It’s a very orange salad, isn’t it?!  I LOVE golden beets, but you could substitute them for regular ones here.  You could also change up the citrus depending on what you have on hand.  This salad was SO GOOD!

Golden Beet & Citrus Salad

1 medium orange

1 large grapefruit

2 small tangerines

1 large beet (or 2 medium), cooked

1 TB chopped mint

Dressing:

Juice of 1 lime

1 tsp agave syrup

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Peel and segment all of the citrus.  It would be most convenient if they were the seedless varieties but, if they aren’t, remove all of the seeds.  Combine them with the rest of the salad ingredients in a bowl.  Whisk together the dressing ingredients and drizzle over the salad.  Toss to combine.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

I was going for more of a Greek style with this pasta salad.  My original idea was to use tofu as a substitute for feta cheese, but it didn’t turn out the way I had wanted it to.  I’ll have to fiddle with that some more.  On it’s own, though, this pasta salad was really good and perfect for a hot day when you don’t want to cook.  The best part is that I made it without any oil so, aside from the olives, this is pretty figure friendly.

Greek Style Pasta Salad

1 cup orzo, dry

1/2 cup chopped cucumber

1/2 cup roasted red peppers, chopped

1/2 to 3/4 cup kalamata olives, halved

1/2 cup artichoke hearts, quartered

1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped

3 TB chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Dressing

Zest and juice from 1 large lemon

1 TB red wine vinegar

2 TB agave syrup

1/2 tsp dried oregano

S&P

Boil orzo per package directions.  Meanwhile, combine all of the other salad ingredients in a large boil.  In a separate bowl, prepare the dressing.  When the orzo is cooked, strain it and run it under cold water for a few minutes to cool it off.  Add to the salad bowl.  Pour dressing over the salad and toss.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

I was trying to think of something cool and refreshing to throw together for dinner and came up with the idea for this wild rice salad.  It was really easy to make (and the best part is that you can make it WAY ahead of time), and it was also yummy!  I love it when my ideas turn out as good as I envision them being.  I used stuff that I had on hand in my fridge; any vegetables would be good here – peas, carrots, spinach, zucchini, etc.

Wild Rice Salad

1 cup white and wild rice mix

1 3/4 cup water

1 cup grapes

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

1 cup broccoli florets, blanched

6 cremini mushrooms, sliced and lightly sauteed in olive oil

Dressing

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 TB olive oil

2-4 TB agave nectar (depends on how sweet you want it)

Cook the rice in the water (those are the directions on my package of rice.  Your rice to water ratio may be different.)  Meanwhile, chop, saute, blanche, toast the remaining salad ingredients and put them in a large bowl.  When the rice is done cooking, add to the bowl with the veggies.  Mix together the dressing ingredients and drizzle over the top.  Taste and season with S&P.

After not posting for quite some time, I have a few posts to do in order to get caught up.  Truthfully, I haven’t been doing a ton of cooking lately and thus don’t have many interesting recipes to pass along.

After our quesadillas the night before, I had a little bit of filling left over.  I didn’t have enough to make a meal of quesadillas and I had to think of a way to stretch it a little.  I had some organic potatoes growing roots out my veggie basket, so I decided to make an enchilada filling out of those, my quesadilla leftovers and some other things hanging out in the fridge.  This really isn’t a recipe, more of a method, so feel free to substitute anything that may need to be used up.

Very Veggie Enchiladas

5 baby yukon gold potatoes, diced

1 cup corn, fresh or frozen

1 zucchini, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup chopped frozen spinach

1/2 cup chopped frozen kale

1 recipe refried beans

4 tortillas, either corn or flour

1 cup jarred salsa

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Preheat a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat.  When the skillet is hot, add a small drizzle of canola oil and the potatoes.  Spread the potatoes out in a single layer and allow them to brown on all sides.  When the potatoes are about halfway cooked and browned on all sides, add the bell peppers, onions and garlic.  Be careful not to burn the garlic; reduce the heat a bit if it starts to get too brown.  When the onions and bell peppers have begun to soften, add the zucchini and corn.  Cook for a few minutes longer, just until the zucchini are starting to become soft, then add the spinach and the kale.  Season to taste with S&P.

