Greek Fare

So I love Greek food and I love how light it CAN be- ie, a delicious and healthy tzaziki sauce served with some grilled chicken on top of flat bread or naan, along with a light and lovely greek salad and roasted potatoes.  mmmmmmm.  if you like light, healthy meals and eating on your back porch (or front like kate) with the one you love, try this meal!

"where are the roasted potatoes?" you wonder?  well, i didn't think of them for this dinner so it was a SUPA light dinner but trust me, you'll want to make them to add as a side!

Ingredients for Tzaziki Sauce

• a container of regular ole' unflavored yogurt (you can buy greek if you want but here's the deal: it's more expensive and to achieve the thickness of greek yogurt, all ya gotta do is dump your yogurt in a strainer set over a bowl, stick it in the fridge over night, and let all the moisture come out.  you might have to dump the bowl a couple of times if it fills up with yogurt juice....ewww that sounded gross)
• salt and pepper
• the juice of 1 lemon
• 1 cucumber (you really only use half to 3/4 of it), peeled and diced very small (mine weren't small or peeled and i wish i'd done that)
• 1 small onion, finely diced

Directions

• after having drained the yogurt overnight to make it thick, mix it with the cucumber, onion, and  lemon juice (really get that lemon juice out of it by pressing on the lemon and rolling it on the countertop back and forth or you can pop it in the microwave for like 8 seconds)
• add about 1 teaspoon of salt and a 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.  mix it all together and taste it- does it need more salt? more pepper?  add it if you need to little by little!
• set it aside in the fridge until you need it- this can be made up to a day in advance.

Grilled Chicken

• SIKE! i got nothin for ya.  get creative here- i marinated the chicken in some olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, oregano and some Trader Joe's 21 salute seasoning.  I realize that not all of you have that in your pantry, so you can leave that out and you can use a greek seasoning instead (such as cavendar's) although i couldn't find that at my commissary so just stick with everything else and your chicken will turn out great.
• but however you make it, PLEASE serve it on top of some naan (indian, i know) or pita with tzaziki sauce on it. it's scrumptious

Greek Salad Ingredients

• head of romaine, cut into ribbons, or however you like
• tomatoes, cut small
• cucumber, cut small
• red onion, sliced (soak your red onion in ICE WATER for about 10 minutes before putting it on the salad- it will take away that awful red onion bite while still preserving it's wonderful flavor! your breath will thank me)
• feta cheese
• you could also add pepperoncini (banana peppers) and olives to go all out Greek

Dressing

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup oil (i use canola or olive)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

put all of the ingredients into a small tupperware and shake it all together.  taste for seasonings and add more salt, pepper, or oregano if need be.  this is my favorite salad dressing because it always seems to be fool proof.  i haven't found much luck with making other vinaigrettes but this one never fails me.

i'm not going to tell you how to make a salad....but i will tell you to MAKE IT because it's yummy and healthy.

Roasted Potatoes Ingredients


*can make A LOT if you use the entire bag of potatoes, but adjust as needed for different amounts of people. 7-10 potatoes should take up the entire sheet pan, which is what this recipe covers

 

we've got salt (the white bowl), pepper, 4 cloves of smashed, roughly chopped garlic, oregano, and olive oil.  oh, and the potatoes aren't pictured but you'll need a bag of red potatoes.  

cut your potato into bite size pieces like so:

after cutting it in half, put it down on the flat side and cut it into thirds like this

then cut your potatoes into thirds the other way.  you'll end up with this:

voila!

if you didn't know how to cube a potato, now ya do.  let's keep it movin'.  

Directions for Roasted Potatoes

• preheat the oven to 425.
• after cubing the potatoes, put them on a sprayed baking sheet
• (if they are wet- because potatoes have water in them, dab them with paper towels to absorb any moisture. they won't roast very well if they are still wet)
• drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the potatoes
• generously sprinkle salt and pepper over the potatoes (remember- potatoes are naturally bland- they need HELP to take them to the next level in flavor town so help 'em out!)
• sprinkle the oregano evenly over the potatoes
• take that roughly chopped garlic (preferably not minced so they don't completely burn in the oven) and sprinkle it over the potatoes
• now take those pretty clean hands of yours and mix everything together.

• pop 'em in the oven and roast for about 40 minutes, but stir them around at the 20 minute mark.  if you like your potatoes crispier, maybe you wanna leave them in longer- but just keep an eye on them
• here's what mine looked like:

• dip them into the yummy tzaziki sauce!

ok so you've got your salad, your chicken, your tzaziki, your roasted potatoes and your pita.  now EAT and most importantly, ENJOY!