Summer Salad and Cucumber Soup

Lunch My favorite salad this summer is the one pictured above. Cut up about three leaves of romaine lettuce and add chopped tomato on top of that. Place half of an avocado, diced, in a smaller bowl and mince one clove of garlic through a press on top of that. Add the other half of the avocado if you like then stir the garlic into the avocado. Toss the avocado-garlic mix with the greens and tomato and eat up.

While perusing the fridge for more lunch eats, I noticed my leftovers from last night and decided to sandwich them in cabbage leaves. It was OK, but really left me wishing I had endive leaves or bread to make a sort of bruschetta.

Dinner

This was one of many recipes I found at Elaine Love's website, Pure Joy Planet, that sounded so good I couldn't wait to try them out.

Cucumber Soup

• 2 medium-large cucumbers
• 3 cups of spinach or another leafy green
• 1 handful basil
• 1 T. fresh ginger with skin
• juice of 1-1/2 lemons
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder
• 1 small avocado, diced
  
• 1 tsp. dried dill, or 2 T. fresh

1. Place cucumber and lemon juice in a food processor. Pulse until pureed.
2. Add a handful of the greens and basil, pulsing until incorporated, and continue to do so until greens are gone.
3. Add in the salt, garlic and onion powders, avocado, and dill, pulsing until incorporated.

This recipe was pretty yummy. I added some chopped cherry tomatoes and onion on top, which was much welcomed flavor. Adding some sprouted grain bread with organic butter made it perfect.

Zuccini "pasta" with Raw Marinara and Kale Salad

I'm always falling in love at the farmers market! When I went to the farmers market yesterday morning, I fell in love with this purple kale. Having recently viewed Jennifer Cornbleet's video about making a raw kale salad, I couldn't resist!

This was pretty yummy — while the marinara wasn't a perfect replica of it's cooked version, the zucchini easily mimicked the size and texture of pasta. The real test will be is my son enjoys it as much as I do.

Zuccini "pasta"

• Peel and julienne one zucchini per person.

Raw Marinara

• 2 bell peppers
• 3 to 5 tomatoes
• 5 to 8 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked for a few hours
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed a bit or minced if you like
  
• basil
• oregano
• salt
• black pepper

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse till the desired consistency is achieved.
2. Toss with the zucchini and serve.

For this recipe I didn't have pine nuts or olives. Instead, I used raw sunflower seeds my mom left for us when she last visited (thanks Mom!) and didn't use olives — yes it was sad, but I plan to get some today to add to the leftovers. Very good indeed! The flavor of this salad was quite earthy — perhaps an acquired taste for some, but enjoyable! This will definitely be a recipe to replicate. The health benefits of kale abound, and I'm interested in finding out how the taste of different varietals of kale compare.

Kale Salad

• enough kale to match the size of a salad
• juice of one lemon
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt
• 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1/2 to 1 cup olives
  

1. Chop the kale using a chiffon cut, making sure the leaves are left in bite-sized ribbons in the salad bowl.
2. Add the olive oil, lemon juice and salt.
3. Massage the leaves, rubbing them together periodically.
4. Add in the bell pepper, nuts and olives and toss.

Starting to notice my organic intake

Upside Down Plum Cake

This is a recipe from a Martha Stewart Food magazine (month, year). I enjoyed it the first time I made it and thought it would be a good way to use up some plums. It was also a great dessert to share with my friend Carlos who I hadn't seen in nearly one year.

• 3 medium plums, sliced
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup raw sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/3 (?) cups flour
• 1/ baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put 4 tablespoons butter in pan and place in oven until melted. Pull out of the oven and stir in brown sugar, then layer plums on the mixture.
2. Sift dry ingredients.
3. Cream butter with sugar. Then add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture; 1/2 of the milk; 1/3 of the flour; 1/2 of the milk; and final 1/3 of the flour. Pour over plums and bake for 50 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes then invert onto a plate.

Garlic Sautéd Wax Beans
For the first time in my life I was introduced to these white string beans. They were a bit lemony - a delightful surprise.





• Wax beans
• Butter
• Crushed garlic cloves
• Parsley, minced

1. Steam or boil the beans for 5 minutes, then drain.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the garlic, cooking for a minute. Add in the beans and sauté for a minute before adding the parsley. Cook for a minute more than shift to a serving plate.