Greek Chicken Pita/Salad with homemade Tzatziki

Last Sunday, one of my dreams came true: I attended my first food truck festival.

For those who are not aware, food trucks have become a bit of a phenomenon over the last few years, and they have become gourmet - I'm not talking about funnel cakes and hot dogs. We're talking about delicious gourmet food...from a food truck.

ANYway, my favorite thing I had at the food truck festival was from a greek food truck. They served a grilled chicken pita with this amazing tzatziki, and I decided to try and recreate it.

There are 2 options - 1. the pita or 2. a salad. I'm attempting to avoid "bad" carbs (is there really such a thing?) as my wedding dress is en route and I have every intention of looking fabulous in it, so a salad was the way to go.

Being healthy is no fun what so ever, in case you were wondering.

Here's what you need (adapted from Skinny Taste)...

Marinade:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
3 garlic cloves, diced (less if you're not a big garlic fan)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together, pour in a ziplock bag with the chicken and allow to marinate at least 1-2 hours, preferably overnight.

Tzatziki (also adapted from Skinny Taste):

1/4 cup of fat free yogurt (I used Fage - of course we get it at Costco)
1 small cucumber, peeled
1-2 garlic cloves
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp fresh dill
1 tbsp fresh chives
salt/pepper to taste

Slice your cucumber in half and spoon out the seeds. Throw your cucumber into a food processor and then drain. Get as much liquid out as possible. Place dry cucumber back in the food processor with the yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, dill, chives, salt and pepper. Pulse until blended. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the salad:

Romaine lettuce
Tomatoes
Red onion
Feta cheese (I used reduced fat)
Lemon
Olive oil

Throw all ingredients into a bowl, top with grilled chicken and lemon/olive oil for dressing. I also had a side of tzatziki for dipping my chicken.

For the pita:

1 pita (you can find these at most grocery stores)
Romaine lettuce
Tomato
Red Onion
Grilled Chicken

1. I suggest laying your pita half on a sheet of aluminum foil and half off. Wrapping it in the foil when you're done helps to keep everything inside your pita.

2. Layer chicken, onion, tzatziki, lettuce and tomato on your pita. Top with additional tzatziki if desired, wrap up, and enjoy!

These turned out really well, and I'm guessing this tzatziki is a lot more healthy than the one at the food truck.

Now, for the "what I was drinking" segment of the program:

We chose a 2010 unoaked Chardonnay from Charlottesville, VA. Charlottesville wines are hard to find outside Charlottesville, however, a 2010 unoaked Chardonnay from Napa would absolutely be comparable. And equally as delicious.

Enjoy your weekend!

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

IT'S FALL!!!!!

Hello, amazing camera. Thank you, amazing fiance. 

I didn’t really know what fall was until we moved to North Carolina, but I really truly love it. The slightly cooler air, the clear sky…everything feels so good!

I had to bake for an event at school this week, so I decided I wanted my house to smell like fall. And these cookies nailed it.

They have the slightest pumpkin flavor due to the pumpkin butter, and they are crisp on the outside and a little chewy on the inside. Perfection. 

Here's what you need (from How Sweet Eats):

1 1/2 sticks melted, cooled butter

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg and 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup pumpkin butter*
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tbsp corn starch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/4 cup of mixed mini chocolate chips and regular

*Pumpkin butter can be hard to find and can be expensive when you do find it. Check out the original recipe for a 2nd recipe that is similar that uses pumpkin puree.

Here's what you do...

1. Preheat oven to 325.

2. Combine flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl. Set aside.

3. In a larger bowl, combine butter and both sugars. Then, add egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Stir. Then add pumpkin butter and stir.

4. Slowly add your flour mixture to your butter/sugar mixture. It is a THICK dough, so take it slow and stir frequently.

5. Fold in your chocolate chips.

6. Roll into small balls and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for no longer than 15 minutes. They will look soft - they are supposed to! I learned this the hard way (my first batch was super burned on the bottom!).

7. Take out of the oven, cool, and enjoy!

These smell like fall and taste like fall. Can something taste like fall? I've decided it can.

Happy baking! We went to a food truck festival on Sunday (food trucks = Madeline's idea of an awesome day), and I have a recipe coming later this week inspired by something we ate...stay tuned!

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Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken

Cheese? Yes. Always. Although we need to file this under "things that look gross but taste awesome."

I need to vent for a moment. Justin has a serious Costco addiction, and this problem is what inspired (forced, maybe?) this recipe. If a person can have a legitimate addiction to a warehouse store, then my fiance needs AA for Costco members. He is honestly - and I'm not making this up - not allowed to go to Costco alone anymore because he will be gone for a solid 2 hours and come back with all this crap we don't need.

When I need 2 AAA batteries, I just need 2. Not 40.

ANYway, since I have to go on these Costco trips for the sake of our bank account and my personal sanity, we were at Costco on Saturday and Justin convinced me to get a Costco size thing of goat cheese. He's played to my weakness and it totally worked. Score 1 for Justin.

I can't say no to copious amounts of goat cheese. I just can't do it.

Here's what you need (adapted from both Food Network and How Sweet Eats)...

About 1-2 oz. of goat cheese per chicken breast
2-4 chicken breasts (depending on how many you're serving)
Dried basil
Dried oregano
Garlic Powder
Salt
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Flour
1 egg, scrambled

Here's what you do...

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a small bowl (see above) mix goat cheese with a few shakes of dried basil, oregano and garlic powder. This is to taste - I like a strong flavor, so I put a lot of seasoning in, but if you don't, put in less!

3. Slice your chicken breasts in the center creating a pocket.

4. Stuff the pocket with your goat cheese. You want to be able to seal your chicken breast without goat cheese pouring out.

