Grilled wrap recipe found on almost-discarded bag makes for a great weekend supper

Recipe inspirations crop up in some of the most random places. Before I tossed a plastic wrapper that had contained shredded Cheddar cheese, my eye caught a recipe for Grilled Chicken Barbecue Wraps. It appeared on the back of the plastic sleeve that was about to be destined for the trash can since I had used all the cheese.

Hmm, it calls for fresh tomatoes, I mused as I read the ingredients. I probably could ad lib a little and add some lettuce, since I still have in abundance the red-leaf lettuce from my garden. Sounded like a good Saturday-night supper to me—quick and easy after our day-long stint in the flower and vegetable gardens.

The recipe called for grilling the actual wrap after it was assembled and stuffed with marinated shredded chicken breasts, cheese, tomato, and lettuce. I used my countertop grill for the experience. You might want to be sure your grill is exceptionally well-oiled with spray cooking oil before you attempt the cooking. Mine wasn’t terribly well-prepared, so the actual cleanup took longer than the cooking. Fortunately, since I cooked, Hubby cleaned up, so the tasks were equally divided, but next time I’ll remember to take a lot more care with the cooking spray.

However, we WILL have a next time, because the novel way of preparing these delicious and healthy wraps made this nearly discarded recipe a definite winner.

Grilled Barbecue Chicken Wraps

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts

3 tablespoons bottled Italian dressing

1/2 bottled barbecue sauce, divided

4 (10-inch) flour tortillas

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 cup lettuce, torn into bite-sized bits

a little extra barbecue sauce to drizzle over the tops of wraps after grilling

Heat grill to medium heat. Brush chicken with Italian dressing. Grill chicken 6 to 8 minutes on each side or until done. For the last few minutes of cooking brush with 1/4 cup sauce. Shred chicken. Spoon remaining sauce down centers of tortillas; top with chicken, cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce. Fold in opposite sides of tortillas; roll up burrito-style. Grill wrap, seam-sides down, 8 to 9 minutes, or until wrap is golden brown. Turn after 5 minutes. Place on serving plate. If desired, drizzle a little extra sauce over tops of wraps. Makes 4 servings.

Salsa-Stuffed Collards a south-of-the-border twist of an exotic favorite

Collards, collards, collards. When you have as many as we do growing in our garden—with huge, green, healthy leaves that are almost a foot-wide—you have to be resourceful in looking for recipe ideas. And as Hubby says, "We also need to use these up quickly before they get too mature!"

I simply Googled “recipes for collard greens”. On the Internet appeared screen after screen of recipes entitled “Veggie Side Dishes—Collard Greens” from the website called Nikibone.com. I was agog at the dozens of ways to prepare this vegetable with which I never had fraternized much previously.

I promise you I won’t go extreme and try each one for this blog, although doing so would be tempting. I spotted nothing in the assemblage that didn’t seem terrific. But (partly because I needed to use up some ground turkey in the fridge) I did settle on “Salsa-Stuffed Collard Greens” as my first attempt. I did so because this calls for the greens to be rolled up around a meat filling (think of the popular Greek recipe for dolmades, in which a stuffing is rolled around a grape leaf); our collard leaves are so wide, they seemed as though they were great candidates. Hubby and I love Greek cuisine; this recipe with the collards seemed like a south-of-the-border twist on an exotic favorite.

That’s the part at which my process almost fell apart. (Emergency blog? I started to panic as my first few efforts at rolling the collard leaves derailed.) The recipe asks the cook to rinse the fresh-from-the-garden leaves, lie them flat, and cut out the bottom portion of the center vein, and cook the leaf in boiling water for about 5 minutes. At the end of the 5-minute boiling-water bath, the collard leaf had withered into a small ball that barely filled a tablespoon—hardly suitable for lying flat and stuffing. Five minutes clearly was too long to boil the leaves. Instead I merely dipped each in the boiling water just long enough for it to soften and become un-crispy; then I quickly spirited each over to waiting paper towels. I spread each leaf out to dry and blotted the tops to remove excess liquid. This will work; no emergency blog needed, I tried to reassure myself.

The whole process was a bit time-consuming and something I definitely wouldn’t attempt for a dinner-in-a-jiffy, but the look of all the stuffed collard leaves nudging each other in the bubbling sauce and the resulting wonderful flavor of the end product made everything worthwhile. Plus the stuffing made enough to fill at least an additional half-dozen leaves, so I can make up another batch in a few days.

