Recipe for Green Goddess Asparagus

This is a versatile, easy recipe my brother and I put together for a picnic this summer.  I've done something similar with green beans too, but I think I slightly prefer the asparagus.  The secret to keeping the veggies nice and green is to sprinkle about a TBSP of baking soda in the water while cooking.  Cook just a few minutes until still slightly crispy and then quickly shock in an iced water bath to stop the cooking.  Marinate in dressing, add some seasonings (if needed) and chopped tomatoes and enjoy!

Recipe for Fun Rice

While we were eating this, I was silently musing over what to call it.  Mr. ELEB solved the problem for me, calling it "fun rice".  I liked the name-it fit-so there you have it!

Recipe for Indian Flavored Squash Fritters-Daring Cooks

This recipe resulted from the monthly challenge from the Daring Kitchen.  The Daring Cooks' February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax and Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients, and deliciousness!  We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties.


Sometimes the challenges are very specific.  This one was great because we had a lot of latitude in our recipe. I thought about different kinds of patties all month-I think I had patty paralysis.  But, as is often the case, I just needed to open the fridge to get inspiration. When I saw the acorn squash sitting there, I was over my paralysis and knew what I'd put together-a fritter! 

Recipe for Black Bean Salad

This is a great side dish for chicken fajitas. If you don't want to bother roasting the peppers, I've also made this successfully using store bought roasted red peppers.

Recipe for Butternut Squash "Fries"

I put fries in quotation marks for this recipe because these are not crispy like potato fries.  They are even less crispy than sweet potato fries.  However, they are good and easy to make; another way to get some good veggies on the plate.   We ate them with buffalo burgers-yummy!

Recipe for Cauli-Kale "Surprise"

Have you ever had colcannon?  It's mashed potatoes and cabbage, of Irish roots I believe.  There was a restaurant in San Francisco that served it frequently and I grew to love it-made me feel less guilty about eating potatoes!


When I was on the South Beach diet, a favorite was South Beach "Surprise", mashed cauliflower with Laughing Cow cheese.  We still eat a lot of it.  Mr. ELEB likes it and it is one of the only ways I'll eat cauliflower.  I have roasted some from time to time and can eat that.  Oh, and I love cauliflower soup! And I loved the cauliflower sformato I made a while ago.  OK, I guess I like cauliflower.


So, all that by way of introduction of how I came up with this recipe.  I had a head of cauli and some kale.  I had Laughing Cow, but opted instead to use herbed goat's cheese.

Recipe for Asian Kale Salad

Love your greens?  Not so much for me, but I know they are good for me so I do try. I picked up some kale mix to go with a chicken I was roasting, thinking I would do something like my Asian Chard Salad.  It turned out quite nicely with the crunchy kale lightly dressed with a sesame, rice vinegar, olive oil dressing.  Hope you'll give it a try!

Recipe for Quick Broccoli Slaw

This is so quick, easy and tasty it should be in everyone's recipe file.  I have a wonderful recipe for a broccoli salad (I'll share next time I make it) but it is a bit labor intensive, not something you can throw together in a hurry.  Like when you have people coming over for dinner in an hour.   And you are driving home and realize you forgot to think about a side dish/salad when you were excitedly throwing the ingredients for slow cooker steak sammies into the crock that morning.  And you don't have anything resembling a vegetable in the fridge.  And you haven't showered yet... Okay, you get the picture.  When this happens to you, run to the nearest store and pick up these four ingredients to throw together a very satisfying Quick Broccoli Slaw.

Recipe for Orzo with Broccoli, Red Pepper, and Olives

Here’s a quick, easy, and tasty side dish for those dog days of summer.  It goes great with grilled fish or pork chops.

Recipe for Summertime Brown Rice Salad

A while ago, I blogged about how I was trying to be more organized and plan ahead by preparing some basics like beans, rice etc and keeping them in the fridge for meals during the week.  Here is a quick and easy (and adaptable to what you have on hand) salad using made ahead brown rice. It is light and delicious for summer as a side dish to pretty much anything. I served it along side my Ponzu Cardamom Marinated Tuna and it was perfect.

Recipe for Quinoa Salad with Roasted Red Pepper, Feta, Mint, and Almonds

Even though it is warm/hot year around here in Maui, there is something about summer that just makes me want fresh, tasty salads.  This quinoa salad is great. Simple to make, yet complex in taste.  It is great as a side dish to grilled meats or alone as a meatless main course option.

Recipe for Smoky Tomatillo Sauce

My friends make the most amazing herb sauces to go with grilled meats.  One is a cilantro flavor bomb and the other is an amazing lime and tomatillo sauce.  I need to get the recipes, but in the mean time, I came up with my own flavor bomb-if you love cumin, you’ll love this sauce.  We had it with grilled pork chops the other night and it was amazing!  The ground nuts add a pleasant twist!

Time: 5 minutes plus chilling time

Yield: 1 ½ cups

Ingredients:

• 1 can, 12 oz, whole tomatillos, drained
• ½ cup cilantro leaves
• Juice of ½ lemon or lime
• 2 tsp smoked cumin (I’m sure it would be good with regular cumin too)
• ½ cup roasted almonds
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Place all ingredients in food processor and process until well combined.
• Chill for one hour before serving.

I’m gazing at the left over sauce and coming up with all kinds of ideas to use it.  I’ll let you know my favorites!  Do you make any herb sauces?  Please share!

Printable Recipe

Recipe for Mediterranean Crunch Salad

Here’s a healthy and hearty salad that serves a crowd.  It is modified slightly from a Whole Foods recipe.  I used chard instead of kale and made a basil-feta dressing instead of just dressing it with red wine vinegar.  It definitely needs the dressing for my tastes.  This keeps well for several days in the fridge.

Recipe for Quick Sauteed Potatoes



There is nothing fancy about this recipe.  But it is quick and full of good simple flavors.  Just the ticket when you want a starchy side dish in a hurry.

Makes 4 servings, each approximately 172 calories, 5.4 grams fat, 29 grams carbs, 4 grams fiber, 3.5 grams protein, 5 WW Points+

Recipe for Tarka Dal (Indian Yellow Split Peas)

Recently, I had a good session organizing the pantry.   Ugh, what a mess!  I came across a few things that I bought when they caught my eye, including a bag of yellow split peas intended for soup.  Well the soup never got made, but I came across an interesting sounding recipe on Cooking Channel for Tarka Dal so I pulled out the peas and made it instead.  Oh boy.  REALLY good.   And unlike a lot of Indian recipes I’ve come across, a relatively manageable ingredient list and cooking method.  I can’t remember when my kitchen smelled so good!

Recipe for White Bean and Veggie Salad

Looking for easy ways to get more veggies in your diet?  Try this salad made with assorted crunchy veggies and creamy white beans.  Full of fiber and flavor!

Makes 4 generous servings, each approximately 191 calories, 1.2 grams fat, 36 grams carbs, 8 grams fiber, 11 grams protein; 5 WW Points+

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked and cooled white beans (canned would also work, rinsed and drained)

¾ cup finely chopped red pepper

¾ cup finely chopped cucumber (seeds removed)

¾ cup finely chopped carrot

1 cup finely chopped tomatoes (seeds removed)

2 TBSP pesto yogurt sauce

1 TBSP each chopped fresh dill and basil (or whatever herbs you have)

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Combine all ingredients and serve chilled.

How are you getting your daily veggie servings in?



Printable Recipe

Recipe for Veggie and Orzo Salad



My pantry gets out of control sometimes.  I don’t where all the stuff comes fromJ.  Recently, while having a clean and sort in there I came across a package of orzo that “showed up” a few weeks ago.  When I think orzo, I think Greek pasta salad so I put this together based on what I had on hand.  It turned out to be quite tasty and held up well in the fridge for a couple of days.

Makes 6 generous servings, each approximately 233 calories, 6 grams fat, 38 grams carbs, 3.5 grams fiber, 8.5 grams protein, 6 WW Points+

Recipe for Pimiento Mac-N-Cheese

I wanted to do something with pimiento cheese as part of the Master’s party we threw last week (if you aren’t Master’s followers, pimiento cheese sandwiches are a major food draw at the golf course).  I knew the other ladies were bringing pretty healthy stuff so I figured I could splurge a bit and do a mac-n-cheese.  Plus a lot of the guys generally don’t get too much in the way of carbs at home (don’t feel too sorry for them, they eat plenty well!).   Well, the March edition of bon appétit (which, par for the course, arrived here on Maui in early April, just in time for the party) featured a yummy looking mac-n-cheese on their cover, made with pimiento cheese, so I was “good to go”.

Recipe for Cumin Cauliflower Casserole with Cheesy Tostitos Topping

Wow, that title is quite the mouthful!  Just trying to be descriptive. 

Last week we got to try the new Tostitos Fire Roasted Chipotle Tortilla Chips as a base for my Ahi Edamame Nachos.   They got an A for taste on their own with some dip and were a great complement to the nachos.

This week we opened the Roasted Garlic Black Bean Tortilla Chips. 

They are nice and thin like the Chipotle ones and held up well to being dipped in some hummus. 

I’ll have to say, the flavor was a bit underwhelming for me.  I’m not sure that if I hadn’t known what the flavor was whether I’d have been able to identify it.  They aren’t bad but I don’t get much garlic and no black bean flavor.  Disappointing.  Ah, well. 

I wanted to give them a try in a recipe so I whipped up this cauliflower dish.

Fruit Salad

Take five minutes on Sunday and enjoy a nice fruit salad for the next 3-4 days.  I’ve been trying to get back in the habit of prepping stuff a bit at a time so it isn’t always a start from scratch with every meal or snack.  Plus I find I eat healthier when I put some thought into it rather than just opening the cupboard or fridge and grabbing whatever catches my eye.    By then I’m usually hungry and want immediate satisfaction and won’t spend the few minutes it takes to put something like this fruit salad together.