Greek Chicken Gyros

Flatbreads topped with fresh vegetables, Greek-marinated chicken, and tzatziki

I cannot get enough of anything that includes naan or pita, fresh vegetables, feta, and tzatziki. There is a local food place where I get chicken shwarma and gyro plates all the time and it's my obsession at the moment. I really liked the ease of this recipe where it's really just marinate the chicken and then cook it. Everything else is just chop or scoop and you're good to go. It's such a fresh and bright meal.

Steak Gyros with Tzatziki Sauce

Fantastic marinated flank steak with homemade cucumber tzatziki sauce that I dare you to not eat by the spoonful!

We had a German fast food restaurant locally for many years and we went every few months to get doner because it's sooo good. Unfortunately, before COVID even struck, the restaurant closed down and we lost our doner supplier. My understanding is that there a lot of things in the Europe area that are similar, including gyros. I am the only person in my family who likes lamb, so I thought this recipe would be great for sating the doner cravings but also not having my entire family complain about lamb. Also I don't have a rotisserie spit thing to throw a big bunch of lamb and beef on, so flank steak will have to do. I definitely want to try pita flatbread next time instead of pockets. I think it'd be way easier to serve.

Chicken Gyro Salad

Gyros in a bowl - salad style!

I really love gyros and Mediterranean food. I also really love salads for dinner. Finding this recipe was kismet. I will say that the pita chips are such a fun addition but I prefer to mix them in right before serving and don't want extras in if there are leftovers because they will get soggy. This recipe of tzatziki sauce was really wonderful too! Just slightly different than I'm used to, but really great.

One Pot Greek Chicken Risotto

This baked risotto is super easy to make with less babysitting - and it's full of Greek flavors!

I've only made risotto a handful of times, but I've watched so much Hell's Kitchen and I'm certain that this method is probably frowned upon by the pros. However, I really liked this method and I found it to be perfectly fine. It resulted in a delicious dinner and I was, of course, over the moon excited about the Greek food. I used a really wonderful feta cheese that had Mediterranean herbs in it and it's probably my favorite feta of all-time.

Greek Meatball Bowls

Meatballs with a secret ingredient served over couscous with a tomato cucumber salad and tzatziki sauce.

I feel like I'm posting a lot of foods that are Greek or Mediterranean and I cannot get enough of it. I am always craving tzatziki sauce. As long as I'm not making the boys eat tzatziki or feta, they are okay with Greek food. Well, Matthew also doesn't eat the cucumber and tomatoes either, but he's fine with the protein and the grain LOL. I only have one other couscous recipe on my blog which is crazy to me because it's from January of 2020 and it took me this long to post the next one. That likely means that we had couscous for the first time in 2018 and then we had it again in 2019 (this recipe). I cannot think of a time in 2020 that we had it and I'm definitely going to remedy that in 2021. Alright enough boring rambling, check out this awesome recipe!

Greek Chicken Rice Bowls

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Mediterranean Meatball Gyro Sandwiches #FantasticalFoodFight

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The winner of the ICE CREAM Food Fight is Nichole from Cookaholic Wife with her Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream. There is a fresh blueberry syrup swirl and crumbled graham crackers with the cheesecake filling but best of all, it's a no-churn recipe!

Ultimate Summer Salad

The best part of summer is all the fresh fruits and vegetables you can combine to make a delicious salad!

The first time I saw fruit in a salad, I was a little skeptical, but decided to try it. I am fully a fruit in savory salad supporter now. Honestly, just throw a bunch of veggies and fruits my way and I'm a happy camper. This particular salad has blueberries, strawberries, avocado, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, red onions, and radishes. I think it was the first time my family had had radishes, which is something I ate a lot as a kid because we had them in our garden. I served my salad up with an apple cider vinaigrette, but I'm sure you could use a wide variety of dressings and it would still be fantastic. I also served mine up with some grilled chicken to make it a main dish. Without protein, it would be a wonderful side salad.

Korean BBQ Steak Bowls

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Gyro Kebabs #FantasticalFoodFight

Welcome to another Food Fight! Fantastical Food Fight is a group of food bloggers who will get a theme or ingredient each month and make some sort of variation for it. It could be traditional or nontraditional and can be found in a cookbook, on a blog, or be a blogger's own creation! For more details, check out this page.

This month's Fantastical Food Fight theme is KEBABS. Or kabobs? Kababs? I don't know how you want to spell it, but it's food on a skewer! Bonus points if it's grilled because July is National Grilling Month. I knew right away what I wanted to make - these amazing kebabs from Wendy's blog! I found these when I was hunting for a Secret Recipe Club recipe. I have never purchased lamb and made a recipe at home. I've only had lamb in doner kebab. However, our local German fast food restaurant shut down for good and I can no longer get doner and it bums me out so much. Enter this recipe!

I loved that doner kebabs had tons of fresh veggies and tzatziki sauce (a MUST). These kebabs have a sauce that is very close to tzatziki sauce and I absolutely adore the Greek salsa. The recipe is easy to prepare and the lamb is the only part that needs cooking time and even it doesn't take long. The seasonings added to the lamb kebabs are simple but work so well with the salsa and feta-yogurt sauce. All-in-all this is definitely a recipe I will make every once in a while (since lamb is a bit more expensive per pound than other meats) because I just love the combination of ingredients so much and it's incredibly easy to make.

Oven Baked Schnitzel Burgers

Crispy oven baked schnitzel makes a perfect sandwich!

