Chicken Flat Bread Sandwiches

Last night JP and I attended a geocaching event, Riverside Pond Fireside Chat.  It was a lot of fun seeing some of our geocaching friends!  I made Chicken Flat Bread Sandwiches to take to the picnic and got several comments of how great they looked!  So without further ado...

Sorry about the half eaten sandwiches...they were just so yummy (and huge!)  This picture was taken this morning...these are the leftovers from last night!  You can see that JP ate the tomatoes and red peppers out of sandwich! 

Chicken Flat Bread Sandwiches


Makes 2 extra large sandwiches

2 pieces of flat bread (I bought a package of garlic flat bread from Walmart.  The label said "Flat Bread" and "Naan.")

1/4 c. mayonnaise
8 basil leaves, thinly sliced
1/8 t. garlic powder
1/4 c. hummus (like my Yummy, Yummy Hummus! but any type of hummus will do)


1 Chicken breast, thinly sliced (you can use any type of lunch meat, or combination)

4 slices Cheese  (you can use any type of cheese you'd like!)
1 thinly sliced red pepper
1 thinly sliced tomato
1/2 onion, thinly sliced


 Mix the mayo, garlic and basil together.  Stir well.

To make each sandwich:  Cut each piece of bread in half.  Place one half on a large piece of tin foil.  It should be about in the middle, but fold up the bottom edge of the foil to make sure you have enough to cover the bread.  This will help hold in the juicy goodness of your sandwich.  Unfold the tinfoil and prepare your sandwich!  Spread half of the mayo mixture on 1 piece of the flat bread.  Spread the other piece of flat bread with half of the hummus.  Layer on the sliced red pepper, tomatoes and onion.  Also add the thinly sliced chicken and cheese.  Top with the flat bread that has been spread with hummus.  Fold up the tin foil to cover the sandwich.  Tuck in the sides and secure the top.  

When you're ready to eat, just peel back the foil from the top of the sandwich.  You'll have a little pouch that will hold the juicy sandwich in!  You can peel the foil back as you eat and save your shirt from any drips! 


Review:  This sandwich is very versatile.  You can use any type of meat or cheese (I just happened to use left over chicken breasts from the night before!)  You can also use any type of veggies that you like.  Cucumbers would be great in this sandwich, along with feta cheese!  Next time, I might use a wrap type bread instead of the flat bread, just to try something different.  Enjoy~

Yummy, Yummy Hummus

JP and I were at the Commissary (aka Grocery Store for those of you who aren't familar with the military) today and I snagged 2 cans of garbanzo beans (aka chick peas.)  So when I got home, I knew I was going to whip up some hummus.  This isn't my usual recipe, but I thought I'd give it a shot.  I stumbled across David Lebovitz's website via Google.  You should check it out sometime.  There are some really great recipes!  And the rest is hummus history!  Enjoy~

Hummus

Makes 6 to 8 servings Adapted from the Cabbagetown Café Cookbook (Crossing Press) by Julie Jordan


3 large cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped, I used 2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon coarse salt
3/4 cup (180g) tahini (sesame paste)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup (80ml) freshly-squeezed lemon juice
2 cups (350g) drained canned chickpeas, (reserve the liquid) I used 2 cans
1 cup (15g) gently-packed parsley leaves, preferably flat-leaf I skipped the parsley...didn't have it on hand!
1/8 teaspoon chile powder
6 tablespoons (or more) of chickpea liquid

I added 1 jar of Libby's Roasted Red Pepper, drained

1. In a blender (I used a food processor), whiz together the garlic, salt, tahini, olive oil, and lemon juice until the garlic is finely-chopped.
2. Add the chick peas, parsley leaves, chile powder, and 6 tablespoons of chick pea liquid, and pulse until smooth. Stop the machine a couple of times during blending to scrape down the sides to make sure everything gets well-incorporated.
3. Taste, and add more lemon juice or salt if desired, and more of the chick pea liquid until it reaches a thick, but spreadable consistency. You can make it as smooth, or as coarse, as you want. I like mine mid-way between the two.

Serving: I make a well in the center and drip in some good olive oil and cracker pepper in the crater. Serve with toasted pita chips, baguette slices, or whole wheat crackers. Sometimes I'll add a generous sprinkle of chopped chives or scallions along with the parsley to my hummus as well. It's also good with raw vegetables, as a dip.
Storage: Hummus will keep in the refrigerator for up to four days. You can also freeze hummus, well-wrapped, for up to two months.

Review:  I really liked this recipe!  It's a little different from the one that I usually use, but this will be added to my (ever expanding) recipe file!  Enjoy~

There's a Hummus Among Us

 Hummus.  Yummmm.  JP and I love hummus.  It's good and tasty, it makes a great snack.  Funny story...when JP was about 2, we were visiting my inlaws.  My mother-in-law asked JP what he'd like for a snack.  She was expecting cookie, crackers, fruit snacks, candy, etc...stuff the other grand kids like to eat.  JP said, "I'll have some hummus, please."  She looked at him like he had 3 heads!  But alas, she didn't have any hummus and JP cried. 

I have a love/hate relationship with hummus.  I love it!  I buy it!  But I hate the price.  So I don't buy it.  I try and make it, and it doesn't taste the same, so I go back to buying it.  And the cycle continues...  So I've decided to experiment with hummus recipes and find one that I like so I can stop the hummus cycle. 

Red Pepper Hummus
2 cans Garbanzo beans, reserve 1 c. of liquid 
2 T. tahini
1/3 c. lemon juice
1 t. salt
1 T. olive oil (this is the time to break out that really good olive oil...the EVOO...the kind that has the greenish tinge to it)
1/8 t. paprika
1/2 t. cumin
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2/3 c. roasted red peppers, divided

In a food processor, whirl the beans, tahini, lemon juice, salt, olive oil, paprika, cumin, garlic and 1/3 c. of roasted red peppers for a few seconds to mix everything up.  Turn the food processor on and add the reserved garbanzo bean juice until the hummus is in the consistency that you like.  (I added about 3/4 c.)  Taste the hummus!  Add a little more salt/lemon juice/olive oil/etc. to make it fit your tastes.  Once it is at the right consistency and right taste, add the remaining roasted red peppers.  Whirl a few more seconds until the red pepper is in small pieces.  Refrigerate.

Serve with warm pita bread, as a dip with pretzels, use instead of mayo on sandwiches, or however you enjoy hummus!


Review:  I've finally found the right combination of ingredients for homemade hummus for our tastes.  I like having the garlic pressed before adding it to the food processor, this makes sure the garlic is really small and you don't get a great big hunk of it, that failed to get chopped.  I also like that some of the red pepper is left out until the very end, so there are small nuggets of red pepper goodness.  In other recipes, more tahini is used, and this is where I was finding the biggest problem.  This recipe has a smaller amount of tahini that still gives flavor, but is not overpowering.  Enjoy~