In later blogs watch out for such goodies as Greens Casserole with Mozzarella, Mess o’ Greens Salad with Warm Pecan Dressing, or Collard Greens with Tomatoes. Your horizons will be expanded as mine have been. Who knew the humble collard was so versatile?

Salsa-Stuffed Collard Greens

12 large, fresh collard green leaves

1 pound lean ground beef (or ground turkey)

1 cup finely chopped celery

3/4 cup chopped onion

2 cups hot cooked brown rice

4 cups salsa (mild, medium or hot), according to taste (I used mild; recipe was plenty spicy)

4 tablespoons taco seasoning mix

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly wash collard leaves; gently shake off excess water. Lay leaves flat to cut out bottom portion of center vein; do not cut leaves in half; keep leaves whole. Dip leaves one at a time in boiling water; remove immediately as soon as the leaf softens (30-45 seconds at the most. Do not leave in water more than this.) Repeat until all leaves are cooked. Spread cooked leaves flat on paper towels to drain. Blot top side. In large skillet cook the ground beef, onion, and celery together until beef is done and onions and celery are soft. Drain fat; stir in rice, taco seasoning, and 2 cups of salsa. Add salt to taste. Mix well. On each flattened collard leaf place about 1/2-cup filling. Spread evenly. Fold in left and right sides of the leaf about 1 inch. Starting at the unfolded end of the leaf, roll up the leaf and enclose the beef mixture. Repeat until leaves all are filled. Place stuffed leaves in a buttered, 3-quart baking dish; cover with remaining two cups salsa. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes. Top with cheese; bake 5 more minutes. Serve hot. Makes 6 servings.

Mature quickly, little apple tree! Roasted Apples with Berries stirs the imaginations.

A big ole gap like a snaggled-toothed smile existed along the front row of our garden. The lineup went like this: pear tree, peach tree, peach tree, blank spot. Some time ago a peach tree had died there and had not been replaced. Elsewhere in back yard we also have a plum. We’ve never tried apples, but all the other fruit trees now are mature and producing well. What fun to have our own apples! Hubby decided to give it a try, so over the weekend he filled the gap with one. Time will tell.

To stir our imaginations about what delights might await if we could walk to our garden and bring in our own apples like we soon (ideally) will our peaches, I hatched up a batch of Baked Apples with Berries. This capitalized on the bounty of berries that fills the produce aisles of grocery stores right now. Hubby’s strawberry allergy prevents from indulging in that wonderful fruit, but he can indulge with all the rest. (How can a strawberry seed irritate his digestive system but a blackberry seed doesn’t faze him? Go figure, but we just go with the flow.)

This dish combines raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries—everything that’s on his green-light list—and stuffs them down into a hollowed-out cavity in a Granny Smith apple; all that bakes for 45 minutes. After baking the wonderfully soft apple interior combine with the roasted berry mixture for some terrific flavor. Remaining berries are mixed with yogurt, honey, and cinnamon, poured over the top, and served warm, with extra berries sprinkled on top.

The recipe called for four servings; we had so much of the yogurt-berry topping left over after the apples were downed that Hubby enjoyed it for a great low-cal dessert last night (or, next time we could have baked six apples instead of four and used the entire topping amount in six).

Now that the snaggled-toothed gap in the garden has been filled, bring on the apples!

Baked Apples with Berries

1 cup fresh blackberries

1 cup fresh raspberries

1 cup fresh blueberries

4 large Granny Smith apples, washed

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup fat-free, vanilla-flavored yogurt

2 teaspoons honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Starting at the stem, core apples about three-quarters of the way through the apple. Make the hole more than 1-inch wide. Spray baking dish with cooking spray; place hollowed-out apples in the dish. Combine berries; pack berries very firmly into the opening in each apple. Set extra berries aside. Bake apples until soft, about 45 minutes. Divide remaining berries in half. Crush half the berries; then mix them with yogurt, cinnamon, and honey. Serve apples warm with yogurt topping and extra berries sprinkled on top. Makes 4 servings.

See what you get when you merge standby pie recipe with healthy fruit already on hand?

I really had to see it to believe it. The Dallas Morning News recipe section featured an “add-a-fruit” idea to make old standby favorite recipes more healthy. To one of my favorite pies in all the world—chess pie–the newspaper column suggested adding one of my favorite fruit in all the world—blueberries. Much as I loved the flavors of each, I couldn’t imagine blending them.

