Disney movie night | Hercules
Excited to share my latest Disney movie night idea with y'all!! Hercules!! About a month ago it randomly popped in my head! I can't believe I hadn't thought of doing this one before!! I had been decking my brain trying to decide on what movie to do next! I was initially hesitant to share it this month since it's not exactly "festive" but this might be one of my favorites yet! The food turned out soooo good!! Especially the Greek sheet pan dinner! The hubby requested I make it weekly!!! That's rare, yall!! Haha :)
Per usual, it took me a couple of weeks to come up with what I wanted to do. I also watched Hercules several nights in a row and listened to the soundtrack to help me get into a creative mindset! I went all out! haha! I just really wanted it to be different than what's already out there and this one was a little harder for me. I also wanted it to be fairly simple to pull off! I added a few extra touches that you could totally leave out to make it even easier! Alright, enough chatting! Let's dive in.
The menu:
Homemade traditional Greek pita bread, Greek chicken sheet pan dinner, whipped feta dip with veggies, "mortal potion" drink, and shortcut Greek donuts!
I thought it would be helpful to chat about everything and share extra details for a minute since there's so much that went into this! You can skip down to the actual recipes if you want.
Traditional Greek pita bread: You can absolutely buy premade pita bread to save time! I just wanted to try something new. They weren't hard to make, just a little more time consuming since you have to wait for the dough to rise, roll them out & fry them up. I will say, they are absolutely DELICIOUS though & I would make them all over again for this dinner and I will definitely make them again!
Greek sheet pan dinner: I wanted something simple and I knew a sheet pan dinner was the way to go. It turned out soooo yummy! Like I said, the hubby loved it so much I'm adding it into the dinner rotation! :) You can't go wrong with a sheet pan dinner! They are versatile, basically one & done, plus they have the added bonus of an easy clean up!
Whipped feta & veggies: so easy because now there's premade whipped feta at Walmart!! It's super yummy & saves so much time! I cut up a cucumber & some whole carrots. You could save even more time here by buying baby carrots & another precut veggie! I also cut up a piece of pita bread to dip too!
Mortal potion drink: once I finally figured out what I wanted to do for this, I got SO EXCITED when it all started coming together! lol! I LIVE for little creative touches like this! 😍😁 I made up a pink punch with a few ingredients, printed out a picture of the vial from the movie and found almost the exact shape carafe, it's just inverted, at walmart (in the dollar section)!
THEN I thought of incorporating how it looks up on Mount Olympus- the clouds, how everyone is glowing, bright, and glittery. Hera, Hercules's mom came to mind and I decided to have the same drink but set up a little different to incorporate all of the heavenly mt Olympus vibes! Cotton candy for the clouds, stars for the constellations and some edible glitter! 😍✨ I'm obsessed and really proud of how it turned out! 😇
Greek donuts ("loukoumades"): I was going to make these from scratch since the recipe is pretty simple, but I decided to save myself a little time & stress. I'm really glad I did! Haha hopefully no one gets offended by me using premade biscuit dough for these!! 🤫 Honestly, no one will even be able to tell! I learned about this shortcut for donuts when I was in college for my dietetics degree. 😊 If you wana make them from scratch, just do a search, there's several authentic recipes out there.
I listed the recipes below in order of how I think it's most efficient to prepare them. :)
Traditional Greek pita bread:
I used this recipe from Half Baked Harvest
I didn't use a cast iron skillet, that's the only thing I did differently! I just used a regular one :)
Greek chicken & veggie sheet pan dinner
I combined a few recipes I found online & added my own touches to make this recipe. It's a new family fave!
Greek chicken marinade
ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
zest of 1 lemon
juice if 2 lemons
1 tablespoon stone ground mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp parsley
a pinch of red pepper flakes
recipe:
Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, big enough to put all of the chicken thighs in. Add the chicken thighs in & mix around, making sure each thigh is covered with marinade. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to marinate in the fridge for 30 min, if you can. 10-15 min at least.
Sheet pan dinner:
ingredients:
6 chicken thighs
2 lbs small yellow potatoes
1 red onion
2 zucchini
grape or cherry tomatoes
kalamata olives
recipe:
Preheat oven to 425° F.
Wash and dry all of your produce. Cut yellow potatoes in half lengthwise. Cut the onion into about 1 inch slices, cut the zucchini into 1/2 inch half circles or rounds. Cover a large sheet pan with foil and spray with olive oil or nonstick spray. Arrange the potatoes evenly on the tray. Spray them with a little olive oil as well. Bake in the oven for 20 min or until mostly cooked through & tender.
Nestle the marinated chicken thighs on the tray between the potatoes then add the zucchini and onions evenly on the tray. Bake for about 30 min. During the last 10 minutes take the tray out and add tomatoes, Kalamata olives & spoonfuls of whipped feta to the pan and finish baking. (I just added a couple handfuls of tomatoes and about a handful of olives. Chicken is done when it's cooked through & reads 165°.
Take out and serve with the pita bread and an extra dollop of whipped feta!
Greek donuts- louloukmades
ingredients:
1 can Grands southern homestyle biscuits 8ct
oil for frying
honey
finely chopped walnuts
edible gold glitter dust
edible gold stars
Candy thermometer
recipe:
Start by pouring enough oil into a pot to over by about 3 inches. Set heat to medium high. Using a candy thermometer keep an eye on the oil as it heats up. My thermometer said 350 for donuts so that's what I did.
While the oil is heating up, open the biscuits and cut each biscuit into 4 equal parts. Roll each of them into a ball (so that you'll have 4 donut holes from 1 biscuit). Go ahead and get out a plate and lay a couple paper towels on top to soak up the grease in preparation for the donuts.
Once the oil is at the right temp, carefully drop 3-4 dough balls in at a time, leaving space in between. I used a slotted spoon to lower then in & them from splashing oil. Keep a close eye on the donuts at they fry. It goes fast! (I'll be honest I'm not a pro at making these by any means). Flip over each ball to fry on the other side. Use the slotted spoon to take out each donut ball and lay on the plate with the paper towel.
Once they are done you can arrange them on a plate how you'd like, drizzle them with honey, sprinkle with chopped walnuts, gold glitter dust and gold stars on top (if you'd like or you can totally skip these extra details!)
"mortal potion" drink
ingredients:
Raspberry lemonade
a splash of Cranberry juice
a splash of Pineapple juice
can of 7 up (1 can makes about 2 drinks)
recipe:
whipped feta dip & veggies
ingredients:
Container of whipped feta (I used Athenos)
Veggies for dipping - I used carrots & cucumber
1 pita bread cut into slices
That's it!! I hope you enjoy! If you do this movie night please tag me! I would absolutely love to see your recreations!! ☺️
xo,
Mal