Zorba the Beet Sandwich

Go ahead, laugh at the cheesy name of this sandwich.  I'm laughing, too.  But it's the perfect title for my favorite sandwich.  I'm a little bit obsessed with roasted beets, especially when they're marinated in balsamic vinegar.

One of my favorite sandwiches is the beet, goat cheese, and arugula sandwich from Grandaisy - mostly because it's packed with roasted beets - but I quickly grew tired of spending $7 for a somewhat small sandwich that wasn't really all that exciting in terms of flavor.

Spanikopita (Spinach Pie)

My mom claims that my brother developed a love of spinach because of his childhood obsession with Popeye. I don’t have any such stories, but I also am a huge fan of spinach. Especially when it’s baked with cheese in a flaky phyllo crust. And especially when you haven’t slathered every layer of phyllo dough with butter, so you don’t feel so bad about eating one more.

Spanikopita are traditionally Greek, but I’ve seen them at Middle Eastern restaurants, too. I guess everyone has their own variation on the theme (the Italians have the spinach and cheese calzaone). I suppose my version isn’t totally authentic, what with the mozzarella cheese in there, but I didn’t have enough feta so I had to add what I had on hand. Also, I don’t add dill to mine, as many people do, because I seriously hate dill. So add dill to yours, use all feta cheese, add other herbs or cheeses – whatever floats your boat. I’m sure it will turn out great.

Israeli Couscous with Kale, Butternut Squash, and White Beans

It's very obvious that I haven’t been home much in the past few weeks. Between going to my parents’ house for the weekend of Christmas and then back up to NYC the following weekend for New Year’s Eve, I’ve barely been home. And that means that I haven’t gone grocery shopping and that I kind of sort of have the same things in my fridge that have been there the past two weeks. (Thankfully such things last a long time in the fridge.) 

I came home from work tonight and realized that I had slim pickings in the fridge, but I refused to order food because I’ve been eating out for the past 5 days and I couldn’t bring myself to do so yet again. 

Couscous-Stuffed Globe Zucchini

I bought some globe zucchini at the market a while back and completely forgot about them due to my lack of cooking for a while after the aforementioned cocktail party and other events on the weekends. Thankfully, zucchini last a while in the fridge. But they don’t last forever, and so I had to do something with them this week.




Over the past month or so, I’ve seen a bunch of recipes for stuffed zucchini, but none of them appealed to me – either the flavors were just not up my alley or they used merguez or some other sort of sausage (definitely NOT up my alley). I decided to stop looking for inspiration elsewhere and be original by modifying and re-purposing my own recipe for a Mediterranean couscous salad that I normally utilize as a light summer lunch.