Pizza Night!!!

Adult Fire Roasted Veggie Pizza

Kid's Cheese Pizza

 I must say, it is good to get back to the Garden state and get back to a bit of normalcy. However, I am just about as thrilled as a turkey on Thanksgiving Day to be going back to work tomorrow and am seriously considering taking another day off... forever. It would be really cool if I could simply charge all of you ten dollars each time you view the site and that may allow me to retire a bit early. No takers? Oh well, I guess I will have to sell my body to science or begin to get cozy with the fact that I will likely be working for the next  (lets see, 3 kids, all likely going to college, 1 likely going to an Ivy league school minus my youngest who will likely drop out of community college like his dad after one year because he has made a few "lifestyle changes" equals...) 67 years. Awesome. I can retire at the age of 98. What is it that those billboards advertising the adult communities say, you know, the ones with the old silver back playing tennis surrounded by his wife and two other widows with the "I made a ton of money off of Microsoft's stock in the mid 90's" grin on his face, say? Oh yes, I believe they say, life begins at 105! On the right track!

Speaking of tracks, for those who have never been out there, the Lancaster County, Hershey, and the Strasburg area of Pennsylvania is amazing. Rolling hills, sleepy towns, and some of the friendliest people I have ever met in my life, I highly recommend it to anyone with kids looking for a cheap and fun weekend get away. In all seriousness, if you need a few web-sites for ideas, let me know in the comments section and I shall pass them along. I will be posting pictures and giving a de-briefing on the tom-foolery that took place this past weekend as the Bintliff's stormed the dutch country. Also, in case you were wondering, Harrisburg is not awesome at all. Nope, not even a little bit. That is the sorriest excuse for a state capitol as I have ever seen. It made Albany, NY look like Reno, NV and Trenton, NJ look like, well, I guess Trenton still looks like Trenton.

I am home, the house is not on fire, our car is still in the driveway, and we didn't forget any of the kids in Lancaster. Life is good, LET'S DISH!!!

Suggested music on Spotify: Claudio Villa on the playlist Italian Dinner Music

This guy looks REAL cool. 

Suggested kitchen dance: The Monferrina

Suggested Beverage: Italian dish, Italian dancing to Italian music. Grab that little chick-a-dee from the land of Nap-o-li and drink some Vino. For the gringos in the crowd, that means wine. Make sure it's red too. White wine is for sissies! 

*Disclaimer: I would be flagged from operating children's toys let alone driving an automobile after one glass of any kind of wine, so I too am a aforementioned sissy. 


Kid Alert: Encourage your kids to help pour ingredients and to top the pizzas themselves with toppings that they choose. Also, save a little bit of dough for them to play with. They will feel really important as they make their own little pizza. Also, they will think you are pretty silly when you keep talking like you are an off-the boat Italian like dear old Uncle Guiseppe.


Ingredients (pizza dough):

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F ish)
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions (pizza dough):

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in flour, salt and oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan or baker's peel dusted with cornmeal. Spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving. 

*I use a pizza stone and a pizza peel. If you too will be using these items, with the pizza stone in the oven, preheat the oven to 550 degrees F, then you are ready to bake pizza, drop temp back down to 450 degrees F. Also, the dough can be divided into smaller portions so that you can make a few different kinds of pizza. In our house, that is what we typically do since we all like different toppings. 

Ingredients (toppings):

4 roma tomatoes

2 green peppers sliced into quarters

4 sweet Italian frying peppers (cut off tops and slice down the middle, long ways)

1 medium zucchini sliced into 1/2 inch medallions

2 tbs olive oil

pinch of salt and pepper

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions (toppings):

1. Heat outdoor grill on highest heat setting and close lid for 5 minutes. 

2. Place vegetables in a large bowl. Add salt and pepper if desired and then olive oil. Toss vegetables in bowl until all coated with oil. Add more oil if needed, but 2 tbs ought to do the trick.

3. Once heated, add vegetables to the grill. Do not leave as they will burn quickly. Cook until the outer skins of the vegetables are slightly charred and starting to bubble. Then flip. Each side should be cooked for about 3-5 minutes per side, but it really depends on how hot your grill can get. The tomatoes willtake a little longer.

