Pita & Scrambled Eggs

Regular egg sandwiches are made with a fried egg; but what if you want scrambled eggs? Too messy, as scrambles eggs tumble into you lap as soon as you take a bite of your sandwich. Well the Chef has a solution, and it is to scoop your favorite scrambled egg recipe into a warm pita. No egg-spillage here!

It is safe enough to carry in the car. Now I would not normally recommend you eat and drive (just click here to see my precautionary PSA video on "Eating & Driving"), but my Pita & Scrambled Eggs is an exception. It is neat and deliciously portable.

I make my scrambled eggs with sundried tomatoes and sauteed mushrooms. Use your favorite ingredients - how about a little cheese in your scrambled eggs? Then stuff the pita with lettuce, tomato and mayo?

Looking for a laugh with your Pita & Scrambled Eggs? Click here and here for two Coffee Comedies of mine.

Whole Wheat Pita Bread has been turning up at my local 99c only Store, so I always have some on hand. It is a budget item you can get at any grocery. Warm them on the grill as you scramble your eggs.

Ingredients ( 2 pita pockets )

• 1 whole pita spit in half
• 2-3 eggs
• 4 whole button mushrooms - sliced
• Sundried tomatoes with oil - about 2 tablespoons, sliced.
• Salt and pepper to taste
• * 1 tbsp. oil for sauteing mushrooms if you are not using sundried tomatoes.
• Other options include: cheese, spinach, cooked bacon and sausage. Just use your favorite scrambled egg recipe.

Directions
For a mushroom/sundried tomato scramble: Add sundried tomatoes with oil to a medium hot pan and saute mushrooms until soft, about 5 minutes. Begin to heat pita bread on grill or in a toaster - pita just needs a slight brown, it is thin so it will heat up quickly. And pita pockets will open easier (without tearing) when warm.

Next separate 2-3 eggs from shell and add to mushroom/sundried tomato mix. Scramble egg mixture until done.

Open each pita and fill with cooked scrambled eggs. You can add mayo, lettuce and tomato to your Pita & Scrambled Eggs.

Make the Chef's breakfast pita your own by cooking your favorite scrambled egg recipe!

Pita Tuna Melt

This hot pocket of oozing cheesy goodness is a warm welcome on a wintry day. You know how this Chef likes pita bread. Just see my Pita Pizza recipe. I've recently found whole wheat pitas on sale at 99c Only Stores and blocks of Colby cheese. And throw in my wife's tuna salad recipe and you have a great combination of a Pita Tuna Melt.

Pita bread grills quickly and it's thinness makes quick work melting sliced cheese. Toasted whole wheat pita is more flavorful than normal plain pita, and holds-up stuffed -- no tuna salad squeezing out of all sides like regular toasted bread.

I've kept Pita Bread in the refrigerator for 3 weeks at a time, and they take-up very little room . A quick toasting softens them up.

So next time you have a yearning for a tuna salad, give the Chef's Pita Tuna Melt a try.

Directions
Make your favorite tuna salad recipe or use my wife's, just click here to view (maybe leave out the green olives?). On a stove top grill or pan, over medium heat cook pita stuffed with cheese and tuna salad. Lightly brown on both sides of pita bread until cheese is melted.

Pita Pizza -- With Clams & Artichoke Hearts

Pita Pizzas are soon to be a 99 Cent Chef budget classic. Having lived in or around various Armenian/Russian/Middle Eastern enclaves around town, frequenting East Hollywood's Little Armenia mom and pop delis and the neighborhood shish kabob shops of Glendale, this Chef has grown to love the versatile pocket pita.

They stuff nicely with your favorite tuna, chicken or egg salad; they are indispensable when tearing apart a roasted bird from Zankou Chicken; and are now the platform for the Chef's new culinary creation -- Pita Pizza.


Use pita bread rounds topped with tomato sauce, cheese, clams and artichoke hearts for fast and delicious mini-pizzas. If you like thin crust pizzas, high-heat baked pita bread makes a lightweight crunchy cracker-tasting crust for pizza toppings.

The 99 Cent Chef likes to mix it up with his toppings, adding anything from marinated jars of sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, artichoke hearts, roasted/sauteed zucchini, and eggplant, to Genoa salami, Italian sausage, cheese, a fried egg - and even chopped clams.

The Chef's first seafood-topped pizza was from a small side-street restaurant during a Rome, Italy vacation. Some may blanch when served calamari, clams and shrimp on a pizza, but how can you resist when it's paired with melted mozzarella and artichoke hearts?

The Chef simplifies things by using a 99.99 cent can of chopped clams. One can is enough for three small individual pita pizzas; all other ingredients are often found in local 99c only Stores, including pita bread (although regular local markets often have sales on canned minced clams and shredded mozzarella.

And pita bread is reasonably priced), you get eight pitas per package - talk about a great deal! These pita pizzas are delish with or without clams - make it your own by adding any favorite topping.