Yes, I am posting yet another schnitzel recipe on the blog. We have schnitzel pretty often and I definitely like to switch it up each time we have it. It definitely hasn't gotten old for us, but it's still nice to have something just a little different. This recipe for schnitzel is baked and that did make me a little weary. However, the schnitzel comes out crispy and super tasty. I love the addition of paprika to this recipe. I would say it's a pretty authentic addition because my German sister-in-law puts paprika on everything or at least it always seems that way! :) The kids, of course, loved this sandwich, and we will have to do more toppings next time. There was no arugula or cucumber when I was at the store to get ingredients, so I ended up doing them pretty plainly. I do want to try with cucumber and tomato badly though!

Asian Chicken Noodle Salad

I could eat the Thai peanut salad dressing with a spoon, but alas I had to save it for this wonderful salad!

You know how there's that thing where if you crave one thing, it means your body needs something else? I wonder what it means when you crave veggies. I have eaten a salad as a snack. I have no shame. Salads are just one of my favorite meals ever. I had a salad yesterday with no meat on it, but I do prefer chicken on my salad. I love the addition of cabbage to the lettuce and all the goodies that are in this particular salad before you even get to the dressing. I'm not kidding when I say I'd eat it with a spoon. The savory factor added by the peanut butter is straight up crazy! It's funny because years ago when I got the cookbook this recipe is from...I probably skipped past this recipe thinking it was crazy to have peanut butter in a savory dish...and even crazier to put it in salad dressing. But now, I am all for it! I wish I had been a fraction more willing to try new things back then.

Chicken Enchiladas with Roasted Poblano Salsa and Cucumber Pico de Gallo

These impressive enchiladas have the perfect balance of everything with homemade salsa and cool and spicy pico de gallo.

Sometimes I will put off making a recipe because I think it looks really complicated and like too much work. I find it pretty funny that I will take the time to measure out what seems like at least a dozen spices for Skyline Chili, but I can't chop up a few things and stir them together. So I've been trying to look at recipes and estimate the time it would take to make that recipe and TRY my hardest to plan it on a day that doesn't have too much going on.

This recipe had me stupid excited because I love homemade salsa and I never get to use poblanos because I will plan a recipe and then my chosen grocery store will be out of them. I was pretty stoked that the store had poblanos and I was able to make this recipe because YASSSSSSSS. First off, this poblano salsa is not only tasty but super duper gorgeous. Look at it!

There is a ton of poblano salsa in it and the quesadilla queso type cheese is so melty and delicious. And let's just talk about the cucumber pico...

It is LITERALLY (Chris Traeger voice) the icing on the cake...but pico de gallo on the enchiladas. It's so so wonderful. It's both cool and spicy and I could eat it by itself. It's amazing. The entire combination of the enchiladas, salsa, and pico is incredible. I can't get over it.

Chicken Enchilada Salad

 No need to eat a boring old salad - this salad has seasoned chicken, corn, black beans, and more!

Because I'm trying to be more mindful and have some self-control, I have begun to eat salads for lunch once again. I used to get little prepacked salads when I was pregnant with Mason and doing my in-class observations. My two favorite are the Caesar salad and the Southwest Chicken salad. The Southwest Chicken comes with seasoned chicken, roasted corn, tortillas strips, Mexican style cheese, and Southwest ranch dressing.

When I stumbled upon this recipe, I knew it would be perfect for dinner and I knew that I was going to love it. I, as always, was right. This salad has many of the same elements as the prepackaged one - seasoned chicken, corn (although I didn't roast mine), Mexican style cheese, tortilla strips, and Southwest ranch dressing. It also has black beans, cucumber, tomato, and green onions which really take it to a whole other level and help make it a more filling meal.

Nutty Cheesy Salad

Prior to this lovely surprise pregnancy, I was on a salad binge. I ate salads for lunch every single day. I could not get enough veggies and yumminess. Then...SURPRISE. I got pregnant. Most of the time, I ate chicken on my salads at lunchtime...then I suddenly hated chicken. It always tasted like it was 3 days old (like leftovers) and microwaved...no matter how it's cooked. This quite literally drove me insane. Thankfully, second trimester is being kind to me and I can eat chicken again. AND COMMENCE SALAD EATING! I never stopped eating a crapton of veggies. This pregnancy has been very kind with cravings - veggies and fruit, please!

We had this salad prior to pregnancy for dinner one night and it was super super good. I typically will eat almonds and/or sunflower seeds on my salad. In fact, most of my salads are very similar to this...except that we used a ton of nuts to make it extra nutty. And it was fabulous!

Secret Recipe Club: Zingy Green Smoothie

This month I was on the hunt for a good summer-y recipe from my assigned blog: Food Baby Life written by Aussie mom of two, Susan. I almost went with the The Hulk Green Smoothie...and can't help but have been tempted by these Easy Nutella Brownie Bites or these Cappuccino Brownie Bites. But ultimately I decided upon the Zingy Green Juice recipe and modified it to a smoothie recipe because unfortunately I don't have a juicer. But I really wish I did! I cut down one apple and used Greek yogurt as my base with a little bit of pineapple juice.

I loved how just absolutely delicious this smoothie was. The kids gobbled it up too, which is a huge deal to me because Matthew is much like me where he won't really eat a lot of fruits because of their texture - smoothies/juice are usually the perfect compromise. I can't wait to make it again because I want to put in my popsicle mold! The lemon and ginger really brought out that little zip to make it more than just a fruity sweet smoothie :)

Scandinavian Cucumbers

I grew up in Minnesota - I'm mostly Norwegian (probably a little German too, but mostly Norwegian). My great-great grandfather came from Norway over to America and settled in the area that became the town I grew up in. We all celebrated Norwegian holidays and I grew up eating a lot of typical Norwegian food. My mom made cucumbers like this allllllll the time. It was probably my absolute favorite way of eating them. They are kind of tangy and sweet at the same time :)