I love Greek Salad, it’s hard for me to pass it up when I see it on a menu. I think it’s the creamy feta and the salty olives. Usually I’m pretty busy during the day, but when I can stop to eat I like to make these mini salad pizzas because they are quick and easy – the perfect mid day bite.

ingredients:
whole wheat mini pitas
pizza sauce
mozzarella cheese
romaine lettuce
kalamata olives
feta cheese

dressing ingredients:
3 Tablespoons olive oil
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon oregano
Salt
pepper

Start by making the dressing. In a small bowl combine the olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic salt, and oregano. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

These are so easy I just make them in the toaster oven. Spoon some pizza sauce onto the pita, top it off with mozzarella cheese. Put it in the toaster oven for 10 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Top the pizza with romaine, olives and feta – then a little bit of dressing.

That’s it! The quick and tasty, these make a great lunch but would probably be fantastic party hors d’ oeuvres also!

When I lived in Italy (YEARS ago) I fell in love with different kinds of pasta, in America we just ate basic spaghetti and meatballs – who knew there was so much more?! One of my favorite pastas that I tried there was tortellini. The tiny little purses of soft pasta stuffed with such an array of different things, every bite was a surprise.

I like tortellini as a hot main dish, but sometimes it’s nice to change it up and since I love Greek Salad – using those flavors mixed with tortellini gives this cold salad the perfect bite!

ingredients:
1 package Barilla Three Cheese Tortellini
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons garlic, chopped
salt
ground pepper
1 cup cucumber, cubed
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced and chopped
1 cup pearl tomatoes
1 cup black olives, sliced

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the tortellini, and cook according to the package directions. Drain well.

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, parsley, oregano, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl toss the tortellini with the dressing. Set aside.

Add in the cubed cucumber, feta, red onion, tomatoes and olives. Toss and refrigerate. I like this dish served cold, right out of the fridge. The crunch of the cucumbers and the flavors of the dressing and feta go really well with the pasta. It makes a great main dish or a nice side to chicken!

More side dishes for the Fried Chicken Face Off. Again, wanting to keep the side dishes light – I made a quick romaine salad but wanted to kick it up a bit. Since I had ALLLLL that leftover bread from making Star Wars sandwiches, I knew that making croutons would be the best bet. So easy you won’t ever want to buy croutons again.

ingredients:
8 slices ‘day old’ bread
3-1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon Garlic Salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the bread into bite sized cubes. In a large bowl, toss the bread with the olive oil, parmesan cheese, garlic salt and pepper.

Evenly pour out the cubes onto a lined baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until browned. If the bread is still a little soft inside, leave the pan out to cool and let the bread dry out.

Serve immediately and save the rest in an airtight container.

Once again John Besh to the rescue. His My New Orleans cookbook has a gorgeous recipe for Crabmeat stuffed tomatoes. I simplified it because cooking the tomatoes seemed unecessary – here in Los Angeles the Romas are near perfection year ’round so I figured why not accentuate that.

ingredients:
6 ripe Roma tomatoes
1/2 cup mayonaisse
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon Creole seasoning (recipe here)
2 cups jumbo lump crab meat

Wash the tomatoes and slice them in half. Using a spoon scoop out the insides so you get a nice little cup.

Turn the tomato cups over onto paper towels to dry out.

In a bowl combine the mayonaisse, lemon juice, dijon and the crab meat. Add the creole spices and stir to combine.

Turn the tomato cups over and fill with the crab salad.

This makes a great party dish, it looks good and has it’s own serving dish!

I am one of those people who LOVE olives. The salty brine, green, black, kalamata, garlic stuffed, I love them all. These are your basic sandwiches until you add an olive salad to the mix. You can buy it in jar but it’s packed with oil, which frankly – sickens me. So I made this one up quick and I think it complemented the meats nicely. Like with the rest of the Cajun meal, there were NO leftovers for this!

ingredients:
6 ounces pitted green, chopped
6 ounces black olives, chopped
6 ounces green olives with pimento, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped fine
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
Salt
Pepper

Mix all the ingredients together.

