pretend greek night

Here's another of our summer food favorites! I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but I can't remember when. You know, as I look at the photo, I realize that gooey foods do not necessarily make pretty pictures.  Some of you may be getting ill even as I type. I am sorry.

This is my completely made up "pretend Greek" dinner.  You can totally wing it.  It's good for me because I can remember what goes into it when I'm grocery shopping.

Here's what you need:

• cooked, shredded chicken (Sometimes I marinate bone-in chicken breasts in Greek salad dressing overnight and then just bake or grill them.)(Also, there are always the deli chickens at the grocery store.)(But don't just cube a boneless skinless chicken breast, because it will taste like nothing. Shred chicken that had the bone in it.)
• two boxes of couscous (I like Near East Roasted Garlic & Oil)(Near East is owned by Quaker, which I think is funny.)
• a cucumber (if you're feeling fancy you can get the English cucumbers without seeds that come wrapped in plastic, but a plain old cucumber works)
• a red pepper
• an onion
• hummus (I really love the Mediterranean Hummus in a big tub from Trader Joe's)
• tzatziki (This is made of yogurt, garlic, cucumbers, oil, and some other stuff. If you live by a Daphne's Greek Cafe, they sell it in a little tub. It's delish.  I have also bought it at the Pasadena High School Farmer's Market, and it was fantastic. And it's available at Trader Joe's, although their version is not my favorite, but it's still good.)
• plain yogurt (You don't have to use both the tzatziki and the yogurt, because it's kind of redundant. But if you just choose one, choose the plain yogurt. Greek plain yogurt is the best since we're pretending this is Greek.)
• feta cheese
• pita bread (Again, Daphne's has yummy pita bread, and so does whoever the vendor is at the Pasadena High School Farmer's Market. I like it fresh because it's soft and kind of oily. When I buy it at our grocery store, I get the Thomas' Sahara Pita Pockets in the plastic tub thingy. I've tried Sara Lee before, but they seemed dry and tasteless to me.)

Cook the couscous according to the directions on the package. (For more flavor, replace the water with chicken broth.) In the meantime, dice a red pepper and some onion and sautee them in olive oil.  (Sometimes I skip the onion and just use red pepper.) Dice the cucumber.

Then just kind of plop everything onto a plate. Start with the couscous, and top it with the pepper, onion, and shredded chicken. Then make little piles on the sides of hummus, tzatziki, yogurt, and feta cheese. Then place the pita bread lovingly on the side. 

When you eat it, you just kind of mix it all into each other in different combinations. I recommend mixing the plain yogurt into the couscous, because this makes it creamy and you'll think you've died and gone to heaven if you have a bite of this with the chicken and peppers.  The Greek yogurt is a little sour, and then the couscous gets soft, and oh, it's so good.

This is nice for the summer because it really doesn't heat up your kitchen very much.

ps Deb, please don't laugh at this, because I bet you know from Greek. :)