Day 27: Wednesday Nov 14 ~ Mediterranean Feast: Greek-Style Vegetable Salad, Hummus, Ghallaba, Mediterranean Brown Rice, Served with pita and beets

~ Greek-Style Vegetable Salad ~ Hummus  ~ Ghallaba ~ Mediterranean Brown Rice ~

Today I am hoping to treat a friend who is doing a huge favor for me! I have this terrifying school video project where I need a human guinea pig to help demonstrate that I can listen and hopefully give appropriate prompts so they can find the answers they need within themselves (essence of academic advising). Yeah, not sure how my video will go...but regardless we will have a feast before hand to celebrate! :)

* And a HUGE thank you to Jesse - for cooking this feast for us!! I had great intentions, set all this up, but too much schoolwork and needed to sleep the stress off - so didn't get to the cooking part! ;0
He is wonderful. :)  (I promised to handle all the kitchen chores for the rest of the week. :))

Greek-Style Vegetable Salad

This is the most awesome salad recipe ever! I used to make a batch early in the week, keeping it separate from the lettuce - and every day just take a scoop of the 'toppings' and add to a few cups of lettuce - not only extends the life of the salad, makes for easy lunch planning, but reduces the calories a bit as well.

So good. I learned of this through Denise Austin's online program, but it is available in some of her books as well. You can view it online, p. 190 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=tBNEm06K9XMC&pg=PA274&lpg=PA274&dq=Greek-Style+Vegetable+Salad,+Denise+Austin&source=bl&ots=huVcVVsKs4&sig=v18_9BrUxoCFpMtuyvGA3kE-1bM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CXKiUOa9F-j8yAH1hIDYAw&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Leave out the olive oil and feta cheese to make it plant strong. I also just use plain black olives versus kalamata (cheaper!). :)

Hummus

homemade hummus - so many variations. Here's a good, healthy, plant-strong recipe:

http://engine2diet.com/recipe/engine-2-hummus/

Ghallaba

Our first go-round on this challenge we tried a dish that reminded me of Ghallaba, and I promised to get back to you on the 'official' recipe. I love Ghallaba from La Oasis in Taylor. We often had their ghallaba wrap and it disappeared quickly!

http://www.dedemed.com/mediterranean/ghallaba-recipe

Of course, we left out the chicken and the oil.

Mediterranean Brown Rice 
http://dedemed.com/mediterranean/brown-rice-recipe
*Our place puts roasted pine nuts in theirs - yummy!