HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!! SHISH TAWOOK MENU!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers that cook, clean, work, teach and help maintain families and households everyday of the year!!! If you want to put together a good Mediterranean Mother's Day Dinner, a good menu would be chicken (shish tawook style), hummus, garlic, batata harra and tabouli. For shish tawook it's a very easy recipe, cut into cubes some boneless chicken breast with out the skin. Marinate it in a mixture of 1 tsp tomato paste, 1 tsp ketchup, 3 cloves garlic minced, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper. Marinate the chicken for about 1-3 hours then heat up a pan and pour in about 3 tbs olive oil, then put the chicken in and let it cook until browned, about 7-10 minutes total. Or if you'd like you can skewer the chicken and grill it, drizzle some olive oil on the chicken skewers before placing them on the grill. I'm sure your mother will enjoy this dinner!

Healthy Tip

If you're trying to stay away from junk food and chips but still crave salty stuffy try the dry roasted almonds in individual serving packs from Trader Joe's. I love them, they're healthy, they have protein and are low in carbs. They're a great snack when you're hungry and don't want to eat a big meal!

Spinach and Warm Spinach Dip

Hey Guys, Something that I always buy from the grocery store is a big bag of baby spinach. It's amazing for salads and sandwiches but what happens when you can't eat the entire bag before it spoils or wilts? Spinach DIP!!!! Yesterday I decided to throw some ingredients together to make a warm melty spinach dip with my spinach leftovers. First I washed my spinach, probably about 6 cups uncooked. Then I put them in a big pot and cooked the water out of them until they were wilted, about 10 minutes, then I put them in a strainer to remove any excess water, they yield about 2 cups. Put them in a bowl, add one cup of drained ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup shredded colby jack cheese, 1 tbs of fresh basil, 1 tsp of dried parsley (or 1 tbs fresh), 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper. Mix it all up and put it in a casserole dish in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Then add 1/2 cup fresh mozzarella cheese sliced, mix half in and the other half on top. Cook for another 15 minutes and then broil for 2 minutes so the cheese gets brown. It's great as a side dish if you're avoiding carbs or you can serve as an appetizer with toasted bread or crackers. You can find all of these ingredients at any supermarket or Trader Joe's. HAPPY COOKING!

BBQ Chicken

Ok here's two quick ways to bbq chicken. IF you like boneless chicken on skewers or grilled breasts then marinate the chicken with 2-3 minced cloves of garlic, 1/3 cup lemon juice, 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Cut the chicken into cubes and marinate for 2-3 hours, alternate on skewers with tomatoes, green pepper and onions. Serve with hummus!

If you like grilled drumsticks, grill them with the skin, it keeps them juice, rub the drumsticks with 1 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, salt and 1/3 cup olive oil. Grill them for about 15 minutes rotating them. Serve with garlic mashed potatoes.

Avocado

Hey guys, today I'm going to tell you about avocado. Avocado is an amazing fruit that can be prepared as a dessert or as a great addition to a dish. Of course avocado goes great with salad but have you ever thought about mixing it with some cottage cheese? It goes great with it and you can serve it as a topping for grilled chicken or steak. Avocado also great as a dessert, you can mix it with cream cheese or mascarpone cheese and add some sweetened condensed milk and use it as a filling for cakes or cookies. Don't be scared of the fat content, it's healthy fat not the bad kind :) For my sandwiches I like to get the guacomole bags from Trader Joe's and put some with my turkey sandwich!

salad and mediterranean vinaigrette

Ok here's my tip for the week. THis is what I do on Sunday's or Monday's, I chop up a big bowl of all kinds of lettuce, cabbage and vegetables that I like in my salads and I put them in a big plastic bowl with a lid and instead of chopping salad every day I can just mix what I want when I want it. Salad usually lasts about 4 days without dressing, if you're using good fresh vegetables. Then what I do is mix up a vinaigrette in a bottle or plastic storage bowl as well. For 4 days of dressing I combine 5 cloves minced garlic, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup olive oil, salt to taste, 1 tsp sumac, and 1 tsp dried mint, combine all and add as much as you want to your salad. What I like to do sometimes is add some feta cheese on top, I like the double cream feta cheese, it's amazing. THis salad goes great with chicken or steak, happy eating :)

Shawarma !!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys, I just posted my Shawarma sandwich video, it's actually 2 parts (2 videos), I couldn't fit the entire thing in one video b/c Youtube only allows you 10 minutes. Anyway, in the video I show you how to make a shawarma sandwich like they do in the restaurants. Well if you're trying to avoid the carbs and don't want to use pital bread, I would suggest chopping up some lettuce and some of your favorite vegetables and then topping them with the shawarma meat and then topping that off with the tahini sauce. It tastes great, but without the bread! Try it and let me know how it goes :)