These budget pizzas are easy to make and are perfect for a party, or as a late-night cramming snack for all you overextended, financially strapped college students. All you need is a dorm buddy with a toaster oven!

Ingredients (for 3 pita pizzas)

• 3 pita bread rounds
• 1 can minced or chopped clams (6.5 oz.)
• 1 package shredded mozzarella (4 oz.)
• 3 tbsp. dried parmesan cheese (optional)
• 1 small 8 oz. can of tomato sauce or your favorite pasta sauce.
• 1 small jar of marinated artichoke hearts (6oz.) in oil or water
• 3 tbsp. of 99.99 cent olive oil blend
• 1 tsp. dried herbs including - parsley, oregano and sage (a pinch per pita)

 
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lay out 3 pita rounds and top each with 3 tbsp. of tomato sauce and a small pinch of dried herbs, then cover with a layer of mozzarella cheese. Drain artichoke heart and minced clams; evenly distribute over pita pizzas and add a sprinkle of dried parmesan cheese. Finish with a drizzle (about a tbsp.) of olive oil. Bake about 10 minutes -- cheese will melt, while the pita edge becomes chrisp and just starts to brown.

And don't forget to mix it up with different toppings for a party. Just set out a plate of salami, cheese, cooked sausage, tomato sauce, olives, and any other favorites.

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Pita

Picnic in a cemetery? Heck yeah! Especially when Shampoo, Warren Beatty's quintessential randy satire of L.A. couplings is projected outdoors during a scorching summer night on a mausoleum white wall (interred inside is cinema's original male sex symbol, silent movie star

Rudolph Valentino.) Cinespia's outdoor summer film series in Hollywood Forever Cemetery is off to a steamy start, and for $10 (plus $5 for parking with a carload of friends - locals park off site and hoof it), it is on The 99 Cent Chef's summer must-do list.
Coming this Saturday is Easy Rider - a movie that launched a thousand spliffs and one of the first great rock movie soundtracks in the Chef's high school daze, where the accompanying dance was to turn on the bedroom fan toward an open window, stuff towels under the door, put on headphones and spark up a doobie. The sound system is kickin' for these summer screenings with a smokin' DJ before and after the movie. Now is the time for all good picnickers to come together. So load up the picnic basket, arrive early

and get your appetite and buzz on.

For your picnic pleasure, The Chef creates a chicken pita delight stuffed with shredded chicken, lettuce, tomato, onion and avocado. The chicken is 99c only Store canned; of course, if you want fresh chicken use the Chef's film - themed "Russ Meyer Lemon Chicken" recipe. 99c only Stores are carrying tomato (black cherry), lettuce or spinach (organic baby arugula blend, too), and pita bread; don't forget to bring a few bottles of fine kosher Argentina Malbec red wine from the Hollywood 99c only Store.

Ingredients (serves 2)
6 oz. can chicken meat
99 cent package of pita bread
Sliced tomato, lettuce, pickle, onion and avocado
Mustard and/or mayo - add garlic powder to mayo and honey to mustard for extra flavor



Directions
Drain and break apart canned chicken and store in a container. Slice lettuce and tomato and store in separate containers as well. Slice pita in halves. Open and slice avocado at cemetery. Bring plenty of wine.

Jacaranda In Bloom & Eggplant Hummus - Video

Emblematic
to LA are its grand boulevards lined with palm trees. This month a lavender blue upstart enters the scene -- the blossoming Jacaranda tree. Stand under its branches at full bloom and the perfume is overwhelming.

May is the month that launches millions of blossoms carpeting large swaths of sidewalk; drive along 6th Street towards LACMA and it's blue for blocks.

Sidewalk at 1845 N. Edgemont in Los Feliz

However, this beauty comes with a price: the decomposing flower secretes oils to stain auto body finishes and anything else it lays on -- gray sidewalks dye almost black (read the negatives here, and where to find blocks of Jacarandas).

To celebrate this month of blossoms, The 99 Cent Chef serves up a blue video montage of Jacarandas with a purple vegetarian delight -- 99 cent Eggplant Hummus.

Jacaranda & Hummus Video

Play it here. The video runs 2 minutes 55 seconds.

Ingredients

• 1 small (7 oz.) 99 cent jar marinated grilled eggplant
• 1 16 oz. can garbanzo beans
• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds
  1 teaspoon of cumin
• 2 tablespoons garlic - fresh or from jar
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, fresh or concentrate from a 99 cent plastic lemon
• Serve on 99 cent pita bread or as a dip for raw veggies

Directions
Add all ingredients (including oil from marinated eggplant) to blender or food processor and blend for
10 - 20 seconds until hummus is creamy.

Serve with sliced pita bread triangles and/or fresh chopped veggies (carrots, celery, red/yellow bell pepper, etc.) 99c only Stores also sell roasted red bell pepper in a jar, so try that sometime instead of eggplant.

If your local 99c only Store is out of bottled roasted veggies make a plain one with the above-mentioned ingredients, and the addition of a 1/4 cup of 99c olive oil blend.

To view or embed video from youtube click here.