ZONE BREAD AND SAUSAGE STUFFING
(2 meals or 4 sides)


I made this last Thanksgiving and again for Christmas dinner. Delicious! Everyone loved it!



Ingredients:

A little bit of butter to grease the baking dish
1 stalk celery, chopped
½ small onion, chopped
1/3 cup chopped mushrooms
1 teaspoon light olive oil
1 low fat precooked chicken sausage, cut in half lengthwise and then sliced into ¼ inch thick half moon shaped slices
2 slices Zone white bread, cut into cubes
2 slices Zone Multigrain bread, cut into cubes
Poultry seasoning, to your taste
A pinch or more cayenne, to your taste
S&P to taste
1/2 cup chicken stock
1½ to 2 teaspoons butter, melted


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Grease 8 inch baking dish, or a slightly smaller dish, with a small amount of butter an set aside.

3. Sauté the veggies in the olive oil until soft.

4. Toss the veggies together with the rest of the ingredients and place into the buttered baking dish.

5. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes.

6. Uncover and continue to bake for 10 or 15 more minutes.

CONFETTI "RICE"

Here's another quick and easy meal. I borrowed the method for cooking the orzo from a ZoneFast recipe.


Ingredients:

1 cup fire roasted frozen peppers and onions, chopped (I use Trader Joe’s)
1 ½ teaspoons olive oil
1 package Zone Orzo
1 ½ cups chicken broth
Garlic powder to your taste
Spices: cumin, coriander and chili powder
S&P to your taste


Directions:

1. Place peppers and onions on a parchment paper covered baking sheet in a preheated 425 degree oven for 5 to 7 minutes.

2. Heat olive oil a skillet.

3. Add the dry orzo the skillet and stir for a minute or two.

4. Add chicken stock ¼ cup at a time until liquid is absorbed; stir frequently so is doesn’t stick. Add garlic, and spices about half way through cooking time (total cooking time will be about 8 to 10 minutes).

5. Add salt and pepper, if desired, and serve.

ZONE TURKEY SOUP

Here's a delicious way to use up leftover turkey after a holiday meal. No special amounts are needed.

Ingredients:


Turkey stock (simmer the neck, bones, etc. in water with celery onion and carrots for a couple hours or more; strain and discard all but the broth); an alternative would be to use purchased chicken stock or veggie broth
Additional water, if needed to make the desired amount of soup
Olive oil
Chopped onions, celery and carrots
Herbs of your choice
Zone orzo, uncooked
Small bits of leftover turkey
S&P


Directions:

1. Sauté the onions, celery and carrots in the olive oil for a few minutes to soften slightly.
2. Add the stock and herbs, and simmer until veggies are cooked through
3. Add the orzo and continue to simmer until cooked (about 10 minutes)
4. Stir in turkey and keep over the heat just until the meat is warmed.
5. Season with S&P and serve.

ORZO ASIAN SYLE
This is an easy way to have a “rice” and veggie meal with Asian flavors.


Ingredients:

1 package Zone Orzo
¾ cup bok choi, sliced or chopped
¾ cup frozen mixed Asian veggies
2 tsp light olive oil
1 clove minced garlic
Grated fresh ginger, to taste
Red pepper flakes, to taste
A little apple cider vinegar
A little Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (or you can substitute soy sauce)
Optional: you can substitute organic toasted sesame oil for up to half of the olive oil


Directions:

1. Cook orzo according to Zone directions.
2. Sauté the garlic and bok choi in the olive oil for a few minutes. Add the rest of the veggies and continue to cook until they’re heated through but still tender.
3. Add the ginger and red peppers flakes, and cook another minute or two.
4. Stir the Braggs and vinegar together in a small prep dish. Add the mixture to the veggies and remove from the heat.
5. Serve the veggies on top of orzo.

STUFFED CABBAGE STEW

This recipe is loosely based one in a Rachel Ray cook book, and makes enough for 10 -12 servings. The leftover stew freezes well. I freeze it in ¾ cup serving sizes for an easy meal anytime. Also, I cook only the amount of orzo I’ll be serving immediately.


Ingredients

2 teaspoons light olive oil
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 tablespoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons paprika
Salt and black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 carrot, grated
10 oz package of shredded cabbage
28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1cup tomato sauce
1 quart chicken stock
Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
½ package Orzo for each person you will be serving
Extra virgin olive oil




Directions


1. Heat a deep pot, or a large skillet, over medium-high heat. Add the light olive oil.

2. Add the onions, garlic, carrots, allspice, coriander, paprika, salt, and pepper.

3. Cook the veggies for 2 to 3 minutes to begin to soften them, then
add the bay leaf and the cabbage and wilt it down a bit.

4. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, and stock and cover the pot. Raise the heat to bring the soup
to a boil, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for
18 to 20 minutes.

5. While the stew is simmering, cook the orzo according to Zone directions, drain, cover and keep warm. You’ll want to cook ½ package of orzo for each person.

6. Stir in the parsley, discard the bay leaf and adjust the salt and pepper.

7. Place ½ package of cooked orzo in a shallow soup bowl. Ladle about ¾ cup stew over the orzo and stir slightly. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

ZUCCHINI, FETA AND TAPENADE SANDWICH
(Makes 4 sandwiches)


This sandwich was inspired by a zucchini recipe in the book 365 RECIPES, from IKEA.



