Greek Chickpea Salad

I know a lot of people would be upset at temps in the low 60s in the middle of June, but that is my favorite temperature.  Just cool enough to need a light jacket, but you aren’t sweating balls walking to work.  I really wished I could have worked outside yesterday!  Oh, but wait, when I did that, I worked farmers markets and had to be up at the crack of 4:00 a.m. – never mind!

I guess I was feeling patriotic because I didn’t realize my parfait was red, white and blue until I put it together.  With 1/4 cup of granola on top, this parfait comes in at 5 points.

My sister couldn’t walk yesterday, so I stopped by her office for a bit on my walk.  Gorgeous puffy clouds.  Love.

Last Friday my sister had a work event, so it was a solo Fun Food Day Friday for me.  I found a Mediterrean Grill called – Olive Mediterranean Grill (OMG) –  OMG is right – this plate was bursting with flavor.  The chicken was spicy and tender, the rice seasoned so well.  The hummus was so creamy, and that chickpea salad?  I would eat a whole plate of just that side dish alone.

That chick pea salad . . . couldn’t get my mind off of it!  So over the weekend I tried to recreate the spicy chicken and the chickpea salad.

Here’s the marinade for one pound of chicken breasts:

• 1.5 tablespoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin

Mix together and marinate chicken breasts for two hours, or overnight.

I love this dish.  So light and fresh!  And I just realized I didn’t add radish to the recipe, but there is diced radish in there too – you could basically add any veggie you want – I imagine this would be delicious with grilled zucchini!  After putting the recipe into the Weight Watchers recipe builder, this is 3 points per 1/2 cup.

My pita lunch:  homemade naan (2), 4 ounces chicken (3), chickpea salad (3) and fruit for dessert.

I used to think that I didn’t like fruit salsas.  I texted this picture to my family last night, and my twin sister gave it the stink eye and said “No thanks!”  Jenn, you really need to try this, it’s amazing!  The recipe was from the Weight Watchers website, but I tweaked it a bit.  I left out the sugar completely because the fruit was sweet enough on its own, and I reduced the oil to just 1 teaspoon for the whole recipe, so it’s basically zero points.

If that doesn’t scream smmer, not sure what does.  I think I am going to make this into a dish for my family reunion next month.  It’s typically finger food, but I may grill up some chicken and then slice them into medallions and top it with this salsa.  

Since I did all my grilling on Sunday night, I just reheated my chicken in my cast iron skillet for a few minutes to warm it up while I made the salsa and butternut squash fries.  I have leftovers for lunch which makes me very happy!

After dinner I put on a jacket (it was 59!) and got in a quick 25 minute walk before it got too dark.  Not a bad view at the end of the day.

Hoping my sister can get away from work and we can get our walk in.  If not, no big deal.  I tried to wake up to walk to the train this morning, but I hit the snooze way too many times, even though I was in bed at 10:45.  I may walk home though and have Hannah bring me back to my car later on if it’s not raining.

Question of the Day:  are you a fan of fruit salsa?