05

May

Spinach and Strawberry Salad

There are certain places you just don’t go to for produce. There’s one grocery in town that usually has less-than-extraordinary (okay, gross-looking) fruits and vegetables. However, today, they surprised me. The strawberries were absolutely bright, shiny and divine, as were the crisp, green spinach leaves. It is officially my summer (yay for grad school, no finals!), and that calls for the first salad of the season! I grew up with so many spinach and mandarin orange salads, it would make your head spin. But it’s tasty and has ingredients that we’d usually have in the fridge. Here’s a little spin on an old fave.

spinach and strawberry salad

makes 4 side salad servings, double for 4 entrees

6 cups fresh spinach
1 cup strawberries, about 8
1/4 cup chopped pecans

slice strawberries lengthwise. toss all ingredients together and top with sesame dressing.
optional toppings: shredded cheese, mandarin oranges, pineapple bites, grilled tofu/chicken/shrimp


fat free sesame seed dressing
2 TB sesame seeds
3 TB white wine vinegar
juice of 1 1/2 lemons
1/4 cup sugar (3 TB agave)
combine all ingredients together, stirring until sugar dissolves. serve immediately and/or store in fridge.
  
Happy Cinco, Happy Summer!

~Laurel~

15 years ago Short URL

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07

Sep

Mailmen, Donuts, and Be Careful what you wish for…

HAPPY LABOR DAY!


For some reason, my lengthy private school education in Houston never educated me on the history of Labor Day. Perhaps Wikipedia will fill in that goal in my otherwise acceptable education…all about reconciliation with the labor unions and movement of the 1800s. Perhaps President Cleveland would be upset to know that the middle school across the street from us HAD SCHOOL TODAY! Poor teachers. It was weird to know that the parents were off from work when the kids were in school…backwards or something.

Anyhoo, Matt & I had a great Labor Day holiday! We worked all weekend, but both had today off. (YAY! This doesn’t happen every week!) So we started making plans. Half Price Books in Austin, gourmet cheese & wine picnic in the park, road trip…eh, we wanted to relax.

I’ve been craving donuts (I know, terrible…), and it reminded me of Voodoo Donuts in Portland. I mean, vegan happiness in a round pastry topped with Fruit Loops!

Matt braved the grocery store on his day off (what a great guy!) and bought some treats. He came home with a surprise main course (2 salmon wheels, one stuffed with spinach and feta and the other with lobster)! We began to cook. Our watering mouths cause the dinner hour to suddenly be bumped up to 4:00.

Now let me preface…Matt mentioned that we are supposed to get thunderstorms for the majority of the week, and checked out weather.com, one of my favorite places. I have to admit that I love the eeriness of knowing that a storm could come. It’s one of those moments that gives you chills and reminds you that this world is a whole lot bigger than yourself, and I think it makes us human and helpless but also know God’s way bigger than us. So Matt saw the “lineup” of the next tropical storms. Now, if you live in the northeast, you might not know what I’m talking about. The “noreasters” they have are treacherous storms, no doubt, but my yankee friends don’t get the joy from NAMING STORMS like those of us in the south take on. I know, it’s stupid and strange, but naming storms just makes it seem a little more temporary and a little less scary, I suppose. SO Matt saw a very special name for a storm…Tropical Storm Matthew.

I learned something new about my husband…he has been hoping his whole life that there would be a hurricane named Matthew. Is that sick or cute? I don’t know. I DO KNOW that I gave up on them naming one Hurricane Laurel back in Kindergarten…it just wasn’t going to happen with a name like that. But Matt got one!

Little did he know what else he would get….


Matt, shielding the salmon from rain’s destruction

…A CRAZY, RANDOM DOWNPOUR!
We were prepping dinner, looked out the window and saw sunny skies turn into a monsoon within a matter of seconds. So weird, Texas skies. So Matt protected the fire from sizzling out and the salmon from swimming away. (sorry, so corny) And everything turned out really well! It was one of my favorite dinners!

The Menu:
*Spinach dip with veggies and chips
*Salmon (one with spinach & feta and one with lobster)
*Bacon-wrapped shrimp stuffed with Mozzarella & Jalapenos (seeds OUT)
*Grilled Green Peppers, Zucchini, and Garlic
*Giant corn muffins
*Blackberry pie

Tasty Dinner

Ole! Our tastebuds were happy and stomachs were full, but not too full for dessert (3 hours later)!

