For the past week I have been gallivanting across Europe. Before you get too jealous, I was one of four chaperones to 29 high school students. Sounds daunting, but it was still awesome. After taking a couple of days of recovery, I’m back in the cooking saddle. Because I studied abroad in the South of France, whenever I think about French cuisine, I think of North African/Middle Eastern dishes. Thus, for dinner tonight, we dined al fresco on chicken kebab pitas, grilled beets, fresh (tahini free!) hummus, couscous, and Nutella and banana crêpes for dessert. Amazing.
Chicken Pitas
Marinade
Juice of 2 lemons
3 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt to taste
Kebabs
1 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into bite-sized cubes
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1/2 of a red onion, sliced
- Combine all of the ingredients of the marinade into a plastic bag, add the chicken, and allow it to sit for at least an hour.
- While the chicken is marinating, soak about 10 skewers in water so that they don’t burn when placed on the grill for an hour.
- After the chicken has marinated to your liking, alternate pieces of chicken with the tomatoes and red onion on the skewers.
- Grill it, baby!
Grilled Beets
3 beets sliced to about 1/4″ thickness
2 Tb olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
- Simply toss the beet slices with the olive oil, salt, and pepper and grill for about 3 minutes on each side. Yum!
Tahini-free Hummus
Tahini can be annoying to find if you don’t have a Middle Eastern grocer near you. This recipe eliminates the need for the fatty sesame paste and reduces the calories/fat content.
1 15-oz can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
juice from 1 lemon
1 tsp olive oil
3/4 cup of fat-free Greek yogurt
3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste
- Blend the chickpeas, yogurt, lemon juice and olive oil in a food processor until it is smooth, but slightly chunky. Then add the garlic and salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.
Put all of this deliciousness on a pita and add some feta. Enjoy!
Baby Ponderings 