The Way I Ate

Tuesday night Josh was going to be leaving from drum lessons and going straight to sub in for a friend's drummer at a show, meaning I would be dining alone. And that was fine with me, because as much as I would miss him I was pretty excited about vegging out in front of the TV and noshing on my planned dinner for the evening. This idea come from Everyday Food, and they title it the Middle Eastern Platter. I just call it heaven. The only real preparation is the salad. I buy red pepper hummus and marinated olives from the bulk bar at Central Market. The recipe calls for a block of feta sliced, but I just buy the crumbled kind, I find it just as easy and then I have feta that I can use for salad, pasta, or pizza too. I ate this for dinner Tuesday night, while watching The Way We Were. Luckily I finished eating before I started crying, as the olives and feta are salty enough without my tears, ha. And then I had the same darn thing for lunch yesterday and today. Divine!

Middle Eastern Platter
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4














3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 English cucumber, seeded and diced
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley
1 small red onion, diced
coarse salt and ground pepper
8 oz. store-bough hummus
1/2 teaspoon paprika
8 oz. feta cheese
1 cup black olives, such as kalamata
4 pita breads

• In a small container, combine lemon juice and 1 tablespoon olive oil. In a medium container, combine tomatoes, cucumber, and parsley.
• Add onion and dressing to vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and toss to combine. Serve with hummus (sprinkled with paprika and remaining olive oil), feta (thickly sliced), olives, and pita. Serve.

My notes: As you may have noticed those aren't kalamata olives on my plate. I usually choose different olives each time I make this, cause I love olives. this time I chose some that were marinated with garlic and they were delish! This is a great thing to serve when you're having friends over. I'm imagining it as a nice nosh during a board game. If you want to prep it ahead of time keep the dressing, onions, and vegetables separate, tossing just before serving. Also, since I get red peppered hummus I don't bother with the oil & paprika on that. And I use whole wheat pitas cut into wedges to devour all the goodies!