Bacon Eggplant Grilled Cheese

Basil, Tomato, Mozzarella Salad

I bought some beautiful tomatoes and purple basil from the farmer's market today.

I was really craving cheese so when I stumbled upon some grass fed mozzarella I bought that too. Keeping up with ww has made my relationship with cheese go through a rough patch...so it was time. But I decided to make a healthy salad for dinner. To make it more hearty I served it over some cooked spelt. This salad was delicious. The only thing I will change next time is that I will not mix all ingredients together at once, instead I will gently toss in the beans and cheese at the end. Because the beans were canned and the cheese was so fresh they started to fall apart with the mixing. I had wanted all the ingredients to marinate together while the spelt took its lovely time cooking (1 hour+!!). But I learned my lesson about this.

This spelt was leftover from my winter csa. Let me tell you, letting it do its' thing is worth it. This was a lesson I learned back in December. You don't want to eat crunchy spelt-- you will end up with a headache.

Serves 6 (1 cup servings)
ww points = salad alone (5 points); salad with arugula and 1/2 cup cooked spelt (7 points)

Healthy Sloppy Joes and Smokey Collard Greens

These collards are sooo good. You would think there is bacon, or some form of piggy pig in them, as they taste so damn good. It is the fennel, chipotle in adobo, and the smoked paprika which really give them their kick. Marc and I have made these two times and I will continue to go back to this recipe. The sloppy joes paired very well with these collards and are so low in points, that you can even indulge in a carby hamburger bun for dinner. These recipes call for Worcestershire and chicken broth but if you wanted to make this vegetarian you could substitute vegetarian Worcestershire and veggie broth.

The collard recipe serves 5 and was adapted from this site. ww = 1 point per serving
The sloppy joe recipe serves 5 and was adapted from this site. ww = 2 points per serving (no roll)
(The whole dinner with a hamburger bun is 7 points!!!)

Smoked Salmon Spread

This smoked salmon spread was served as part of a four course "mini" dinner. Marc and I had our friends Guez and Azul over. It sounds elaborate but really, I whipped up this meal in a snap. I served smoked salmon spread with cucumbers, cucumber avocado gazpacho soup (next post), swiss chard burgers with sweet potato fries, and then marc's new low-fat chocolate ice cream-- made with skim milk and xanthan gum! This recipe was inspired by the following site.

Beet Corn Summer Salad

This salad is very high in fiber, filling and super quick to make. I served it as an appetizer but it would make a nice side served with plain fish or meat. Then I ate the leftovers with a hard boiled egg.

Serves 6.

Bastard Baba Ganoush

If zucchini and eggplant had a bastard son, it would likely taste like this dip.

Cannellini Bean, Sage, and Garlic Dip

We routinely make hummus at home. Or I should say Marc has been making it ever since he learned how to. He is the snack master in this house. But we have all this sage from the CSA that I have been trying to use up. I made sage honey muffins, turkish eggs with fried sage, and now this dip. This dip has a very powerful flavor but it is super healthy and goes great with pita chips.

Chilled Cucumber Patty Pan Soup

The perfect meal for this heat wave we are in the middle of!

Summer Vegetable Pilaf

This is a great summer dish. It could be a main course, a side for a potluck or a good picnic food.

 

Curried Egg Salad

This recipe is adapted from Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks. I wanted to eat something different for breakfast that wouldn't weigh me down. That and I knew I wanted to make homemade pasta for dinner so I wanted to budget the calories. This egg salad is delicious. It does require some chopping but it doesn't take forever to make. Next time I will double it and save the salad for lunch for the week!

Orange Fennel Salad

This is a great side to any fish. It is fast and healthy! I posted another fennel salad this past summer. This one is slightly different, but just as good.

Veggie-Orzo Summer Salad

This summer salad is quick, healthy, and super yummy. It is loaded with vegetables but it has such a simple taste. I think that it will be the next picnic food for me. It would also be a great dish to serve on the side of some cooked fish.

It was inspired by this blog and that cook, Cate, was inspired by another blog! So as you can see, it is was a typical cooking experiment for me.

Zucchini-Carrot Curry Soup

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart's Great Food Fast. I recommend buying her book if you are interested in making cooking a little more simple. I have a tendency to over-complicate dishes so I enjoy cooking the recipes in this cookbook.

 This soup is very flavorful and healthy. I think it would work well for a picnic food as well.

Cold Cucumber Soup...the blog's first trip!

Warning: This is the easiest soup you will ever make! :)

Last night I went to my friend Sonia's apartment so we could cook together. Since we used to live together we make a great team in the kitchen. This experience cooking was very different from all others. Since I was in a funk, I was happy to distract myself in the kitchen. So, sonia happily sat at the bar stools scrounging the internet for ideas on how we should make the meal we decided on. She gave me instructions on what to do and I did it. Made it brainless for me. The first course was to a cold cucumber soup, and the second was sea bass cooked with a side of potatoes (recipe to follow in next post).

Ingredients
3 cucumbers, peeled
3 scallions
2 garlic cloves, minced
32 oz fat free plain yogurt (Greek would make it the creamiest)
3 T fresh dill, chopped
juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper

1. Cut cucumber and scallions (use greens and stems) into big chunks. Place in blender.
2. Add minced garlic, yogurt, dill, lemon, and salt and pepper (to taste) to the blender.
3. Blend until homogeneous. Serve cold.

cucumber pb & j

I was browsing TasteSpotting (only the most fabulous, visually-stimulating food site) the other day when I saw someone had made peanut butter and jelly with cucumbers! I thought that was the strangest idea, if not even perhaps a little scary. So naturally, I had to try it for breakfast just now, yes breakfast at 1:30 pm! It's basic PB& J with slices of cucumbers and a pinch of sea salt. That's it!

The cucumbers make the sandwich so refreshing in this heat. I would even go so far as to say that the might even prevent your body from melting. I recommend giving it a try!

cold soba peanut noodles

Last night I went on a picnic with some lady friends. It was the first of the season, as all other attempts to picnic this spring were rained out. It turned out to be quite the feast. I didn't change the recipe that I used too much because it was nearly perfect. I have had other peanut noodles and the sauces weren't as good. This one really is a great way to feed a bunch of people at a picnic. I will definitely be making it to go to movies under the Brooklyn Bridge this summer!