Recipe:Tzatziki

I love when simple ingredients are used to make something really tasty. Tzatziki fits into that category for me, but it is not commonly found in stores or restaurants unless you live in an ethnically diverse area. Tzatziki would best be described as a sauce. I have seen different recipes for it and some make it with a base of sour cream, but traditionally it is made with strained yogurt. I have seen some store-bought versions, but looking at the ingredient label you will most often find mile long list of ingredients that you can't pronounce. Not my idea of tasty. Luckily, tzatziki is easy to make at home.

The first time I tasted, or even heard of tzatziki was when I visited Athens in 2004. I was a college student at the time and my friends and I stumbled across the Alexander the Great restaurant while exploring the city. Our host was very friendly and invited us to try some tzatziki and some stuffed grape leaves for free along with the rest of our meal. During that visit I became a big fan of both items.

Its been a long time since then so I really don't know how my version compares to what I was served in Greece. However, my uses for it go well beyond simply eating it with pita bread like we did that night in Athens. Tzatziki is a great topping for grilled meat (when I am eating meat), a tasty and healthy substitute for butter and sour cream on a baked potato, and a great dip for veggies. I am sure there are more uses that are just waiting to be discovered!

The following is a my version of Tzatziki. I can't remember what my original source or sources might have been for this recipe, but it is not unlike many others out there. Other recipes may call for extra ingredients, but I prefer this simple version. I live alone so this recipes doesn't make as much as some other recipes, but you can always double or triple the recipe as needed.

Tzatziki Ingredients

• 1 cup Non-fat greek yogurt (you can also use regular yogurt, but it must be drained)
• 1 cup cucumber, peeled, de-seeded and shredded
• 1 clove garlic
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 2 Tbsp mint, parsley, or dill (or a combination). Fresh is preferred.

Tzatziki Directions

If you are not using greek yogurt, you will need to drain your regular non-fat yogurt. This can be done by using cheesecloth and a colander to drain the yogurt of whey. You usually need to let it sit for at least a couple hours or overnight. For time sake, I just use the greek. I know it can be expensive, but I have found it at my local Sam's Club store for cheaper than at any of the regular grocery stores in my area. Measure 1 cup of your greek or drained yogurt into a 1 quart bowl.


For the cucumber, I use a hothouse cucumber, but any variety will do. Hothouse cucumbers are called "seedless" but looking at them you can see this is not really true, so the seeds still need to be removed. After peeling your cucumber, cut it down the middle to expose the seeds on either half. 

Use a spoon to scrape out the seeds. 

Once the seeds are removed, use the large holes in a box grater to shred the cucumber. In some recipes, you may be instructed to salt the cucumber and then squeeze it to remove excess water, but I find it sufficient just to squeeze it without the salt. If you have cheesecloth handy you can wrap it in that and squeeze it over the sink. Or, if you are like me, you will find a couple sheets of paper towel gets the job done as long as it is good quality and doesn't easily fall apart. Add your shredded, drained cucumber to your yogurt. 

For the garlic clove, my preferred method is to put it through a garlic press, but you can also mince it by hand and add it to the mix. Your herb or herbs of choice also need to be finely chopped. I prefer mint and I would recommend using at least a little even if you decide to go with the dill or parsley. It really doesn't give the tzatziki a minty flavor, so don't worry. It just gives the tzatziki a little extra depth that you won't get with dill or parsley alone. Add your herbs to the mix.

Being careful not to accidently add some seeds, squeeze the juice of one lemon into the mixture and stir to combine. 

My recommendation is to cover and let stand in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavors to combine.

If you are interested in the nutritional value of tzatziki using this recipe, I ran it through the recipe analyzer at http://nutritiondata.self.com/ . Using my preferred ingredients and assuming this recipes yields four servings, the nutritional information is as follows.

Calories            39

Fat                     0g

Cholesterol       0g

Sodium            27mg

Carbohydrates 3g

Protein              6g

Calcium             8%

Vitamin C         6%

Let the numbers speak for themselves. Tzatziki is an excellent additional to any meal plan whether you are looking for something new and healthy or just something to light up your taste buds. Enjoy!

Review: Veggie Cuisine: Enchilada rojo with Mexican-Style Rice

This whole trying to eat better and eat more meatless is not very easy for me at the moment since I work full-time, go to school part-time, and own a home with a yard that is suddenly in need of spring clean-up. Let me first say that I do try to avoid processed items when I can. However, having some good options to pull out of the freeze for a quick lunch/dinner or some snacks in the pantry for on the go can be a lifesaver. I am always on the look out for items that are a good compromise between convenience and health for those crazy days when I don't have any time to throw my own food together.

It is for this reason that I was so excited when I found these Lean Cuisine Veggie Cuisines at the grocery store. If you haven't seen them, they are located separately from the regular Lean Cuisine items. I think I found these at Meijer by some of the Amy's Kitchen frozen items.

My initial excitement was hampered when I realized that each of these Veggie Cuisines contain gardein chick'n. While I have fallen behind on my blogging, please let it be known that I have found some great recipes that are meatless and very satisfying, but other than the veggie burgers that are mainly made with actually food like black beans or mushrooms, I have avoided all forms of faux meat like the plague. If I am going to eat meatless, I'm really not interested in eating things masquerading as meat.

So needless to say, that first day I walked away without any Veggie Cuisine, but recently I saw them on sale and though "what the hell!" I grabbed them and gave the Enchilada Rojo a shot the other night. Despite the fake chicken, I was excited because it did seem to have a variety of some other good stuff. The rice is described as having black beans, roasted sweet corn, red peppers, and tomatillos. I will admit that the rice did live up to its promise and mixed with some of the sauce it was just the right side of spicy.

