Friday Night Photos: The Other Place Restaurant in Salt Lake City

I finally remembered to take a camera along when I visited The Other Place Restaurant in Salt Lake City, which has been one of my favorite inexpensive Greek-American eateries for a long time. Both times I was with other South Beach Diet fans, and we were going for lunch. The Other Place Lunch Menu has some nice South Beach Diet friendly choices, and if you're a South Beach follower who's not in Salt Lake, you still may get some good ideas about what to order in a Greek-American restaurant where you live.

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Recipe for Very Greek Grilled Chicken

(Updated and added to Recipe Favorites: April 2010.) I made this grilled chicken recently for some very thoughtful people in my family, and when I went to the blog to print out the recipe, I decided it was overdue for new photos! This was a recipe I originally came up with in 2005 when I was experimenting to see what type of marinade would taste good on grilled chicken, and I've made it many times since. If you're not that experienced with grilling chicken breasts, you might want to read my post about how to make grilled chicken breasts that are juicy every time. Leftover grilled chicken is something I love to have in the fridge to throw on top of a salad or eat in a sandwich, so even if you're only cooking for a few people, I recommend making some extra.

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Recipe for Low-Sugar Double Blueberry Yogurt Parfait

It's been fun reading responses people have shared on the Five-Year Anniversary post, and there have been more than a few of you asking for more low-sugar desserts, so this idea I came up with recently seemed like a good post for today. I served this as a dessert, but it could also be the type of dish you'd serve at a brunch, especially if you made a larger version in a single dish. I'm not someone who cares a lot about desserts, so if I'm going to make a dessert it will be a simple dish like this that can be made in a few minutes, and this was easy to make with lots of flavor.

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Kalyn's Kitchen Turns Five Years Old (and five questions for readers to answer in the comments)

Photo of five year birthday cake from ABCteach.com

On April 24, 2005 I wrote the first post on Kalyn's Kitchen, never imagining for a moment how starting a food blog would change my life. Now I'm retired from my teaching job and spend at least a few hours every day cooking, photographing, or writing up recipes for the blog. It's been a great five years with new blogging friends, new foods to try, and new things to learn all the time. To celebrate five years of blogging, I'm going on a road trip with my friend Bonnie, but in the meantime, I'd love it if readers would answer some or all of the questions below the comments.

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Recipe for Mango Peperoncini Salsa with Red Bell Pepper, Lime and Cilantro

Now that I've become infatuated with those big jars of spicy peperoncini, it's no surprise that I'm thinking of new ways to use them. On a whim I decided to try adding some peperoncini when I made mango salsa, and the flavor combination of mango, red bell pepper, peperoncini, and cilantro made a great salsa, which I served over World's Easiest Roasted Tilapia at a lunch for my dad and my sister-in-law Amy. This would also be very tasty served with something like Grilled Lime and Chile Chicken, Creole-Seasoned and Pan-Fried Pork Cutlets, or even Baked Tofu.

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Recipe for Whole Wheat Couscous Side Dish with Green Onions and Parmesan

If you think you don't like Couscous, this recipe might change your mind!

Are you open-minded about couscous? I ask because when I mentioned how much I liked this whole wheat couscous recipe during a food conversation with a couple of my sisters and a friend, they were polite but obviously skeptical that couscous could ever be transformed into something you'd really want to eat. I understand, because plain white couscous has never been something I'd get very excited about. However, I love the nutty flavor of whole wheat couscous, and after I ramped up the flavor with lots of thinly sliced green onions and a generous amount of Parmesan cheese, I gobbled up a huge bowl of this for lunch. Best of all, whole wheat couscous is one of the quickest South Beach Diet friendly side dishes you can imagine; this can easily be on the table in 15 minutes.

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Friday Night Photos: 2010 Garden Update #1 and What a Great Family!

I love the arrival of Spring, especially when it's finally time to start planting vegetables and herbs in the garden. A few weeks ago I showed the barely sprouted tomato seeds that I'd gotten in the mail from Nate of House of Annie. I haven't managed to keep all the tomatoes alive, but in the photo above you can see that some of them are developing their second set of leaves. Meanwhile, out in the yard there was a huge amount of garden clean-up that had to be done before any of this year's crops could be planted. I do have the world's greatest family, and last Saturday my brother Dave and part of his family spent the day at my house helping me get my yard and garden cleaned up, ready for seeds and plants to be put into the ground.

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