Sparkling Summer Salad: Or, How I learned to stop slicing and love the mandolin,

Posted by amanda in apple, budget, celery, cilantro, cucumber, healthy, lemon, quick, recipe, salad, summer, vegan, vegetable, vegetarian

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I get a terrible feeling when I come to the end of a recipe I have all the ingredients for (ish) only to read the final instruction: crockpot-ing, immersion blending, dutch oven-ing...or any number of other final touches for which I don't have the right kitchen tool (yet!). So, having recently acquired a very handy mandolin from the previous owners of my new house (when someone leaves something in a cupboard still in the box, that's a housewarming gift right?), I've spent the better part of the afternoon julienning everything slice-able in my fridge (which is more than you'd think! Skinny cheese sticks anyone? Strawberry stick-men? Long long banana slices? No?).

The very tasty outcome of this little experiment is a pretty awesome summer salad: it's crunchy, tart, filling, and refreshing, and above all, easy (especially if you have a mandolin or any other kind of slicing tool).

You're gonna want:
A large bowl
A little bowl
A mandolin (you lucky duck)

In your big bowl toss together:

3 stalks of celery, sliced thick
half a cucumber, julienned
2 large carrots, peeled and julienned
2 granny smith (or other tart) apples, julienned [to do this, cut the apple into 4 sides, then attempt to slice - I kept the peels on)
l large handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

In your small bowl mix:
1/2 cup lemon juice
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (optional)
1 tbsp sugar (also optional - i wanted my dressing a little sweeter than lemony)
large grain salt to taste (I used a citrus chili salt mix and it was perfect)
cracked black pepper to taste

Drizzle the dressing over your salad mix and stir around until well distributed. Cover and keep in the fridge for an hour to let the flavours combine if you have the time, or serve fresh immediately!

Springy Grapefruit Salad

Posted by amanda in cheese, easy, grapefruit, healthy, lemon, salad, spinach

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free your fruit!!...into your belly

Spring is in the air (she said, as it snowed aggressively outside her window)! Or it was this past Family Day weekend anyhoo. A little wishful thinking never hurt, right?

Spring means salad season, and there's nothing I like better than a tasty combo of fruits and veggies, and of course, cheese. Cheese is pretty key.

If you're getting tired of our first spinach/parm salad (but how could you!) - here's a variation on a theme with a little more zing. Also, recent studies have indicated that eating citrus fruits lowers a woman's risk of blood-clot related stroke, so get peeling!

Here's an easy, healthy, tasty salad for 4:

You're going to need:

8oz (250g) of baby salad. Wash it.
Half a cup of Parmesan flakes (shredded or flaked, not ground or whatever...if you have a block of it, use a veggie peeler for speed's sake. You can also buy it flaked, as per the petals in the earlier recipe).
1 grapefruit (I prefer red) peeled and segmented.

Toss (more like mix) these ingredients with you hands in a large bowl for ideal distribution onto 4 plates or into bowls.

Dressing: In a small bowl mix....

Juice of half a lemon (or roughly 1.5-2 tbsp)
2-3 tbsp olive oil
chopped chives to taste (you're going to sprinkle this over the salad, so a large tbsp or two would do, unless you really want to up the chivey-ness)
fresh ground pepper

For a little protein consider toasting some slivered almonds and tossing them in there. Raisins might also be yummy. Flax seeds if you're feeling ambitious, though they would probably be best mixed into your dressing, or else they'll sink to the bottom.

Dress your salad and enjoy!!

Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta

Posted by CK in cheese, chicken, lemon, pasta, recipe

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I just stumbled upon this recipe. It seems like it's somewhat a long preparation, but the outcome looks delish! Again, haven't tried it yet. Perhaps something I'll try when I move into my new home! :)
(source: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/07/grilled-chicken-with-lemon-basil-pasta/)

Ingredients

• 4 whole Grilled Chicken Breasts, Sliced
• 1 pound Penne Pasta, Cooked Until Al Dente
• ½ sticks Butter
• 3 whole Lemons, Juiced
• ¾ cups Heavy Cream
• ¼ cups Half-and-half
• 1-½ cup Grated Parmesan Cheese (or Romano)
• Salt And Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste
• 20 whole Basil Leaves, Chopped

Preparation Instructions

Cook pasta, reserving 1 cup of hot pasta water when you drain. Set pasta aside in a colander.

In the same pot, melt butter over medium heat. Squeeze in the juice of 3 to 4 lemons. Whisk together. Pour in cream and half-and-heat. Whisk until hot. Dump in cheese and whisk until melted. Add salt and pepper. Check consistency, adding some of the hot pasta water to loosen the sauce if needed.

Pour pasta and sauce into a large serving bowl. Sprinkle remaining basil all over the top, then add sliced chicken breasts. Serve immediately!


Alternative: For our vegetarian Amanda, perhaps some grilled tofu or shrimp would be a good replacement to the chicken! 

Chunky Healthy Hearty: Fresh Mediterranean Tomato, Spinach and Lentil Soup

Posted by amanda in healthy, lemon, mediterranean, recipe, soup, spinach, vegetarian

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In my first summer of vegetarianism I quickly realized how hard it is to get a good canned soup that fulfills all the needs I was speedily coming to understand as a veggie newbie: how do you keep vegetables from getting boring? How do you keep homemade soup from coming out stringy or too salty? The answer on that fateful day was lemon lemon lemon. And spinach. And a giant pot.

This soup is incredibly inexpensive to make, lasts for days, and only gets better the longer it sits in your fridge. Besides what's listed here you can throw in basically any vegetable you've got on hand, which for me is usually carrots (throw them in first). I've tossed in precooked chunks of potato in the past too (only to heat them if they're well cooked), to great avail. I almost always double this recipe. Your house will smell sooooo good I promise.

You're gonna need:

1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp (5 mL) dried basil leaves

1/2 tsp (2 mL) each dried oregano and thyme leaves

Pinch each dried rosemary leaves, crumbled, and pepper

My pinches are more like small handfuls to be honest

3 cups (750 mL) vegetable stock

1 can (28 oz/796 mL) diced tomatoes, including juice

1 can (19 oz/540 mL) lentils.

DRAINED AND RINSED PEOPLE, DRAINED AND RINSED. Nobody likes Lentil juice.

Juice of 1/2 lemon

3 cups (750 mL) fresh baby spinach leaves

Of course you can use frozen, but it's just not the same. Frozen spinach will break up more easily and does taste a little bit different

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Optional, but highly recommended if you can get the good stuff

Have on hand:

Large (and I mean large) soup pot/saucepan, preferably with handles for leverage when you stir this baby - the soup's really chunky so it can take a little muscle and you don't want this all over your kitchen floor (believe me).

Go to!:

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add celery, onion and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in seasonings, vegetable stock, tomatoes, lentils and lemon juice.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 5 minutes. Stir in spinach leaves until wilted, about 30 seconds, really not much longer. Serve with Parmesan, if desired. Grate lemon zest as garnish if you're into that and love the lemon.

Makes 8 cups (2 L), 4 servings.

Bonus!

Tomato Tip: If you have canned whole tomatoes rather than diced, an easy way to cut them up is using kitchen shears. Pour tomato liquid into soup (to avoid messy overflow) and cut tomatoes in the can.

Nutritional Info

Per Serving: 280 cal, 20 g protein, 6 g fat, 42 g carb, 10 g fibre, 1265 mg sodium. Excellent source vit A, vit C, folate, niacin, thiamin, iron, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc. Very high source dietary fibre (take note!)

Calories : 280 (AMAZING)

photo from: www.treehugger.com