Ingredients



2 small to medium zucchini, washed, trimmed, cut in lengthwise slices a little less than 1/4 inch thick
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
3 large Kalamata olives, pitted and finely minced
6 almonds finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed and finely minced
Optional 1 teaspoon capers, finely chopped
2 1/2 teaspoons light olive oil (use the½ teaspoon to oil the baking dish)
1 tablespoon flat leaf parsley, finely minced
Hot pepper sauce to taste
3 or 4 ounces fat free feta cheese, crumbled
S & P to taste
8 slices Zonewhite bread, lightly toast just prior to assembling sandwiches
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
Optional: use your favorite ready-made tapenade from a jar, instead of making your own



Directions



1. Preheat oven to 425, and lightly oil a 7X 11” baking dish with ½ teaspoon light olive oil.

2. Make tapenade by mixing together the olives, almonds, garlic, optional capers if using them, and the remaining 2 teaspoons of light olive oil. Mash slightly with the back of a spoon, or place in a mini prep food processor, to make a chunky paste. Stir in parsley and hot pepper sauce, and season with S&P.

3. Spread the tapenade on the zucchini slices, and arrange the slices in the oiled baking dish so they slightly overlap (to fit the dish). Arrange the chopped tomatoes evenly on tip. Sprinkle feta on top of all. Bake uncovered, on the bottom shelf of the oven, for 20 to 25 minutes.

4. To assemble the sandwiches, divide the filling among 4 slices of toast. Lightly drizzle each sandwich with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and top with a second piece of toast.

TZATZIKI NACHOS

This is a delicious combination that just popped into my head as I was looking through the fridge at snack time today. It’s a very flavorful and I like how the coolness of the yogurt and cucumbers in the tzatziki complements the intensity of the garlic chips.



Ingredients


1 package Zone Garlic Bagel Chips
2 or 3 Tablespoons of Trader Joe’s Tzatziki Dip (or a similar tzatziki with 1 g fat per Tablespoon)



Directions


1. Break each bagel chip into 2 or 3 pieces, and place the chips on a dinner plate.
2. Drizzle the tzatziki over the chips.

Enjoy!

CASHEW “RICE”

Inspired by a recipe in “365 Recipes” by NGV, a great little book you can pick up at IKEA. It contains 1 recipe for each day of the year, listed by month, including seasonal selections and photos of each recipe.



Ingredients

1 package Zone Orzo
½ small onion, chopped finely
1 or 2 scallions, green and white parts cut into fine rings
2 to 4 roasted cashews roughly chopped
A little bit of light tasting olive oil olive oil
S&P to taste
Optional: a little fresh parsley, roughly chopped



Directions

1. Cook orzo according to Zone directions and drain.
2. While the orzo cooks, sauté the onions in olive oil until transparent.
3. Add the scallions and cashews to the onions and continue sautéing another minute or so, until the scallions become limp.
4. Toss the onion and cashew mixture, and the optional parsley if desired, with the orzo, season with S&P to taste and serve.

YUMMY SOUNDING AND I LIKE THE STEW IDE3A ALSO. I WAS READING WHERE OPRAH IS PROMOTING MEATLESS MONDAYS AND IT'S GROWING IN POPULARITY OK,,,,PRINTER IS DON! THANKS!

Thank you for posting all of these recipes, I can't wait to try them!

What uses have you found for the flatbread? I don't much like pita sandwiches or roll-ups so I'm wondering if you have found some other way to use them. Thanks!

Thanks for you feedback sarah. :-) Have fun with the recipes!

I've eaten the flatbread warmed and drizzled with evoo, along with a salad. I've also made pizza with it, but not much else.

Thank you for the tips on the flatbread!

A berry and peach dessert pizza recipe I came across inspired me to try to create a Zone fruit pizza. In keeping with my new ZoneFast lifestyle, I decided it had to be very quick and easy to prepare. This recipe is the result of my first try.


APPLE PIE PIZZA




Ingredients


1 Zone white pizza crust

½ small organic apple, cut into thin slices

Apple pie spices, to taste

Lemon Zest from an organic lemon, to taste

1 pat of butter




Directions


1. Preheat oven to 450.

2. Place apple slices on the pizza crust, top with the lemon zest and spices, and dot with butter.

3. Bake for about 6 minutes with the oven rack positioned in the center of the oven.

Rosemary Ham and Cheese Bagel Sandwich


This is just a simple sandwich, but I thought I’d share it since it’s so delicious. It’s a favorite with everyone at my house.




Ingredients

Zone olive oil
1 Zone multigrain bagel, toasted
1 slice of Trader Joe’s Rosemary Ham
½ slice of Trader Joe’s Light Havarti Cheese
1 small heirloom tomato, thinly sliced
Fresh ground black pepper



Directions

Drizzle some olive oil on the cut sides of both halves of the toasted bagel. Assemble the sandwich by placing the rest of the ingredients on the bottom half of the bagel. Top it all with the other half of the bagel and enjoy!

I just posted this recipe in another thread and thought it would make a good addition to my recipe collection. Here it is...



DELICIOUS BREAD SALAD

I had a delicious bread salad for dinner tonight. It's a perfect meal for a hot summer day. I love to watch cooking shows and I've always intrigued by bread salads. But never tried one because I knew they wouldn't work in the Zone. Now that there's Zone bread, that changes everything.

I've made a couple of different bread salads. Tonight's bread salad contained 2 slices of Zone multigrain bread that I toasted and then cut into bite-sized cubes, some chopped English (seedless) cucumber, 1/2 of a tomato chopped, a couple of big handfuls of fresh basil leaves torn into pieces, a handful of chopped Romaine lettuce, and a couple olives sliced into quarters lengthwise. I tossed all of this with dried parsley, dried Italian seasonings, fresh ground black pepper, pink Himalayan salt, and a simple dressing of a little Zone olive oil whisked with some golden balsamic vinegar. Then I place it in the fridge for about an hour to let all the flavors blend. We loved it!