Greek Out!

Nothing like a little al fresco dining, Greek style.  Michael and I love Mediterranean cuisine.  We consider it our go-to cuisine when we want to eat healthy and fresh in the summer.  And really, who doesn't want that?

Pictured here is a quickly assembled bulgur wheat salad, tossed with 'campari' tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, mint, parsley, and chick peas.  The whole thing is lightly dressed with a lemon-olive oil dressing and topped with spicy toasted almond slivers and perhaps just a very moderate dusting of crumbled feta cheese.  Michael insisted on a little yogurt dressing on the side and we threw on some kalamata and Cerignola olives for good measure.  I was quite glad he chose to include the yogurt dressing because it really is lovely no matter what you serve it with.

Mike's Yogurt Dressing
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup low fat mayonnaise
2-3 finely minced cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp dill
1/4 tsp oregano
1 small handful of chopped fresh mint
1 small handful of chopped fresh parsley
1/8 tsp kosher salt
a few grinds fresh black pepper

Add all ingredients to medium sized bowl, stir it up, serve with your favorite Greek dishes.  Use as a dip for veggies.

Abbey's Spicy Almond Slivers
(makes just enough for a couple big salads)
1/4 cup almond slivers
drizzle of olive oil
pinch of kosher salt
pinch each of the following spices:  paprika, ground cumin, cayenne pepper.

Combine all ingredients in a saute pan on medium heat.  Toss the nuts around until well coated with spices and oil.  Continue tossing for 3-5 mins until nuts are looking toasty.  Remove to a dry clean plate to cool.  Sprinkle on salads, savory dishes, or just snack on them!

Lentil salad

Renewing our effort to live a healthier lifestyle, we are trying to take some of the emphasis off food.  Still, you gotta eat.  Today for lunch, we boiled up about a cup of lentils, threw them together with Roma tomatoes from our garden, green onions, parsley, salt, pepper, mustard, red wine vinegar and olive oil.  This is a terrific way to enjoy your lentils in the summer.  They were tender but not mushy.  They were filling, but not heavy.  And preparation couldn't be simpler.

Amazing Lunch

Snow! I figure if it's gonna be cold, it might as well be snowing. But there are repercussions, especially for the family with school-aged children: the snow day! Alas, I have no vacation time, otherwise I would have played hooky today. As I had to work, and the boys, who go to school in Columbia, had to taken up there before the big snow hits later,  I had to do the lunch hour shuffle today. Abbey, who was at home staying with Olivia enjoying the day off, hit me with a delicious to-go lunch to enjoy in my office.

Just look at this lunch!  Wedges of revamped farinata, more the consistency of flatbread than a pancake (Go Abbey! one step closer to Phase one pizza!); cubes of pan-browned Hallumi; a delicious baba ghanouj, and a spinach salad with a spicy vinaigrette. As we agree, the secret authentic flavor in this mediterranean-inspired lunch is the sumac, sprinkled on the farinata whilst still warm which gave it an aroma straight out of my favorite Lebanese eatery. I'm really enjoying it. Thanks, honey!

Fajita Salad

Michael soothed my bruised baking ego last night with a lovely fajita salad.  He marinated the beef in loads of lime juice, a little salt, pepper, and olive oil.  He grilled some peppers and onions with the beef and we piled it all on top of some shredded romaine and cilantro.  My favorite Herdez brand salsa verde served as the "salad dressing".  With the fat-free feta cheese sprinkled on top, this was total phase one South Beach bliss.

More fun with Greek food

Salads- done right, it's hard to argue with the appropriateness of a salad for the main course of a meal if you are trying to be healthy. Not only so most salads feature prominent vegetables (at least those conceived since the sixties), but also you will absorb fewer calories. Unfortunately you also absorb fewer nutrients, so it's good to use nutrient-dense greens like spinach and romaine lettuce. Actually the salad below uses iceberg, but that's all I had on hand.



When A suggested "greek salad" for lunch, I was gung-ho because Greek cuisine has been of special interest to me lately. I decided to compensate for a lack of a good olive in the house by making it more like a farmer's salad; the balance more on the chunky vegegetables and less on the lettuce. Greek farmer's salad minimally consists of sliced tomatoes, bell peppers and onions in an oregano-y vinaigrette (sometimes with marinated green beans and hard-boiled eggs) and feta. If it contained pieces of flat bread, we'd be talking about the Lebanese treat known as Fattoush. For dressing I wanted to try something other than my usual lemon and olive oil vinagrette with oregano, something with some added dimension, perhaps a bit more authentic. I loved the idea of whizzing green peppers in the dressing as detailed on the wonderful Kopiaste blog. (I actually found this recipe in its blogspot incarnation.) It was well worth the effort as you can see. I decorated with pieces of toasted organic french bread (LaBrea, store-bought, nonfat, no extra junk added). In retrospect I think I forgot to add onions, but it was tasty and filling.

It would be a drag if the old Kopiaste blog disappeared one day and the dressing recipe along with it. I made it exactly as specified:

Greek Salad Dressing


Ingredients

* ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
* 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
* 3- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
* 1 clove of garlic
* Bell peppers, fresh or frozen (red, yellow, orange) about 2 – 3 spoonfuls (I used frozen)
* 1 piece of feta cheese 4 x 4 x 3 cm
* ½ teaspoon salt
* ½ teaspoon oregano
* Black pepper, to taste

Directions

Place in a food processor and puree all ingredients. Taste and adjust flavour according to your taste.