5. Season your chicken with salt, pepper, italian seasoning and garlic. Place your flour on a plate and season with italian seasoning and garlic powder. Put your scrambled egg in a bowl. Dredge your chicken in the egg, then the flour, then repeat. 

6. In an oven safe skillet (if you have one, otherwise just use a regular skillet and transfer your chicken to a cookie sheet when you put it in the oven) sear the chicken in the vegetable oil for 2-3 minutes per side. 

7. After you've seared your chicken, bake it in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove and let set for a few minutes.

8. Cut, serve and enjoy!

This was super easy - I made it on a weeknight - and it turned out really well. I apologize for the lack of measurements, but this is one of those recipes that you can just eyeball.

OH! Annnd one more thing. I found out my stepmom now reads my blog, so, whenever I can, I'm going to let you know what wine I drank with my meal because she's 1 person I'm 100% certain cares about what I'm drinking.

 I'm on a Greek white wine kick right now (um, $6.99 at Total Wine? Dry and fantastic? Done), so that's what we had with this dinner:

Happy Monday!! Have a great week. Make this chicken.

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BLT Lettuce Wrap

Holy cow! Thank you all SO much for the support with the video. It was so fun to do, and that recipe is amazzzing. So is my super talented friend J.D.

Onto BLTs!

I was craving one the other day (I have no idea why), but I resisted my craving because BLT = lots of bread. I’m currently trying to avoid bread/pasta (SO DIFFICULT), so I attempted to find an alternative.

This was a pretty decent alternative! Not too much mayo, lots of bacon, and fresh tomatoes from our garden. It’s getting cooler, so I know they won’t be around for much longer. I’m enjoying them while I can!

Can we talk about bacon for a second? Why does bacon have such a bad rep? If you get the premium center cut bacon, there’s only 4 grams of fat in 3 slices, PLUS something like 8-9 grams of protein. Avoiding bacon is a very silly thing to do, in my opinion.

Here's what you need (from Skinny Taste):

2-3 large pieces of romaine lettuce

3-5 grape tomatoes, quartered

1-2 tsp of mayo

3 slices of bacon

fresh ground pepper

Here's what you do...

1. Bake your bacon. I always bake my bacon - 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Set aside.

2. Lay out 1 large lettuce leaf, and chop another leaf (you can skip this part if you think the lettuce wrap is enough lettuce. I like a lot of crunch, so I add additional lettuce.

3. In a small bowl, mix together mayo, tomatoes and black pepper to taste. This is my all time favorite mayo:

 4. Layer tomatoes, lettuce and bacon onto your lettuce leaf. Wrap up and enjoy!

This was really tasty, and I didn't have to feel guilty about eating 2!

Also, HUGE thank you to my amazing fiance for my new camera!! He got me this fantastic camera for our anniversary/my birthday, and this thing has a food setting. I need to learn the ins and outs, but, as I'm sure you can tell, my pictures are already looking better!!

Have a great weekend!

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Mexican Mac and Cheese...VIDEO!

My first ever cooking video!!

HUGE thanks to J.D. Casto with Castoriginial Productions for making this happen! It was so fun. Now you can all see what a crazy person I am :)

Original recipe: How Sweet Eats

The directions and official measurements are below the video. Enjoy, and thanks for watching!!

Here's what you need...

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, boiled and shredded
3 cups dry whole wheat noodles
1 medium red onion, diced
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
3/4 red pepper, diced
3/4 orange pepper, diced
1/2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin powder
cayenne pepper to taste
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
2 cups milk (I used 2%)
2 cups fresh shredded sharp cheddar
1 1/4 cup fresh shredded monterey jack cheese
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
bread crumbs

Here's what you do...

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Boil your water, cook your pasta, drain and set aside.

3. In about 1 tbsp olive oil, saute onion and peppers for about 5-6 minutes, until soft.

4. Add garlic and saute for another minute. Then, add chicken and spices. Stir, and put on a back burner on low.

5. In the meantime, add butter and flour to a pot and stir until combined. Add 2 cups of milk and stir until flour mixture is dissolved and milk is warm.

6. Slowly add your cheese and stir until combined and thick.

7. Pour cheese over the chicken mixture, then add your noodles. Pour into a baking dish and top evenly with bread crumbs and some leftover cheese.

8. Bake 20 minutes, then put under the broiler for 4-5 minutes, until cheese is browned.

9. ENJOY!!

This turned out SO well - it was delicious. And the video was such a fun experiment! Hopefully I can do more in the future.

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Veggie Pizza

You have no idea how good this tasted. You MUST make this.

I used my homemade pizza dough recipe and added some delicious veggies. This was truly one of the BEST pizzas I've ever made.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: if you don't own a pizza stone, go get one!!! You can actually find them for a fairly reasonable price (see here). Plus, making your own pizza saves on a ridiculous amount of calories. Definitely worth the effort.

Here's what you need (not including the dough recipe, which comes from How Sweet Eats):

Your homemade dough (or store bought)
6-7 spoonfuls of pizza sauce (I use Don Pepino's)
1 bag of 2% mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
1/2 small red onion
1/2 a large orange bell pepper
3-4 gloves of garlic, diced
1/2 a tomato, chopped into pieces
Oregano
Italian Seasoning
Fresh parsley for topping

Here's what you do...

1. After making your dough, spread sauce over dough. Then add mozzarella. Then evenly spread veggies over the pizza (including the garlic). Then top with parmesan, oregano and italian seasoning.

2. Bake at 380 degrees for 12 minutes on the bottom oven rack, then turn it 180 degrees and bake for another 8 minutes.

3. Remove, let cool, top with parsley, and enjoy!

I love when things turn out better than what you expected. This plus the GORGEOUS North Carolina weather made an excellent start to my week. I hope you have the same!

P.S. Sorry I've been MIA. I have some exciting things coming to the blog

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