Falafel Pitas

I've had a great weekend!! Yesterday Jen B. and I went to our local Le Creuset outlet because one of their colors was being discontinued, and all items in that color were 30% off!! We're both suckers for Le Creuset--especially on sale--so we couldn't resist. We got some great deals; I got a 4-quart oval pot, an oval casserole dish, a batter bowl, and my mother-in-law's birthday present. I'm not sure if she checks my blog, so I don't want to say what it is. ;) We hit a few other shops while we were at the outlet mall, then we had lunch at Pappadeaux's. Oh man, was it ever good. We both had the crawfish combo--fried crawfish and crawfish etouffee with dirty rice. YUM! We were in food heaven. Then the husband, kids, and I went over to my aunt and uncle's for an impromptu family dinner. My uncle grilled steaks which were amazing. It was a great food day, although I woke up this morning with a total food hangover. I definitely over-induldged yesterday, but it was worth every bite!

Originally we were going to have these falafel pitas last night, but when my aunt called inviting us over for steak I figured they'd be fine waiting until tonight. I bought the falafel at Costco on Jen B's recommendation. Her family loves them, so I thought we'd give them a try. I'm excited to have an easy dinner for tonight because it's been a bit of a rough day. This is her recipe, but I'm changing it up just a little.

Jen's Falafel Pitas
pita bread of your choice
2-3 falafel patties per sandwich (I am using pre-made)
lettuce of your choice (I like romaine or baby spinach)
sliced red onion
sliced tomato
sliced cucumber
Tzatziki sauce or hummus for topping
Fresh cilantro (optional)

Cook Falafel according to package directions. Place in pita with other ingredients of your choice. Eat like a sandwich.

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In an interesting twist, the day I bought the falafel I was looking through last month's issue of Cooking Light and there was a similar recipe in the magazine, only it involved making your own falafel. There was a tzatziki sauce recipe included, so that's what I'm using on ours. I heart tzatziki very much!

Tzatziki Sauce
1 cup 2% reduced-fat Greek yogurt
2/3 cup chopped peeled cucumber
1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
1 garlic clove, minced

Combine ingredients.

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Yum. I'm really excited for this and hope the husband and boy like it. I looked on RecipeZaar.com for some kind of potato recipe to go with this and found a couple that sound good. I'm going to stick with the Greek theme and am trying to decide between two recipes I found. I'll post that recipe once I pick one of them.

*****

This dinner was a bit of a mishap, but it was totally my fault. I'm pita inept. Always have been, always will be. I cannot for the life of me separate them. I don't know what my deal is. So, we couldn't stuff the pitas with all the fixings, so we put them on top and tried to fold them. It worked okay...except for the falafel (is one falafel still called falafel?) that flew out of the husband's and landed in his drink. Seriously. I kind of kicked myself because at the store I stood there debating between pitas and naan, which Jen had used the last time she made this. I opted for pitas--forgetting about my ineptness--because they were something like $0.75 cheaper. Sigh. Should have gone for the naan. Next time.

The tzatziki was good, although I think I like it with shredded cucumbers instead of chunks. And I wish I would have thought far enough ahead to make it earlier in the day so the flavors had time to marry more than they did.

I will definitely make this again (and not just because there was falafel left), but I'll skip the pitas and save myself a lot of grief, and I'll go with naan instead. It was a yummy vegetarian dinner, and we all liked it.