First the burger.

1 lbs ground beef
1 cup tabouli mix
1 cup water
1/8 cup olive oil
1 egg
1/2 lemon, juiced
salt
pepper
garlic salt

I mixed this all together and let it sit for an hour so the bulger int he tabouli mix could absorb some of the liquid. Then I shapped it into a patty and on a skillet with some oil, I fried it up. The bulger browned up nicely, but I had to make sure to cook it on low heat to let the meat all mixed in to get to temperature. At the same time I sauteed a jalepeno for each burger for the toppings. The burger didn't stick together too well and would do epically bad on a large grill, but a nice skillet was perfect.

Toppings:
fried jalapeno, sliced and seeded (this had no heat, but great flavor)
sliced fresh tomato
thinly sliced cucumber
red pepper hummus
broiled toasted buns
chopped mint leaves

You can figure out how to put this together. However, I did put the mint on top of the burger right after flipping it so they would heat up and release there goodness.


Next come the Greek Zucchini Boats


5 zucchini, ends trimmed, and sliced in half lengthwise
1 block feta
1 jar kalamata olives
1/2 cup tabouli mix
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 lemon, juiced.

I preheated the oven to 350, and mixed the tabouli mix with the water and oil and let it sit for 20 minutes. Sliced up the zucchini and laid them out in a baking dish. I spread out the tabouli mix on the zucchini, chopped the olives and put them on. sliced the feta and broke it up to cover the as much space as I could. Then I tossed them into the oven and let them bake. The key to this dish is making sure to get the zucchini just cooked enough to be nice to bite through but not completely soggy. I did it for about 30 minutes and it worked out well. Right after I pulled it out of the oven, I juiced the lemon on top to help rehydrate the tabouli mix which dried some in the oven.

I randomly stumbled across a recipe from 7 years ago that I made during Jeremy and mine's sandwich experimentation phase, that I subsequently made one Christmas morning. We intended on making this open face sandwich a regular thing for Christmas morning in my family when it was just us. I suppose we all forgot about it. But here it is.

Ingredients:
Two slices bread.
Onion, sliced
Bell Pepper, sliced
Sliced turkey
two eggs
finely grated cheddar
hot sauce
dijon mustard

Saute the sliced onion, bell pepper, and deli meat until tender. Crack and fry two eggs in the small pan with the veggies and meat. Top with some finely grated cheese and some hot sauce. Put under the broiler to melt the cheese. This should come out as one fully connected mess.

Concurrently, spread some dijon mustard on two slices of bread and then toast in a toaster oven.

Then put the veggie onion mixture on top of the two slices of toast side by side. Voila, open-faced Christmas toast.

*Recommended that you don't over cook the egg. Keep the yolk runny to make sure the overall moisture content just right.

Lastly, I stirred in the lemon juice and cayenne. Once plated, I added the chopped cilantro.

This tasted pretty good, but I think in cooking down the sauce for so long, a lot of the flavor from the spices were destroyed. I want to try this again, but next time I will get the onions, carrots, and chicken sauteed up, and add the yogurt and let it all cook down for a while (also maybe using coconut milk as well). Then once it is about 5 minutes from being done, I would, in another pan, saute up the spices in some oil to activate them, and then stir in that paste into the rest of the dish. Or maybe just use some of the spices in the initial cooked, but add more closer to being done.