Cold Couscous Salad

I first made this salad one hot summer when I was in graduate school. It's healthy, crunchy, and light. You can use whatever flavor of couscous you like best.

Ingredients:
1 box couscous
1 can corn
1 small to medium red onion, chopped
6-8 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup red wine vinegar (or to taste)
1/4 cup light olive oil (or to taste)
kosher salt to taste

Cook the couscous according to box directions. Place cooked couscous into large bowl to cool. Add the remaining ingredients and stir. Put in the fridge for a couple of hours to allow the flavors to blend.

Sauteed Chicken in Tarragon Cream Sauce

This chicken recipe uses tarragon in the cream sauce, which has a really nice, rather sweet flavor. In place of heavy cream I've used skim milk in this recipe and it was good, it just had fewer calories. 

Chicken:
2 tbsp butter
4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper 

Sauce:
2 tbsp yellow or white onion, chopped
1 tbsp flour
1 cup dry white wine
1 tsp dried tarragon
1/2 cup heavy cream

In a large pan, heat butter over medium heat. Season the chicken with 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and the pepper and add it to the pan. Cook the chicken until brown, about 5 minutes. Turn and cook until just done, 4 to 5 minutes longer. Remove the chicken from the pan and put it in a warm spot.

Reduce the heat to medium low. Stir in the onion and cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the onion and stir to combine. Increase the heat to medium, whisk in the wine and the tarragon, and cook until the sauce starts to thicken, about 2 minutes. Stir in the cream and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Pour sauce over the chicken and serve.

Greek Salad & Dressing

I worked at a Greek restaurant in the suburbs of Chicago when I was a teenager. I was strongly influenced by the food prepared by Greek cooks. I learned to love feta cheese, cream of chicken soup with rice, Greek salad, Athenian steak, and last, but certainly not least, lemon. Lots of lemon. This recipe makes a flavorful Greek salad that doesn't use lettuce but instead, includes tomato, red onion, and feta cheese. 

Salad:

1 lb grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced 

1 cup Greek feta cheese, crumbled

Dressing:

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 garlic clove

1/2 small shallot, chopped

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon dried Greek oregano

1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme

1 large basil leaf

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt & freshly ground pepper

In a food processor or blender, combine the red wine vinegar with the garlic clove, shallot, mustard, oregano, thyme and basil and puree until smooth. With the machine on, slowly add the olive oil. Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, combine the tomato halves, sliced onion and crumbled feta cheese. Toss with the vinaigrette and serve the salad immediately.

I learned this word at the Greek restaurant--Opa! 

A Greek word or pronouncement of celebration; the celebration of life itself.

Baked Mini Meatballs with Feta Cheese

I felt like making meatballs recently so I looked up a few recipes, modified them, added my own touches, and came up with the recipe below. Since lean ground beef is used (90/10 or 85/15) make sure you don't over cook them or they will be dry. This recipes makes about 36 2" meatballs so if that's too many, you can freeze them. You can easily double the recipe if you need a larger quantity. Enjoy!

Baked Mini Meatballs with Feta Cheese

1 pound lean ground beef

1 egg

1/8 cup sweet onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup feta cheese

1/3 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Coat a cookie sheet with baking spray. Mix all ingredients until well blended. Shape beef mixture into 2" meatballs and place on cookie sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes. Sprinkle with kosher salt (I always use kosher but you can use whatever you'd like. I think kosher brings out the flavor of food better.)