Beef Kabobs with Homemade Whole Wheat Pitas

Yet another busy day at work – only 4 more to go! 😀  I don’t mind because the work day feels like its 5 minutes long and that much faster so I can come home and cook!

Before I get on to our good eats, guess what I found at my desk this morning??

My friend Renee and her husband Mark got me this Thermos lunch bag – as a thank you for bringing them my “yum-yums.”  Renee is my guinea pig at work whenever I make something new, and her husband and I like the same kinds of things so he often gets leftovers I know Tony won’t eat!  THANKS GUYS!

I actually was able to make a lunch out of my leftovers from last week that I didn’t bring home:

• garden salad with carrots, smoked mozzarella and jalapeno ranch dressing
• 1 cup roasted pepper soup
• 1 container of Fage with strawberries (not photographed)

I don’t drink much pop, but today was a diet dr. pepper day!

So I tried my first recipe from my new bread cookbook:  Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads.  I decided on making whole wheat pitas and it was so easy!  While the recipe called for bread flour, I used white whole wheat flour.

• 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 package dry yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons loose yeast)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup hot water

Using a food processor, using the steel blade, place 1 cup of flour and other dry ingredients in the work bowl.  Pulse once or twince to combine.  Mix the oil with the hot water and pour through the feed tube.  Process for 15 seconds.  Remove the cover and add the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough forms a ball and doesn’t stick to the sides, and then knead for 45 seconds.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Meanwhile, divide the dough into 8 balls.  I just weighed the whole dough, so each piece came in at 2.6 ounces.  Cover with a damp paper towel and let sit for 20 minutes.

After the dough has rested 20 minutes, roll out to 3/16 of an inch and cook on pieces of foil so that the heat can cook the pitas without getting a crispy exterior.  Mine took 7 minutes to cook.  Each one comes in at:

• 166 calories
• 4.1 fat
• 29 carbs
• 5 fiber
• 6 protein

I used Kayln’s recipe for the kabobs, with slight variations.  I used a combination of ground sirloin and ground chuck:

• 1/2 pound ground sirloin
• 1/2 pound ground chuck
• 1/4 cup of water
• 2 tablespoons kabob spice

Put everything into a food processor until meat and seasonings are combined:

Then form into patties:

I got this at my ethnic grocery store:

Kayln’s recipe called for refrigerating from anywhere from 2 to 24 hours – mine only rested for 1/2 hour but they were still really good!

The crust on these were amazing – plus we used applewood chips because I didn’t have enough charcoal – I have Tony to thank for bringing the coals around! 😀

1 pita, 1 kabob sliced in half, and about 2 tablespoons of cucumber sauce – so good!  I did cut raw veggies on the side, but forgot to take a picture!  The perfect bite:

I love the air pockets of these pitas!!

I am actually about to sign up for Facebook – I can’t see Tony’s page if I don’t have my own!  Better late than never, right?!

See you tomorrow!