Recent salad dressings

 Chipotle Ranch 

https://www.onelovelylife.com/chipotle-ranch-dressing/#tasty-recipes-32457-jump-target

This one, as written tasted too much like mayo, so I added more garlic powder and then some white wine vinegar. I used the high side of the chipotle peppers, probably closer to a tablespoon.

Honey lime vinaigrette https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/235712/honey-lime-vinaigrette/

Used this as a general guide, didn't add any extra sugar, and just used olive oil.

Caesar dressing again

 https://whats4supper2night.blogspot.com/2019/05/vegan-caesar-dressing.html

Was my first attempt at the dressing.

This was my second, not too bad. I prefer this yogurt base over the mayo base. I can make a double batch and it fits in a small half pint canning jar.

https://www.loveandlemons.com/caesar-dressing/#wprm-recipe-container-42205

Italian dressing

 Used this recipe to make Italian dressing 

https://thewholecook.com/easy-homemade-italian-dressing/

Recent cooking adventures

 Vegan lentil loaf from Oh She Glows-https://ohsheglows.com/2011/01/01/ultimate-vegan-lentil-walnut-loaf/

Drunken Beans/Borracho beans from Rancho Gordo. I think I used pinto or Eye of the Goat -  https://www.ranchogordo.com/blogs/recipes/drunken-beans

Jamie Oliver's veggie burger. This was ok, but still a little mushy. https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/the-best-vegan-burger/

Used this recipe in the summer for garlic scape pesto. I remember it being pretty good. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015301-garlic-scape-pesto?action=click&module=Global%20Search%20Recipe%20Card&pgType=search&rank=1

Made these green beans to accompany a tofu stir fry: https://dinnerthendessert.com/spicy-chinese-sichuan-green-beans/#wprm-recipe-container-8658

I  have been working on making"take-out" at home. This was mentioned in my dinner FB group, so I thought I would try. I used lemon bc that's what I had on hand. Everyone else did not like it but I thought it was ok. Definitely a different flavor from a restaurant. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014830-baingan-bharta?fbclid=IwAR1jeskJlooJDarwc1-p1oYCiMSV5fl6jzRlSWwLCawE5yUZ-R1HlcquDLI

These sauteed zucchini almost don't need a recipe, but they were delicious: https://www.kitchentreaty.com/7-minute-sauteed-zucchini-with-garlic-basil/

I think I had a lot of cabbage, so I made this slaw. It was ok, but I think I prefer a creamier dressing. https://downshiftology.com/recipes/vinegar-coleslaw-no-mayo/

I tried making a bread machine challah. I didn't like how it turned out, but I still ate it ...https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/bread-machine-challah/

Lemony White Bean and Arugula Salad

I have arugula growing like crazy so I found Giada’s Lemony White Bean and Arugula Salad. I used Rancho Gordo flageolets and honey in place of the cannalini and maple syrup. I skipped the capers, but missed the saltiness.
It kept in the fridge pretty well, but I probably won’t make this specific thing again.

White Bean and Avocado Salad with Garlic Oil

I was looking for bean recipes to use up more of the lovely Rancho Gordo beans. I made this White Bean and Avocado Salad with Garlic Oil with some Alubia Blancos cooked in the IP. I was warned that they wouldn't take very much time, and that was quite true. The cooking liquid for the beans came out quite thick due to some of the beans breaking down.
Overall, I thought it turned out ok, the flavors were bright, but probably due to user error, it was a bit mushy and everything stuck together. I felt like there was a bit too much oil, too.

I won't be making this again.

MW30 Day 4

Breakfast - 3 ghee-fried eggs with Tabasco, 1/2 avocado, and lots of the roasted vegetables from the other night's dinner

Lunch - Leftover salad from last night's dinner with the added roasted cauliflower. I wasn't sure if I would eat the whole cauliflower, because that seems like a lot, but I did. It was delicious!

Dinner - I had another salad. Kale with roasted butternut squash, fresh grape tomatoes, toasted walnuts, a hard boiled egg, and olives. I made more tahini dressing because it was so good!

MW30 Day3

Breakfast - 3 ghee-fried eggs with Tabasco, 1/2 avocado, the last of the technically non-compliant potato and sweet potato wedges from last week that I don't want to go to waste.

Lunch - Black eyed pea stew from New Years Day, 1/2 avocado, 2 hard boiled eggs, and a handful of almonds.

Dinner - Great salad with a lemon-garlic-tahini dressing! Massaged kale with olive oil and s&p, roasted red pepper from yesterday's dinner, carrot strips, sugar snap peas, olives, toasted walnuts
Putting everything together took quite a while, so I should really try to prep the salads ahead of time. Everyone else was eating pizza while I was still assembling my dinner. I also started roasting a whole cauliflower before E went for the pizza, but it wasn't done in time, so I decided that it was for tomorrow.

