Yogurtlu Chicken

Mix 2 cups whole-milk yogurt with 1 teaspoon cardamom and 1 inch fresh ginger. Let it sit and infuse.

Saute 1 diced onion until soft, add a pound and a half of chicken breast until lightly browned. Add some salt and pepper and a cup of water(start with a 1/4 cup and add more only as necessary-see note below), and cook until the water is reduced.

Turn off the heat, add the yogurt, and sprinkle on some chopped almonds.

[Ed. note: we didn't let the sauce fully reduce because it was taking too long, and ended up with a delicious yogurtlu soup. Maybe a quarter-cup water would have been a better place to start.]

Serve with hot, thick pita bread

Spanikopita Triangles

First, make the filling: saute/strain/saute a pound of frozen spinach until it's dry. In a mixing bowl mash together a half-cup-plus of feta cheese [ed note: maybe a full cup would be better] with a half-cup of cottage cheese. Add 2 lightly beaten eggs, the spinach, a quarter cup dill (don't go too far out of your way to get this), and ground nutmeg.

Now take your (fully defrosted!) filo dough (find this in the supermarket's frozen section) out and take out four squares. Cut each square into four fat strips. Be prepared to make many more middle eastern pastries soon, because the remaining dough will only keep for a few weeks in the freezer!

Brush the top-side of the first rectangle with oil. Plop a spoonful of filling near one end, fold over once, then start folding triangularly all the way down. There is a knack of sort of folding in the corners as you go, by which you can avoid making the pastries too flat.

Repeat.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

If we carefully consider the ratio of the deliciousness of this dish divided by the amount of work it takes to prepare, and add to this fraction the value p sub t where p is the amount of pleasure it will give tonight to roll up the pastries, we find that we should restrict our preparation of this dish to days when we're feeling like doing some arts and crafts.

Outrageous Muffins

Preheat to 350

1/3 cup coarse ground cornmeal
1/3 cup soy or chickpea flour (or whatever flour you have)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
3/4 t salt
1 cup ground almonds
1 t baking soda

2 eggs
1 cup yogurt
1 t vanilla
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
grated peel of 1 organic orange
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup diced dried apricots

Combine wet to dry, put in muffin tins, top with cinnamon sugar and bake for 25 minutes

Whole Wheat Waffles

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup nuts, ground very fine
1 T baking powder
1/4 t nutmeg
1 3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup canola oil
2 eggs separated

Mix dry together. Mix wet together (include egg yolks in this). In another bowl beat the egg whites until stiff

Combine wet to dry, then fold in egg whites.

Make waffles on a waffle iron. Top with maple cream, fruit, yogurt and maple syrup

Simple Couscous

Saute up some onion, garlic and veggies of choice (red pepper, zucchini, etc). Cubed sweet potatoes are a nice addition, but make sure you steam or boil them so they soften before adding to the saute. Add some raisins and a can of chickpeas and spices to taste (cumin, chili, paprika, even a little cinnamon if you want)

Meanwhile put cous cous in a bowl with water and microwave for three minutes. Add cous cous to veggies when the veggies are tender. Top with fresh cilantro and/or almond slivers.

This can be served warm or cold. You can change it up by adding a can of tomatoes to make is saucier, or adding chicken to increase the protein

Pasta Primavera

Saute onions, eggplant, zucchini, garlic, peppers, grape tomatoes, sugarsnap peas, or whatever else looks good. Throw in a few ounces of white wine at the end, with some extra oil. Season to taste. Serve over stringy pasta of choice, with grated parmesan.

One way that works to saute eggplant is to cut it into french-fry-sized slices, throw in a lot of oil, and cover the pan. You can do this with the onions in there, too. Covering the pan will keep them from drying out as you cook, and reduces the amount of oil you need.

For authentic "restaurant style" flavor, use more oil and triple the salt.

Pumpkin Gingerbread

Butter a 9x5 loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350

In 3 separate bowls combine:

1 cup sugar (can do white and brown mix)
scant 1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 t soda
1/3 t baking powder
1 tsp+ ginger
1 tsp+ cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)
pinch of cloves

1/2 cup water
1/2 can pumpkin

Add pumpkin/water and dry ingredients alternately into sugar mixture. Or just do the typical dry and wet and combine.

Bake 1 hour.