teal represent Scooby, and just before serving the cake we pressed a few of his Scooby Doo action figures onto the top. Voila!

Now, I promised you a Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Spread recipe, and I did not forget about it. This is my own, made-up version of a white bean hummus with a nice chunk of feta and a roasted red pepper thrown in for good measure. I decided to make it to go along with my CEIMB recipe this past week, since I was too chicken-y to try the assigned feta spread. I really loved it; give it a try and see if you agree!

Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Spread
recipe by Bri
makes about 2 cups

Ingredients
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, preferably low-sodium, drained and rinsed
1 roasted red pepper, drained and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup (1 ounce) feta cheese, crumbled
Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp. tahini (sesame seed paste)
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the cannellini beans, roasted red pepper, and feta cheese. Pulse a few times to break up the ingredients. Add the remaining ingredients, turn on the food processor, and blend until very smooth. Transfer to an airtight container; store in the refrigerator.

CEIMB Greek Salad Pitas with Feta Spread and Turkey

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe was a good one! We made Greek Salad Pitas with Feta Spread and Turkey, selected by Jennifer of The Rookie Baker.

Because I am the first one to admit that yogurt really repulses me, obviously I did not put any of the feta spread on my own pita sandwich. However, I did make it for my husband, and he really loved it! It's a simple spread; you mash up some feta cheese with plain yogurt, then add in some fresh lemon zest and juice, dried oregano, and freshly ground black pepper. I made myself a roasted red pepper and feta spread, which turned out really yummy. I'll be blogging about that one soon.

This was such an easy little recipe to put together. It's just some deli-style turkey breast (I chose a lower-sodium variety), romaine lettuce leaves, sliced cucumber, and the spread wrapped up in a pita half. As you can see from our pictures, hubby added sliced kalamata olives to his, and he left his pita bread whole. Instead of stuffing the pita pocket, he just combined all his sandwich fixings and placed them on top of the pita, then folded it up like a tortilla.

I was grateful to have such a simple weeknight meal to make this week! Thanks to Jennifer for the great pick. If you'd like to see if the other CEIMBistas enjoyed this one, be sure to head over to the blogroll. For the full recipe, click here.

Grilled Middle Eastern Turkey Meatballs (Kofte) with Olive and Oregano Hummus

I prepared a meal last week in which every component was delicious enough for me to want to blog all about it. It consisted of a nice Tabbouleh salad, a potato side dish, and these truly yummy Grilled Middle Eastern Turkey Meatballs with some Olive and Oregano Hummus to dip them in. The meatballs and hummus, as well as the tabbouleh, came from Cat Cora's most recent cookbook. I'm loving this book so far!

The hummus comes together in about 5 minutes flat, and it's amazing. I love the addition of salty capers and kalamata olives; you can decrease the amount of salt in the recipe and it still tastes just salty enough. I do my hummus a bit differently than most recipes instruct; I add less olive oil and then I throw in a bit of warm water to thin it out. My hummus still turns out smooth and creamy, but with less fat. I wrote the instructions to reflect my changes.

The meatballs have a really long ingredients list, but most of those ingredients are spices and I feel like they are all vital to the overall flavor of the meatballs. The recipe is very simple; as long as you have all your spice bottles or jars out and lined up when you are ready to assemble these, the prep time flies by. Cat instructs you to make your meatballs long and cylindrical, rather than perfectly round. That's because these meatballs are grilled, rather than fried or baked, and the heat needs to be able to cook the balls evenly from the bottom.

Though my meatballs were pretty spicy (I think because I had only hot paprika, rather than the sweet papriks called for in the recipe, and also because my freshly ground black pepper was a kicker!), they were packed to the brim with great flavors. They taste exotic, but familiar at the same time. With the hummus alongside, the meatballs were a huge hit with hubby and me. I'll blog separately about the Tabbouleh and potatoes, since four recipes in one post is a bit much! But below I am including the meatball and hummus recipes.

Grilled Middle Eastern Turkey Meatballs
adapted from Cat Cora's Classics with a Twist
makes 12-15 meatballs

Ingredients
2 slices wheat sandwich bread, torn into pea-sized pieces
1 lb. ground turkey (dark meat)
1 small red onion, minced or grated
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 tsp. pure chile powder (I used pasilla chile powder)
2 Tbsp. sweet paprika
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp. kosher salt
Nonstick cooking spray, for coating meatballs
Nonfat Greek-style plain yogurt, for dipping (optional)
Olive and Oregano Hummus, for dipping (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat a gas grill or indoor grill pan to medium-high heat; allow to heat up for 30 minutes before you plan to cook.

2. Mix the bread, turkey, onion, all the herbs and spices, and salt together in a large mixing bowl with your hands or a wooden spoon. Divide the meat mixture into 12-15 equal portions. Shape each portion into a cylinder. Spray each meatball with a light coating of cooking spray.

3. If using an outdoor grill, cook meatballs over indirect heat; use only one grill burner and cook the meatballs on the opposite side of the grill. If using indoor grill pan, cook meatballs slightly to the side of the heating element.

4. Cook until slightly springy but firm to the touch, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve with yogurt or hummus on the side.


Olive and Oregano Hummus
adapted from Cat Cora's Classics with a Twist
makes 2 1/2 cups

Ingredients
1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup tahini sauce
1 Tbsp. capers, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh oregano
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1-2 Tbsp. warm water
1 cup pitted and halved kalamata olives

Directions
1. In a food processor, combine all the ingredients except for the oil, water, and olives. Pulse until everything is finely chopped.

2. With the motor running, drizzle in the oil. Slowly add warm water until the hummus is the consistency you like best. Add the olives now and pulse once or twice to chop them, or fold them in separately so they will remain large pieces. The hummus will keep for 1 week, covered, in the fridge.

Baked Black Beans with Chorizo

I found this dish in a recent issue of Cooking Light, and I just had to try it. When you see the title, Baked Black Beans with Chorizo, you may think of the traditional baked beans that are served in a red sauce with hot dogs or pork. This, however, is deliciously different.



I've already made this twice; the first batch was promptly inhaled and devoured by hubby and me. It's a simple enough mixture of ingredients: among them, onions, jalapenos, black beans, Spanish chorizo, and cheese. Something happens to this stuff after you mash it up together and bake it, though. Something magical.



Oh, and I used Manchego cheese to top this the first time I made it. It's a hard, Spanish cheese not too different from Parmesan. I especially loved it on there; it formed a great cheesy crust on top and lended a nice salty tang to the dip. But any cheese would be wonderful, I'm sure. It's great, too, because you have the freedom to mash up the beans as much or as little as you'd like, so the dip can be just the texture you want. We left ours with some substance to it, but it was mashed enough that it was very scoopable (and was fantastic with tortilla chips). It's a great appetizer to serve if you're having people over for tacos!

Baked Black Beans with Chorizo
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 6 servings

Ingredients
1 tsp. olive oil
1/2 cup diced Spanish chorizo
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 jalapeno pepper, sliced
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper (cayenne pepper)
5 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth (or water)
2 (15-ounce) cans no-salt-added black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup chopped seeded tomato (I omitted)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Manchego cheese (or Monterey Jack)
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add chorizo; saute for 2 minutes. Remove chorizo from pan. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion and jalapeno; saute 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt, cumin, red pepper, and garlic; saute 1 minute, stirring constantly.

2. Stir in broth (or water) and beans; bring to a boil. Cook 5 minutes. Mash to desired consistency. Spoon bean mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray.

3. Top with chorizo, tomato, and cheese. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Top with green onions.

Two Dips: Black Bean Hummus and Salsa Verde

This week, I'm going to be posting recipes that can be used for Cinco de Mayo. I've never really celebrated Cinco de Mayo, to be honest. However, I'll use just about any excuse to try out themed meals made from scratch, and Mexican was sounding really good. So, I present to you the first of my Mexican posts, and it's appetizer time!

I made two dips over this past weekend; the first was one I have made before, but loved so much that I was eager to make it again. It's a great, unique spin on hummus. Instead of the traditional chickpeas, you use black beans, and you add in jalapeno for heat, cilantro for brightness, and lime juice for a nice, south-of-the-border punch. It's a fantastic dip, equally good on pita bread and tortilla chips, wonderful on fresh, crisp veggies, and a zesty treat on a sandwich. I can't get enough of this stuff.

The second dip I made was a salsa verde. Now, let me preface this recipe by saying that I am not usually the salsa-maker in our house. My husband has been making and perfecting his salsa recipe for years now. His finished product is always fiery-hot and addictive. But I wanted to try my own hand at it for a change, and this is what I came up with. I totally made it up as I went along, so all the measurements can be tweaked to your own personal tastes. Also, I call it a salsa verde because the color and taste of the dip ring truer to a green salsa, but this does contain some tomatoes. It's funny, you can't see them in there, but they are necessary for sweetness and balance. At least I think so. I roasted all the peppers I used prior to adding them. I really love the extra level of smokiness the roasting gives them. That's an optional step, though; feel free to skip it and just throw the peppers in raw.

Black Bean Hummus
adapted from Cooking Light
makes about 3-3 1/2 cups

Ingredients
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed (this time, I used a can of black beans w/ diced jalapenos)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro (plus more for garnish, optional)
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 Tbsp. tahini (sesame seed paste)
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 lime, juiced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
1/4 tsp. kosher salt

Directions
1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine all the ingredients and process until smooth. Adjust the seasonings to taste. Serve with pita chips, fresh veggies, etc.

Salsa Verde
recipe by Bri
makes roughly 2 cups

Ingredients
1 poblano pepper
2 jalapeno peppers
4 medium vine-ripened tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 yellow onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place the poblano and jalapeno peppers on a baking sheet and roast in the oven, turning frequently, until all sides of the peppers are blackened (about 20 minutes or so). Remove to a heatproof bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to cool slightly, until you can handle them. Peel the skin from the peppers, remove the stems and seeds, and place in the bowl of a food processor.

2. Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes and onions and place in the food processor. Toss in the garlic, cilantro, some salt, and pepper, and then blend everything to combine. You can make this as coarse and chunky, or as smooth as you like it. Add extra salt and pepper, to taste.

