Tofu-Feta Watermelon Salad

Oh, summer. And sadly it is coming to a close. But there is still time for this delicious summer salad.

So floating all over the internets this summer (I think it's funnier when internet is plural, don't you? Like monies), were pictures and recipes for watermelon feta salad. I love watermelon, and I really wanted to try the salad. But feta -- as a dairy product -- is a total no-go for me. And I don't get upset about that, I just move on.

Until I found Kathy's recipe for Tofu-Feta Watermelon Salad. Tofu marinated to be feta-ish! (I made up that word and it sounds a little wrong. But go with me).

Tofu-Feta Watermelon Salad
My changes to the ingredients
I left out the cayenne pepper and the nutritional yeast (I haven't started buying nutritional yeast, even though I hear it talked about in so many vegan recipes).
And in the marinade I used used rice vinegar.


Marinating the Tofu


Special Ingredient -- I had to ask for help finding this. It was in the refrigerator section.


Prepping the Salad -- Ready with the Watermelon and Basil


The Finished Product


I will definitely be making this again. And now that I've found it, miso will be a regular player in my house too.

Kale and Cabbage Slaw

This summer is the season of color. Colorful jeans, colorful shirts, color in everything.

Even Target says so:


So why not color in food?



Kale and Coleslaw Salad
From FoodieCrush

My Changes:
Instead of using a coleslaw mix, I just bought a whole head of red cabbage and sliced up and used half of it.
I used my box grater to grate the carrots.
Instead of Marcona almonds, I just bought a bag of slivered almonds.
I used olive oil instead of canola oil.
I left out the sugar/agave entirely.
I also left out the caraway seed -- inadvertently. I thought I had some in the pantry, but I didn't.

This salad is delicious. It is definitely better the second day after the flavors have had a while to chill. The kale and cabbage will get a little bit softer, but even after spending three days in the fridge, it never got mushy or gross.

Grilled Romaine Lettuce

I'm loving a few things in my kitchen these days. Not because they are new, just because I am rediscovering how fabulous they are. 

Today, it's my George Foreman Grill. 

You might be thinking, what does a non-meat eater do with a George Foreman? The whole point is to drain the fat from the meat. 

Really, this little George Foreman is perfect for me, because it is a small size and it requires no preparation to be able to toss something on and grill it. Just plug it in, toss the food on, and enjoy. 

So what am I grilling?

Romaine Lettuce.

I saw a recipe pinned on Pinterest (are you on Pinterest? You can follow me) for grilled romaine lettuce. I looked at the recipe, but it had cheese and bread crumbs. I didn't even repin it, because that made it a no-go for me. 

And yet, I kept thinking about it. So I grilled some romaine lettuce, and it was delicious. 

Grilled Romaine Lettuce

1 heart of romaine, cut in half lengthwise

1/2 - 1 whole Tbs extra virgin olive oil

salt

Wash the romaine lettuce and dry it really well. Cut it in half lengthwise, and drizzle it with the olive oil. I was able to coat both halves pretty well with just 1/2 tablespoon, but if you want or need more oil, go for it. Sprinkle with salt. 

Put the romaine on the grill until it gets nice grill marks. Because of the size of my George Foreman, I had to grill just one half at a time. 

Then I sliced up the romaine and put it in a bowl. It was light and summery, grilled, and delicious. 

Tomato Millet Salad

I went to lunch with a friend of mine recently. We went to a new restaurant in town that is vegetarian/vegan and a little hippie. Which was perfect for us!

As we sat and chatted, my friend remarked that she is working on going completely vegetarian. I was surprised by the comment. Not because she is a meat-and-potatoes kind of girl, but because she isn't. I figured she was close enough to vegetarian that she wouldn't be making a shift to completely vegetarian. But of course, I was completely supportive.

And she mentioned that she found a new blog that had some really good recipes that she was trying and loving. Of course I had to check it out. Emily Malone is a vegetarian chef who writes Daily Garnish and focuses on recipes and healthy living.

I surfed through the site for a little while and came across this post for Roasted Tomato Millet Salad. It sounded perfect, so I made it myself.