The enchilada itself had some promise. It started with a corn tortilla, which I personally prefer over flour tortillas. I was actually almost half-way through it (and started to assume that the fake chicken was shredded small in some way and not so bad) when I actually found my first piece of chick'n. I'll admit it had some texture and that texture was like a too dry piece of chicken breast, but it also had no flavor. Needless to say, I picked out all four pieces of chick'n from my enchilada.

So in review, if you do not like fake meat, at least there isn't an overabundance of it in this dish to pick out. If you are a fan of gardein chick'n, you may be disappointed because there are only like four chunks of it. If you are like me, you wish they would just make more quick vegetarian meals with actual food.

Nutritionally, the Enchilada Rojo has 310 calories, 8g of fat (4g sat fat), 13g protein, 670mg sodium, and 4g of fiber. According to Lean Cuisine's dietary information this item contains 2 serving of vegetables, but I have my doubts. Looking at the ingredient list, its amazing to see how many things are in such a small portion of food.

In closing, while I would not suggest anyone makes this a staple of their regular weekly meals, if your choice is between this and some fries and a coke at the drive-thru, this might still be your better choice.

Oh, and if anyone is interested, I did write a short review and posted it to this item on the Lean Cuisine website a couple days ago. I wasn't mean or sassy and I didn't use bad words, but my review has yet to show up with the rest of the reviews for this item. Actually, I should say the other review, because there is only one and it says "Yummy". Kinda feeling like their website reviews can't be trusted.

A Challenge to Myself

 I will give my Mom credit that she has become more open minded and healthier with regards to vegetables and their preparation in more recent year, but growing up, meals consisted mainly of meat and vegetables coated in garlic and butter. The vegetables I remember on my dinner plate were usually only green beans, broccoli, corn, some type of potato, or the occasional brussel sprout. Every summer we did have a vegetable garden, but the colorful array of eggplants, asparagus, squashes, and other vegetables was something I did not discover until I started seeking out my own meals as an adult.

At age 27, I now realize I have spent a good portion of my adult life learning to enjoy the taste of vegetables unknown to me as a child. I have had to learn to like wheat bread instead of white, how to prepare and gradually not hate the taste of quinoa, and how to use herbs, spices, fancy vinegars, and olive oil in place of garlic salt and butter. Step by step, I have made progress in my goals for better nutrition.

However, I have discovered that one of those eating habits ingrained in me as a child is still ever present and that is my understanding that every meal must center around a meat. As a woman who owns a home and works full-time, many a night I have come home tired and hungry to find that I had forgotten to take that chicken breast out of the freezer. In my frustration, I end up either eating eggs for dinner or going out for something quick and cheap. All progress and knowledge I have gained is derailed for the simple reason that I don't know how to think about cooking or meal planning without an animal protein.

I am sure many of you will say that there are many reasons to eat less meat or even give it up all together. I am aware of these arguments. I am also aware that while I have gotten better about the variety of vegetables I eat, the quantity I eat in a day is not sufficient. In fact, this is something I have known for a long time, but there has always been something holding me back from looking toward vegetarianism.

One issue is that I do enjoy my meat. I can't imagine being able to say one day that I will never again eat a hamburger, the chili my mom makes, tacos, or BBQ grilled chicken. These are some of my favorite meals and while I can understand and even accept that these are not things I should eat all the time, I cannot see myself giving up these items forever.

This issue also goes beyond the simple fact that I like my meat, to the fact that I am generally against the all or nothing approach society at large has towards nutrition. There are no carb, no fat, and no dairy ways of thinking overwhelmingly present in the media. Its enough to make anyone who doesn't prescribe to one of these ideas think they must be doing something wrong.

Many of the people who try one of these all or nothing ideas fall off the wagon and inevitably are left feeling like failures with no willpower. They throw up their hands and go on for awhile not really thinking about what or how much they eat until the next fad promising easy and miraculous transformations comes around. Society at large shifts from one extreme to the other. Maybe it is my stubborn nature or my own subconscious realization that I would end up being the one feeling like a failure with no willpower, but I've always had a powerful aversion to any all or nothing way of eating. While I know on an intellectual level that vegetarianism does not deserve to be grouped with the fads, I can't help but get the same feeling about it.

Another issue is  I have known two kinds of vegetarians. On one hand, there are the vegetarians who have embraced healthy living through plant-based nutrition. They know how to build healthy meals, keep a variety of vibrant vegetables and grains on hand, and know how to combine food to make sure their diet is balanced, even when eating out. On the other hand, there are the non-vegetable eating vegetarians. Their diet consists primarily of pancakes, mac and cheese, french fries, and more cheese. There may be the occasional fruit covered in syrup or dip. These individuals are my proof that vegetarianism does not automatically equal healthy living. It has always been in my mind that I would end up being a non-vegetable eating vegetarian if I ever were to attempt it. As someone who has a busy life and who didn't grow up thinking about nutrition, I can see myself falling for those item that are tasty, easy, and not the best choices rather than embrace the opportunity to learn how to make balanced meatless meals.

It is for these reasons that I am issuing myself a challenge. From now until the end of summer, I will have a vegetarian work week. Save for the possibility of broth (because I need to give myself one cheat, obviously) I will not eat any meat Monday through lunch Friday. This will leave me the busy social weekend to indulge in with family and friends as I please. Further rules include:

• no more than one egg in a day
• no pasta without vegetables
• Limited sweets (sugared coffee, cookies, cakes, candy, etc.)
• cook one composed meatless meal per week.