Goat Cheese and Tomato Pita Pizzas the fourth recipe in our series in Cooking for Hangry People, recipes to help inspire quick and nutritious meals to combat hanger, that dreaded combination of Hunger + Anger. We’ve tried to keep the recipes 20 minutes or under, and use a limited list of ingredients that are fairly easy to come by. More on why we started the series is here. This post has been sponsored by Kroger. All thoughts and opinions are our own.
Life sometimes seems like little bits of crazy, strung together with brief moments of solitude or exhilaration. And while “just make time for margin” might be the default answer to the problem, Alex and I realize not all of us are afforded this luxury. Especially those of you out there who are parents (bless you, seriously). The more we talk to friends and family who are parenting tiny humans, the more we hear about how difficult is is to find the time to enjoy cooking.
Even without little ones, the daily grind can be a challenge. For example, how to get a wholesome dinner on the table when you flew back from vacation at 1 am the night before, went straight to the office and worked late finishing up the pile that had accumulated during your absence? (True story, recently over here). Over the years, a few tips have emerged to help us survive the crazy of life and continue to make nourishing meals. Here we go:
Tips for How to Survive Hangry
- Freeze your leftovers. Recently we’ve started freezing our leftovers from “cooking nights” and saving them for nights with no margin. It’s not rocket science (my mother has been doing this for years), but it’s saved us in a pinch lately. Not all meals freeze well, but we’ve found things like soups or curries are perfect for this.
- Simple recipe concepts. It’s kind of a “duh”, but having a few simple recipe concepts that aren’t PB&J is a key to nourishing quick meals. Our hangry series recipes are concepts that you can execute in 20 minutes with variable ingredients based on what you have on hand — especially this one, a pita pizza that’s uber simple and customizable.
- Easy snacks. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: healthy snacks like roasted salted almonds, veggies and hummus, or dried fruit are crucial for tiding over a hanger crisis.
- Prepared salads. These days a lot of larger groceries have deli counters or salad bars with whole food, nourishing options for salads. Make sure you know what’s in them, but if you choose wisely you can find some veggie-filled goodness in a pinch.
- Grocery pickup or delivery services. Recently we’ve been taking advantage of services like grocery delivery and in-store pickup. Honestly, saving precious evening minutes by having groceries already ordered and ready in the store for pickup can be a lifesaver in a time crunch. We’ve used ClickList to order online from our local Kroger grocery store, and the groceries were ready and delivered to our car when we arrived. It’s pretty sweet, and we’re hopeful that companies will continue to innovate to help make home cooking easy to get on the table!
This particular recipe is one of our favorites yet; it’s incredibly simple and easily customizable to the ingredients you have on hand. A pita pizza can be prepared in the time it takes to preheat your oven, and baked in a little over 10 minutes. Our key is to prebake the pita a few minutes per side in order to achieve a crispy crust. These goat cheese and tomato pita pizzas use heirloom tomatoes left over from our farmer’s market run and fresh thyme from our garden, along with pitas, mozzarella and goat cheese from the grocery. The tangy, pillowy goat cheese is a perfect foil to the sweet tomatoes. It tastes like it’s taken hours to prepare, even though it’s the definition of simple. Feel free to use any produce you like for your pita pizzas — but the goat cheese and fresh thyme are essential for the fresh, summery flavor.
Did you make this recipe? Do you have a hangry tip?
We’d love to hear how it turned out. Leave a comment below or share a picture on Instagram and mention @acouplecooks. In honor of our hangry series, use the tag #hangrynomore !
More Hangry Meals
Quick Garlic Shrimp and Couscous
Farmer’s Market Grain Bowl
Simple Black Beans and Eggs
- 4 whole wheat pitas
- 1 small red onion
- 1 handful thyme sprigs
- 1 pound tomatoes (heirloom or multi-colored, if desired)
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 4 ounces goat cheese
- Kosher salt
- Fresh ground pepper
- Olive oil (optional)
- Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 450°F.
- Place pita directly on the oven grate and pre-bake 3 minutes per side, then flip and bake another 3 minutes.
- Meanwhile, thinly slice the red onion. Roughly chop the thyme. Using a serrated knife, thinly slice the tomatoes.
- When the pitas are crisp, remove them from the oven. The top each with ½ cup mozzarella, then tomatoes, onions, and thyme leaves. Add dollops of goat cheese. Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt, especially the tomatoes. If desired, drizzle with olive oil. Bake until the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, cut into wedges, and serve.
A Couple Cooks - Recipes for Healthy & Whole Living
from A Couple Cooks http://ift.tt/2bSiEaY
No comments:
Post a Comment