Zucchini muffins

Remember the delicious zucchini balls that I have presented a long time ago?
Discover today my personal touch to turn them to muffin-like starters in a xmas dinner that I have organized recently. They looked gorgeous and they tasted even better! Just try them...
Procedure

• Use the same recipe for the filling and simply pastry dough (cut in disks) and assemble them in a muffins tray. 
• Sprinkle on top with some yellow cheese. 
• Bake for about 30min at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan.

Butternut squash soup

Comforting food today, one of my favorite soups, the butternut squash soup.
I did not have big pumpkin seeds to decorate at the end, as a friend does and it's so yummy, so enjoy our homemade funny faces using sour cream :)

Tabbouleh, the healthy and so fresh salad!

I have recently discovered "Tabbouleh" salad and the whole family seems to appreciate a lot especially when temperatures rise a lot.
I did not have time to play much with recipes but I will share a photo of one of my first attempts and I will give you the general idea, as for salads you need to add your personal touch in my humble opinion ;)

Playing with pastry or the "snail pie"

Want more ideas to play with the puff pastry? Here's one more ... the snail pie :)

Recipe reminder (Gemista)

Time to remember a nice vegetarian Greek recipe "Stuffed tomatoes, the greek way" or "Gemista" as we call it in Greek.
It deserves all your attention... Light, healthy, tasty, good-looking, what more to ask from a recipe?
Simply, enjoy!

Dolmadakia "yalantzi"

"Dolmadakia" are stuffed grape leaves and it is a very popular dish as it is very tasty and once you try it, you get addicted :)
You can find it in several countries and even at the supermarket in small cans.
I will share with you today one of the greek versions that is called "yalantzi" and it is the vegetarian version using rice.
I could not miss from this blog a traditional greek recipe like this one...

Greek tzatziki!

Tzatziki is the famous greek dip that is actually a white sauce made with strained yoghurt, cucumber and garlic. It's easy to make, veeeery tasty, great for your bbqs, and is the perfect condiment for "souvlaki", the greek skewers. Find today, how easy it is to make it at home in just a few minutes!

"Skordalia", the greek puree

Find today a different way to make a potato puree, the greek way :) that has (what else?) olive oil and plenty of garlic. Beware, no romantic evenings that day ;)

"Mpriam" or vegetables in the oven

A summer dish that needs all the freshness of the vegetables to be tasty... Mpriam! It is very easy to make and needs some greek feta cheese to boost it if you want the ultimate Mediterranean diet :) or anything else that you can come up with (like in the photo).

Hearty lentil soup!

Full of proteins, vegetarian and so yummy, lentil soup today! Recipe coming directly from Greece, traditional and so healthy that despite the sunny days in my place and the temperatures that have rose high I decided to do it. No-one complained :)

Penne siciliana

Italian inspiration this week, and today my favorite pasta dish: penne siciliana! With a few noble ingredients you can make so nice dishes like this. Take an eggplant, some garlic, tomato sauce, add mozzarella and you have it!

Ingredients
500gr penne pasta
1 eggplant
2 garlic toes
1 tomato sauce can
150gr mozzarella cheese
salt, pepper, olive oil, parsley

Spinach-feta pie (spanakotyropita)

[UPDATED: Check also the alternatives here]
Do you like spinach and cheese? Especially feta cheese? Imagine adding the subtle smell of the dill on top and cover all of them with crunchy layers of a pastry like "filo"... Yummy... We call this "spanakotyropita" in greek and it is a pie that is made with filo and has a filling of spinach and feta.
I come exactly from the region that is known for this and normally, it is even better if we make our own pastry of filo. I will be sincere here, it takes time to make your own filo, so let's use today the ready made one, but of good quality still...

Spinach rice (spanakoryzo)

Spinach rice is a nice dish that has lots of iron, fibers and if you add next to it some feta cheese and a fried egg, you will have proteins also! It's easy to make it and so tasty :) Here is how...

Stuffed tomatoes, the greek way!

In several countries people cook stuffed tomatoes, find today how we cook them in Greece that is extremely healthy and at the same time very tasty. Home will smell amazingly nice and you won't be able to resist! 

Again a recipe that will make happy all vegetarians out there :)

Fresh green beans (fasolakia)

A traditional greek recipe that is healthy and full of taste, that might be of interest to all vegetarians out there! Beans have to be extremely fresh and you see it of you break one with your fingers in half and it's crunchy.

Tomato salads

Summer is approaching, so fresh salads like the ones with tomatoes are more and more in the menu. I will try to list here various versions to make a salad with tomatoes. This post will be updated from time to time... Today, get 2 versions:

1. The easy greek salad :) with tomatoes, cucumber, feta, salt, oregano, olive oil

2. The easy italian salad :) with tomatoes, mozzarella, salt, oregano, olive oil

Beans soup (fasolada)

I do not know what are the temperatures today at your place, but here winter came back today :( Ok, ok, we had some sunny parts of the day but waking up in the morning was a shock in any case... So, I thought to make the national dish of Greece, that is no other than a bean soup!
High in fibers, beans can replace meat for vegetarians as it is high in proteins also. Actually, that is why they were cooking it in Greece when people were poor as it is very cheap. It is also tasty, especially if you add olives or feta cheese. Today, my inspiration was an omelet :)

Green peas perfumed with dill!

Find in this vegetarian recipe, a traditional greek one, how you can make green peas delicious and persuade your kids or even adults to love them ! Yes, it can happen, mine really love this recipe...

Fresh green salad!

Fresh green salad!

Find today how to prepare an easy fresh green salad as a starter. My husband tried this combination, that makes this simple salad tasteful and I adopted it immediately! The small secret is the mustard with seeds that he uses combined with the lemon juice, so if you want the same strong taste, use the same type of mustard.

Zucchini balls (kolokythokeftedes)

Zucchini balls (kolokythokeftedes)

Discover a delicious starter/appetizer to change from the classic meatballs. They smell dill and with feta inside you won't resist...