Macro-Friendly Mediterranean

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Hey friends!

Chris and I just LOVE mediterranean food - the flavors and textures are all so delicious to us! We love eating at Mediterranean restaurants, but we know that there’s a lot of delicious tahini and olive oil in the dishes (plus pita bread - tough to resist!) that make them less macro-friendly than we can justify on a regular basis…

So we decided to start playing around with our own versions at home, and today we wanted to offer up our recipes that lighten up the originals a bit - we used less than half of the tahini and olive oil that all other recipes called for, and added extra lemon, garlic, and harissa to amp up the flavor without adding a lot of extra calories :) you could also further reduce the amount of tahini/oil if necessary to fit your nutritional needs, but the flavor and texture will change a little… But we’re always excited to hear about the amendments you make to recipes, so please feel free to put your own spin on these!

These may not be completely traditional, so please forgive us - we just make these recipes the way we like them, a little bit “healthified,” with what we have available to us. If you have any suggestions, we’d love to hear them!

Our recipes are in the videos, but also below :) this recipe makes a reasonable amount of baba ghanoush, but our hummus recipe makes a TON, so heads up - that one is basically a party-sized recipe :) feel free to cut it in half for a more reasonable portion!

We also included the recipe we used for the chicken skewers we made to round out our mediterranean feast - although we didn’t include them in the video, we encourage you to make them, too! They turned out so tasty!

A couple of words of warning before you get cooking - these are SO good that you might forget to keep an eye on your portions (just because they’re lightened up and healthy doesn’t mean your meal should turn into a free-for-all!), and also your breath is going to be KICKIN’ after eating these!

We love garlic, so feel free to back off on our suggested amounts if you don’t want to have dragon’s breath for the next couple of days. We go by the logic that we’re both eating this stuff together, so if we have equally gnarly breath it should be ok… Right? ;)

Get after it guys, and let me know what you think in the comments please!

BABA GANOUSH

3 medium eggplants
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp tahini paste
1 tbsp olive oil
Generous pinches of salt and pepper, to taste
1/4-1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Optional add-ins (not shown in video, but recommended!):
Extra lemon juice (1/2 to 1 lemon)
Garlic powder
Harissa paste (1.5 tbsp or more/less to taste) or cumin/paprika
Extra parsley

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil, spray foil and eggplants with nonstick cooking spray. Roast until very soft, tender, and charred - about 35 minutes. Allow to cool. Line a bowl with a kitchen towel, then scoop out the soft flesh of the eggplants into the towel and discard skin. Twist the towel to extract any extra moisture from the eggplants, then add the flesh to the bowl of your food processor. Add the garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, tahini, olive oil, salt and pepper. Pulse or blend to mix to desired consistency. Add parsley, pulse/blend again or stir to mix. Taste and adjust flavors to your liking, suggestions are below :) Top with additional fresh chopped parsley and serve - we like fresh veggies with ours!

HUMMUS

4 - 15oz cans garbanzo beans, drained (reserve liquid)
6-8 cloves of garlic, chopped
Juice of two lemons
4 tbsp tahini paste
1 tbsp olive oil
Generous pinches of salt and pepper, to taste

Add all ingredients to the bowl of your food processor. Blend until smooth, adding reserved liquid from your garbanzo beans one tablespoon at a time as needed until desired consistency. Taste and adjust flavors to your liking, suggestions are below :) Easy, right? Top with additional fresh chopped parsley and serve - we like fresh veggies with ours!

Optional add-ins (not shown in video, but recommended!):
Extra lemon juice (to taste)
Harissa paste (2 tbsp, or more/less to taste) or cumin/paprika
Garlic powder
Zest of one lemon

GREEK YOGURT CHICKEN SKEWERS

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup whole milk or low fat greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp onion salt
• 1 tbsp ground black pepper
  2 tbsp oregano
  Zest and juice of 1-2 lemons

Cut chicken breasts into 1” chunks and put into a gallon-sized ziplock bag or large bowl. Add greek yogurt, garlic powder, onion salt, black pepper, oregano, and lemon juice/zest and mix well. Allow to marinate for at least an hour or overnight.

Soak wooden skewers in water for 10 minutes (you’ll need about 14 or so), then thread about 5 or 6 chicken chunks onto each.

Grill over medium heat until cooked through, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from the grill to a serving plate, season again with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with fresh parsley and a squeeze of lemon. Serve with additional lemon wedges.
I hope you enjoy these recipes and make a delicious, healthy feast of your own!

Please feel free to comment, upvote, or resteem if you’d like! :)

Music Cred

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▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS