Meatball Gyros

If you don't know, I lived for nine months in Pittsburgh, PA. Very lovely city. I was there as a missionary. I had a lot of goals while living there {like finding and teaching people the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ} but I also had a much less important goal of eating at as many places I could. Especially if I had never tried that kind of food before.

One of my all time favorites were the Greek Gyros. Mainly because there were multiple gyro joints throughout down-town Pittsburgh, and they all had the same poster with a blonde girl eating a gyro. Even now in other cities, I see the same poster with the same girl. Apparently she is the gyro queen of Greece.

What's my point?
Well, I found a great recipe for Meatball Gyros that's on the lighter side.
I found the recipe on WHOLE FOODS website.
But... I made a few alterations... as you will see.



Ingredients:

1 package greek pitas
{they usually come in packages of 8. Well, if you tear them in half}
1/2 c low-fat milk
3/4 pound of extra lean beef
3 T grated onion
3/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp allspice
pepper & sea salt

1 seedless cucumber
1/4 c mayo
1/4 c sour cream
1/2 T lemon juice
1 tsp garlic powder

For the Meatballs:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
To make the meatballs, take one of the pitas and tear it into small pieces in a small bowl.
Then pour 1/2 cup milk over the bread and let it soak for 15 minutes.
Add meat, onion, oregano, allspice, salt & pepper together in a separate bowl.
When the bread is done soaking, add it to the meat mixture.
Mix very well with your squeeky clean hands.
Using a cookie scoop, spoon the meat mixture into a 9X13 pan.
You should end up with 16-18 meatballs.
Bake at 450 for about 15-20 minutes.
When the meatballs are done, you can remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon allowing any excess grease to drip out, and set them on a stack of paper towels to drain.


Now to make cucumber sauce the Whole Foods way:

1/2 c grated cucumber
3/4 greek yogurt
1 T lemon juice

Stir all the ingredients together in a small bowl.
And then THROW IT AWAY
because this is disgusting.... Sorry Whole Foods. But it is.
I almost wet my pants.
But loss of bladder control is normal after having a baby.
So I'm fine.


Then, I quickly whipped together something like this...

REAL cucumber sauce:

1/4 c mayo {the kind made with Olive Oil is what I like}
1/4 c sour cream
1/2 T lemon juice
1/2 c grated cucumber {seedless and peeled}
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp garlic powder
a pinch of dill {or my common substitute, a squirt of ranch dressing}

Mmmmm... that's much more refreshing.

Take a pita.
Insert sauce.
Stuff with lettuce and grape tomatoes.
Don't forget about four of those delicious meatballs.
Serves Four.
Your kids will love them.

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