Seriously. That’s it. I have nothing more to say. I like to make this the day before I serve it so that all the flavors really mix up nicely but other than that – yeah. You’re done.

Oh, you want to know how to serve it? Place it on a nice soft roll with the following:

provolone cheese
prosciutto
coppa
salami
ham
mayo
mustard

I set it up so people could build their own sandwiches – it came out great and it was minimal work for me, YAY.

I love Greek Salad – it’s the feta. I wanted to make a lightly dressed salad that would be good as a main dish OR a side dish.

ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) package tortellini
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons minced garlic
salt
freshly ground pepper
1 cup cucumber – cubed
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 cup pearl tomatoes
1 cup black olives

I like to use tortellini cause of the size and the filling adds a lot to this recipe. You can use other pastas if you want, the taste will definitely vary a bit.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the tortellini, and cook according to the package directions. Drain well.

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, parsley, oregano, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl toss the tortellini with the dressing. Set aside.

Add in the cubed cucumber, feta, tomatoes and olives. Toss and refrigerate. I like this dish served cold, right out of the fridge. The crunch of the cucumbers and the flavors of the dressing and feta go really well with the pasta. It makes a great main dish or a nice side to chicken!

Part of Food Buzz 24, 24, 24: Cooking with Kids and the Farmer’s Market

This works in a weird way you wouldn’t expect. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a great refreshing summer salad.

ingredients:
1 tsp honey
1/2 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
2 ripe avocados
1 Oro Blaco Grapefruit
2 Ruby Red Grapefruits

In a small bowl combine the honey, dijon, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add the olive oil and whisk together.

Peel the avocados, remove the pits. Cut into small cubes. drizzle with a little of the dressing just so the avocado won’t turn brown while you prep your grapefruits. Peel the grapefruits, cutting off the white pith. Carefully slice between each membrane so that you get only fruit segments.

Toss with the avocados and the rest of the dressing. Serve cold.

ingredients: (makes two sandwiches)
4 hard boiled eggs
3 TB mayonaise
2 tsp yellow mustard
4 cornichons (or a dill pickle spear) chopped
1/4 tsp onion powder
freshly ground black pepper
3 slices bacon
toast

Fry the bacon until extra crispy. Drain really well. REALLY WELL. You don’t want an oily eggs salad. Blech. Once drained chop up the bacon into small pieces, set aside.

Hard boil 4 eggs. If you get a little person to help you make sure the eggs have been COMPLETELY deshelled. And by little person I don’t mean midget, but any help is good help. Chop the boiled eggs into very a fine mince. In a bowl combine the eggs, mayo, mustard, and chopped cornichons, onion powder and pepper. Mix well.

Add the chopped bacon and give a final mix in. Spoon mixture onto toast, add lettuce or tomato if you’ve got it.

Great anytime, not just at Easter.

dressing ingredients:
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 cup sesame oil
1/8 cup cooking oil
3 Tablespoons vinegar
2 Tablespoons shoyu

Bring a large pot of water to boil and add the somen noodles. Boil the somen in water for only 2 minutes, don’t go over or I swear it will be glue-like. Immediately rinse it or it will continue to cook. I usually run my (clean) hand through it cause it’s still hot in the middle – see photo.

Start cutting up all the ingredients, I suggest small “matchstick”-like pieces, they are easy to eat, but take time to cut. In case you don’t know what KAMABOKO is – it’s a “fish cake”. Don’t freak, it’s not that bad, it has virtually no taste it just adds a lot of color. You’ll sometimes see it floating in a bowl of hot Japanese noodles.

In a 9″ x 13″ pan, start laying down the ingredients, first, the cooled, drained noodles. Then the lettuce. (If you don’t like romaine you can just use a small head of iceberg.) Then the char siu or “barbequed pork” you can usually find this at any panda express or asian market. Don’t worry about the red dye, just eat it. Next come the lovely yellow eggs…and finally the kamaboko and green onion!

Mix together all the dressing ingredients and pour it on the salad before you serve!