Dressing -3 Tbsp. tahini, ~1-2 Tbsp. olive oil, juice of one lemon, 3 garlic cloves, salt, pepper - put everything in a tall bowl and blended with the stick blender

Corn Salad

With the great amount of sweetcorn and tomatoes in the CSA and from the farmers market, I needed something to use it up, so I found a Corn Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Mint recipe from the New York Times. I changed things up quite a bit due to things on hand, so I can't really "review" the recipe. I used an herbed goat cheese instead of feta and left out the mint, but I thought it turned out pretty good. It made quite a bit! I was eating it for a while, because I was the only one who wanted to eat it.


Recipe as prepared:

INGREDIENTS

2 to 3  cups raw or cooked corn kernels (from 4 to 6 ears)

1  large or 2 medium ripe tomatoes, cut into fairly small pieces

4  ounces herbed goat cheese, crumbled (about 1 cup)

3  tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION

Put the corn, tomatoes, and cheese in a medium salad bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil and toss.

Add the mint leaves and toss again. Taste and add salt and pepper. Serve.

Kohlrabi use up

I made a salad with kohlrabi. Recipe from the kitchn. I used fresh cherries since they were in season, I thought it was pretty good. I would try it again.

In an effort to use up more CSA kohlrabi, I found this recipe that inspired me to make oven fries with kohlrabi. I sprinkled on some Penzey’s ranch seasoning, and they were delicious!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 ½ to 2 pounds kohlrabi
• 1 tablespoon rice flour, chickpea flour or semolina (more as needed)
•  Salt to taste
• 2 to 4 tablespoons canola oil or grapeseed oil, as needed
•  Chili powder, ground cumin, curry powder or paprika to taste 
• PREPARATION

Peel the kohlrabi and cut into thick sticks, about 1/3 to 1/2 inch wide and about 2 inches long.
Heat the oil over medium high heat in a heavy skillet (cast iron is good). Meanwhile, place the flour in a large bowl, season with salt if desired and quickly toss the kohlrabi sticks in the flour so that they are lightly coated.
When the oil is rippling, carefully add the kohlrabi to the pan in batches so that the pan isn't crowded. Cook on one side until browned, about 2 to 3 minutes. Then, using tongs, turn the pieces over to brown on the other side for another 2 to 3 minutes. The procedure should take only about 5 minutes if there is enough oil in the pan. Drain on paper towels, then sprinkle right away with the seasoning of your choice. Serve hot.

Cucumber Salad

At one point this summer, we were swimming in cucumbers and I was trying to figure out ways to use them. I found a recipe for Cilantro lime cucumber salad. I thought it tasted great, but I like all of those flavors. I left out the jalapeño, but since L didn’t eat it, it didn’t matter.
I would make this again, but it needs to be eaten quickly, as this round seemed to go bad after just a few days.

Ingredients

• 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• black pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cucumbers, very finely sliced (see photos)
• 4 tablespoons minced cilantro, to taste

Instructions

1. Dice the jalapeno and garlic and add to a medium-sized bowl.
2. Add 3 tablespoons of fresh lime juice, crushed red pepper, salt, and pepper. Use a whisk to incorporate the 3 tablespoons olive oil. Set aside.
3. Finely slice the cucumbers. Use a mandolin if you have it, but a very sharp knife will do the trick. (See photos below.) Add the cucumbers to the dressing and stir together.
4. Finely mince the cilantro and add it to the bowl. Stir to combine. You can either let it sit in the fridge to marinate for a couple hours, or serve immediately.

Maple glazed walnuts

I made these walnuts for snacks and to put on top of salads. I did two batches, the first one I may have over cooked, and they came out a bit dry. The second batch maybe was undercooked because they were sticky. I'll have to work on the technique, but they were definitely tasty!

Tabouleh

I made this tabouleh, but scaled it down for the amount of herbs I had. Also I used CSA cilantro instead of parsley.
It's such a simple salad, but it was great.

Massaged Kale Salad

I feel like this was a "thing" last year. I tried making one last year, but didn't succeed. Yesterday was a half success. I was kinda going on memory and only looked up a recipe after I was halfway in. Aarti's recipe from Food Network is the general framework which I followed, though my method and ingredients varied a bit.

I started with a bit less than a pound of kale from the garden. I stripped the leaves from the stems and ripped up the large pieces into a bowl.
I poured about 3 swirls of olive oil and probably 1/2 teaspoon of salt - both of which was too much. I'd probably do one swirl, a couple pinches of salt, and probably the lemon juice that the recipe called for.
Then I massaged the heck out of it until it was softer, wilty, and bright green!
This was the point in which I thought I should find a recipe. So based on the one above and what I had already put in, I just added the juice of one lemon, some freshly ground pepper, diced up about 5 or 6 dried figs to try to offset the saltiness, and a handful of sunflower seeds.
I mixed everything thoroughly and served it up.
I thought it was pretty good, a little salty, but good - the kale wasn't tough and I liked the sweetness of the figs.

Basic Potato Salad

We grilled out yesterday with frozen veggie burgers and sausages, but I wanted to actually make something, so I picked Potato Salad!

I wanted something simple and quick, so I cubed up some potatoes  - probably about 2-3 lbs,I had two large potatoes and one small one.  I didn't bother skinning them, then I covered them in water and boiled/simmered on high for about 20 min or so until they were tender. I drained these and put in a large bowl. Ideally I think you'd put them in the fridge, or let them cool down, but it was dinner time, so I just went with it - warm potatoes and all.
To this I added 2 green onions and one pearl onion - ball and stem - that were chopped small, and about 2 tablespoons of dill finely chopped.