My changes:
1. No sugar. Obviously, I don't know what sugar would have added to the dish, but I didn't need it.

2. I didn't roast the tomatoes! I know, it's in the title. But it is 105 degrees here (and based on the news... it's probably 105 where you are). And I have a programmable thermostat that the electric company can override if there is too much power being used... and they chose to override my thermostat the day that I was making this dish. I'm sure that roasting the tomatoes would add delicious flavor to this dish, but I thought it was good anyway. And I added a few sundried tomatoes to substitute for the roasted flavor.

3. I soaked the millet. This is another change that my nutritionist advised. Soaking grains makes them more digestible. I soak the grain in a bowl of water with a tablespoon of lemon juice (apple cider vinegar will work too) for at least eight hours. Then I cook the grain in my rice cooker. I discovered (after a bit of trial-and-error) that if I measure two cups of grain, I just need to fill the rice cooker to the two cups water mark. The grain expands with soaking, but doesn't need extra water.

My verdict:
Delicious. I will definitely make this again. It also would be very good served over greens (lettuce, spinach, etc).

Edamame and Bean Salad

It is full-on summer now, and from what I hear, it is hot everywhere. I love summer, but I don't really want to heat up the whole oven and bake stuff. So with my menu plan this week, I focused on salads and light and refreshing meals. 

Including this Edamame and Bean Salad that I found at Cooking Light. Ok, they gave it the longest name ever, but it really isn't as pretentious as they made it sound. And it is pretty perfect for a summer meal. 

My changes:

I cooked my own cannellini beans. This is another of the dietary changes I am making. If I cook my own beans, I can use organic and still afford it. 

I left out the jalapeno. 

For next time, I will steam the edamame a little longer. I was worried about cooking them too long, but they are still a little crunchy. 

And for lunch today, I served this Bean Salad on a bed of dandelion greens. Just a note on that, dandelion greens are pretty bitter, so if you aren't used to things like that, eat this salad plain, or serve it on a bed of spinach or romaine lettuce. 

Sorry about the photo quality there. 

Grilled Veggie Salad

Summertime is a great time for salads. And here in the middle it is finally summer. We spent all of May at 60-65 degrees. June 1st hit 90. Woo hoo!! I love it!

I had some veggies that were looking a little sad. So this beauty is a grilled veggie salad, which cleans out the fridge so beautifully.

Grilled Veggie Salad

Romaine lettuce and spinach

Fresh parsley

Navy beans -- rinsed and drained really well

Grilled green bell pepper

Grilled yellow squash

Grilled carrot

Dressing -- olive oil, lemon juice, and a dash of salt.

Note: I like to fill the bowl with my lettuces and then dress the lettuces. Then I add everything else and pour a little more dressing over the top.

Birthday Dinner

Heather made me a special birthday dinner.

Main dish: Our main dish was veal using this recipe from Epicurious. I don't think our veal would actually be considered chops, because they didn't have bones. But they turned out delicious with the rosemary and garlic marinade/sauce.

Side dish: Fried Rice using this recipe from Epicurious. Yes, we did try to find duck, but the meat guy at the grocery store said they only sell whole duck, which we did not want to deal with. So we just left out the duck.

Salad: Basil and Tomato Salad using this recipe from Epicurious. We liked how this salad sounded the best. We replaced the arugula with romaine lettuce and spinach. Personally, I would change the proportions on the dressing. I like an even oil/lemon juice ratio.

Dessert: Plum, cherries, and blackberries. The cherries were delicious and perfectly ripe. I thought the blackberries were tasty, but Heather thought they were a little tart. The plums weren't ripe enough and were too hard for my liking. I realized the next day that I should have taken them out of the bowl and grilled them really quick. It only would have taken 5 minutes on my George Foreman.

Tuna Salad Dinner

So what did I decide to put that delicious salsa on?

Salad of course.

This is the chopped salad that I posted a couple of days ago. I dressed it with olive oil and lemon juice, then topped it with salsa, and half a can of tuna fish, and just a sprinkling of salt.

Good dinner.

Chopped Salad

Isn't that beautiful and bright green?

