Greek Pita Wraps

What are we going to eat for dinner this week?! The persistent question in all our homes, right? Well, hopefully this recipe can be your answer for at least a couple of days. 

Also, full disclosure: I love cooking without a recipe. Of course, I use recipes while baking, and when I am trying a new dish, but I get some sort of thrill from improvising in the kitchen without a script. Sometimes this yields questionable results. (My husband, who is a precise recipe follower and a talented cook/gardener often reminds me of this :) However, I do occasionally come up with some delicious dishes. Plus, I get annoyed when recipes go into WAY too much detail, i.e. I am not going to tell you how many tablespoons of hummus to measure out onto your pita sandwich. I think you can figure that out by yourself. Hope you enjoy my not-so-specific instructions!

Greek Pita Wraps

Servings: depends on how much you and your family eat and how much squash you have in the garden.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

1 white onion, diced

2-3 zucchini or yellow squash

1 can diced tomatoes, or 3 fresh tomatoes, diced

salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste

Toppings:

pita bread

plain hummus 

diced black olives

feta cheese

diced cucumber 

plain Greek yogurt

Instructions: 

Saute the onion in olive oil and add ground beef and seasoning, brown. Add squash and tomatoes, sauté until tender and beef is cooked, about 12-15 minutes. Serve over warm pita bread with desired toppings. 

Cooking lessons from my Grandma

In the kitchen with Audrey

My Grandma was an amazing cook. She taught me many things about life, but I wanted to share a few lessons I learned while in the kitchen with her. 

1. Never measure seasonings over your mixing bowl. 

2. Put away ingredients right when you are done with them. This will make cleaning up much easier. 

3. Taste everything as you are cooking, season accordingly. 

4. You can stretch out soup or chili to last another day if you add noodles or rice. 

5. If someone complements your cooking and says "Wow, this is really great!" you should respond by saying, "Well, I meant for it to be." 

This is one of the reasons I love cooking: the art of feeding yourself and your loved ones can be passed down through generations in the form of tradition and family practice. This knowledge of cooking was passed down from countless generations before, to my great grandmother, to my grandma, to my mom, and to me. I have grown up in the age of processed foods and pre-packaged dinners, but I feel so grateful that my family taught me to grow, cook, and consume real, quality food that was prepared with love and care. I love you Grandma! 

Do you have cooking lessons or traditions you've learned from family members or friends? Share them by commenting on this post!