Going Greek?

Last week, the mania of Sorority Recruitment took Colgate's campus by storm. Not wanting to be left out, Nug and I decided to go Greek as well. But instead of adding Greek letters to our wardrobe, we added some Greek inspiration to our dinner plans.

This.

Not this.

The result was a meal that took us just over an hour to prepare, even though it had MULTIPLE COMPONENTS.



COMPONENT ONE: Roasted Eggplant Delicious
We decided to try Barefoot Contessa's recipe for Roasted Eggplant Spread, with a few modifications. We diced up our Farmer's Market eggplant, tossed it in a bowl with half a yellow onion, minced garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and then put it in the oven to roast. (We love roasting. It's kind of our jam.)
When it was done cooking, we added some jarred roasted red peppers. The recipe then called for our roasted veggies to be blended in a food processor to make a spread. However, since we don't have a food processor, we went for our go-to substitute: mushing things with a fork. The result was a chunky, rich, slightly sweet eggplant side dish. The deliciousness to time/effort ratio on this was OFF THE CHARTS. It's definitely a new favorite.

Pre-mush Eggplant.

COMPONENT TWO: Grilled Chicken - Escape from Forced Vegetarianism
While that was cooking, we started on some grilled chicken breasts. Cooking meat is usually a daunting prospect for for first-time cooks like ourselves. There are temperatures, and flavors, and juices - all sorts of complications that vegetables do not present. And of course, there's the ever-looming threat of salmonella. So far, grilled chicken breasts are our only reliable pathway to the life of the omnivore. We just throw them in a pan with some oil, salt, and pepper, and a few minutes later... protein! They are also easy to freeze and store, so we always have them on hand.

COMPONENT THREE: Greek-Inspired Salad
We're using the phrase "Greek-inspired" pretty loosely here. We did buy a cucumber for just this purpose, but the theme sort of fell apart when we added craisins, and it morphed into our normal go-to salad. But really, who can say no to craisins? If the Greeks had known about craisins, we're sure they would have added them, too.

But, Greek or not, this component also gave us the opportunity to make one of our favorite things....

COMPONENT FOUR: LUNCH SALAD.
As we we put each salad ingredient on our dinner plates, we also added it to a tupperware for the next day. One prep, two meals! Huzzah!
Now I know what you're thinking: "But Bean, isn't lunch salad always the worst, because you can't add dressing ahead of time without making everything soggy?" Well my friend, that's where our genius truly lies. Nugget and I cut up the extra chicken breasts we had made for this purpose, put them in a bag with some balsamic vinegar, and shook them up until each piece was coated with balsamic goodness. Add those babies to lunch salad, and you get all of the flavor of salad dressing, without the soggy mess! Ta da!

COMPONENT FIVE: Tabouli we bought at Price Chopper. It pays to plan ahead!

With all of that together, Nug and I had a yummy, balanced, healthy meal on our plate (and another one in the fridge for tomorrow!) in a little over an hour. So whether you wear your letters every day, or you don't know the difference between φ and Δ, go Greek(ish) with this meal!