Long days in the sun, on the lake, and at the pool often require quick and easy summer dinners. Our Sunday dinner was grilled salmon and a quinoa salad. All ready in less than 30 minutes.
Quinoa Salad [fast and easy to make!]
1 bag of pre cooked frozen quinoa 1 bag of frozen edamame beans- shelled 3 or 4 Roma tomatoes 2 small avocados 1/4 of a small red onion 1 T of olive oil 1 lime
1. Throw quinoa and edamame in bowl and defrost in microwave. Defrost until no longer frozen but still cold. 2. Chop tomatoes, avocados, and onion. Toss into quinoa. 3. Add olive oil and the juice from 1 lime. Toss.
DONE! Extremely delicious plate packed with nutrients.
Fig spread + Peaches + Goat Cheese + Arugula = Pizza? Oh. my. YES! I made this over the weekend for our pizza night with friends. I really wanted to use some goat cheese that I had on hand. After a little searching I came across a few recipes that used fruit and arugula. One called for fig preserves as the “sauce”. The sweetness of the fig and peaches is tempered by the bite from the arugula. This is some seriously good stuff!
This charred corn salad is the quintessential summer salad and is refreshingly delicious! It is a breeze to make. Grill corn, chop the remaining ingredients, and add a simple dressing of freshly squeezed lime and olive oil. We have had it twice in the last week! Bring it to a potluck or serve at home next to your grilled protein.
My new fascination with small single serving desserts continues. After my post about espresso mousse in tiny mason jars, my sister-in-law gave me a tip for another fun idea.
Single serving chocolate chip cookies…in a jar! A Pazookie. I recently made them for my son’s birthday. [They hold a candle perfectly! Great birthday dessert.] Simply make your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, fill 4oz mason jars 1/2 full with dough, and bake them at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. You can let them cool completely or serve while warm with a scoop of really good vanilla ice cream on top. The outside is crisp but the inside is gooey goodness. Low labor, huge impact!
Never met a dip I didn’t like. Or any appetizer for that matter. When I saw this recipe for spinach artichoke dip, I knew I was going to fall victim. It might be a labor of love. Much more involved than dumping salsa into a bowl with a side of chips. Still, I am thinking the end product will be worth it. This dip will be coming with me the next time I asked bring an appetizer.
Father’s Day calls for a special dinner. Fish and chips. That was my husband’s request. He has Celiac Disease and gluten free fish and chips are hard to come by. Even though I have never fried up a batch, I was eager to give it try!
The recipe chips n’ fish came from the fabulous cook book Fishes and Dishes!
Main ingredients halibut, eggs, corn starch, Italian parsley, and Salt and Vinegar potato chips! Hello, all gluten free.
I gave the potato chips a whirl in the food processor. Dredged fish (I used cod) in corn starch, dipped in egg, and then the chip mixture. I used peanut oil to fry the fish and it was amazingly easy! The end product was lip-smackin’, finger lickin’ good.
[delicious!]
For this and other fantastic seafood recipes-you need this cookbook (written by some pretty awesome women) for yourself! Find it at an independent bookstore or at good ol’ amazon.
[PS. Thanks Kiyo! Aaron loved the fish. Miss you.]
Ok. So I came across this recipe for espresso mousse in the March issue of Everyday Food. While the dessert itself looks delicious, it was the presentation in the individual jars that did me in! I can’t get over how darn fabulous this idea is. The execution of the recipe was proven to be a tad difficult. Not actually making the mousse, but gathering 2 items in the recipe.
The first is espresso powder. After a little reading, I surmised that this is not essential to the recipe working, but I wanted to find it. It was not in my local supermarket. A quick google search landed me at Williams-Sonoma.
[espresso powder. williams-sonoma. $10.95]
And the most important item are those insanely cute 4 oz jars. I could not find them anywhere. I searched supermarkets, Target, hardware stores. Not one store had this petite size.
The one-stop shop, amazon.com, had them available so I quickly added them to my cart. $8.99 for a dozen of these darlings! They will arrive next week. I plan to make the mousse for my husband on his birthday. [It just happens to be gluten free!]
The love of Nutella in our home has been well documented. [read more about our obsession here]. And now I have one more way to use this deliciously, smooth cupboard staple. Preschool is almost out for summer, with two extra weeks of mornings (and afternoons) to fill up. Thinking my little guy and I will try making these self-frosting Nutella cupcakes.
What’s for dinner? Well it’s Tuesday…so make some tacos! I made these Shrimp Tacos for dinner last night and they don’t disappoint! Spicy shrimp, crunchy slaw, a squeeze of lime. Deelish.
A quick and easy Pioneer Woman recipe. I made a few changes. I didn’t have the pico de gallo [to be honest, I actually forgot to grab it while I was at the store.] We added a dollop of crema agria-mexican style sour cream instead. I also used canned jalapenos in the slaw. If you made the coleslaw and peeled the shrimp in the early afternoon, this dinner could take less than 15 minutes to get on the table! Perfect mid-week meal.
I have a kid that does not eat a darn thing at school. It has been an ongoing saga in our house for three years. If someone looked into his lunchbox they would be horrified. A quick glance and one would conclude- A) he has a horrible mother B) said mother is too lazy to pack him a nutritious lunch and C) this kid must be starving. I have resorted to packing only 2 things I know he will eat. I stack the lunchbox in my favor. [I just want something in his body!]
In hopes of becoming a better mother [sigh], I googled lunch ideas and viola! I came across a new blog. J.M. Hirsch, a food editor and dad, blogs about packing his son’s lunch in Lunch Box Blues. I think I may be in love.
He tracks what he packs for lunch and I am astonished! He strives to pack his 7 year old son “real food” for lunch. What I love about this man is that while he packs out of this world lunches, he is also a realist. By admission, his son doesn’t like vegetables and goes on PB&J benders. You must check out http://www.lunchboxblues.com/ .
his March 2nd lunch
pan fried ravioli, edamame, strawberries, and homemade chia seed pudding
[seriously?]
He also writes about cooking at home. His rule? One bite. You don’t have to like it. You just have to try it.
He penned the cookbook, High Flavor, Low Labor Reinventing Weeknight Cooking[buy here from amazon]. Pretty sure I need it. He also writes a column on foodnetwork.com called Off the Beaten Aisle. Here is just one entry about using creme fraiche in Croque Monsieur. It looks simply divine.
