Homemade Tzatziki Sauce With Greek Yogurt

In our home, I’m what we call a “squeamish meat eater.” It’s not that I can’t appreciate a well-cooked filet mignon because I can, but I could just as easily become a vegetarian or a pescatarian and never look back.

Truth be told, I’ve always been this way. Ever since I was a little kid, I can remember pushing my steak around my plate and trying to hide it under my mac-and-cheese. It used to make my parents batty, but no matter what they tried, I disliked meat.

So when I went to college, I became a very unhealthy vegetarian – if you could even call it that. Since I wasn’t a big carnivore to begin with, there was no way I was eating the mystery meat in the dining halls. Instead, I ate whatever I could find that didn’t have meat in it. Unfortunately, this meant lots of pasta with watered down tomato sauce, lots of bread and butter, and lots of milk and soda. It wasn’t a very healthy meal plan, but to be fair to my alma mater, I went to college back in the 90’s and things were a bit different then.

When I finally came back home, my Mom took one good look at what I was eating and put a stop to it. She didn’t do it meanly. She just knew that I was eating garbage and like the old saying goes, “garbage in is garbage out.” Or something like that.

So Mom sat me down and helped me figure out what I needed to eat if I didn’t want to eat meat. She offered to support me in my decision, but she also said that she wasn’t going to change everyone else’s carnivore-loving ways just because I didn’t want to eat meat. At first, I thought she was being rude, but then I realized that I couldn’t expect my family to become vegetarians if they still enjoyed meat.

Fast forward a few more years, and now I’m a Mom myself with two little kids who think that it’s hilarious that their Mom is a “squeamish meat eater.” So why do I even bother eating meat? Well because I feel strongly that it’s up to me to set a good example for my kids and just because I don’t prefer meat doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t either.

When consumed in moderation, meat is great for your body. When cooked properly, meat can be incredibly delicious. (Remember – I love a good filet mignon!) So I want my kids to experience all of the food that they can without fear of judgment from their Mom. I also want my children to see me being healthy and sometimes being healthy requires you to do things that you don’t always want to. For instance, I don’t really want to do bicycle crunches at the gym, but my trainer swears they’ll whittle down my waistline, so I do them. I may not want to eat red meat, but if I’m feeling sluggish and tired, I know my body is craving iron, so we’ll have some meat. I do what’s best for my cravings and theirs, which brings me back to today’s post.

At lunch today, I had a hankering for a huge Greek salad. But I was naughty this morning and skipped breakfast, so I knew that a salad was not going to tide me over until dinnertime. But I also knew that I’d be a cranky mess if I didn’t get some feta and tomatoes in my belly asap. So I went digging through my freezer until I found one of my beloved veggie burgers. Only this time, I was going to make a new chickpea variety that I knew would pair wonderfully with some Homemade Tzatziki Sauce With Greek Yogurt.

Then, I was going to pile my burger high with fresh green lettuce, crumbled feta, diced cucumbers, and sliced garden tomatoes.

I was on a mission and I was going to make the Mother Of All Veggie Burgers.