Chickpea Salad with Tehina and Garlic Dressing

Sorry it's been a while since I have posted. I am working full time now and have very little time for anything else-including cooking.
Lately I have been searching for healthy salad recipes. I know it sounds dumb-isn't all salad healthy? Well when you dump gobs of mayonnaise, oils and sugar into the dressing and then onto the salad then no, it isn't. In attempt to bring some variety into my Rosh Hashanah menus I found some new salad recipes and I will be sharing several with you in the next few weeks.
This first one I found on this blog that I came across recently. I didn't get a chance to photograph my salad but it pretty much looked the same. I did use my progressive dicer to make this salad (thanks for the recommendation Talia) which made it simple to throw together.
The only change I made to the recipe was changing measurements to quantities as I prefer recipes that way so I assume you do too.

2 cans chick peas, drained
2 cucumbers, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
6 scallions, diced
12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 orange pepper, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Dressing:
1/2 cup Tehina
4 Tbls lemon juice
2 Tbls water
4 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Chop all vegetables and toss. Mix dressing and pour over salad before serving.

Spicy Broccoli

I started getting fresh broccoli deleviered to my house on a regular basis and I was looking for creative new ways to make it that would appeal to my kids. I found this recipe for spicy broccoli and although I knew only 1 of my kids would try it I figured it sounded so simple to make and healthy that it was worth a shot. The 1 who tried it liked it as did all the grown ups who ate it. Since it was already simple and healthy I didn't make any changes to the recipe.

1 1/2 tsp. Olive Oil
3 C. Broccoli, chopped
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
1/4 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
3/4 C. Canned Tomatoes, crushed

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Saute broccoli, garlic, and red pepper flakes for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 7-8 minutes. Enjoy!

Sun-Dried Tomato and Garlic Chicken

Are you looking for a use for all the sun dried tomatoes you have? I know I was. I came across this one for Sun-Dried Tomato and Garlic Chicken.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
15-18 Garlic Cloves
1 Onion, sliced
1 Green Pepper, sliced
1/2 cup Sun-Dried Tomatoes (not packed in oil), chopped
1/4 cup White Wine
1/2 cup Chicken Broth
1 tsp. Dried Oregano
1/4 tsp.Ground Black Pepper

Rinse and cut all visible fat off of chicken breasts. Coat a pan with Pam and preheat oven to medium heat. Mince 2 of the garlic cloves, and place them in the pan with the chicken breast. Surround the chicken with the remaining garlic cloves. Cook the chicken for 2-4 minutes on each side, or until the chicken and garlic cloves are browned. Remove the chicken from the pan. Lay the onions, green peppers, and tomatoes over garlic cloves in a 9X13 baking pan. Arrange the chicken over the tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and garlic. Pour wine and broth over chicken, and sprinkle with oregano and pepper. Cover and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Serve chicken breasts with the vegetables and pan juices.

Sun Dried Tomatoes

In attempt to use and preserve all the tomatoes I bought on sale I decided to "sun dry" some. I really had no desire to leave the tomatoes outside and let the cats that roam eat them so I found a way to dry them in the oven.

Cut Roma tomatoes into quarters. You can also try this with cherry tomatoes cut in halves. Place cut tomatoes on a baking sheet. Sprinkle lightly with coarse salt. Place in oven at 175F degrees for 8 hours. Larger pieces may require more time. Store in a glass jar filled with olive oil to cover tomatoes, or in a plastic container in the refrigerator for non-oily tomatoes. You can also store these in the freezer.

Roasted Tomato Soup

Today tomatoes were on sale for .49 agrout per kilo which is a few pennies per pound so I bought the 3 kilo I was limited to. I decided to make some tomato soup. I believe this recipe originated in a South Beach Cookbook. I doubled the recipe since it doesn't make a lot and I had a lot of tomatoes. I still have a bunch so if you have any good tomato recipes you'd like to share I am happy to receive them!

2 1/2 pounds plum tomatoes(about 10 tomatoes), cut in half lengthwise
1 medium onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1 Tbls. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. salt
black pepper
1 Tbls. olive oil
1 cup vegetable broth or chicken broth

Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange tomatoes, cut side up and scatter onion and garlic in a single layer around the tomatoes. Sprinkle with basil, oregano, salt and pepper; drizzle with oil. Bake on middle rack until tomatoes are golden on the bottoms and start to collapse, about 40 minutes. Remove from oven and put in pot, add 1/2 cup of broth and puree until smooth. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup of broth and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Serve warm.
Makes 4 (1 1/4 cup) servings.

Quick, Easy and Moist Meatloaf

Tonight I decided to make meatloaf. It wasn't until I was an adult that I truly appreciated and enjoyed meatloaf. This recipe was adapted from a family recipe. Over the years I have changed all of the ingredients except for the egg. We hope you like this one as much as we do.

Quick, Easy and Moist Meatloaf:

1 Pound ground beef or turkey
1 egg
1/3 C. whole wheat bread crumbs
2 tsp. onion soup mix
1 can tomato sauce
1 tsp. ground flax seed(optional)

Combine all and bake in loaf pan at 350 for an hour.

A note about the tomato sauce. I used the Yachin 260 grams tomato sauce for lasagna

and it was delicious-if you live in Israel I recommend using that one.