The Bachelorette Dinner, Part 1

As you may recall, Amie and I love our Bachelor Monday dinners! Past dinners can be found here: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, & Week 8. With the new season of The Bachelorette in full and very annoying swing, we are back to our whipping up our weekly dinner delights! Due to schedule conflicts, we did not cook for a few of the first episodes and I am a week behind in posting as well. So without further ado, enjoy our most recent "recipes"!

A couple of notes about this week's dinner:

1. It it by far one of the easiest dinners we have made and it was so delicious!

2. It includes another great use for Greek yogurt as previously discussed.

Roasted Chicken Greek Pitas

1 package/2 patties Trader Joe's Roasted Chicken Patties (8oz of cooked chicken or other chicken patties can be substituted)

1 dozen cherry tomatoes

3 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped

1 whole wheat pita

Homemade Tzatziki (recipe below)

1. Heat chicken patties per their instructions (I use the microwave) or prepare chicken as desired. Dice into cubes.

2. Slice whole wheat pita in half in order to make two "pockets".

3. Fill pita pockets with chicken, tomato and mint.

4. Serve with homemade tzatziki.

Homemade Tzatziki

1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt

juice from 1/2 a lemon

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small cucumber, diced

1 clove of garlic, minced

chopped mint, salt & pepper to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

2. Enjoy!

Sweet & Spicy Salad

2-3 handfuls Trader Joe's Wasabi Arugula

1/3 cup fat free feta

Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar (regular champagne vinegar with a little orange juice would probably be a fine substitution)

Olive Oil

Salt

1. Combine wasabi arugula and feta in a bowl.

2. Whisk together vinegar, olive oil and a dash of salt.

3. Toss and serve.

We enjoyed our meal with an appetizer platter of meats, cheese, etc from Trader Joe's and The Cheese Store of Silverlake.

Even though these blog entries are not specifically about The Bachelorette, is it just us or do you all want to throttle Ashley too?

The Bachelor Dinner, Part 3

So this week we didn't go all out with the cooking. Amie brought over some delicious tamales and sides from Heirloom LA and we just added to that already delightful feast. The item of choice was Trader Joe's Latin Style Black Bean Soup. While it is already pretty flavorful, we turned it up a notch with Tapatio spiked non-fat Greek style yogurt and chives.

Speaking of non-fat Greek style yogurt, this is a staple I highly recommend keeping in your refrigerator. Besides eating it as is (boring), you can do so many things with it and keep your calories low. Examples:

Sauces/Spreads

Besides the Tapatio version above, I've also done the following:

• Garlic & Red Wine Vinegar to make a healthy aioli spread
• Olive Tapenade to try to mimic the delicious fry dipping sauce from Nordstrom Cafe at Westfield Topanga. (Still needs work but was pretty good.)

Desserts

Frozen yogurt popsicles - yogurt, berries (I used frozen berries that had been thawed.) and a little sweetener (I use artificial sweetener.) in the blender. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze!

I plan to keep experimenting but would love to hear if you have created a great substitution or recipe with this style of yogurt.

While I'd love you all to be registered users and followers of my blog, I have changed the settings so you can comment even if you choose not to register. I'd love to hear your feedback on this and any other topics!