Black bean and corn salad

This is a delicious summer dish that can be used as a dip and eaten with chips or made more into a meal/side dish by eating it over bulgur.  You can really put in whatever summer veggies you like.  I think avocado would be delicious in it but Kevin is now allergic so I leave it out.  I didn't follow all the measurement guidelines in the recipe to a T I just added things until it looked like it was enough.  For example I think I only used like 3/4 of a can of beans.

Ingredients:
1/5 c lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2-1 clove garlic - minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cilantro
small slice of jalapeno - remember you can always add more so I normally add a little at a time
1 ear fresh corn - cut kernels from cob
1/2 red bell pepper - chopped
1small  tomato - chopped
1 can black beans - drained and rinsed
3 green onions - chopped


Methods:
1. Place lime juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, cilantro, and jalapeno in a small blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
2. In a bowl combine all other ingredients, pour dressing over, stir, and serve.

Summer Orzo pasta salad

This is Kevin creation is a light delicious pasta salad for the summer.  We don't normally use measurements when we make this, because Kevin doesn't cook that way, so the ones below are a best guess.  Normally if there aren't enough veggies we just add some more.  You can really put in whatever summer veggies you love.  The last time we made it we threw in some fresh corn and it was delicious.  This is good with the grilled ratatouille recipe I posted earlier.


Ingredients:
1 box orzo
1 red pepper - chopped
1 cucumber - chopped
1 medium tomato - chopped
1 ear of corn - taken off the cob
1/4 cup kalamata olives - chop after measuring, we have used green olives as well but I prefer kalamata
2 stalks asparagus - chopped - when in season
1-2 TBS of olive oil
1-2 TBS of balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste


Methods:
1.  Cook the past according to box directions, drain, and cool with cold water.
2.  Mix pasta with all of the veggies, add 1 TBS olive oil and balsamic to start and add more if needed
3. Salt n pepper to taste

Grilled Ratatouile

This is a great healthy summer meal that is perfect for hot days when you do not want to heat up the kitchen. It comes from the Cuisine at home magazine which I can not recommend enough.

Ingredients:

You can sub in any veggies you prefer or have on hand, we used pipian squash instead of zucchini.

1 Japanese eggplant - halved lengthwise - you can use regular if that is all you've got
1 red bell pepper - seeded and quartered
1 red onion - cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds
1 tomato - halved and seeded
1/2 zucchini - cut lengthwise
1/2 yellow squash - cut lengthwise
3 TBS olive oil
2 tsp fresh chopped thyme - I used dried
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp minced lemon zest


1. Preheat grill to medium.
2. Toss all of the veggies in 2TBS of olive oil and salt and pepper.
3. Grill vegetables covered until tender, ~ 3 minutes each side depending on how soft you like them.  We prefer them with a little crunch left.
4.  Chop all vegetables except for the tomato into bite size pieces and place in large bowl.
5. Puree tomato with 1 TBS olive oil, thyme, lemon juice and zest until smooth.
6.  Toss the veggies in the tomato puree.
7. Salt and pepper to taste.

We served our veggies over a light summer orzo pasta salad and topped it all off with mozzarella cheese.  The recipe suggest putting it on a creamy goat cheese orzo that I haven't tried yet.

Vegetable Polenta Bake

This is really good and a good recipe to use when you have lots of leftover vegetables in your fridge that you need to get rid of.  This is also Kevin approved.  In his words that means it doesn't taste like cardboard.  He was skeptical and then proceeded to eat half of an 8x8 dish of it.

Ingredients:

• 3 carrots, sliced
• 1 large zucchini, sliced
• 1 large yellow squash, sliced
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 cup spaghetti sauce - I used more than this but I like things saucy
• 1 can diced tomatoes - I didn't use the whole can but I wanted some chunky tomatoness in it.  
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese - I left this out because I didn't have any
• polenta sliced 1/2" thick

I didn't really follow the suggestions for the amount of vegetables very closely I just threw in things I had one hand.

