Greek Recipes

Hello everyone, I wanted to share with you one of my Ultimate Greek Chicken Dinners! My family and I are addicted to Greek food, yes addicted. I can't go a week without cooking something Greek and it's always Greek Chicken or Spanakopita, which is a Greek Spinach Pie. BTW, I will make Spanakopita soon for the site. My Greek Chicken is really a simple, but flavorful recipe. I take extra virgin olive oil, plain Greek yogurt, loads of garlic, dried oregano, and a little other spices. Mix all these ingredients together in a bowl and marinate for about 2 hours or overnight if you can wait that long. Next, let's prepare the feta rice. I turn my rice a vibrant yellow color with the use of turmeric. This rice is flavorful and the feta cheese kicks it up! The rice is cooked, and the chicken has been grilled for about 7-8 minutes per side.  The Tzatziki sauce is really simple. I take half of an organic cucumber, peeled if non organic.  Grate the cucumber and place it in a clean towel...

Hey folks remember months ago I mentioned that I was a lucky ZonePerfect Blog Forward Challenger ? Yes, that challenge. Well all is going great! I am down 40 lbs. YEP, BIG 4-0. And you know that I love food. But I've made some real big changes. Not only do I enjoy my ZonePerfect bars as snacks, I've also made other big changes. Soda, cut those out completely. I drink water, yes, water. Buckets of water, flavored with lemon, mint, and cranberry juice. If you want some of my flavored water recipes, check out my other site. Not Quite A Vegan! Condiments, Greek yogurt and avocados are my new best friend. I marinate everything in Greek yogurt and I love avocados. A little avocado goes a long way in making food rich and delicious! I love sweet potatoes, but YES, I still eat all things white, like pasta loaded with veggies, and baked fries. Here's my improvements over the last few months: 1. Not eating past 8:00 p.m. at night. 2. Limiting meat to 1-2 times per week. 3. Salads and ...

It's grilling time folks! Actually, I live in the desert so pretty much everyday is grilling day. I am highly prepared this summer with my outdoor cooking equipment. I have my smoker , charcoal grill , and my new George Foreman Indoor Outdoor Grill for my daughter.  This is a really simple dish. I took whitefish fillets and marinated them for about 15 minutes in citrus juices, spices, and a little olive oil. Grill the fish for about 6-7 minutes per side. While the fish was marinating, I made a Sriracha sour cream sauce by mixing sour cream with sriracha hot sauce. This sauce is surprisingly not spicy, the sour cream cools off the sriracha. I served the tacos with shredded cabbage, lots of cheese and a squeeze of lime juice. Big Goo decided that I needed more lemon juice, so I squeezed extra lemon on top as well. I will admit he was correct, the extra lemon kicked the tacos up! Everyone in my house is a food critic, I am used to it, it's my fault for always asking their opinion...

Happy Memorial Day! It's such a beautiful sunny day and although I have yet to decide what I am going to cook for my family today, I did decide that dip must always be part of any holiday meal. My daughter and I were looking to create a quick, one pot dip recipe. Well, actually this was her idea because she didn't want dishes. Normally, when I make onion dip I always saute the onions for about 20 minutes. Today, my daughter said, "Ma' it's just for us, just put the onions in the bowl and mix it all together, they will cook when we bake the dip." I must admit, the kid was correct! The onions came out so sweet and tender, it really didn't need to be cooked separately. I can truly get into this one pot dip idea. It's spicy, cheesy, and dipilicious! We sat down with a whole bunch of crackers and didn't move until the dip was almost gone! Enjoy. Hot Jalapeno Onion Cheese Dip Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 45 minutes Total Time: 50 minutes Servings: 6 I...

The Autumn colours in Launceston, Tasmania are simply spectacular. Last weekend, Mr K and I spent two days, one day in the glorious vineyards of the Tamar Valley - soaking in the beautiful, warm autumn colours and the second at the the misty, prehistoric-looking Cataract Gorge. It was so wonderful to see and feel the season changing, which we rarely get to do in Sydney, with its temperate weather. The colours were so intense and they reminded us both, so much of our recent travels through the vineyards of Tuscany , last autumn. The cool climate wines of the Tamar Valley were equally as spectacular as the autumn colours. Josef Chromy, Goaty Hill and Holm Oak were particular standouts. Incredible scenery and equally incredible wines, can only result in one thing - a picnic among the vines. Inspired by the warm colour pallet, this pumpkin and feta pie, known in Greek as kolokythopita was just perfect for the picnic basket, along with some olives, beautiful Tasmanian cheese and fruit. In t...

  I love Sunday Ragu! You're probably wondering exactly what is Sunday Ragu? Well, in my house it's a big pot of pasta sauce that has been cooked all day, low and slow.   I make Sunday Ragu with all types of meats, from beef, veal, pork, lamb, turkey, chicken. I've used pork chops, roast, short ribs, oxtails. If it's meat I love, then I've used it at one time or another in my Sunday Ragu.   Today I went with beef roast and ground turkey. The key to making this in the slow cooker is to brown the meats prior to finishing off the dish in the slow cooker. It's also important to make sure you add the Italian parsley at the end of the cooking time. I find that adding the fresh parsley last, gives the sauce a better flavor.  Also, don't forget to remove the lid the last 30 minutes of cooking time, it's important to allow the sauce to thicken and I do this by making sure I remove the lid. This sauce is all complete and ready to eat, I served it over hot spaghett...

As we've discussed numerous times in the past, my love, i.e. obsession with Mexican food. I must inform you about one of my favorite Mexican dishes, Tortilla Soup! You can make tortilla soup numerous ways, you can go the route of my Smoked Chicken Tortilla Soup , which takes time because you have to smoke the chicken first.   Not everyone owns a smoker so I wanted to recreate the recipe in a manner that would be possible for all to enjoy the taste and flavors of Tortilla Soup! This has to be the simplest, quickest, soup I've ever made. I took red and green salsa, I went with chunky red for texture and smooth green salsa. I added a few spices and used a store bought roasted chicken. Finish it off with fresh cilantro and lime juice, and it's time to eat! It was that simple, takes less than 30 minutes, and did I mention, this is actually a low fat soup, but you can't tell because the flavor is beyond delicious! Quick and Easy Roasted Chicken Tortilla Soup Prep Time: 5 minu...

I will always be a California gal in my heart. I was raised in California, which means, I grew up eating some of the best food in the world. Next to the south, California has some of the best food you will ever taste! The fact that California is so diverse, affords residents and visitors the opportunity to taste foods from around the world. Now, I will be honest, the California Burrito is not gourmet eating, unless you're from California where we take burrito eating very seriously. All these years I really didn't know there was a special name for one of my favorite burritos. The term California Burrito must have been a modern day name invention. When I was a kid we called it a burrito stuffed with french fries, no fancy "California Burrito." We would go to the local taco truck, and yes, this was in the 1980's people. And YES, all these people who claim to have invented food trucks copied from the Mexican cooks who I grew up with. Since I am on the subject, I notic...