Weekend Cooking: Stuffed Stuff

Love weekends when we can fully relax and cook savory cozy meals that speak to the soul and heart.

This is a favorite dish especially for cold winter nights. Yet so easy to make, but sure to delight the senses.

Ingredients:
2 small yellow peppers
Couple medium sized zucchinis
4-5 medium sized firm tomatoes
1 lb Organic ground beef
1 cup of Organic jasmine rice
3 cloves of fresh pressed garlic
Salt
Olive oil
Black pepper
Red pepper
All spice
Crumbled feta for the top

Was the veggies and hollow them out. Careful not slice your hands open or cut through the veggies. You need both 😉 to enjoy this meal. Using a small melon baller might help, but I use a nice small sharp knife. Goal is to hollow the veggies without damaging the shell that will keep the stuffing.

Put hollowed veggies in a container of water and salt mixture (brine) while you mix up the stuffing.

Best beef for this is organic and semi fat. Don’t go lean – the dish with be way too dry and tasteless. For vegetarians; omit the beef and use a coarse chop of the hollowed out innards, add mushrooms and viola! Turn the oven on to 475 degrees and get your baking dish ready.

Mix up the beef with spices, rice, and pressed garlic. Use as much spices to your liking and diet. Drizzle olive oil as you are mixing the stuffing – again amount is up to you. We love bathing in it so we go wild!

Stuff each veggie somewhat loosely to allow for the rice expansion as it cooks. Place the veggies upright. Once done stuffing them all. Pour a lukewarm water at the bottom of baking dish – just enough to come up to quarter of the height. With a spoon carefully put some of the lukewarm water into each veggie as well – makes for more moist stuffing.

Cover up the baking dish with a parchment paper to help it steam while cooking and keep the moisture. Bake for 40 minutes. Then turn off the over, put crumbled feta on top of each veggie and broil till feta is pink and melty.

Pull out let it cool for 2 minutes and serve up!!
Sure to be a hit – enjoy it and let us know what you think after you tried it.

Live well. Eat well. Love well !

Bourak

For Sunday SURPRISE!

It’s great recipe for any time especially for tea time gatherings I can eat half of this yummm :)) and the only food I can’t resist anyway let’s make it!

500 gr. organic parsley, chard or spinach

6 yufka (special thin pastry for bourak)

200 gr. organic feta cheese

1 cup organic Greek yogurt

1 organic egg

1/2 cup organic extra virgin olive oil

1 cup mineral water

Optional ( salt, pepper and flaked red pepper)

Optional ( sesame seeds or black cumin)

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Wash and dice any green you choose.

Crumble the cheese with fork and mix it with greens.( If you will use the salt, peeper and flaked pepper add them and mix them as well)

In separate bowl mix yogurt, olive oil and egg well.

Grease the pan with oil take 1 yufka and spread it over the pan the pan should be smaller than yufka I used rectangle pan you can use round or and form you like just make sure it’s smaller than the yufka.

Spread over the yufka from yogurt mixture with help of brush.

Spread 2 more yufka’s  by wrinkling them and again for each one spread the yogurt mixture over.

Now spread all the feta and green filling all over the yufkas.

Repeat the yufka and yogurt spread by wrinkling the yufkas when you complete this take the corners of the bottom yufka and fold it over the top.

Cut the bourak in pieces if you still have yogurt mixture pour it all over the top.

Gradually pour the mineral water all over the top of the bourak.

Sprinkle cumin seeds or sesame seeds.

Bake it 30 min. or until golden brown on top.

ENJOY it warm or cold !

Feta-buns

My snack bunnies sometimes I eat them for breakfast with cup of tea or for a quick lunch at office or for take away or just any where they are like my life savers . As most of the times as I do you can make these buns and freeze them then when you are ready to serve them de-freeze as much as you need or if want to give them fresher taste put them in preheated oven for few min.  cool and fill them with feta actually they are looking pretty good at partys as well and please keep them at refrigerator after filling. Enjoy them as soon as possible! they have 3-4 days to survive :))) short shelve life.

This short shelve life reminds me something very important worth to share with our beloved readers&followers! Did you ever think when buying our food we are buying our (lives or death) our (health or illness). I want to share this great information with you about short&long shelve life what ever you buying is directly effecting  your life want to know how? 

Here is how

If you are buyer of long shelve-life products means unfortunately more likely gives you shorter&sick live.

Good news if you are buying shorter shelve-life means long&healthier live so please be aware of the shelve of your life & health.

Buy +more fresh -less or no more canned & only what you need because less is more!

Finally the recipe take the start!

3 -1/2 cups flour

1 tbs sugar

1/2 tbs sea salt

1 tbs instant yeast

1/2 cup lukewarm water

1/2 lukewarm milk

1 egg white for inside the dough and the yolk for top of buns

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Filling

100 gr organic feta cheese (creamed) if it’s too hard you can add 1 tbs milk or olive oil to make it spreadable.

Only parsley leaves diced finely.

Come on to make the lovely Feta-Bunnies!

Preheat oven 180 c.

Add flour, sugar and salt mix. make hole in center.

Add yeast, milk, water, oil and egg white and knead.

Cover the dough with cloth and leave it 30 min.

Make small chestnut sized balls or ovals from dough.

Line them on parchment papered pans spread egg yolk on top and leave 10 min.

Bake them until golden brown.

Cool them completely.

Cut one side of the buns fill it with feta cheese leave some feta outside to stick parsley easily then dip them in parsley.

I’m ready to give myself more fresh & shorter shelve life feta-bun party!

Sesame Rolls

Baking love! I love baking-cooking it really makes me feel I don’t have any problems just if I will not get tired I think I will bake&cook all day. Let’s start the recipe.

For filling I use instead of parsley black olives you can use what you like if you don’t like cheese then just use olives or olive paste  to fill them.

125 gr unsalted butter melted

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 cup lukewarm milk 

1 cup lukewarm water 

2 eggs

2 tbs instant yeast

1 tbs sugar

1 tbs sea salt

flour

Filling

Feta cheese

Parsley

For top

1/2 cup water

1 tbs grape molasses

Sesame seeds

Stir all ingredients

Add as enough flour until you get form soft dough

Leave it 1 hour.

Take lemon size pieces

Open them with pin or hands

Put filling in center Roll them

Dip the top side of pies in molasses water then to sesame

 With sharp knife cut 2 or 3 cuts on top of each 

Leave them 30 min on baking sheets.

Bake them in preheated oven at 200 until golden brown on top.