Fill the tortillas by spreading a generous amount of refried beans on the bottom and a spoonful of the filling.  Roll it up and place into a baking dish large enough to accommodate all four enchiladas.  Repeat this process until you’ve made four enchiladas.  Spread the salsa over the top of the enchiladas– be generous as a lot of it is absorbed by the tortillas while baking.  Bake for about 20 minutes, until the tops and sides are bubbly.

On the side, we have an ear of corn and some mango and avocado salad.  This salad was so easy to make and so refreshing.

I started by dicing up one mango and one avocado and about 2 leaves of romaine lettuce.  Mix with fresh lime juice, chopped cilantro and S&P.  Voila!

We had some romaine salad mix about to turn brown and yucky in the fridge, so it turned out to be a salad for dinner night. Matt typically doesn’t eat salad as the main component of a meal because he doesn’t find them to be super filling, and I thought I could fix that by topping it with some beans and other taco fixings.

My intent was for the tortilla shell to hold it all, but our tortillas were much smaller than I realized and it turned out to be more of a garnish. To make them, heat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly brush both sides of the tortilla with canola oil and drape over an oven proof bowl. Put the bowls onto a baking sheet and bake until the tortilla is golden brown.

The salad is just the bagged romaine and some chopped cucumber. I put a generous topping of refried beans on top of the salad base. The beans were made exactly the same way as I made them before, except that I added in some garlic when I sauteed the onion and jalapeño and I thinned it out with some veg stock after mashing. These were some delicious beans! On top of the beans, I put a bunch of jarred salsa, dollop of Tofutti BTSC, some chopped avocado and tomato, and a sprinkle of cilantro. The salad wasn’t dressed at all, as the idea is that the beans, salsa and toppings combine to make a dressing for the salad. It was really, really good and will definitely be on the list of regulars around here.

For our family gathering this past Saturday, I took a big platter of cookies as well as some pasta salad.  I forgot to take a photo of the pasta salad before everyone dug in, so I had to settle for a photo of the leftovers.

Pasta Salad

1 pound pasta, any shape

1 cup roasted red peppers, patted dry and chopped

1 cup olives, any kind, chopped

1 pint cherry tomatoes

1 can artichoke hearts, chopped

1 cup basil, chopped

Lemony Vinaigrette Dressing

Juice of 2 lemons

Zest of 1 lemon

1 TB agave nectar

1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil

S&P to taste

Cook pasta per package directions.  Immediately after draining, rinse with cold water for several minutes and spread out on a baking sheet to cool completely.  Toss all of the veggies with the pasta and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.  If you are making this a day ahead, hold off on adding the basil until you are almost ready to serve.  When ready to serve, toss again and add more olive oil, if the pasta looks dry.

So easy to make, yet so yummy!  This would be great for summer picnics or even when it feels too hot outside to eat a hot meal.

While visiting my parents over the weekend, my dad said that he’d never had a falafel before and didn’t even know what was in it.  I told him that I would make them the next time they visited and, true to my word, I made them tonight.  They ate ‘em up and even took some leftovers home.  They are so incredibly easy to make.  I wonder why we don’t have them more often?!

I’ve been using the same falafel recipe for a few years now and I’m not sure where it came from originally.  Sorry for not giving any credit to the original creator of my falafel recipe.

Falafel

2 green onions, cut into 1 inch pieces

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

1/4 cup fresh mint

1 15-oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I use whole wheat)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp Tabasco sauce

1 TB olive oil

Put everything into a food processor and process until smooth.  You can either make them into patties or balls.  I use a cookie scooper and scoop them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown.  You can also pan fry them, but I usually end up making a huge mess when I go that route– baking is much easier and less fatty.

Not the most attractive photo, I know (my plate is on an Elmo placement, by the way, in case you were wondering about all those words).  I served ours up on top of some middle eastern flatbread that I can always find at Trader Joe’s, topped with chopped lettuce, tomatoes, and some dill pickles.  I know, the dill pickles sound like an odd topping for falafels, but they are really quite tasty.  The sauce that I make to go with the falafels is made from 2 TB mayo (or vegan mayo), 2 TB Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream (thanks to Amy’s tip, I was able to find some at Whole Foods), juice of 1 lemon, 1/2 cup chopped cucumber, and about 2 TB chopped fresh dill.  Combine all of those ingredients and thin it out a bit with some plain rice (or soy) milk until it is the right consistency.

On the side, I threw together a quick tabbouleh, which turned out really good.

