Tomato, Portobello & Fresh Mozzarella Melts

This was what Geoff and I made for dinner last night. Although there was no meat, it did taste very meaty. There's something about grilled mushrooms, and especially portobellos that tastes a lot like meat.

I can't say enough good things about this meal. Super fast and super healthy (although it didn't taste like it was healthy).

From Good Housekeeping: Grilling for Every Day

Ingredients:
2 c. loosely packed arugula or watercress
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 lg portobello mushrooms, stems removed and cut in half
2 med. tomatoes cut into 3/4 in. thick slices
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
4 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
1 loaf focaccia or ciabatta bread about 1-in. thick (we couldn't find other, so we got a loaf of light rye bread)

1. Heat BBQ to medium-high heat and clean the grill. In a small bowl, toss arugula and vinegar until evenly coated. Cut bread into two 8" by 2" pieces. Cut each piece horizontally in half to make a total of four 8" by 2" pieces (or cut the rye into 1 or 1/2 in. slices).
2. Brush mushrooms and tomatoes with oil; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Place mushrooms, stem-sides up, and tomatoes on grill and cook 6 to 8 minutes, or until tender and charred, turning once. Transfer tomatoes to plate. Arrange mozzarella on mushrooms; cover and cook 1 to 2 minutes longer.
3. place bread, cut-sides up, on work surface; top with arugula mixture, grilled tomatoes, and cheese-topped mushrooms. Cut each sandwich into quarters and serve.

For some of the pieces of bread, we left plain, some with a little butter and some with a little cream cheese. Each was really tasty, but you really don't need to put butter or cream cheese on the bread since everything else has enough flavour.

Easy Cheesey Appetizer

I really wish I had bookmarked this recipe so I could give credit to whomever first made it.

It's pretty much a Caprese salad but it's not quite. It only takes 5 minutes to put these together. Super tastey and super easy. Perfect appetizer.

Ingredients
1 pint cherry tomatoes
6-7 fresh basil leaves
ball of fresh mozzarella (around 500g I think is what we used but I could be completely wrong)
4 tbsp olive oil
skewers

Cut up the mozzarella up into squares and put them on skewers alternating with the cherry tomatoes. Blend olive oil and basil together until kind of frothy and pour on top of finished skewers.

Naan Pizza

(Makes two pizzas)

2 pieces of Naan bread (eventually we’ll get around to posting a recipe for naan bread)

1 orange or yellow pepper (we used half an orange, half a yellow) sliced thinly

2 green onions sliced thinly

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 tomato sliced thinly

4 slices black forest ham

Artichoke hearts marinated in oil

Herb goat cheese

Mozzarella

Olive oil

1. Preheat broiler
2. Brush naan bread with olive oil and garlic
3. Layer peppers, green onions, tomatoes, ham, artichoke hearts
4. Crumble a little bit of goat cheese on top of it all
5. Cover loosely will mozzarella cheese
6. Put on cookie sheet and place under broiler until cheese is all melted and starting to brown

Sausage and Spinach Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

The pictures don't serve this recipe any justice. It tastes amazing. The mushrooms even taste all meaty. We've tried putting all different kinds of things into stuffed mushrooms before and it all tastes REALLY good. I don't know if you could make these taste badly. They could double as an appetizer but are perfect as a full meal. The best part is that they're really fast to make and can be pretty cheap if you use whatever you have on hand to stuff the mushrooms.

(Serves 2)

6 large flat mushrooms (we used Portobello)

Lots of spinach

2-3 Italian sausages

Half a bunch of asparagus

1 tomato

Mozzarella cheese

Olive oil

Garlic

You can put whatever you want into stuffing the mushrooms but this is just what we had on hand. Use smaller mushrooms and serve as a delicious appetizer.

1. Brush mushrooms with a little olive oil and chopped garlic. Place under broiler for a minute or two just to soften and flavour the mushrooms a little. Take out of oven and place aside.
2. Cut up sausage and fry up in a pan until cooked. You shouldn’t need to add any oil or butter because of all the fat in the sausages. Once sausages are cooked, add asparagus cut into 1.5 inch sections and stir fry until tender. Add as much spinach as you want, and cook until wilted.
3. Spoon the sausage, asparagus and spinach on top of the mushrooms, add a slice of tomato and then put some mozzarella cheese on top.
4. Put under broiler until cheese starts to bubble