4. Once cooked, dice all vegetables, keeping the peppers and zucchini together and keeping the tomatoes separate from the rest.

5. After dicing the tomatoes, spread them on pizza crust. Then place the rest of the veggies on top of the tomatoes and then top with mozzarella cheese. 

"Mama's just jealous it's the YEASTIE BOYS!"

                                   

   Maria loves touching the dough, but freaks out when it gets stuck to her fingers.  She's crazy.

We use a lot of olive oil in this house. A lot.

Burn baby burn. Is there a Disco Inferno or is it just Hot, Hot, Hot?

The tomatoes actually become sauce, without all of the added crud of sauce in a can or jar. Best part, they are really healthy and the kids don't know any better. Parenting tip: 85% of successful parenthood lies in the ability to be able to trick your children at any given time. 

E' Finito!

Vacation!!!

So my awesome wife has worked really hard to book a nice four day weekend in Amish Country, out in Lancaster County, PA. Sorry there have been no posts over the last couple of days, but we have been a little bit busy with some prior engagements, such as being parents. Funny thing is, these kids don't raise themselves. It would be a lot easier if that was the case, but well, it's not. I promise, next week, we will be back to business, but for now, off to the land of the Amish! Happy trails.

These guys look as if they mean business!

Vegetable Latkes

I am going to be honest and frank. Tonight is the MLS All-Star game and as I am watching it I am typing this post. Distracted? Yes. I did however want to post this tonight so everyone can enjoy this recipe for tomorrow night's dinner. 

These vegetable latkes are a nice little spin on a traditional Hebrew dish. I am not Jewish, but I do appreciate 

traditional Israeli and Hebrew foods. And if you have ever been to a Bat or Bar Mitzvah, you know that people who practice the Jewish faith know how to party and do it with style. So Mazel Tov to all and enjoy!                      

*Just a quick heads up to Vegetarian Times. This recipe started with them. I modified the heck out of it though, but when credit is due...

Suggested music on Spotify: Hava Nagila

Suggested kitchen dance: The Hora

Suggested beverage: Manischewitz

Ingredients ( latkes):

• 2 medium white potatoes
• 2 large carrots
• 2 small zucchini
• 1 cup chopped onion
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 
  

Ingredients (Tomato-corn relish):

• • 3 cups fresh or thawed frozen corn kernels ( I fire roasted my corn: see below)
  • 2 small tomatoes, chopped (1½ cups)
  • ½ cup chopped fresh basil or parsley
  • ¼ cup plus 2 Tbs. chopped onion
  • 3 tsp. olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)
  • 
    

Directions:

1. To make Tomato-Corn Relish: Combine all ingredients in bowl. Set aside.

2. To make Rosti: Grate potatoes, carrots, and zucchini onto clean kitchen towel. Wrap towel around vegetables, and squeeze to remove excess liquid. Transfer vegetables to bowl, and stir in onion, flour, and garlic. Fold in eggs, and season with salt and pepper, if desired.

3. Coat large skillet with cooking spray, and heat over medium heat. Spoon 2 Tbs. Rosti mixture for 
each patty, shaping with spoon to make patties. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, or until bottoms are crisp. Carefully flip with spatula, and cook 2 minutes more, or until browned on both sides.

A Zucchini, a potato, and a carrot walk into a bar...

Not going to lie, this step is a major pain in the butt, but totally worth the result.

Before combining everything.

Roasted and toasted and because of my lack of attention to detail, almost burnt to a crisp.

LEftovers can be set aside and added to an omlet the next morning.

Tetelestai or it is finished!!!

California Black Bean Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries

Hello to the Russians that have been visiting. Not sure if you are spies, but if you are, I won't tell anyone. Promise. Hope you all enjoyed breakfast but now it's time to get back to cooking some dinner. The check from Goya has just cleared so I guess I am obligated by contract to speak of their wonderful, wholesome, nutritious products...such as Black Beans, hence the reason we are making Black Bean Burgers for dinner tonight.(I am not really sponsored by Goya, but with as much beans as I use in my recipes, you think they'd throw a few shekels my way, am I right?)