Tabbouleh

1/2 cup bulgar

1 cup water

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup chopped fresh mint

1 cup chopped kale

1 cup chopped cucumber

1 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1 cup diced red onion, soaked in several changes of water (optional, but I find that doing this removes the raw onion after taste)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

S&P to taste

Cook the bulgar in the water.  Meanwhile, put all of the other ingredients into a bowl.  When the bulgar is cooked, add it in and stir.  Taste for seasoning and adjust, if necessary.

I know that kale isn’t a traditional tabbouleh ingredient, but it really has no flavor when it is raw (at least to me it doesn’t) and I thought it would be a good addition here to boost the nutrition of the dish.  The only thing it contributed was extra vitamins and fiber– if I hadn’t known it was in there, I wouldn’t have thought that anything was amiss.

We’ve were out of town for Mother’s Day weekend, thus explaining the lack of recent posts.  On Friday night, my hubby made me a very tasty meal of spaghetti with marinara as my Mother’s Day gift.  He’s so sweet.  It turned out really, really good, but I was so hungry when we ate it that I dove right in without first taking a photo.

When we returned from our weekend away, we were in pretty bad shape grocery-wise.  I went out to Sigona’s, the only place for produce, as far as I’m concerned, and picked up some delicious produce.  Take a look at the salad we had after my shopping trip:

It was just a simple garden salad, but everything was so fresh tasting that I had to share.  My beats were still cooking when it was time to eat, so they didn’t make it onto the salad.  Drizzled on top is my balsamic dijon vinaigrette.

I wasn’t really in the mood to cook anything last night, so I decided that some frozen veggie burgers were the way to go. The burgers were a “tex mex” variety- with corn, black beans, etc., and I decided to try out Carrie’s twist on tabbouleh for a side dish. I didn’t have her recipe in front of me and I was too lazy to turn on the computer, so I decided to wing it. The outcome was awesome! The leftovers are even better. Here is how I made my version of Carrie’s version of Mexican style tabbouleh :

Mexican Style Tabbouleh Salad

1/2 cup bulgur wheat

1 cup water

1 cup frozen corn kernals

1 cup beans (any kind will do)

1/2 red onion, diced and soaked in several changes of water *

1/2 tomato, diced

1/2 mango, diced

1/2 cup cilantro

juice of 3 limes

1/4 cup olive oil

Put the bulgur in a pot with the water and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 15 minutes until the water is adsorbed. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, add the frozen corn (no need to defrost- the hot bulgur will do that for you), beans, tomato, onion, mango and cilantro. When the bulgur is cooked, add it to the bowl too. Add the lime juice, olive oil and S&P. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

* I really don’t care for raw onion too much, mostly because of the gross after taste it leaves in my mouth. I find that by soaking raw onion in several changes of water before I add it to a salad, it helps to counteract the yucky after taste.

I especially loved the addition of the mango. When I was a kid, my mom would make pasta salad in the summertime and would either add in some chopped nectarine or some grapes. It was so tasty to have a sweet bite of fruit in the middle of a savory, refreshing salad and I thought the mango would serve the same purpose here. If I would have had a jalapeño on hand, I may had added it as well. I will totally be making this again!

I had this idea for pizza, but at the last minute, decided to make calzones instead. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out and I will definitely be making them again.

To make the calzones, I divided my pizza dough (store bought whole wheat) evenly into thirds. One of the thirds I divided in half (to make Emma an extra one that I could freeze). I then rolled them all out into circles and filled them with the rest of my cashew cheese, some frozen spinach, and a few broccoli florets (also frozen). I had originally planned to throw some basil in there too, but forgot until they were already baking. I baked them at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes on my new baking stone (thanks, Brianne and Paul!). We had some marinara on the side for dipping. They were great! The best part was that Emma liked them too. She loves pizza and this is a good veganized version that tastes pretty close to the real thing. For hers, I took all of the filling components, plus a little bit of marinara and gave them a whirl in the food processor before stuffing the dough.

On the side, we had a chopped salad. We are out of lettuce and the only fresh veggies in the fridge were the last of my organic golden beets, some baby carrots and some celery. I chopped up all of those, plus an apple and pear, topped it with my balsamic dijon vinaigrette and sprinkled on some toasted pine nuts, walnuts, pistachios, and dried cranberries. Very tasty!