A couple of Fresh Veggie Recipes ^_^

I have been meaning to get on the blog here and share these recipes with you for a few weeks now. Since I finally got here to post the giveaway, I thought I would share these real quickly as well. Both of them are easy to make and delicious, which makes them a winner in our house! And since we have been trying to eat more yummy veggies, they fit right into our new meal plan.

Although we don't usually ever eat them together in the same meal.

If you aren't already, I encourage you to eat organic veggies: they are so much better for you and taste far better in my opinion, too. Buying local is the best, whenever possible. I am learning to incorporate more local veggies when I can. Among other things, it ensures the freshness and supports your neighbor's businesses. :)
First one: Chicken Salad in a Pita!  Since it's the only pita I really make, it's known simply as "pitas" around here. As in, "It's pita night." I have had this recipe in my box since I was a teenager, but didn't make it until about 5 years ago. It is so refreshing! Nice for lunch or light dinner, especially on these warm days we've been having:

1 cup your favorite salad lettuce

1 cup alfalfa sprouts or pea shoots 

1 cup tomatoes, diced

1/2 cup carrots, finely chopped (or shredded)

1/2 cup green bell peppers, chopped

1/4 cup of mayo (or your favorite salad dressing might work nicely)

pita pockets

1 chicken breast, cooked and chopped

As you can see, the most time consuming part of this recipe is all the chopping. If you have a super-duper chopper thingy, it would probably go pretty quickly. But I do it all the old fashioned way, so I try to save time by cooking the chicken while I am chopping all the veggies.

DIRECTIONS are pretty straightforward: just toss it all in a bowl and stuff the pitas with the salad. I highly recommend warming the pita pockets, it makes it sooo yummy when the cool salad is stuffed in the nice warm, chewy pita bread. I usually wrap 3 pitas in a towel and put them in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Nom nom!

The chicken definitely adds a lot of flavor, but I would say it is optional because I really feel that this could possibly stand alone as a vegetarian dish. Another option: when I made it for a vegetarian guest one night, I just added a little bit of tofu "chikin" and they said it was most acceptable.

Fun to play with this one. You can add whatever you want, basically. Joel likes a little bit of red onion if we have it around. I added some Persian cucumbers the other night and it added some extra Yum to it. :)

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The second recipe is easy-breezy. I make it at least once a week because we like it so much and never seem to get tired of it. :)

 Charity's Greek Salad:

1 tomato, chopped

2 Persian cucumbers, peeled and chopped (I get the organic Persians from TJ's)

~1/4 cup (or 2 oz.) feta cheese, crumbled

Italian dressing

That's it! You can add more or less cheese to your taste. And over time you can fine-tune the tomato/cucumber ratio as well.  

Enjoy!