So I am coming off of an awesome four day weekend, however, I just found out that my two year old is stuck in a walking boot for another four weeks. Dampened the end of my mini-vacation, but I guess we will look at the bright sides here, and there are a couple. First and foremost, it's not a cast, which means my baby doesn't smell like solid funk anymore. I know that sounds mean, but if you caught the glares I would catch from angry citizens you would realize how much of an upside this is. They looked at me as if I didn't bathe my kid for a month, oh wait, that's right, we didn't. Oh well. Another upside is that his new boot looks like the shoes that John Leguizamo wears in the live-action Mario Bros. movie to jump super high. Yeah, not sure exactly what that movie was about either, but those boots were cool.

The movie was the biggest piece of rubbish EVER, but the boots were cool. I now expect my 2 year old to jump 25 feet high and smash turtles, using their shells for  taking out goombas. Yes, I went there.

Now that I have alienated about 98.6% of my audience with that paragraph, for the remaining 1.4% of you who are still with me, we can now dish.

For the sweet potato fry recipe, I recommend hopping on over to the following link ( before clicking, right click and choose open in another tab so you do not lose this recipe):
http://www.instructables.com/id/Perfect-Oven-Sweet-Potato-Fries/
Jessy Ratfink's Fry recipe is one of the best I have EVER found. It's not complicated, but there are a ton of steps, more than I felt like posting on here. Please visit the site, you will pour adulation and bouquets of flowers on me later for it.


Suggested music on Spotify: I was feeling especially 90's today for some reason. Break out the flannel and re-channel the teenage angst. Mom and Dad stink today because they just don't understand real problems like the problems that we are living.  We're listening to R.E.M. today. Any album is fine, but when you are preparing everybody's plate, you must throw on It's the End of the World. +2 points if you can actually sing all of the lyrics in the verses.

Suggested kitchen dance: Early 90's, hmmm, I guess if the rhythm calls for it, pogo the day away. I am also thinking some variation of Madonna's Vogue for some of the songs. Orange Crush comes to mind as a song that one could Vogue to.

Not R.E.M.

Suggested beverage: This America and in this great land burgers and fries call for a triple thick chocolate shake to wash it down. Single thickness is fine too, I guess.


Ingredients:
1 15oz. can of black beans rinsed and drained
1/4 cup onions diced
1/4 cup sweet peppers (I used Italian frying, but bell peppers are fine) diced
4 slices of bell pepper
1 egg
1/4 cup + 2 tbs olive oil, divided
1/4 + 2 tbs. flour divided
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup guacamole (I made mine from scratch, any online recipe will do as will store bought)
8 slices of wheat bread or 4 hamburger buns
1 roma tomato sliced
8 thin slices of cucumber
4 large leaves of romaine lettuce
4 slices of Monterrey Jack cheese

Directions:
1. Heat 2 tbs olive oil in skillet and add peppers and onions. Cook until soft. While peppers and onions are cooking, in a large bowl, using a potato masher, and mash entire can of black beans. Then add egg, bread crumbs, 2 tbs flour and bread crumbs. Once onion and peppers are finished, add to the bowl of beans and combine all ingredients.
2. Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Form 4-6 burger patties and place on wax paper. Place baking sheet with the burgers in the freezer and let sit for 20 minutes, or until hardened.
3. While patties are freezing, with oil remaining in skillet, fry the 4 slices of pepper and set aside.
4. Once the patties are solid, heat 1/4 cup of oil in skillet. Place 1/4 cup flour on a plate.
5. Coat both sides of each frozen burger in flour and cook in skillet for between 4-6 minutes on each side, or until flour on burger browns. Once both sides are cooked, place patties on a paper towel to remove excess oil from patty.
6. Put burger patty on one slice of wheat bread and top with cheese, guacamole, tomato, fried green pepper, and cucumber and the second slice of bread.
7. Eat it up.

After mashing the beans, they should look something like this. 

After everything is added, the mixture will look similar to this. 

They look like actual hamburger patties. 

After frying. They are juicy and delicious. I promise and so much better than  store bought veggie burgers.

I was in burger heaven. 

P. B. and J French Toast / Berry Compote

Wha? Yes, you absolutely read the header correctly. As in Peanut Butter and Jelly French Toast! Changing the breakfast game, again!!!

