Chicken Gyros, Fresh Fruit and Baked Lay's Potato Crisps

Chicken Gyros, Fresh Fruit and Baked Lay's Potato Crisps
Makes 4 servings
11 points per serving of gyro and potato crisps. Add points as necessary for fruit
Approx cost for this meal: $10 (But really, it's hard to determine. Depends on the fruit. I used 1/4 of a cantaloupe, 1/2 pound of strawberries, 2 cups grapes and one mango.)

For the Chicken Gyros:
I found this recipe in the May 2009 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. I made a few small changes. I'm posting the recipe as I made it. You can go HERE to see the original.

1 tsp olive oil
1.5 lbs. skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper
1/4 c. tahini (ground sesame seed paste)
1/4 c. water
3 Tablespoons nonfat plain yogurt
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
4 (6 inch) whole pitas, cut in half
2 cups sliced romaine lettuce
1/2 seedless cucumber, chopped (1 cup)
All the seedless cucumbers in the store were mushy. I just used a regular cucumber and scooped the seeds out before chopping.
1 large tomato (8 oz.) chopped
2 green onions, sliced

In 12 inch non stick skillet, heat oil 1 minute on medium. Sprinkle chicken with oregano, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper. Toss to coat. Add chicken to skillet and cook 5-7 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink through out.
Transfer chicken to plate or bowl. Set aside.

Meanwhile, make tahini sauce. In small bowl, with wire whisk, combine tahini, water, yogurt, lemon juice, and garlic. Stir in cilantro, ground red pepper, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper. Makes about 3/4 cup tahini sauce.

In medium bowl combine romaine, cucumber, tomato, green onion and cooked chicken pieces.

Fill each half pita with an equal amount of the salad mixture.

One serving is two pita halves stuffed with salad and chicken, 3 Tablespoons of tahini sauce, 15 Baked Lay's Potato Crisps and 1 1/2 cups mixed fresh fruit.

What we thought~
Soooooo good! Another great summer time meal.
Jaxon didn't touch his sandwich. But that had more to do with the availability of fruit than the sandwich itself.
Emily liked the sandwich very much till she put the tahini sauce on it. Then she said it was "ruined".
Kenzie, Roger and I enjoyed the sandwiches with the tahini sauce VERY much.
The cayenne pepper gave the sauce the perfect amount of heat for us. If you can't handle the heat you might want to reduce that a bit.
I think that two sandwiches was too much food. I'm not used to eating that volume of food anymore. And if I had only had one sandwich I wouldn't have needed a full serving of the chips either. Having only one sandwich and 7 or 8 potato crisps would cut the points per serving by 5.
In fact, that's what I had for lunch today and it was exactly right as far as portion size.
BTW The leftover sandwiches were topped with 1 1/2 Tablespoons tahini sauce and wrapped individually in plastic wrap. They held up great for lunch the next day.

I was impressed with the Baked Lay's. This is the first time I have tried them and they were a perfectly acceptable substitute for Regular Plain Lay's Potato chips. Which have always been my favorite chips to go with a sandwich. Roger says he likes them BETTER than regular potato chips.
They do cost a little more but you'll be eating a smaller portion. And they have half the points. So it's not a bad deal at all.

If you've never tried tahini you really should. It's a unique flavor and it's very tasty. I usually find it in the health food section of the grocery store. But if you don't want to try tahini or if you find it's too expensive to add to your pantry right now I think that peanut butter would be a delicious substitute in this recipe without making any real difference in the points value.

I was also thinking that a rotisserie chicken could be subbed for the chicken in this recipe to speed up the prep time on busy nights. I'd probably use the lemon pepper rotisserie chicken to keep the seasonings more in line with the original recipe.

I think this would be a great meal for when we're camping. I'll find out this summer. ;)