Opa! Greek Salad

My ancestry on my mother's side is Greek and I take pride in that heritage, luckily my mom raised my brother and I on Greek food since we were little. I've always had a versatile palate thanks to my parent's upbringing and encouraging me to try foods from different cultures. I love Greek food, the bitterness and sharpness of flavors is aromatic and enlightening to me. Some may have a hard time eating Greek food so I thought I'd start with a simple, fresh Greek salad to help ease you into Greek-style cooking.

On this particular day, my mom and I had been shopping all day for my wedding, we were both on diets and super hungry. We went to the grocery store and thought what better than a classic, fresh Greek salad!

Our grocery list consisted of:

- rotisserie chicken
- one package of feta cheese
- one can of kidney beans
- one can of garbanzo beans
- one can of beets
- kalamata olives
- one head of romaine lettuce
- one package of spinach lettuce
- one package of cherry tomatos
- one English cucumber
- sun-dried tomato hummus
- one red onion

I chopped up the chicken into bite size pieces, washed both lettuces, sliced cherry tomatoes in half, roughly chopped the lettuce, thinly sliced the red onion then added all of those ingredients into our large wooden salad bowl. Next, I topped it with sliced cucumbers, the can of garbanzo beans, can of kidney beans, and can of sliced beets. The beans give the salad some heartiness and protein along with the beets give the salad a tad of sweetness. Tossed that up a bit, added crumbled feta cheese, which adds a tangy, sharp flavor and a bit of hummus on the side. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper...enjoy!!! Maybe we'll explore spinach and cheese pie or Moussaka next!?

xoxo Lo