Black Bean Dip

If you happened to be looking for a quick, easy dip to snack on this weekend, look no further. I tried Ellie Krieger's Black Bean Dip out on Superbowl weekend, and it was a big winner. If you've been reading my blog somewhat regularly, you may know that I've been gradually overcoming my aversion to beans. I am slowly coming out of my hatred of them, I'm happy to say. I do like hummus; that was a good baby step. I have been known to puree a can of rinsed, drained beans and use it as a thickener in soup and chili. I love that trick; it's like hidden healthiness in your broth! But the biggest surprise lately has been that I have embraced black beans. I never thought it would happen, but here I am! I'm throwing them into my egg sandwich wraps, my salads, and thoroughly enjoying them in the process. Go figure!

Given this recent affinity for black beans, I knew that it was finally time for me to test out Black Bean Dip. Before, I never would have even tried it just based on looks alone. I mean, let's be honest just for a second: it's not the prettiest dip. However, once you get past that blah, brownish exterior, you're in for a real treat.

It's got a nice kick from a fresh jalapeno pepper, some zip from fresh lime juice, and a nice little extra something from onion, garlic, and cilantro leaves. Ellie originally used it as a base for a Mexican pizza, but we just dipped raw veggies and crackers and that kind of stuff into it and ate it that way. It's really delicious. In fact, I got kinda upset two days later when I went into the fridge to have some, only to learn that my husband had already polished it off the night before! Oh, well. That's okay. I see lots more black bean dip in our future...




Black Bean Dip
adapted from Ellie Krieger, via foodnetwork.com
makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. minced jalapeno pepper (I used 1 whole pepper, seeded and ribs removed)
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
2 Tbsp. coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 Tbsp. water (or more if you need to loosen up the dip some)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. coarsely chopped scallion (green tops only)

Directions
1. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and saute until they soften, about 2 minutes. Stir in the garlic and jalapeno and cook for 1 minute more.

2. Put the beans into a food processor. Add the onion mixture and the rest of the ingredients (not including scallions), and puree until smooth. Garnish with scallion tops and serve.

Buffalo Wing Chicken Dip

Yes, that is a face in my dip. Yes, it is made of vegetables. Yes, it is ridiculous, and no, it was not created by myself. That is my husband's handiwork. I decided to make a buffalo wing dip for his birthday, since his bigger, more elaborate birthday dinner will come later this week. I took the dip out of the oven, went upstairs to put the baby to bed, and when I came back this is what he had done to it. Cute.

Let me back up a little, though. There's a bit of a story behind the making of this dip. It is easy to put together, but it requires a few different steps. I spent a good part of the afternoon poaching chicken breasts, allowing them to cool, shredding them, and then shredding a brick of cheddar cheese. I walked away from everything to take the kids outside to play (highs in the mid-80s, yay!) and came back later on to do the next few steps. I placed a package of cream cheese, 1/2 a cup of ranch dressing, and 3/4 of a cup of buffalo wing sauce in a glass bowl and set it in the microwave to melt the cheese. A couple minutes later, I heard a *chink*. I opened up the microwave to discover that the bowl had completely broken. Weird; I had microwaved that very same bowl many times before. What was even weirder, though, was how the bowl had broken. Here's what it looked like after I had emptied its contents.



The base of the bowl was still intact, and the rim of the bowl was still intact. But somehow, one half had come apart from the other, and the top half was still resting on the bottom half. It was very bizarre. Of course, I had to scrap the whole concoction inside the bowl and start over. I couldn't risk it; what if there was broken glass inside the dip? Anyway, so I tossed the bowl in the garbage and began again. And it turned out delicious. Oozy, cheesy, spicy. It works as a snack, or as an appetizer, or even as dinner. Bread, veggies, tortilla chips; you could probably dip just about anything and it would still be awesome.



All in all, I think it was a good birthday for Andy this year. He got his gifts the night before. We went with a coffee theme this year, and his "big" gift was a brand new Kitchen Aid coffee grinder. I was very excited about it because I actually managed to keep it a secret from him, which virtually never happens with his birthday gifts. Xander had fun decorating the outside of the box!

Here's the recipe for Buffalo Wing Chicken Dip, which I tweaked to fit our tastes. The original recipe is here.

Buffalo Wing Chicken Dip

adapted from Recipezaar

serves 6-8

Ingredients
8 ounces cream cheese
6 ounces Frank's red hot sauce (we used hot buffalo flavor)
1/2 cup ranch dressing
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, poached and shredded
8 0unces cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions
1. Combine cream cheese, ranch, and hot sauce in a medium-sized bowl. Heat in microwave until cream cheese is melted, stirring every minute or so to prevent burning.
2. Add the chicken and about half the shredded cheddar to the mixture, stirring to coat everything. Pour into a baking dish (mine went into a 2-quart casserole dish).
3. Top mixture with the remaining cheddar cheese, cover dish with foil, and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove foil cover and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, until bubbly and starting to darken on top. Serve immediately with veggies, bread, tortila chips, etc.