The College Cuisiner: Small Town Summer: Homegrown Salad and Pita Pizzas

Photo by Marisa Hunt

If you are like me you often find yourself at night around 6:30 saying so what should we make for dinner? At my house we usually don't sit down to eat until 7:30, sometimes 8 o'clock at night. Unfortunately I have developed that habit when I am on my own.
Despite what all the experts say about late night-meals and how they make you fat. I turn to my most-frequent argument: Look at the French.
In traditional French culture, the biggest meal of the day is at lunch time and usually takes 2 or more hours (especially if you are in the country.) Usually everything closes down from 11-2pm causing blissfully ignorant tourists to go hungry until dinner. But most tourist towns have adapted to American lunch time and offer food for the rest of us who do not have a place to have a gorgeous home cooked meal abroad.

For dinner, the French eat a small, lighter meal, later at night. So, Voila! If you eat light, healthy meals later than maybe you'll be okay. So in my eyes this practice is justified because it works just fine for me…and the French.

Back to Dinner: While these two meals have many of the same fresh summer ingredients, they are very different.

After a long day of work and continuing to unpack my mother's new house, I finally decided to make a quick fresh dinner. Meaning limited prep and dishes.

All photos by Marisa Hunt

Starting with the fresh produce bestowed upon us by our generous green-thumbed neighbor,

and my mother's cumin seasoned baked chicken, I got to work.

Beginning with plain lettuce can sometimes result in a boring, fattening salad.

Resist the temptation of Ranch and bacon bits, it will not do you any favors in the end!

We added some of our green-thumbed neighbor's fresh tomatoes and some kalamata olives from the the Farmer's Market.

This is where you can have some fun! I added some shredded baked chicken, chopped fresh basil, and crumbled sharp provolone. (I also recommend feta or blue cheese on this salad, I was just in a provolone mood.)

For extra flavor I added alittle Gazebo Room lite Greek dressing and cracked pepper.

Remember, you should add a little oil based dressing to your salad even if it is just olive oil and blasamic vinegar. A small amount of oil allows your body to better digest all the great nutrients from your vegetables. True story.

If you are not from Pennsylvania you might not be familiar with Gazebo Room brand Greek dressing, there is none better. We ship supplies yearly to my Aunt in England, it is that good.

Of course when I went to eat my salad, my mother stopped and "ehh!"

Translation: "I want that salad."

So as a good daughter I forfeited my custom built salad to my mother who had been working her butt off moving this house.

Oh yes, behind her are the house's original curtains we've have yet to take down. We've been there 4 days, don't judge us.

So back to work for my own dinner:

With the best of the lettuce gone and no more olives left, I had to find a new dinner for myself. Ergo, an opportunity to make my favorite little-fuss weekday meal: Pita Pizzas.

As friends and family can tell you, I go to great lengths to make my pita pizzas not just delicious, but works of art. A girl has to have something right?

So tonight I made my Chicken Margarita Pita Pizza:

All photos by Marisa Hunt

So you may be asking yourself, how do you get to that, from this: the answer is toppings.

I start with my favorite type of pitas from Pita Stroller in Harrisburg, PA. This little Lebanese deli has the best pitas made with not perservatives (so freeze the ones you don't use right away, they thaw immediately.)

You can also use any type of pita, tortilla, or even naan that you can get from the grocery store.

Start with a simple based of 1-2 tblsp. of Olive oil, cracked pepper, and a sprinkle of any Italian seasoning.
I also mince a small clove of garlic for the base as well if you have it.

Pita Pizzas are alot like salads, in that whatever you throw on there, it should be good.

I added the following ingredients to my pizza: (in the following order)

sliced fresh tomatoes (patted with a paper towel first so it doesn't make the pizza soggy.)

shredded baked chicken

1/4 cup shredded mozzarella (just use the bagged stuff, it melts better and on a college student's budget, it is a alot cheaper.)

1/4 cup shredded parmesan (please not the grated "parmesan" in a plastic bottle, that stuff is pure evil.)

A little crumble sharp provolone (optional, I had it)

fresh chopped basil (so good!)

A little more parmesan ontop.

Put the pizza in the oven at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until light brown and crispy. (or for the college reader: toaster oven, it works just the same, just takes a little longer)

After five minutes in the oven, I added alittle more cheese and drizzled some balsamic reduction on it. (Totally optional, but delicious.)

Here are some of the sexy pizza shots: