Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Greek Inspired Dinner

Hello! I hope you are all having a great week because I know I am! Today's post will be a Greek inspired recipe that I found through Pinterest from the website Budget Bytes. We used their recipes for Greek Marinated ChickenLemony Cucumber Couscous Salad and our own roasted asparagus.

One of my best friends, Vikkie (Hi Vik!), came over to help me with this. We absolutely love cooking together so this was a blast! She also took all of the photos because she wanted to test out the camera and guess what, she's an awesome picture taker! So here we go.

Greek Marinated Chicken
Ingredients
  • 1 cup plain Greek yogurt 
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil 
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced 
  • ½ Tbsp dried oregano 
  • ½ medium lemon 
  • salt 
  • fresh cracked pepper 
  • ¼ bunch fresh parsley 
  • 3½ to 4 lbs chicken pieces, thighs & drumsticks
Instructions
  1. To make the marinade, combine the yogurt, olive oil, minced garlic, oregano, salt, and some freshly cracked pepper in a bowl. Also add the juice from half of the lemon. Stir until the ingredients are well combined. Roughly chop a big handful, or about ¼ bunch, of parsley and stir it into the marinade.
  2. Add the chicken pieces and marinade in a gallon sized ziplock bag. Remove as much air as possible, close the bag tightly, and massage the bag to mix the contents and make sure the chicken is well coated. Refrigerate the bag for 30 minutes.
  3. After marinating for 30 minutes, either cook the chicken on a grill OR preheat the oven to 375 degrees in preparation to bake the chicken.
  4. To bake the chicken, place the chicken pieces in a large casserole dish. Bake the chicken at 375 degree for 45 then up the temperature to 400 degrees for the last 10 minutes, or until golden brown on top.


Lemony Cucumber Couscous 

Ingredients
  • 1 8 oz box of Trader Joe's Israeli Couscous 
  • 2 Persian cucumbers 
  • ¼ bunch parsley 
  • ½ medium lemon 
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil 
  • ¼ tsp garlic powder 
  • salt 
  • fresh cracked pepper
  • 3 oz. crumbled feta cheese 
Instructions
  1. Bring a medium pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the couscous and continue to let it boil for about 5 minutes. Drain the couscous in a wire mesh colander (this helps avoid having the couscous fall through the holes). Rinse briefly with cool water to cool off the couscous and then place in the fridge until ready to finish the recipe.
  2. Cut the cucumber into quarter rounds and place them in a large bowl. Take a big handful (or about ¼ bunch) of parsley and roughly chop the parsley and then add it to the bowl with the cucumbers.
  3. In a small bowl, squeeze the juice from the half lemon. Add the olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and some freshly cracked pepper. Stir to combine. Taste and add more ingredients according to taste.
  4. Combine the cooled couscous, cucumbers, parsley and crumbled feta. Pour the dressing all over and gently stir to combine all of the ingredients. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper as needed. Chill for about 10 minutes before serving. 

Roasted Asparagus 

Ingredients
  • asparagus
  • white wine
  • lemon juice 
  • olive oil
  • salt 
  • fresh cracked pepper 

Instructions
  1. Place asparagus in a gallon sized ziplock bag. Add white wine, lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper to taste. 
  2. Allow asparagus to marinate while oven preheats to 375 degrees.
  3. Once preheated, place in oven and roast for about 25 minutes. 


First I'd like to say that we do not take credit for creating the chicken or couscous salad recipes. We used the recipes from Budget Bytes and adjusted accordingly. The only thing we would do different is marinate the chicken overnight. 

This whole process took about two hours because we kept stopping to take pictures. But don't worry, we had appetizers to helps us last until dinner.

And the final result, ta dah!


This was probably one of the best dinners I have had in a long time. The couscous was beyond amazing and the chicken was just so good. I hope you all enjoy this dinner as much as we did. Let me know what you think! Talk to you all soon. :)

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