Not since Zidan Zidain of the French National Football team head-butted Matterazzi of Italy in the World Cup Finals has anything French broke so many faces. Now it is time to break yours! While I am sure this recipe will be popular with those of all ages, I have added the berry compote recipe for the adults, the PB & J recipe is meant for the kids. Feel free to indulge as well.

This recipe is pretty simple and quick so you can treat yourself to a gourmet mid-week breakfast without being too late for work, unless of course you are the type to hit the snooze seven times and then fall asleep in the shower. In that case, you might want to prepare some of the steps the night before. Cock-a-doodle-dish people!!!

Suggested music on Spotify: I let the wife sleep in this morning so I had the kids. They requested everything Veggie Tales. My personal favorite, The Belly Button Song.

* Side note... I am watching the documentary Babies with my wife. In the opening scene there are two babies from the African Bush beating the heck out of each other. That was fully awesome and now my attention is divided all sorts of ways. If there are a ton of typos or if I start some nonsensical blather aside from what is normal for me, please excuse. 


Suggested Kitchen Dance: My daughter is begging me to pretend to be a ballerina, so Ballet? Rudolf Nureyev, eat your stinkin heart out.

Rudolf Nureyev and marmot.

Suggested Beverage: In my opinion there are only 2 beverages that pair with any breakfast: Coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice and breast milk. (Oops, sorry about that. There was this part of the movie, oh, never mind)

Ingredients (French Toast):
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
6 slices wheat bread
3 tbs peanut butter
3 tbs jelly (flavor is up to you. I used strawberry)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs butter

Directions:
1. Using bread, peanut butter, and jelly, make three P. B. and J sandwiches.
2. Heat butter in skillet or in frying pan over medium heat, coating the entire surface with the butter
3. In a bowl, mix egg, milk, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla.
4. Dip each side of sandwich in the egg mixture, allowing extra egg to drip off of sandwich.
5. Cook sandwich's for between 2-3 minutes or until brown on each side.




Ingredients (Berry Compote)
1/2 cup strawberries, sliced
3/4 cup blueberries
1 tbs honey
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 tbs cinnamon
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs olive oil

Directions:
1. In a frying pan, heat olive oil on medium heat.
2. Add strawberries and blueberries. Cook until softened.
3. Add honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
4. Reduce to low heat and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes.
5. Pour over pancakes, french toast, waffles, or add to your morning oatmeal while still hot. 

I sense some alchemy is about take place in this evil lab...

Hey sweet thang, we should get together some time...

Burn baby burn...

Berry delicious. I will also warn you, if you are prone to cavities or hyperactivity, I do not recommend this topping. 

And to finish the wonderful dish, I broke out the fine china.

Mommy and Daddy's breakfast

Rudy and the dead marmot that lives on his head approves of this breakfast 

Huevos Rancheros al Fresca

So through today, I have posted three dinner recipes and a post about Phillip Seymour Hoffman that may have been awkward for all of us. Yeah, sorry about that. I am even more remorseful of the picture of him from Boogie Nights. Allow me to now digress into a more comfortable topic, FOOD!

I had a very nice day off of work today and spent a great day with the little tax deductions while my wife was out. It was a very productive day too. I posted on here, made breakfast and lunch, and then umm, nothing. That's right, a whole ton of nothing. It felt nice too. However, while engaged in nothingness, I did happen to stumble across a breakfast that I have made for years, however today I added an ingredient that has fully changed the game. Cucumbers... Who knew?

With the weekend upon us, what goes better on a nice Saturday morning then a nice filling breakfast? Sure it would be awesome if we could pull meals like this every morning, but truth is it's not always feasible. Saturday's however leave us no excuse for a skimpy breakfast. It is the free time on the weekend that allows us to do it up on the meal that often gets ignored or neglected. Dinner may shine Monday through Friday, but Saturday and Sunday breakfast takes center stage. That being said, the next couple of features on here will stroke the ego of all things breakfast. Time to wake up and dish!

Suggested music on Spotify: It's early in the morning so my suggestion is something lite on the ears and easy on the brain. Let's go with Nirvana Unplugged in New York.

