Cooking With Mel: Toast Can Be A Meal
You’ve heard me mention many times that I love to cook. Of course, I love to eat too! As spring approaches, many of us will be eating lighter foods. Not only are there so many fresh veggies available in spring and summer, it’s just too hot to cook up big meals. We all know that crankin’ the oven up when it’s 95 degrees outside is no fun.
Last week I made a meal that will now go into my dinner rotation. It’s easy, so yummy, and takes very little time to make. It’s made with simple ingredients and it’s fresh.
Publix Roasted Garlic Bread that’s available in their bakery is one of my favorite breads. It’s SO good! It’s great as an accompaniment to a pasta meal or on it’s own. I like the bread so much that I try to come up with recipes for it. Last week I came up with one and it’s awesome.
I whipped some ricotta cheese in a bowl with a bit of olive oil. Basically you just stir it for a bit. While doing that, I put some cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet and used a bit of olive oil and salt to cover them. Set the oven to 400 degrees and roast the tomatoes for 15-20 minutes or until they burst or are soft. They’ll wrinkle a bit when they’re done. Roughly chop some greens….I used a mix of spinach, chard, and arugula. There’s an Organic Girl 50% spinach mix that I use. You can find it at any grocery store.
Take the roasted garlic bread and toast until a bit brown. You don’t want it too crispy. Take a piece of the toasted bread, spread with ricotta cheese, add two or three tomatoes and top with the chopped greens. Add salt & pepper and a dash of olive oil if you like. Boom! Done!
It’s light and filling and the combo of the cheese, veggies and roasted garlic in the bread is just so good. To be honest, I made it twice last week. Great way to get in some veggies and an easy snack or meal. And it looks so pretty!