PAULA AND LAUREL’S BLACKBERRY PIE
(Southerners pronounce it “paw”)

So I watched Paula Deen the other day while cleaning up. She and her son made a 5-minute blackberry pie. I’ll vouch for that, except mine took 6 minutes because I added a little citrus for flava! I bet you didn’t know Paula and I cook together…

THE PIE

1 carton blackberries (or 2 for a larger pie)
4 TB blackberry jam
1 orange and/or lemon
1-2 small tubs of Cool Whip (fat free or sugar free are good!)
1 t vanilla extract
graham cracker crust (homemade or store-brought)

Easy, easy, easy!
1) Put blackberries and jam in a bowl, using fork to crush berries a bit. Mix together.
2)With grater or microplane (I broke my new one in today!), sprinkle orange/lemon zest. I used about 1 teaspoon of lemon and 1 teaspoon of orange for a large pie.
3) Pour blackberry mixture into cooled graham cracker crust.
4) Mix vanilla into cool whip (one tub for “regular” sized pie, two tubs for large pie) for added flavor. Then spread cool whip on top of blackberry mixture.
5) Add extra berries and mint leaves on top for decoration. Eat!

See, it’s too easy! And I ate two slices, I will not lie.

While we cooked and cleaned, Sam worked hard, too.
Sam’s favorites: Peanut butter Mailmen/women and Cats! Organic and fun!

HAPPY LABOR DAY!

~Laurel~

16 years ago Short URL

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06

Aug

More spinach & a Stir fry

Hellooo! I felt like a homemade quesadilla for lunch the other day, so I went at it. You know how I’ve been on a spinach kick lately, and it was natural to throw in Popeye’s favorite tasty treat. I didn’t want any meat in it (I just don’t crave it anymore…weird), but we had some tasty muenster that went perfectly. It’s healthy and cheesy and super tasty…why not? Oh, and it’s such a QUICK LUNCH, you can eat at home or pack and take on the go!
Cheesy Spinach Quesas

1 cup of hot cooked spinach, drained and patted dry (w/paper towels)
2 slices muenster (lacey or reg. swiss work, too)
garlic salt
2 T flax seed (optional, but gives a little crunch)
2 tortillas, any size
1 T margarine

Heat a pan and “butter” one side of each tortilla with margarine. Put both, margarine-side down in pan to toast. Add spinach, cheese, and garlic salt (not too much) to one tortilla, topping it all with the other tortilla. Let grill for a few minutes, then flip. Once cheese is gooey and a bit crispy on the edges, it is ready. Tastiness…….

We also made a stirfry. After a recent trip to WholeFoods in Austin (one of my favorite stores on the planet…and the closest one is 1 1/2 hrs away!! Gasp! Where do we live, Timbuktu???), we picked up this tasty-looking Thai Peanut Ginger sauce. The bottle screamed STIR FRY!! (silently) So Matt & I decided that was what we needed to do. I’ve never been able to make the perfect peanut sauce to go with spring rolls, et cetera, but this was pretty darn close.

The thing I love about stir fry’s is that they’re never perfect, always messy, and don’t need a lot of organization. (That is me in a nutshell, so it’s a perfect meal!!) Here’s how it went:

1) I basically gathered as many veggies together as possible:

Baby carrots
Green beans (snap beans, as my g/ma called them)
Green bell pepper
Red bell pepper
Tomato (seeded)
Mini new potatoes (so tiny!)
Brocolli
Mushrooms

2) Matt wanted some meat, so we added some lean pork

3) We coated the veggies and pork in the peanut ginger sauce (I used the sauce we bought, adding more peanut butter, spicy spices, and some lime juice to top it off.).

4) Wow, it was so tasty, healthy, and made good leftovers! The key was to put the lid on the wok/saute pan to keep the moisture in the veggies AND to not overcook the veggies. I’m very bad about overcooking veggies, until they turn limp. But keeping a little crunch in them made them tastier and full of life! Try this at homes…it’s too easy!

5)We added brown & purple jasmine rice to the dish…whole grains and pretty rice. (It’s hiding in this picture.) Any rice will work, but you know I’ll recommend a grain rice or pasta, not sugary white varieties.


~Laurel~

16 years ago Short URL

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