Tomato Salad

Tomato Salad

The farmer's market had some great looking tomatoes on Saturday, so I picked up some to take to the lake.  They disappeared!  David said they may have been his favorite food that he ate at the dinner!

I made a vinaigrette by whisking together olive oil, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, minced garlic, and fresh basil. I added a little sea salt and pepper.

 

I cut red, orange, and yellow tomatoes into 8 wedges in and tossed with the vinaigrette.

I let it chill until we were ready to eat.



 

Once we were ready to eat, I tossed the tomatoes again, drained off the excess vinaigrette, and added some more fresh basil and parsley.

 

Then I topped it off with feta cheese crumbles, and we served it with dinner.

 

(no need to drain the excess vinaigrette if not adding feta)

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Enjoy!

 

Delish Summer Salad

Delish Summer Salad

 

This salad comes from my friend, and chef and wellness coach Sandy Thomas.  She shared this recipe with us in a cooking class I took with her last year.  I took this salad to a party for the 4th of July, and made it again for the family last night. 

 

It's really delicious!

 

Cook frozen edamame according to package directions.  I used frozen sweet corn, so I cooked that as well.  Grilled fresh sweet corn would be great!

 

Then I rinsed a can of black beans and a can of cannelini beans and drained them well.  I tossed together the corn, edamame, black, and cannelini beans with grape tomatoes.

 

I mixed up the quick vinaigrette of olive oil, rice vinegar, sherry vinegar, and Dijon mustard.  Once it was emulsified, I tossed it with the vegetables.  Before serving I added ribbons of sliced fresh basil and seasoned with sea salt and pepper.

 

Of course, I made a tomato-less version for my no-tomato eaters. 

 David let them know that our version was not only prettier, but tastier.  They still declined the tomato version :)

 

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Enjoy!

Avocado Alfredo Sauce

Avocado Alfredo Sauce

Alicia Silverstone shared this recipe on her blog last week so I tried it out.  It originally comes from EcoSalon, and it looked absolutely delicious.

 

I made up a large pot of pasta - rotini was what I had in the pantry.

Then I made the "alfredo" sauce by combining avocados, fresh basil, garlic cloves, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper in the food processor.

 

 

I drained the pasta and tossed it with the sauce, then topped it off with Kalamata olives and a little lemon zest.

 

It was really good.  David and I loved it.  Brennan liked it even better the next day, warmed up for an after school snack. 

 

David was pretty certain I had made this dish before, so I looked here on the blog and lo and behold - a different version of this same meal - although this other version was more of a pesto and included pine nuts.  You can find it here.

 

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Enjoy!

 

Nectarines and Basil

Nectarines and Basil

I saw a short blurb in a recent magazine (maybe Vegetarian Times?) where a chef said one of his favorite things to do with basil is pair it with fruit, like nectarines.

 

So, I followed the photo with the blurb and made a side dish for dinner last week.

 

 

No recipe needed.

I think we all enjoyed the fruit and herb combo!

 

Enjoy!

Avocado Pesto Pasta

Avocado Pesto Pasta

 

This is another yummy recipe from Chloe Coscarelli's cookbook that we tried out this week.

I think this may be my favorite pesto recipe - and I've made tons of different pestos.

We loved the creaminess of this one - and the great flavors.

 

 

I made a pound of linguine in salted water while I made the pesto in my food processor.

For the pesto I used basil, pine nuts, 2 avocados, lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil.

I drizzled in the olive oil as the other ingredients were chopping and combining.

 

The recipe calls for 1/2 c olive oil, but I think next time I'll start with 1/4 c and see if I want to add more.

 

I placed the hot pasta in a large bowl and topped it with the pesto.

Combined it and served immediately.

We ate the leftovers later as well - the lemon juice protects the avocado from turning brown and kept the flavor great.

 

This makes a large bowl of pasta, so you could easily cut the recipe in half.

 

It was creamy and delicious!

 

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Enjoy!

 

 

Quinoa with Basil and Pine Nuts

Quinoa with Basil and Pine Nuts

This recipe comes from The Kind Diet.  It sounded like a great, simple side dish to experiment with quinoa (pronounced KEEN-WA).  The title calls for pine nuts, but as you'll see in the first photo, I used raw cashews that I already had, as she recommends in the book.

I started by placing my nuts in a small dry saucepan and roasting them on medium for 7 minutes or so.

To cook the quinoa, you start by rinsing it really well.  My men weren't big quinoa fans when I first started cooking with it.  It turns out, it's because I wasn't rinsing it - which is necessary with quinoa.  Even if the package says "pre-rinsed", do yourself a favor and rinse it a couple of times in a fine mesh strainer again.

You cook the quinoa with water and a little sea salt until it's boiling. 

Then you simmer it, covered, for 20 minutes.

Toss the quinoa, nuts, and some basil together with a little olive oil.

I chopped and mixed in half my basil, then topped the rest with fresh basil at the end.

The quinoa is nutty so goes great with the nuts.

David would recommend doubling up on the nuts, but the recipe below is the original.

