Greek Chicken and Veggies

I originally posted this recipe during my first 24-Day Challenge and this chicken in now one of our FAVORITE meals. Dave gets way excited about the kalamata olives. Try it. You like it! It's evil. It's flavorful. Just MAKE IT. I usually make garlic quinoa to go with it. I'll include that recipe below, too.

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Greek Chicken

1 tbsp of EVOO
1/2 onion thinly sliced
1 clove garlic

Heat and saute in a pan. Set onions aside

2-4 Boneless skinless chicken breasts
Pepper
Dash of sea salt
oregano to taste
Minced garlic

In same onion pan, rub and season the chicken. Sear on each side for about 2 minutes per side.

Place Chicken in a glass baking dish.

1 lemon
zest from 1 lemon
Handful of kalamata olives
handful of grape tomatoes
oregano to taste

(Optional: Sprinkling of feta)

Pour juice and zest over chicken. Place onions, kalamata Olives (halved), and grape tomatoes (halved) over chicken. Cover and bake in 425 degree oven for 30-40 minutes.

Optional Time-Saver: Add your veggies into the dish when you cook the chicken and flavor everything at once. 

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Garlic Quinoa

1 c. Quinoa
2 c. water
1/2 c. chopped onions
1-2 cloves of garlic - minced or pressed
Squeeze of lemon
1/8 c. kalamata olives

1 roma tomato diced

1/2 fresh spinach (I like to hand shred mine into the pot)

Place everything in pan. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Let set 5.

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This is one of our favorite protein leftovers for salads since the chicken is super moist and easy to break up. The Greek salad dressing recipe can be found here. I'm salivating all over my keyboard just thinking about this cooking here in a little bit!

Challenge Friendly: YES (No Feta!!!)

Garlic Basil Dressing

Something simple to whip up! We were having a veggie salad with avocado as our "meat" and I wanted some flavor to shake it up. The salad is simple: my normal organic spring/spinach mix from the store, tri-peppers, red onion, cucumber and avocado. Add the dressing and Viola! Success!

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Garlic Basil Vinaigrette

1/4 cup EVOO
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1-2 garlic cloves pressed or minced
2 tbsp. Sweet basil (use fresh if you have it!)
Black Pepper

(Optional and not Challenge friendly: 1/8 cup feta cheese)

Mix or process well and pour. More than enough for 2+ salads.

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I love garlic. I love basil. I love feta. I love flavor!

Note: I like to adapt dressing to go with dinner sometimes. When I do that, I always either: A. don't use vinegar at all or B. just cut the vinegar measurement in half.