1.  Cut up all veggies and saute them in olive oil until slight soft.  I cooked the carrots, onions, and peppers by themselves for a little and then added the squash and zucchini.  

2.  After veggies are cooked add the sauce and diced tomatoes to the skillet.

3.  Line an 8x8 pan with the polenta slices.

4.  Pour veggie sauce mixture on top of polenta and then cover with mozzarella cheese

5.  Bake for 30-40 at 350 degrees minutes until heated all the way through and bubbly.

Fresh tomato salsa

This is a really simple and delicious salsa, well I guess it is closer to pico de gallo.  If you want to make it more salsa like you can add a bit of tomato paste to it.  This recipe makes a pretty large batch

Ingredients:
3 tomatoes, chopped - I just used whatever tomatoes were on sale.  mine were pretty big if yours are small add a few extra tomatoes.
1/2 c finely diced onion
1 jalapeno pepper - I used a small one from my plant seeds and all and my salsa came out very spicy.  You could also use 2 Serrano chilies if you like
1/2 cup fresh cilantro - chopped
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lime juice - about a lime

Directions:
1. In a bowl mix together all the ingredients and chill for about an hour in the fridge before serving.

Basic Collard Greens

Collard greens are super good for you and always cheap at the store.

Ingredients:

1 bunch collard greens
4-5 slices bacon
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Remove the ribs from the greens and soak them in a bowl of water to remove all dirt and grit.
2. Cut the bacon up into bite size pieces and cook in a large skillet.
3.  Once the bacon is crispy add the collard greens.  They do not need to be completely dry, the little bit of water still on them helps to cook them.
4.  Cover and cook for around 10 minutes until the greens and soft and the water has cooked off.

Easy Cabbage

 Cabbage is super cheap and good for you.  This recipe is really simple and delicious.  Be careful, cabbage can be deadly on the stomach. :)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1 medium head cabbage, coarsely shredded
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 3 tablespoons vinegar
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Preparation:

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter; add seasoned salt, cabbage, and onion. Cook, covered, over medium heat for 15 minutes. Stir frequently. Blend vinegar and sugar; add to cabbage mixture. Stir gently to blend; cook cabbage 5 minutes longer.

Baked Kale Chips

These are actually pretty good.  Kevin even tried them and said they weren't bad (which says alot, he's normally not really that into my uber healthy cooking).  I think they taste pretty similar to a regular chip.  The only thing is that they only stay crisp for so long after a few days mine were soggy.  Maybe if I stored them in a ziplock bag or cooked them longer they would have stayed crisper. 

Ingredients:
1 bunch kale
1 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt, to taste - I'm sure kosher salt would work fine as well.

Preheat oven to 300°F.
Rinse and dry the kale, then remove the stems and tough center ribs.
Cut into large pieces, toss with olive oil in a bowl then sprinkle with salt.
Arrange leaves in a single layer on a large baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes or even a little longer, or until crisp. Place baking sheet on a rack to cool.

Spaghetti Squash

SOOO simple and so good for you.

Ingredients:
1 spaghetti squash
your favorite pasta sauce

Preheat oven 375 degrees

Directions:
1. Pierce all over the rind of your spaghetti squash - keep it whole, do not cut it
2. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes/lb until the skin feels soft
3. Let stand 5 minutes
4. Place in a baking dish and bake for 1 hour
5. When done it will feel soft. Cut in half and scoop out the seeds. The rest of the squash is easily removed with a fork and it is amazing how much it looks like spaghetti.

Sweet N' Sour Kale

I got this recipe from the crappy CSA Christina and I were a part of.

Ingredients:
1 bunch Kale
1/2 onion - chopped
3 TBS apple cider vinegar
1 TBS sugar (preferably in the raw)
1 tsp garlic (fresh or powder whatever you have on hand)
3 TBS water

Saute the onion in olive oil until it starts to soften.
Mix in all other ingredients except for kale and let mix well
Add kale and 3 TBS water
Cover and cook on medium for a few minutes until kale is wilted but not mushy