Mediterranean - Yumm!

I've been in the mood for Mediterranean, and due to the fact that we do not have any such restaurant in town, it was time to take matters into my own hands.  Last night a friend came over and we had a very fun meal and considering I made every piece of it, it really didn't take that long to pull together. The pictures aren't great, but you'll get the idea.

First, one must have hummus and a mixture of olives, feta cheese, and roasted peppers to much on, throughout the meal.  These were not treated as an appetizer because the pitas weren't done yet!

Next, I made these whole wheat pitas.  They were pretty easy and fun. How can you not like something that bakes in 3 minutes and really does puff in the middle?  For this step, I found a wonderful new blog called Wild Yeast.  I used Susan's recipe, the only change being I added some spelt flour when I ran out of Whole Wheat, and it worked perfectly, http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2008/01/19/whole-wheat-pitas/.

I was going to make fresh Falafel, but I couldn't find the recipe I'd seen just a day before, so I used the box mix I had in the pantry.  I, of course, didn't deep fry them, but I did lightly fry them in a pan.  We made them more of a patty versus a ball to cook better in the pan.  I enjoyed them very much.  I made a quick cucumber yogurt sauce to go with the Falafel.

 I made two salad sides. A quick salad made of cucumber, tomato, parsley, and scallions, with a little lemon juice and olive oil dressing.  It's been months since I've had cucumber and tomato so I enjoyed this little salad.  And, of course, a Tabbouleh.  Tabbouleh is traditionally a Bulgar, parsley mixture.  Other vegetables can be added and it just has a quick olive oil, lemon, sauce - salt and pepper to taste.  Well, not sure what happened but my Bulgar turned mushy - this has never happened before.  So I brainstormed and pulled some Red Quinoa out of the freezer and it worked perfectly!  Definitely, a substitution I will make again.

I can't wait for lunch today!