Cheese for Dinner…Yes Please!

Tonight I made myself a kick-ass dinner and the star was a big ‘ol slab of cheese.

I’ve been wanting to try out Halloumi cheese for a while now, and I was really hoping to have some while in Greece on my honeymoon but for some reason that never happened… (hmmm now I kick myself for that)

This is a cheese that originated in Cyprus and is popular around the middle east.  It has a high melting point so that it can be grilled or fried and not melt. 

Well I was reminded of this interesting cheese when I stumbled upon this recipe a few weeks ago, and then saw Elina had referenced this same recipe and I knew it was finally time to make it!

(so I forgot to take a photo of the package but it looked more or less like this one)

It only take a few minutes to cook, so I started on the broccoli!

I cut up 2 small heads of broccoli crowns and mixed them with:

• 1 T olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• pinch of lemon zest
• salt
• crushed red pepper (just a little)

 

I roasted it at 400 for about 15-20 min.  I stirred a couple times.  It was sizzling, so I’d recommend checking on it every once in a while. 

Then I put together a little topping for the cheese inspired by my honeymoon in Greece!

Finally broke into the Santorini sun dried tomatoes we brought home

I chopped up 2 of these small tomatoes (much smaller than normal sun dried tomatoes) with:

• Santorini capers!  (also from the honeymoon)
• fresh lemon juice
• a tiny drizzle of olive oil
• kosher salt

I sliced 2 thin pieces of Halloumi cheese off the block and threw them on a non-stick pan with some cooking spray on med-med/high heat. 

Just a few minutes on each side.  Smells like a grilled cheese while it cooks…mmmm.

On with the broccoli

and topped with the caper mix!

This was delicious!!  The cheese has a really interesting texture.  It gets nice and hot and seared on the outside and has an almost chewy texture…not bad chewy though.  It was salty, cheesy, deliciousness.  I mean come on!  It’s pan fried CHEESE!!

I had a great workout last night consisting of 30min of running and walking on the treadmill before Body Pump!!  I haven’t been in almost a month!!  Craziness.  Regular Body Pumping resumes now :)

Tonight I also did something I haven’t done in ages…have a date with my DVR!! 

• 2 episodes of Gossip Girl
• 1 round of 90210
• and now I’m watching Glee :)

It’s amazing what you can fit in when you fast forward through commercials :)