Well it has certainly been awhile ya’ll. I have to say, being pregnant has certainly knocked me off of my feet literally for the past two months and I haven’t been posting as much as I would have liked, due to the fact that every smell and word about food made me run away or feel nauseated. I still have my moments, but today was the first time in awhile that I had inspiration to cook something fresh and seasonal. I had a craving for some fresh homemade bruschetta with those little pearly mozzarella things and some balsamic drizzled over it with some crusty bread… so I got cooking and came up with this easy cheesy recipe. It is to die for and I warn you now it will be hard to keep your hands and mouth off of it. You’ll be lucky if anyone else in the house gets a bite. I’m going downstairs now as I say this to get another slice of bruschetta before I start uploading the photos!

So, now that we have that out of the way (mmm this is so good!), I’m not sure how frequent I will be posting recipes in the upcoming months, but hopefully good things will come and this nausea will soon pass and I will have new energy for sharing some recipes. For now, I leave you all with this trusty recipe for my chopped bruschetta… when all else fails and its too hot and humid to eat anything else, you can’t go wrong with this. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

You will need:
1 loaf of french bread or a large french baguette
8 Roma tomatoes
1-2 large cloves of garlic
5-6 fresh basil leaves
1 package of Bel Gioioso fresh Mozzarella pearls
Balsamic vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt
black pepper

Step 1: Rinse and chop Roma tomatoes and place in a medium size serving bowl or plastic bowl, whatever you have on hand and don’t have to bend over to pick up.

Step 2: Mince the garlic cloves and add to the tomatoes.

Step 3: Break apart the Bel Gioioso Mozzarella pearls and then add them to the tomato mixture.

Step 4: Pick 5-6 large basil leaves and rinse them. Then pat dry with paper towels. Stack leaves and roll up lengthwise. Cut diagonally with a knife and spread strips apart with fingers. Then roughly chop strips and add basil leaves to the tomato mixture.

Step 5: Add the vinaigrette in this order – olive oil, balsamic vinegar, kosher salt, black pepper. Drizzle ingredients over the top and then mix with a spoon until all the ingredients are well coated with the mixture.

Step 6: This is the best part…now slice the french bread into thick slices and top with a heaping spoonful of the mixture. Then enjoy it. I recommend covering the bowl with plastic wrap and marinating for a few hours in the fridge before serving. Also if you want to be more fancy you can toast the baguette slice in the oven and then top with the bruschetta mixture. But, in my pregnant world, this worked just fine cold and without toasting the bread. Enjoy!

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I came across a delicious looking cobb salad on one of my favorite blogs recently. I did my own representation of the recipe a few weeks back and never posted the picture. The presentation of the salad was a little different as I wanted it to be easier for a group of people to scoop out a serving with all the goodies in it rather than trying to mix them in. I highly recommend this recipe, it was so satisfying and tasty. In fact I am already hungry for it again! Here is Smitten Kitchen’s Classic Cobb Salad recipe.

I love, love, love pizza made with all kinds of different flat breads (pitas, naan bread, lavosh, etc.)…. it just never gets old with me, not to mention its so easy to make and you can literally put almost anything on it and it tastes wonderful. Here is a quick and easy idea if your feeling a bit “Greek” for the day.

P.S. Sorry about some of the photos, it was really dark out when I made this, so I didn’t have very much light.

Ingredients: yields one pizza (feeds about 3 ppl., I usually make two)

1/2 lb. of ground lamb or beef
olive oil
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1/2 lb. grated mozzarella cheese
feta cheese (about 1/4 c. crumbled)
Mushrooms
Jalapeno
Kosher or Sea Salt
Black pepper

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The simple ingredients in this recipe speak for themselves. It is one of the freshest and most delicious combinations of food I’ve ever eaten, and it always, always puts me in a good mood. The fresh mozzarella, crisp ripe tomato slices, the olive oil, fresh basil leaves, balsamic vinegar, and the kosher salt… DO NOT forget the salt…. and in my opinion don’t use anything but coarse Kosher salt… or some other form of coarse salt. That really makes a difference. Yes… I am addicted to this salad… I can make an entire meal out of it and never feel guilty about gobbling up several slices. Make it… enjoy it… then invite some people over for dinner.. and make it again!

Tomato Mozzarella Salad
2-4 Vine ripened tomatoes OR 4-6 Roma tomatoes
Bel Gioioso Fresh Mozzarella (about 16 oz.)
Fresh basil leaves (about 6-8 leaves)
Balsamic vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt (or any other coarse salt)