Stuffed portobella mushrooms

This is good stuff! And it's open to variations in case you don't like a certain ingredient or don't have something.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and get yourself a sheet pan with cooking spray on the ready!

This will make one serving with 2 portobella caps.  Remove the stem and clean out the caps. Chop around 3 artichoke hearts, a small seeded tomato, and as many kalamata olives that you like. Toss in some feta cheese, 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Again, if you want more of something, add it! It's up to you! You can pretty much eyeball the amount of mixture you have in proportion to the size of the mushroom caps you have.

I find additional seasonings not really necessary if your ingredients are tasty enough on their own.

Place the mushrooms cut side up on the sheet pan and pile up the toppings!  I like to add a little drizzle of olive oil over the toppings and then pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes.  The breadcrumbs should get a wee crisp and the topping will get hot.

Grab a fork and eat!

Cheesy italian chicken florentine

I'm addicted to Pinterest at the moment, and one recipe I've seen pinned and pinned again is this easy chicken crockpot meal.

Here it is:
4 chicken breasts
8 oz. cream cheese
1 packet italian dressing mix (regular or zesty)
1-2 cans cream of chicken soup

And then my twist was to add:
1 onion chopped
spinach (I had frozen)

Here is what you do:

In crockpot, put in chicken breasts and sprinkle the italian dressing mix over the chicken. Online, it says to add the cream cheese and soup to a pot and cook until the cheese melts, BUT I thought why dirty a pot! I poured the soup over the chicken and chopped the cream cheese into little chunks and placed then over the mixture. Cook on low for 4 hours. Serve over rice or pasta.   I chose pasta.

You can keep the chicken whole or take it out and cube it or shred it.  I shredded the chicken into bite size pieces.

For my twist, after 3 1/2 hours, I then tossed in the chopped onion and roughly 1/3 of a bag of frozen spinach I found in my freezer.  I was looking for peas, but didn't have any. :(  But, upon further investigating, I found spinach. :)....and let me tell you how good this was!! It was almost like spinach dip....mmm, the addition of artichokes (if Matt liked artichokes!), and this would taste like spinach artichoke dip! Over pasta! Oh baby!! Can you taste it?!?!....DELISH!

The beach

Matt and I were lucky enough to get away for a little overnight trip to the beach! To Ocean City, Maryland. We hadn't been there in 5 years and I was very happy to be heading down again,  even if it was for only an overnight trip.

We left at the crack of dawn and my feet hit the sand by 9:30 am.  Booze hit my lips by 10:30 am! -hey, it's vacation, it's allowed!! Plus, the vodka had a partner, o.j., very healthy stuff!

We had breakfast on the boardwalk right along the ocean. The weather was spectacular, temps in the high 70's-low 80's. Crowds were gone since it was after labor day, which is just how we like it.

Here are pics of the beach, along with one of a very peculiar couple I spotted sitting outside a candy shop on the boardwalk!

Non traditional meal

Headed to the folks for a labor day weekend lunch. Some people make hamburgers or hot dogs, but no, not me. I make crepes.

I'm not completely sure how I came up with this idea except that I was looking for something quick and easy.

This was only my 2nd time making crepes, and I won't be my last! I was really happy with how they came out.

I made 2 savory crepes, spinach and mushroom and prosciutto and mozzarella cheese crepes.

http://www.food.com/recipe/savory-mushroom-spinach-cheese-crepes-373390
This is the recipe I followed for the spinach and mushroom crepes.

http://spinachtiger.com/cooking-italy-crespelles-with-prosciutto-fresh-tomato-and-mozzarella/
This is the recipe I followed for the prosciutto crepes.

Of course I took some liberties with each recipe. I added some onions to the mushroom and spinach mixture and I made individually wrapped crepes for the prosciutto crepes.  My quick tomato sauce came out really well too. I used a 28oz. can of diced tomatoes and had plenty of sauce.

I sauteed 2 minced garlic cloves and  diced onion in olive oil for a few minutes.  Added in the can of tomatoes, seasoned it with italian seasoning,  brought it all to a boil and then let it simmer for 20 minutes.  I ran half of the mixture through the blender to puree it and added it back to the other half so the result was a light chunky sauce.

I also made baked chicken drumsticks. I know it's a weird addition, but I needed something "meaty" and it's something I would never make at home...and you know what, I made some kick ass drumsticks! Removed the skin and marinated the chicken with some salt, pepper, garlic powder and seasoned sea salt.  I also seasoned the flour, egg and panko used as well.

Oompa!

Chicken gyros. My take on the traditional greek gyro since we don't eat little baa-baa-sheeps!

It's simple and delicious. Chicken, pita, and a few bits of produce is all you need!

And what's a gyro without tzatziki sauce? Cedars makes a very good tzakiki sauce so that is what I use. I really should though make my own. I should make my own pita too, but I've yet to really delve into the world of bread.

All you need then is some lettuce, tomato, red onion & feta.  I marinated the chicken in olive oil and McCormick greek seasoning! How easy is that??

I made a greek inspired chopped salad to go with it and viola!...yummy deliciousness!