Suggested Kitchen Dance: It's early so any dancing you do, PLEASE STRETCH FIRST!!! I don't want e-mails detailing how groin muscles were pulled as a result of dancing too early in the morning. Also taking it easy today on this, simple rump shaking is fine and maybe a few head rolls. (As a side note, I was going to include a video of someone shaking their rump. Boy was that a mistake to search on youtube. Just the thumbnails of the videos that popped up were enough to make me blush. I am committed to keeping this blog family friendly and those videos were borderline x-rated)

Suggested Beverage: Coffee. If you can't remember why your head is currently aching a Bloody Mary is in order. I don't often advocate or encourage people to drink before noon, but sometimes the hair of the dog is what is needed. I will be drinking Wegman's Special Roast Coffee. 

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/4 cup green peppers diced

1/4 cup and 2 tbs onion diced

1/4 cup roma tomatoes diced
1/4 cup canned black beans drained and rinsed

1 tbs Basil chopped

2 tbs. cucumber diced

2 tbs. shredded cheddar cheese

1 flour tortilla toasted and broken into pieces

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp black pepper

1tbs. olive oil

Directions:

1. In a frying pan heat olive oil on medium heat. Place tortilla in toaster oven until it hardens and browns slightly. 

2. Add peppers, black beans and 1/4 cup onions and saute' 5 minutes or until softened. While peppers, beans and onions are cooking, in a bowl combine tomatoes, 2 tbs onion, cucumber, and basil and set aside.

3. Once peppers, beans, and onions are cooked, push to one side of frying pan and add both eggs.  Add chili powder, red pepper flakes, and black pepper and cook the eggs to desired firmness. (I prefer over-hard and slightly burnt). Once flipped, add cheese to the eggs to melt.

4. Pull tortilla out of toaster oven and break into large pieces. 

5. Placed cooked onion, beans, and peppers over tomato mixture. Place eggs over top of onion, bean, and pepper mixture.   

6. Enjoy!!!

I seem to use quite a bit of items from the legume family. They are protein packed and very filling.

The incredible, edible egg. Speggtacular. Eggciting. Eggcellent. I am not eggsaterating, I could go on all day with the egg puns.

You dirty egg. You dirty rotten egg. 

 A very basic salsa recipe with just a bit of cucumber. Surprising how much the cuke changes the whole dynamic. Awesome. 

Three Amigos. I imagine the black pepper is Martin Short's character. 

Three step assembly and finished!

Yesterday was a Slow Day in Food...

Staring down the barrel of what is sure to be a busy four day weekend combined with the focus and determination to finish my daughter's birthday present (her birthday was over a month ago) I did not make the Bintliff family dinner last night but my wonderful wife Nicole did, more on that later.

After we put the kids to bed, Nicole and I sat down to watch The Ides of March. While overall it was a pretty solid movie, it did contain perhaps my least favorite actor of all time, Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I get that he is an Oscar award winning, blah, blah, blah. I think he is the most pretentious looking windbag that ever graced the silver screen. If you have seen him in The Big Lebowski I am assuming that he carries himself much like that in real life. As matter of fact, if we happened to be cheetahs on the Serengeti Plains I imagine our boy PSH would be the ill water buffalo pulling up the rear of the heard destined to be our next meal. Personally, whenever I see him in a serious role, I just think back to his part in Twister as the zany and eccentric storm chaser, Dustin Davis and I think, how did we let THAT DUDE get THIS FAR?!? Ugh, I am often befuddled by popular culture and the allure of Mr. Hoffman remains to be one of those great mysteries to me. Even more mysterious is why ANYONE would have considered him for the movie Boogie Nights. Please excuse me as I toss last night's popcorn from my stomach into my kitchen trash can. And too much time has been wasted on that guy already, so moving on...

+

=

A heart healthy meal for a cheetah and its cub. And yes, I do imagine that PSH is really only made of cucumbers, peppers, carrots, and spinach. Just a hunch.

