Thursday, April 17, 2008

Beautiful Kelly's Veggie Pita Pockets

My beautiful friend Kelly O. had us over for dinner and made this for our family last month and we have been chowing down on it since then. They are wonderful to eat after too many conference rolls. Kelly eats healthier than any person in Colorado, but she will still have dessert. That makes me love her.

Beautiful Kelly's Veggies Pita Pockets:

First make a salad:For all you Boisians - that pretty bowl was made by Anne H.

I put in equal amounts of lettuce (spinach is nice), cucumbers, red (orange, yellow) pepper, tomatoes, and any other veggies I happen to have in fridge. This salad has sugar snap peas and broccoli too. Then I add green onion, feta cheese and kalamata olives to taste. This salad is good enough to eat without dressing so I usually make a huge bowl and eat the rest the next day.
Hint- take it easy with the lettuce. Get the feta and olives at Costco in the deli section - much cheaper than buying at grocery store.

Then make the spread:My spread is made of 1 cup plain Mountain High yogurt (get at Albertsons), dill, garlic and a little salt to taste. Kelly made hers with lots of garlic (2 cloves) and it was spicy. I loved it that strong but my family likes garlic in smaller doses so I only use 1/2 a clove.

Then cut the whole wheat pitas in half. Use whole wheat for better taste and more fiber.
Spread the inside with yogurt spread - be generous - really slather it on both sides. Then stuff the salad into the pita, just jam as much as you can into the pita. It might tear a little on the edges but that is okay, you are just going to shove it in your mouth anyway.
The pretty plate was made by Anne too!
These are low calorie, low fat, high fiber and have at least 2 veggie servings. A full serving is 2 halfs. It will keep you full longer than a PBJ sandwitch and tastes much better. It is good for dinner, lunch and a snack! Serve with fresh fruit, a few slices of brie, and grape juice. Yummy.

6 comments:

Joe said...

Here's a pita-filler if you're in the mood for something a little more creamy:

diced tomatoes
diced cucumber
diced sweet onion (optional)
a glob of hummus
a glob of tahini (optional. It's like peanut butter but made with sesame seeds, available in most grocery stores, especially, I would think, in dreamy Colorado. Hummus often actually has tahini in it, but I like the added nuttiness.)
crumbled feta or farmer's cheese
lemon juice
cumin (optional)
salt (optional)

Mix it up and enjoy. I like mine extra thick, but if you prefer a more "crunchy" texture, go easy on the hummus and tahini. Also, if you use flavored hummus (red pepper, garlic, 40 spices, etc.), then ditch the cumin. Also, if you use a lot of cheese, the salt can put it over the top in terms of "saltiness", so go easy.

Wow. I am genuinely excited about those veggie pockets. Glad summer produce is coming.

Berly said...

YUM!! I will have to try this next week. I am so excited about fresh fruits and veggies. I love this time of year, but hopefully Colorado will snap out of it and actaully start spring.

Anonymous said...

Yum! Tell me, did you eat like this when your kids were 6 months, 2, 5, 7 9? We had chili dogs for lunch! Oh the shame!

Robin said...

Joe - I bet Em loves it when you whip these pitas up for dinner! They sound great and i think I will make them today. I happen to have Tahini in the fridge right now!

Berly - Spring is coming! I can smell it.

Melissa - I lived on peanut butter, apple slices, and cheerios when my kids were your ages! Chili dogs sound fancy to me!

Emily said...

I love it when Joe makes dinner or lunch. It is AWESOME. Awesome. I will eat it!

Sometimes I'm just lazy, so my lazy version of this is pita, humus, cucumber and tomato. YUM.

We had Mac & Cheese for dinner tonight. But I'm proud to say that only happens about once every couple of weeks. Mac & Cheese is a "treat" at our house.

Linda Austin Hart said...

Robin told me about this salad 2 weeks ago. I was sitting in my car in the Walmart parking lot at the time, so I went right in & bought all these items and that is what we had for dinner that night! Yum.
Alan loves salads & raw vegs. and thinks I'm the best chef when I make big salads. It took me at LEAST an hour to chop up all the veggies --what a pain-- BUT, when I was through I had enough to feed 16 people! It lasted us more than a few days.
I added chopped fresh basil, also. I forgot to buy yogurt so I made the dressing with sour cream thinned with milk, & added extra garlic powder. It was wonderful!

Obviously there was lots of salad left over and we had used up all the pita bread at lunch the next day, so that night I put large portions of the salad on dinner plates for the 2 of us and got some chili/taco filling that I had made a few months ago out of the freezer & heated it and poured on top of the salad...fantastic.
.
JOE: I'm looking forward to your cooking when I come in 2+weeks!
Mom