Pita Pizzas

Enjoy this pizza pie with luscious tomatoes, rosemary-seasoned ground beef and crumbly feta cheese. The flavours work perfectly with hearty pita bread crust.

Pita Pizzas

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces lean ground beef
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 8 ounce can no-salt-added tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon snipped fresh rosemary or 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
• 2 6 inches whole wheat or white pita bread rounds
• 1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (2 ounces)
• 1/2 cup shredded fresh spinach
• 1 small tomato, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese (1 ounce)
• 12 pitted ripe olives, halved (optional)

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a medium nonstick skillet, cook ground beef, onion, and garlic until meat is browned; drain off fat. Stir tomato sauce and rosemary into meat mixture in skillet. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes.
2. Carefully split pita bread rounds in half horizontally; place pita halves, rough sides up, in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake for 3 to 4 minutes or until lightly toasted.
3. Top toasted pita bread with meat mixture; sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake for 2 to 3 minutes more or until cheese is melted. Remove from oven. Top with spinach, tomato, feta cheese, and, if desired, olives; serve immediately.

Happy Cooking ☺

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Lia's Lasagna Soup

A cool refreshing salad simply does not taste nearly as comforting as a hot bowl of soup on a cold winter day.

This Lasagna Soup Recipe has all the traditional flavors of lasagna and comes together for a heart warming meal-in-a-bowl.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb extra lean ground beef
• 1 box Ready to Use 30% Less Sodium Beef Broth
• 1 can Condensed Tomato with Basil and Oregano Soup
• 2 cups water
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves, crushed
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 cup diced fresh tomato
• 2 cups whole wheat short lasagna-noodle-shaped pasta (mafalda corta)
• 3 tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

1. Spray large heavy-bottomed saucepan or Dutch oven lightly with cooking spray. Brown beef well at medium-high heat.
2. Add broth, soup, water, garlic, oregano, pepper and tomato. Heat to a boil, stirring occasionally. Stir in pasta and reduce heat.
3. Cover and cook at gentle boil until pasta is tender - about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle into soup bowls. Sprinkle with cheese and serve.

Tips:

If you cannot find mafalda pasta, it can be replaced by any short pasta - rotini, fusilli, bowties or even broken fettuccine or long mafalda.

Garnishing with a few sprigs of fresh oregano, right before serving, gives this dish an enticing appearance and aroma.

Happy Cooking ☺

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Lick-the-spoon Good Chili

A hearty bowl of chili warms the body and soul and it's healthy.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound lean – ground beef
• 1 16 ounce jar of green salsa or enchilada sauce
• 1 15 ounce can of red kidney beans – ( rinse the beans)
• 1 large Chopped red bell pepper
• 6 Chopped cloves garlic
• 1 large Chopped onion
• 2 tsp. Ground cumin
• Cayenne pepper to taste
• Chilli powder to taste
• 1/4 cup Water

Preparation:

1. In a large saucepan, cook the onion, beef and bell pepper at medium temperatures. Ensure that the meat is crumbled so as to facilitate the cooking. Cook until the meat has attained a brown color and is thoroughly cooked.
2. To this add the garlic, cumin, chilli powder and cayenne pepper. Stir well until the spices reach every part of the mixture, then pour in the salsa and the water, mixing well.
3. Reduce the temperature to medium-high heat and cook the beef, keeping it covered. Stir occasionally and cook until the beef and the vegetables soften, then add the red kidney beans to the mixture and cook for about a minute. Serve hot!

Happy Cooking ☺

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Svizzere Hamburgers

Italians have a long tradition of using ground beef in imaginative ways, so it should really come as no surprise that they’ve also applied their cooking skills to patties of ground beef, which are called svizzere (Swiss) in Italian.

The ground beef is seasoned with aromatics and cheese, and mixed with bread to give it a softer texture, then browned in a skillet and served with a sauce - giving it delicious results.

Svizzere Hamburger

Ingredients:

For the patties:

• 500g (1 lb.) ground beef (or 4 beef patties)
• 1 slice of best-quality bread, crust removed, cut into cubes, soaked in milk to cover and squeezed dry
• 1 medium onion or 2 shallots, minced and sautéed in butter until soft
• 100g grated parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• A handful of chopped parsley
• A scrape or two of nutmeg
• Salt and pepper, to taste

For the browning and sauce:

• Olive oil and/or butter
• 1 spoonful of flour
• 1 cup of rich beef broth
• 2 cups of cream

For finishing the dish:

• A splash of sherry
• More chopped parsley

Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the patties in a large bowl and mix them thoroughly with wooden spoon until smooth and uniform. (If you find the mixture a bit too soft or wet to handle easily, you can add a bit more cheese or bread to stiffen it a bit.) Form the mixture into four round, flat patties.  Sauté the patties in a sauté pan in a combination of oil and butter until they are nicely browned on both sides. Remove the patties from the pan. 
2. Add a heaping spoonful of flour to the pan and let it cook in the fat for a minute or two. You can let it turn a light brown if you like. Then add the broth, whisking vigorously so it incorporates the flour well. Let the broth come to the simmer; it will thicken up a bit. Then add the cream, mix well, and add back the patties.
3. Let the whole dish simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the sauce has reduced considerably and the patties are done through.  A few minutes before serving, add a splash of sherry and some chopped parsley to the sauce.

Serve your hamburgers immediately, with the sauce on top  and some nice crusty bread or a few steamed baby potatoes on the side.

Note:

You can add vegetables—mushrooms for example—to this dish to add more interest. Add the sliced or chopped vegetables to the fat after removing the beef patties and sauté until they are nicely softened and brown, the proceed to add the flour and continue the recipe from there.

Happy Cooking ☺