Recipe: Chicken Souvlaki Salad Pitas

When it comes to Sunday dinner, I usually vacillate between two thoughts.  Either I want to do something slow and cook-all-day, or I want to keep it simple.  Depends on how crazy the weekend has been.  This past weekend, one that was filled with apple picking, the cancer walk, a flat tire (which turned into a nearly 3 hour ordeal), and dinner guests both Saturday and Sunday night, I went for something simple.  The perfect way to ease into the upcoming week, you know?

I discovered this handy recipe in one of those little grocery store checkout cookbooks and love that it falls neatly into the clean eating category.  While I used it as part of our Sunday dinner, it is great to have in your repertoire for any other night when your schedule is more than a little crazy with school, sports and the like.  Mix all the ingredients together and stuff into a toasted whole wheat pita.  Yum.  I love the Greek-inspired flavors, and Nick loved this one with whole wheat crackers as a snack the next day.

And speaking of clean eating … it’s something I definitely don’t get tired of talking about (or being inspired by).  I have an essay on clean eating that will run on a major parenting website in the new year, a blurb in a major magazine and an upcoming interview with a food website.  Revamping how I thought about food, and my transition to clean eating, was definitely one of a few big catalysts to losing so much weight this year.  It was one of the things that made it all click for me, and it’s no wonder it’s a topic I’m fond of.

Last week, my friend Chris asked me how his boss could lose 20 lbs in sixty days.  The answer is simple.  Clean eating.  I will eventually get around to writing up some guidelines that I’ve followed, but it’s really very easy.  Don’t eat food (for the most part) that has ingredients.  And as I explain it to people, Oreos have ingredients.  Asparagus, chicken, broccoli, fish, bananas, oranges, none of them do.  Just a few examples, of course, but the easiest way of explaining it.  It harkens back to some of what Michael Pollan (and many others) talk about, but the closer you get to eating food in its natural state, the better it is for you.  Eat the food as God and nature intended.  In its cleanest form.

Do I sometimes deviate?  Of course I do.  There was a thin slice of pumpkin pie this weekend that can certainly attest to that.  But most of my choices on a regular basis, day in, day out, stick to this common core principle.  And then I added in a very active workout schedule, and the rest … is Cate Version 2010.

Project 365
October 19, 2010, Photo #183

I was washing a few dishes the other night and I caught my reflection in the kitchen window.  My collarbone area has always been a good indicator when I’ve lost a lot of weight.  See those bones?  Loving that.  Forty-four pounds ago, you couldn’t see them.  Some of the changes during the year have been tiny little things like that, while others have been much larger.  All good.

Chicken Souvlaki Salad Pitas
Recipe courtesy of Betty Crocker

3 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup chopped peeled cucumber
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (2 oz)
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
1/3 cup sour cream (I used 1/3 less fat version)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill weed
2 tablespoons mayonnaise or salad dressing (I used light mayo)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
6 pita fold breads (5 inch), warmed (I used whole wheat pitas)

In medium bowl, place all ingredients except pita breads; toss until evenly coated. Divide mixture evenly down center of each pita bread; fold in half.

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