Furthermore the blending process seemed odd. The recipe said to puree 10 ounces of frozen (you could use whole, fresh blueberries as well) blueberries and spread this layer on the bottom of a prepared pie crust. (I always have frozen ones on hand because we use them on our breakfast cereal.) Then stir up the traditional chess pie mixture (which features cornmeal and vinegar) and pour it over the blueberries. How would this work? The blueberry puree wasn’t heavy enough to stay on bottom to make a separate, distinct layer. When I poured the liquid chess-pie mixture over the blueberries, the bottom layer rose to the top. Originally I envisioned cutting into the pie that contained the blueberries as a surprise layer on the bottom. Now, from the looks of things, the blueberries would cook up indistinguishable from the chess. I prepared for a bummer and was ready to send the Dallas Morning News an email of complaint.

Was I in for a surprise? Layers did occur in the baking; however, they reversed themselves. What I retrieved from the oven after baking finished was a pie that was solid purple on top but, on carving into it, had the nice golden chess layer on the bottom. What a hoot! Both layers solidified just fine. And the flavor of the fruit on top of the chess was indescribable. The addition of a tiny sliver of sugar-free ice cream or cool whip (the merest teaspoon is all that’s needed; don’t go overboard, as I cautioned Hubby) is a crowning touch.

The email of complaint drafted in my head turned into the draft of an email of congratulations. I was so thankful for the “add-a-fruit” to old favorites for the recipe column. For the blueberry vines Hubby planted in our weekend of gardening I had high hopes. Once they spring forth with succulent berries, I have my first recipe ready for them.

Blueberry Chess Pie

1 prepared pie crust

1 (10-ounce) package frozen blueberries, thawed

1/4 cup sugar (or sugar substitute such as Splenda)

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (I used fat-free)

2 eggs, lightly beaten (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 tablespoon cornmeal

1/4 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

blueberries and mint leaves (optional garnish)

sugar-free ice cream or whipped topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place blueberries in blender container and puree. Stir in sugar substitute. Set aside. Place blueberries in blender container and puree. Pour blueberry puree into prepared pie crust. Combine sweetened condensed milk, eggs, butter, vinegar, cornmeal, and salt. Pour over blueberry puree. Bake for 50 minutes or until knife inserted in the center emerges clean (I actually had to bake mine for 1 hour until it was fully set.) Cool completely. Garnish with berries and mint leaves if you desire. Serve with sugar-free ice cream or whipped topping if you desire. Serves 8.

Fish goes in salad all the time now! A great go-together with our red-leaf lettuce

Still looking for ways to use our harvest of red-leaf lettuce from our garden, I returned to my Prevention.com article suggesting 450-calorie-and-under quick meals, the same source of the unique Salad Pizza a few blogs back. Hubby is always pushing the cholesterol-lowering “more-fish-more-fish” mantra, so I lit on the recipe for Surf or Turf Salad (you have the option of adding strips of fish fillet or flank steak). I had some tilapia fillets in the fridge, so this was a handy idea.

Surf or Turf Salad made for a highly unusual recipe combination—the addition of peeled and chopped apple besides some of the more typical salad ingredients. I don’t know how to describe it other than to say that the sweetness of the apple balanced off the fish (which is found in salads all the time these days) and also the tart balsamic-vinegar dressing. Loved having apple in a tossed salad! Not sure I’ve ever sampled such a mix of flavors before. I had on hand everything the recipe called for except carrots, so I subbed a little red cabbage I needed to use up. When I say I had everything on hand, I’m especially proud to report that two of the ingredients—the red-leaf lettuce and the green onion—were seconds within reach, as I walked out my back door to my garden and was back within two-minutes’ time. As my mother might have phrased it, the produce was so fresh, it could “rise up and slap you.”

Now that’s one slap in the face I don’t mind at all!

Surf or Turf Salad

12 ounces fish fillet or flank steak

1/4 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1/8 teaspoon pepper

4 cups red-leaf lettuce, torn into salad-sized bits

1 cucumber, chopped

1 pint halved grape tomatoes (or 4 Roma tomatoes), chopped

2 carrots, chopped

1 apple (any variety), peeled and chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 small red onion, chopped

3 tablespoons green onions, chopped

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Sprinkle fish or flank steak with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Grill 5 to 6 minutes per side. Combine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, apple, bell pepper, and red onion in bowl. Whisk green onion, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper. Pour over salad and toss. Top salad with thinly sliced fish or steak. Makes 4 servings. (400 calories per serving).

Pumpkin pancakes that jump-started our outdoor planting agenda never go out of season

The plastic container I set out to defrost clearly was marked “Beef Broth”. I had made my broth from scratch and needed it now for a recipe that called for beef stock to be added.

