Green Salad

I have been eating a lot of salad lately. I like spring, because it is suddenly good to eat salad and I can shift away from soup. Well, a little bit.

I know no one needs a recipe for salad, but I am going to tell you what I like in my salad.

Salad

Romaine lettuce

Spinach

Collard greens, stem removed and chopped really small

Leeks

Beets

Garbanzo beans

Feta Cheese

And of course, my fav dressing is olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Split Pea Soup

On the menu plan a week or so ago was Split Pea Soup. I looked up a quick vegetarian version on AllRecipes.com (because I don't have ham hock in the freezer. Go ahead and let me know if I should be keeping ham hock in the freezer.) It was just fine, but then I had to modify it of course.

Split Pea Soup

2 cups dried split peas

2 carrots, sliced

3 celery stalks, chopped

1/2 leek, sliced

1 clove of garlic

1/2 box vegetable broth, plus water as needed

1/2 tsp salt

2 bay leaves

2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne powder

I made this in my crockpot, which means toss everything in, then pour in the liquid. I turned it on low and left it all night. When I got up in the morning, it smelled good, and I stirred it and the peas fell apart making it a nice creamy soup.

If you are serving it later, you may need to add some water as it tends to thicken up.

Quinoa Salad

I took this pasta salad and changed it this week. So fun. It is now has a southwest/mexican flair

Mexican Quinoa Salad
Adapted from Meghan Telpner's Quinoa Tabouli
1/2 cup quinoa (I mixed red and white and it looked pretty)
4 roma tomatoes
3 carrots, grated
4-5 celery stalks, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbs tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch green onions

Cook the quinoa. Meanwhile combine the other ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the cook quinoa and toss. Let it hang out so the flavors chill.

Stir Fry

Don't you just want to eat something that is that brilliantly purple and green?

There was a commercial not too long ago for Sonic. They were advertising some big basket of food. It was entirely brown. I went out to dinner a couple of weeks ago with some friends, and all the waiters were carrying big plates of brown food. If you think about it, brown just doesn't look that appetizing. "What can brown do for you?" Well, probably feed you, but colors are pretty.

Red Cabbage and Bok Choy Stir Fry

Adapted from Meghan Telpner's Red Cabbage and Spinach Stir Fry

1/4 head of red cabbage, sliced into thin ribbons

2 stalks of bok choy, sliced into thin ribbons

2 tbs olive oil

1 tsp dill seeds

2 tsp ginger root, peeled and minced

2 tbs tamari

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the dill seeds and ginger and toast them. Add the cabbage and bok choy and sautee them. If you are adept at the tossing thing, go ahead. I think there is no shame in using a spoon though. When the cabbage and bok choy are almost cooked (about 5 minutes), add the tamari and cook for another minute or so.

You could serve this over any grain you like, pasta noodles, rice, quinoa. I ate it plain.

Menu Plan

I've decided that I need to stop being a slacker. I haven't made a menu plan for a couple of weeks, and I have decided that as a consequence I have been eating junk. Now, yes, I'm like the people on the Intel commercial who say, "Our rockstars aren't like your rockstars." My junk is not like most people's junk. But it still makes me feel a little junky.

So here is the menu plan for the week:

Red cabbage and bok choy stir fry -- Already made and eaten for dinner on Sunday. Leftovers for lunch on Monday.

Lentil Dahl -- Already made. I have four portions, which should get me through lunch on Wednesday.

Red Lentil Lemon Soup

Quinoa Tabouli -- the original version of this pasta salad (although I will probably toss in the olives. Who can resist olives?)

Split Pea Soup -- I will probably tweak this recipe.

I made hummus for a snack yesterday. I was trying a different recipe and it was way too lemon juice-y for me. But it is still a good snack.

Speaking of junk food, have you seen this website? This is why you're fat? My first comment is clearly, I am not getting enough vittles (that's what my dad always says), and second, I am clearly not creative enough.

Pasta Salad

I messed around with a recipe on Wednesday, and came up with something that I found quite tasty.

I'll include a short review here as well. I bought a box of DeBole's gluten-free pasta with golden flaxseeds.

I found it to be very tasty. Rice pasta is always a little different, but this didn't become gummy like some of them can, and walked the fine line between being too al dente and just falling apart quite well.

Pasta Salad
Adapted from Meghan Telpner's Quinoa Tabouli
1 box of gluten-free pasta
4 roma tomatoes
3 carrots, grated
4-5 celery stalks, chopped
1 can olives, halved
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbs tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil
2 tsp parsley

Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
Dice the tomatoes and toss them in a large bowl, add the grated carrots, the chopped celery, the garbanzo beans and the olives.
Add the lemon juice, olive oil, tamari, and herbs.
Mix everything well so that all parts of the salad are coated with the olive oil and lemon juice.
Let the pasta salad chill and marinate for a while. An hour is good, overnight is better. If you let it hang out overnight, take it out of the fridge at least 15 minutes before serving, so that the pasta can come back up to around room temperature. Gluten-free pasta is generally not very good if it is very cold (although this new DeBole's kind is still good. I ate it straight out of the fridge for breakfast this morning).
Stir well before serving.