Go wild making your own version!

 

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Enjoy!

Cucumber, Basil, and Lime Juice

Cucumber, Basil, and Lime Juice

Do you follow goop.com?  Goop was founded by Gwyneth Paltrow. 

It has everything from food, to travel, to clothing. 

This juice recipe is from goop.com, and is shown doubled below.

Most of us in this house like a good homemade juice. 

Brennan is the exception.  He hasn't found one that he has loved just yet.  We're going to keep looking though.  And in the meantime, Thomas will finish his. 

This is a super easy one that calls for 2 cucumbers, 2 apples, 1 cup of fresh basil, and a peeled lime.

I juiced everything together in the juicer.

If you want it super cold, you can then transfer the juice to the blender with a handful of ice.

I don't think the fresh basil added much to this juice.  It barely dribbled out of the juicer - it felt like such a waste of good, fresh basil! 

I would hold onto your precious fresh basil for a better recipe where you can truly enjoy it.

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Enjoy!

Homemade Marinara

Sandy's Homemade Marinara

Pasta with a delicious sauce is such a great dinner, and requires little prep if I have sauce on hand.

The issue is that the boys (who avoid chunky tomatoes and peppers at all costs), don't really care for most of the jarred sauces out there.

I've strained jarred sauces, and I've blended jarred sauces in order to get rid of the chunkiness (I clearly love my children dearly).  It works OK, but I'd rather have a sauce that we all really like, that isn't full of sugar (which the jarred brands are), and is much more delicious.



This recipe comes from Sandy Thomas, Holistic Health Coach (www.zenchoice.com).   In the final healthy cooking class I took with Sandy last month, we made this sauce and enjoyed it with our lunch that day and it was delicious!  I knew I'd make it often.  Sandy recommends keeping one container of the sauce in the fridge and the rest in the freezer to pull out when needed.  If you are local and want more information about Sandy's services, please give me a call!

 

Brennan prepared this sauce mid-morning, and after errands that afternoon, rushed home to stir and taste test.  We seasoned and finished off the sauce that evening while I was making the pan roasted cherry tomatoes. 

 

My recipe is slightly modified from Sandy's original.  This is an easily customizable recipe to your family's tastes.  And because it cooks in the crock pot - it couldn't be easier!

 

We started by sauteing a diced onion in olive oil until tender and translucent (~5 minutes).  Then we added crushed garlic for another minute.

 

We transferred the sauteed vegetables, the cans of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, dried Italian seasonings, and fennel seeds to the crock pot.  Stirred, and set it to cook on low for 6 hours.

 

 

That evening we tasted it and Brennan thought it needed sweetness.  Per Sandy's recipe we added a tablespoon of honey.  Then we added about 2 tsp of Kosher salt, some fresh black pepper, and a little bit of garlic powder.  Because the sauce was a little took chunky for my family, Brennan used the "soup puree-er" to smooth it out. (see photo above)

 

 

 

We chopped about 1/4 c of fresh basil, and served the pasta over penne.

 

 

Then I divvied up the remaining sauce into 4 containers for the fridge and freezer.  It's so great to have a delicious sauce on hand!

 

Funny Story - the mason who will be repairing our chimney this summer stopped by mid-day.  He was at the front door and I could tell he was kind of distracted.  Finally he said - what are you cooking?  I told him marinara and offered to put some in a container for him to take home.  He shyly turned me down, but I could tell it was hard to do.  The house smelled wonderful all day!

 

Thank you, Sandy, for another delicious recipe!

 

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Buon Appetito!

Pan Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

London Reid's

Pan Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

I saw this recipe on the London Reid blog a couple of weeks ago and decided to try it out.

I was making a new marinara sauce for dinner last night, and thought this would be great as another topping for pasta.

I knew the boys wouldn't eat it, so I only made enough pan roasted tomatoes for David and me, and maybe some lunch leftovers - but no chance.  They were all gone.

I had all the ingredients on hand, and the dish was delicious, and so so simple!

I placed a mixture of cherry tomatoes that I had on hand in a skillet and drizzled them with olive oil.

I heated the tomatoes on medium for a couple of minutes.

Then I added minced garlic, Kosher salt, and some julienned fresh basil leaves.

Sorry for the blurry photos.  Perhaps too many things going on at once in the kitchen...

After about 12 minutes, the tomatoes were softened and starting to burst a little, so I knew the were ready.  I added a little extra basil and transferred them to a serving dish.

This looks like too much basil, but is there such a thing??

The tomatoes were really, really good on the penne!

And the smell of olive oil, garlic, and basil cooking in the kitchen was Heavenly!!

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Buon appetito!



Light Basil Pesto

"our little beehive" Light Basil Pesto

I absolutely love pesto. 

I've had spinach pesto, pea pesto, and red pepper pesto.

My favorite is basil pesto and I really like this recipe from the "our little beehive" blog for a lighter version.

I usually serve it over piping hot angel hair but it is great on toasted baguettes or as a topping on pizza.

And anything I can make it one easy step is all that much better!

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Buon Appetito!