Easy Slow-Cooker Chicken Gyros and Homemade Tzatziki

Why hello there! I’m back with another 21 Day Fix approved recipe. I found this recipe when someone posted it in the 21 Day Fix Support/Recipes group. Since I absolutely love any type of Mediterranean food, I just had to try it.

The original recipe was posted to Six Sisters’ Stuff but I made some small changes based on my preference. And when I say my preference, I mean my Middle Eastern taste buds that very much enjoy garlic and lemon. Feel free to cut the amount of garlic and lemon.

Ingredients -

1. 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2. 4 cloves garlic, minced (I actually have a wooden mortar and pestle that I use to mash the garlic)

3. 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (typically one fresh lemon) or ½ lemon juice

4. 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

5. 2 tablespoons olive oil

6. 1 teaspoon sea salt

7. 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

8. 1 teaspoon dried oregano

9. 1/4 cup water

Directions –

1. You can begin by placing chicken in Ziploc baggie or Tupperware and adding 1 tablespoon oil, salt, red wine vinegar, oregano and garlic. Place in refrigerator and let sit for 30 minutes.

2. Spray crockpot with a non-stick cooking spray. Place chicken inside slow cooker and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. (Add in a fourth to half of the onion slices in the last 30 minutes to an hour. Save the rest for later.)

·       You can skip the marinating process by mixing all ingredients in a bowl and pour over the chicken once it has been placed in the slow cooker.

While the chicken is cooking, you can make your homemade tzaziki. This recipe, I seriously became obsessed with. I’m never buying tzatziki again!

Ingredients -

1. 1 6 oz Fage 0% Greek Yogurt (or Greek Yogurt of your liking)

2. 1 Persian cucumber, diced

3. 1 tablespoon lemon juice

4. 1 garlic clove, minced (or as mentioned above – use a mortar and pestle to mash)

5. 1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped

6. Dash of red wine vinegar

7. Salt and pepper to taste

Directions -

1. Mix first 6 ingredients together. Once well combined, add salt and pepper to taste.

2. Chill about one hour before serving.

Final prep of the sandwich –

I put together the sandwich in a Pocket Thin – 100% Whole Wheat Pita 

The additional ingredients I used for this was diced lettuce and tomatoes, the rest of the sliced onion, feta cheese, and kalamata olives. 

The way I count this for the 21DF is 1 red (easy to measure the meat into your container), 1 yellow (the open pita), 1 green (for lettuce/tomato/onion), 1 blue (cheese), and 1 orange (olives). I just measure out the tzaziki into two tablespoons and don’t count it.

Greek Orzo Pasta Salad

Hi All -

I was recently going through my Pinterest recipes, looking for something somewhat specific but yet not. I knew I wanted something Mediterranean so I went through using different words to find something that would catch my eye. I came across Joy the Baker's "It's Not Summer Yet Greek Pasta Salad." I liked the idea but knew I would want to change it up. So here's my take on it:

For the Dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil

1 1/2 lemons, juiced

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

For the Pasta Salad:

5 cups cooked (cooled) orzo pasta

3 chopped Persian cucumbers 

2 cups halved cherry tomatoes

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1/2 cup chopped heart of palm

1/2 cup kalamata olives, halved

sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large bowl toss together orzo pasta, cucumbers, tomatoes, feta cheese, onion, heart of palm and olives.  Add olive oil, lemon juice and garlic powder. Mix well and add salt and pepper to taste. You can serve immediately or chill and then serve. Personally, I like it a bit chilled once all the ingredients have been mixed together. 

I would like to say that every time I make this, I base it off of taste. Some days I go with more lemon, some days more olives, more garlic (so I’ll add fresh crushed garlic on those days), or whatever else I might be craving. Being Middle Eastern, it’s REALLY hard for me to stick to any sort of recipe. 98% of the time I ask my mom or one of my aunts for directions on how to cook something, they never use measurements so that's also become a habit for me. I do recommend that you do that also every once in a while and listen to your taste buds when they're craving!

I hope you enjoy this recipe! And thank you to Joy the Baker for inspiring me. :) Enjoy and talk to you soon!

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 Chicken, Lemony 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. :)