On to the important stuff. As I mentioned in the start, my wife also cooks dinner in this house and is an awesome maker of confectionery goodies. Also, she is really eager to ride the coattails (j/k honey) of success, so I have bestowed upon her the option of doing her own column on here. It will have some sort of catchy name such as From the Wife's Apron or Out of the Wife's Recipe Box, but I implore that you listen to her as she knows her stuff too. You can expect anything from juice recipes, tips on maintaining health, dessert recipes, diets, etc. The goal is to make this blog as user friendly and as well rounded as possible and personally, my wife is the smartest person I know so I am thrilled that she is doing this. Also helps to add a little perspective from a lady for the ladies. I will caution however that my wife is all business. Although she is a self proclaimed funny person, she has the outward comedic value of a...

I am just joking, she is very funny, beautiful, and wicked smart, unlike myself who is very funny looking and can at times be as dull and dimwitted as a gray crayola crayon. It seems as if the de-evolution of this blog post is occurring, so, this is The Flying Vegetable! signing off. Later, we shall dish.

"These ain't Yo Mama's" Quesadillas

Hello Party people, allow me to greet you with a very hardy, "Whoomp there it is." So to all of you getting ready to make dinner, I have an idea that will make you loudly proclaim to the world, "BOOM SHAKA-LAKA!!!" As I sit here listening to the bottom of the 9th of the Phillies game (they are currently tied, but in danger of losing, so a spontaneous expletive may occur) and eagerly awaiting a strong summer storm heading our way, dinner is in the oven, kids are playing, sister and wife are hanging out, all is right in the world. Struck him out!!! O.k., one more out to get for extra innings.

Also again thanks. Today I checked my blog stats (which I believe to be the equivalent of admiring my own butt in a mirror) and I see that I have hit over a hundred page views. But even cooler than that, apparently I have been viewed in Germany (danke) and this blog is apparently huge in the land down under, although I will be putting no shrimp on any barbie any time soon. So to everyone over the world, my sincerest of thanks!!! Enough sap and sweetness, time to dish it up!

So this quesadilla recipe comes from vegetariantimes.com and I must say, it was an absolute winner, however, it does ask that you roast your own peppers. As great as that sounds and I am sure it enhances the already solid flavors, who really has the time to roast peppers for a complimentary ingredient. I subbed it out with jarred roasted red peppers instead. Also, the hummus is from scratch and I will say that being the main ingredient in the meal, it is worth the scratch. Also, it does not call for tahini and I agree. When making hummus from scratch, tahini may be the most over-rated ingredient in the history of, like, everything. Pretty darn pricey too.
Oh and the Fightin Phils have just taken a 3-1 lead over the Dodgers so LIFE IS GOOD!!!!

Suggested Music on Spotify: Today was definitely a Pearl Jam kind of day, but I was listening to the ball game, so the only dancing I was doing was the...

Suggested Kitchen Dance: The Happy Dance because Michael Schwimmer just struck out a Dodger to force extra innings, which the Phillies have now taken the lead in! You can feel free to bang thy head if you feel the need.

Suggested Beverage:The mint in a refreshing mojito will compliment the lime in this recipe. Also, it is so darned hot outside refreshing is what should be sought after.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup cilantro leaves
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas (or 1 15-oz. can, rinsed and drained)
• 2 Tbs. lime juice
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 4 7-inch whole-wheat pitas, split crosswise
• 4 jarred roasted red bell peppers, drained and sliced into strips
• 1 ½ cups baby spinach leaves

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. To make Hummus: Process cilantro and garlic in food processor until chopped. Add chickpeas, lime juice, oil, and 1/4 cup water; purée 3 minutes, or until creamy.

2. To make Quesadillas: Place 4 pita halves on baking sheet. Spread each with 1/2 cup Hummus. Top with peppers, spinach, and remaining pita halves. Bake 10 minutes, or until crisp. Cut into triangles, and serve.

Salsa Ingredients:

1 roma tomato, chopped

1/4 small white onion chopped

1 tsp. basil

You do not want your fingers to get caught in this. Oh and if you don't have a food processor, a blender works fine. For the youth that may not know, the blender is the machine that helps you make your Jagermeister Slushies.

Kinda looks like a pile of blood worms. And you are very welcome...

Rome wasn't built in a day. These quesadillas were built in about 8 minutes.

Salsa is optional, but highly recommended.

Whether you are in Alaska, Germany, or hanging out with your favorite "sheila" and a wallaby in a pub chugging some Foster's Beer  in Sydney,Australia, enjoy.