The dressing was pretty basic - to taste
about 1/4 cup olive oil
a little more than 1/8 cup red wine vinegar (homemade!)
about 2 teaspoons of dijon mustard
a sprinkle of sugar, probably about 1/2 teaspoon
salt and pepper to taste

Pour over the potato mix and stir to coat.

I originally had way too little salt and pepper, so I added more, probably about a couple teaspoons (or more) of salt in total.

Overall I thought it was pretty good, once I got the seasoning right. Ebon ate it too!

CSA Week 1

I made a yogurt dill sauce/dip last week. I ended up putting it on some fish Ebon caught, but I mostly dipped cucumbers in it!

We had napa cabbage and kohlrabi, so I shredded and cut and made an asian-style slaw. I thought it was just ok. Something was not quite right about the dressing, not sure what, though. I still ate it, but I was the only one who did.

Side Salads

I'm normally pretty bad at preparing side dishes for dinner. Saturday's weather was perfect for grilling and Ebon caught another fish, so I decided to make some salads for our dinner.
I wanted potato salad, but didn't want to use mayo, as I'm trying to avoid eggs. So I found this recipe from Food and Wine for Potato Salad with Balsamic, Chive & Greek Yogurt Dressing. I definitely didn't use baby potatoes, and it's possible I didn't use the three pounds it called for. It tasted pretty good, but I thought there was way too much dressing. Also, it could have used a bit more yogurt to make it creamier.

The other salad I made was a simple tomato-cucumber salad made with about 1 clove garlic, 1/4 small onion, two tomatoes and about four inches of a regular cucumber all diced up. I dressed it with a swirl of olive oil, salt, dried dill, and enough vinegar to drench the veggies - probably about 1/4 cup.

Whole30 Day Twenty-three

A little more than one week to go! I'm feeling pretty good, but I seem to have caught a cold over the weekend, so that has run me down. I feel like I'm in a rut food-wise, so I really need to get to meal planning!

• Breakfast was three ghee-fried eggs, half sweet potato, half avocado, and the last of the alfalfa sprouts.
• PreWO was 11 almonds. My workout went by pretty fast today. Instead of going outside to run in the beautiful weather, I stayed indoors and watched the end of both the women's and men's Boston Marathon races. It was great. I ran about 25 minutes without even noticing. The last five mintes were a little hard though.
• Lunch was butternut squash soup from last week, two hard-boiled eggs with homemade mayo, a small head of broccoli, half a clementine (lefotver from Leela's lunch yesterday). Though I was full before the citrus fruits, so I probably should have stopped at the broccoli.
• Leela wanted a snack on the way home, so I opened the grapefruit I didn't eat at lunch. I ended up eating it instead.
• Dinner was avocado ceviche (without the cauliflower) and sundried tomato and cauliflower salad with two hard boiled eggs. This was a lot of chopping, but turned into a good dinner.

I didn't really follow the recipe for the cauliflower salad very well-mostly because I was being lazy. Raw cauliflower and no food processor use for me means less steps and dishes to clean. I still thought it tasted great. Sweet from the tomato and salty from the mayo. I might add some sunflower seeds or another kind of nut if I make it again. 

1/4 cup sundried tomatoes chopped

2 tbsp green olives chopped 

1/4 cup mayonnaise 

1 clove garlic chopped

salt & pepper to taste 

All above should have gone into a food processor and combined.

1/4 cup red onion diced

Small head of cauliflower, chopped into bite sized pieces and steamed or boiled until just tender 

Combine the tomato mayo mix with the cauliflower 

Bread Salad with Sweet Peppers and Onions

I signed up on MealTrain to make a meal for another friend who just had a baby. Having just had a party, we had some leftovers that needed to be used up. I found a Bread Salad recipe that was just the ticket.
Since it's not really grilling season, I cut up a red pepper, an orange pepper, and a white onion (what I had on hand) in large chunks, tossed them in a bowl with olive oil and roasted them in the oven on a baking sheet. I made seasoned croutons from a baguette by tossing cubed bread in a bowl with olive oil, some salt, pepper, dried oregano, and garlic powder and then adding those to the oven on another baking sheet.
I put everything together according to the recipe, but excluded the chives since I didn't have any on hand and didn't add the bread since I was making this ahead of time. I also added some sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, and pre-cooked, sweet Italian-style chicken sausages cut up in chunks to give the meal a little more heft.
I really liked the dressing/spices that were added it gave it a unique flavor - from my little taste-test.
The family told me that they liked the meal - so yay!

Couscous Salad with Dates and Almonds

I made this salad for a friend who can't cook at the moment. I thought it turned out awesome - of the little I had to taste test. I added some sun dried tomatoes that I had on hand, but otherwise followed the recipe.
I included a couple bags of spinach for them too, so they could have a hearty lunch salad.

I would love to make this for me/us, but since it has couscous in it, Ebon won't even touch it - booo.