But when I pulled back the lid after the container had thawed, what I uncovered was anything but broth. It was pumpkin puree—stored in the freezer after I had cooked the innards of all my Thanksgiving pumpkins late last fall. I had failed to change the label on the container that long ago had held something else.

Wow, here we were in springtime, with thoughts far away from autumnal dishes. Yet Hubby is no respector of seasons where pumpkin pancakes are concerned. What would get his Saturday morning of garden work off to a grand start better than pumpkin pancakes on the griddle? My surprise defrost of pumpkin puree found a home. Soon Hubby trailed in, lured by the aroma of one of his favorite breakfasts being flipped out onto warm plates. The delighted look on his face told me this serendipity of finding pumpkin puree instead of beef broth in the airtight plastic bowl was a fortunate find.

After all, as I’ve mentioned before, I couldn’t maintain this blog without Hubby’s extreme willingness to dash off to the supermarket at a moment’s notice to track down an emergency ingredient or to interview countless grocery clerks as to the whereabouts of some obscure (to us) item such as wonton wrappers. Anything I can do to say thanks to my helpful Hubby, I’m glad to do.

Those pumpkin pancakes, unexpected on my agenda, paved the way for our weekend’s planting of cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries, blueberry and blackberry bushes, red peppers, and jalapenos, among other garden fare. An overnight rain was perfectly timed to get all those seeds and starts well-watered.

Delicious pumpkin pancakes that gave the weekend its boost kept us both revved up like Energizer Bunnies until the last spade of dirt was shoveled.

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 cups pancake mix (I used fat-free Bisquick)

3 tablespoons brown sugar (If using brown-sugar substitute, such as Splenda brand, use 1 1/2

tablespoons)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 cups low-fat milk

1 cup pumpkin puree, mashed

1 egg (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)

spray oil

In a separate bowl mix together the milk, pumpkin, and egg. In another bowl mix together the pancake mix, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Stir the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine. Spray oil on the griddle. Heat griddle over medium-high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the pan. Use about 1/4 cup for each pancake. Flip the pancake when the bubbles begin to pop and bottom is brown. Brown second side; serve. Makes 6 servings.

Red-leaf lettuce on a pizza? You can bet the garden on it.

We just couldn’t get enough of our very own, garden-grown red-leaf lettuce, so I dug out another recipe that would assure that I’d be dining on it for the next several days.

For more than a year I’d just been staring at my torn-out Prevention magazine page that gave the directions for Salad Pizza. I just couldn’t fathom it—salad atop golden-brown pizza crust? As my hubby remarked when he bit into this entree last evening, “Are you sure this thing doesn’t have meat on it?” At the outset I puzzled over the same matter. Except for browning the pizza dough in an oven for 8 minutes, the resulting “pizza” wasn’t even warmed. How did this work?

Yet Prevention vowed that a somewhat sizable helping of the pizza contained only 410 calories even when served with a 5-ounce glass of red wine (in our case, a 5-ounce glass of sparkling red grape juice.) And our wonderful fresh lettuce formed the base of it all.

Besides enjoying dining on more of the lettuce, Hubby liked the finished product because it called for 1/4-cup walnuts sprinkled over it. No one can deny that the walnut is the Grand Pooh-Bah of cholesterol-lowering nuts—supposedly even better for a person than the more tasty almonds, pecans, or pistachios. But walnuts seem bitter and bland to me. I go for the tastier but less power-packed nut snacks.

In this melange, however, the walnuts are sprinkled on as pizza toppings alongside feta cheese, tomatoes, green onions, and the like, so they absorb the flavors of that which is around them. Walnuts provided a crunch to the topping that made this dish all the more unusual.

Dining on this amazing pizza made us sad we hadn’t planted more red-leaf lettuce; it’ll be gone all too soon, but my new, memorable recipe for Salad Pizza will prompt us to put in more lettuce rows next year.

Salad Pizza

1 13-ounce package refrigerated pizza dough (tested with Pillsbury brand)

2 cups torn red-leaf lettuce

3 Roma tomatoes, chopped

1/2 diced small red onion

4 ounces crumbled feta cheese

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup chopped green onion

2 tablespoons dried herbs (I used a mixture of Italian seasoning and parsley)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

On nonstick baking sheet pat pizza dough into a thin circle or rectangle. Bake according to package directions. Let cool. Top with torn lettuce, tomatoes, onion, cheese, walnuts, green onion, and herbs. Combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt substitute. Drizzle over entire pizza topping. Makes 4 servings.