Hummus and Cucumber Tomato Salad Stuffed Pita

Ingredients:

1 T. extra virgin olive oil

1 t. freshly squeezed lemon juice *

1/2 - 1/4 t. salt, depending on taste **

1/8 t. cracked black pepper

2 medium roma tomatoes, diced ***

1 cucumber, peeled and diced ****

1/4 c. red onion, thinly sliced *****

4 whole wheat pita pockets

1 c. hummus

* I was totally not paying attention and put in lime juice rather than lemon.

** I did just under 1/4 t.

*** I used about 12 grape tomatoes

**** I used half of a large cucumber

*****Completely spaced getting some red onion so I just used dried chopped onion

Recipe:

1. In a medium bowl, combine oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Add in tomatoes, cucumber, and red onion, toss to coat.

2. Open each pita pocket carefully and spread 1/4 c. hummus in each pocket and stuff in some of the cucumber mixture using a slotted spoon. Serve any remaining cucumber and tomato salad on the side.

Rating: 3.75 of 5

I would, by myself, actually rate this a little higher, but I don't think that LaDon would. Loved the garlicky hummus with the salad. Felt so light and fresh together. I'm sure lemon juice would be delicious, but I loved the lime in there! I actually liked it so much the way I made it, I don't think I'll add red onion in next time.

Source: Simply Fresh Cooking, Hummus and Cucumber Tomato Salad Stuffed Pita

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Ingredients:

2 1/4 t. yeast

1 T. honey *

1 1/4 c. warm water

1 1/2 c. bread flour, divided

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour, divided

1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil

1 t. salt

cornmeal, for spinkling

* I used sugar. My honey was caramelized.

Recipe:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine yeast, honey, and 1/2 c. water. Stir gently to blend.

2. Whisk 1/4 c. bread flour and 1/4 c. whole wheat flour into the yeast mixture until smooth.

3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside until doubled in bulk and bubbly, about 45 minutes.

4. Remove the plastic wrap and return the bowl to the mixer stand, fitted with the dough hook. Add in the remaining 3/4 c. warm water, 1 1/4 c. bread flour, 1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour, olive oil, and salt.

5. Knead on low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Transfer the ball of dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat, and let rise about 1 hour, or until doubled.

6. Place an oven rack in the middle position. Place a baking stone (or pizza stone, if using one) in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees F.

7. Once the dough has risen, transfer to a lightly floured work surface, punch down the dough and divide into 8 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball. Flatten one ball at a time into a disk, then stretch out into a 6 1/2 to 7-inch circle.

8.  Transfer the rounds to a baking sheet or other work surface lightly sprinkled with cornmeal. Once all the rounds have been shaped, loosely cover with clean kitchen towels. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, until slightly puffy.

9. Transfer 4 pitas, 1 at a time, onto the baking surface (can be baked on a baking stone or directly on oven racks). Bake 2 minutes, until puffed and pale golden. Gently flip the pitas over using tongs and bake 1 minute more.

10. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Repeat with the remaining pitas. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Rating: 4.5 of 5

These ain't no store bought pitas! To me, store bought pita and tortillas have the same problem: they taste a little plastic-y. No bueno. These pitas take pita bread to a whole new level! Soft and fluffy and full of flavor! Well, as full of flavor as you can get with wheat. We had them with Hummus and Cucumber Tomato Salad, but they would be divine with just about anything inside. Maybe a scrambled eggs for breakfast even? I don't know that I will buy pita bread again in the future.

Source: Annie's Eats, Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Graham Crackers

Ingredients:

2 c. whole-wheat flour

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. baking powder

1 large egg

1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil

1/4 c. honey

2-3 T. milk

additional milk for glaze

cinnamon-sugar (optional)

Recipe:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine whole wheat flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder.

2. In a separate bowl, beat egg until light, then add oil, honey, and 2 T. milk.

3. Stir egg mixture into dry ingredients until you have a fairly stiff dough, adding additional milk if necessary. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 1 hour (or longer, if it's more convenient).

4. Preheat your oven to 375 degree F.

5. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead gently until it holds together.

6. Roll dough out until it's about 1/16-inch thick; make sure rolling surface is well floured or you'll have trouble transferring crackers to baking sheet.

7. Cut dough into 3-inch squares (or cut out using cookie cutters), prick each square several times with a fork, and place on lightly greased cookie sheets.

8. Brush the tops with milk, sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar if you're so inclined, and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until crackers are lightly browned.

9. Remove crackers from oven, transfer to a wire cooling rack, and cool completely. 

Rating: 1 of 5

In theory these would be great. In practice, they didn't pan out. I put the first batch in for 15 minutes and they came out as black as I've ever seen something bake! They were terrible! For the second batch I put them in for 10 minutes, which resulted in a nice brown graham cracker color but they were hard as a rock. So, this recipe needs to working on. It would be great to get it to the point that I could get them to a point in which they were edible. It'd be nice to just bake graham crackers instead of having to buy them. 

Source: Culinary Adventures in the Kitchen, Graham Crackers

100% Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

1 c. water

3 T. oil

3 T. sugar

1 1/2 t. salt

3 c. whole wheat flour

2 1/4 t. yeast

Recipe:

1. Dump all the ingredients in the bread machine and select the settings of Whole Wheat and baking control on medium. (My bread machine takes about 3.5 hours to go through the whole process.)

Rating: 3.7 of 5

I've always liked wheat bread. LaDon favors white bread. So, I usually make white bread loaves. But, after visiting Emily and having real (come on, making bread in a machine isn't really real homemade bread.....the machine does everything for me!) homemade wheat bread I discovered that the kids LOVE wheat bread. They prefer it over white bread for sure. So, I know make wheat bread for them.

So, this recipe is a pretty good one. It tastes like good homemade wheat bread to me.

Source: Magic Chef: Automatic Breadmaker Recipe Guide, pg. 8