I started feeling like I needed to eat more raw vegetables. I know it probably sounds completely ridiculous to say that I need to eat more vegetables, because that's practically all I eat. But it is almost, sort of, trying hard to become spring -- although here in the middle, we keep suffering setbacks to spring that always come in the form of snow -- and I have been feeling like the winter food I have been eating wasn't cutting it anymore.

So I started an experiment.

I read an article in the newspaper about how wonderful chopped salads are. Rather than large chunks of lettuce and other goodies, everything is chopped up really fine. According to the author this is absolutely the best.

So I went and bought all the types of greens I can eat -- romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, spinach, and kale. I got out my biggest bowl, and chopped everything up really small. I tossed the bowl in the bottom drawer of my fridge, and hoped that would keep everything inside pretty fresh.

It did. I ate this salad all week long.

Sometimes I dressed the salad with olive oil and lemon juice. A lot of the time I just poured/placed whatever I was having for lunch -- the heavy winter food -- on top. It was great with the black eyed peas, the lentils, and even the navy bean and rice soup.

It was an easy change for spring.

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.

Chicken Salad and Cheesy Biscuits

Whew! All that social-ness can be exhausting.

Ok, really it was fun, but time for some updates.

1. Chicken and Grape Salad
It was a big hit at the work potluck. I actually had a coworker insist that I email her the recipe. My first thought was "Is it weird to just give you the link to my blog?" and my second thought was "Which version of the recipe do you actually want?" because of course, I modified.

This comes from my "Life Tastes Good Again" cookbook, but here it is with my modifications.
3 cups cooked chicken cut in cubes
2 1/2 cups grapes cut in half
2 cups celery
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tbs curry powder
3 tbs mango salsa (or more to taste. I found myself really wanting a little kick, so I kept adding more. I used Mrs. Renfro's Mango Habanero Salsa.)
1/4 tsp salt
spinach
slivered almonds

In a large bowl, toss together the chicken, grapes, and celery.
In a smaller bowl, mix the sour cream, milk, curry powder salsa, and salt. Pour this over the chicken mix and stir until coated.
At this point the salad can be stored in the fridge.

The day after I decided to eat the leftovers for lunch, and I filled my bowl with spinach and tossed a serving of the chicken salad on top. It was fabulous and I decided what would make it absolutely perfect is some slivered almonds sprinkled on top, so I did that too. I've added spinach and slivered almonds as serving suggestions. Modify as you wish!

2. Cheesy Garlic Biscuits
Last night I had a group of women over for dinner. My original plan, as I mentioned in my last post, was Butternut Squash Chili and cornbread. First lesson - acorn squash is WAY harder to peel than butternut squash. Second lesson - other people won't eat squash. (Yeah, I know, they probably say I am a super picky eater. Plus I'm weird).

I had planned on cornbread, but then I saw this post on Sunday morning: Garlic Cheese Biscuits at Gluten-Free Easily. I actually had all the ingredients and Kim told me they sounded way better than cornbread, so I followed her advice and made them.

The recipe made two dozen. They were completely gone. The crumbs too. (And that is why there are no pictures).

I did get to eat a few, and these are just like the Chebe brand cheese bread mix. And they are good.

A few modifications:
1. I used Bob's Red Mill All-purpose Gluten Free flour. I was worried it would be too heavy, but it wasn't.
2. I froze the butter and grated it. Super easy.
3. I just put the garlic into the batter.
4. I used a "heaping" cup of cheese.

Menu Plan
I am leaving on Thursday to go home for Christmas (so excited!) So the entire menu plan for the week is to clean out the fridge. I still have leftovers of the rice and peas risotto and I have some veggies and an acorn squash that need to be finished up. Fortunately I was able to just freeze the leftover chili, so it will last for a good long time.

I brought you flours.

So my big food project for the week was to combine up a new flour blend. I made Bette Hagman's "Featherlight" flour mix. It is:
1 cup rice flour
1 cup cornstarch
1 cup tapioca flour
1 tbs. potato flour

Of course, I can't follow directions, so I decided that I would alternate a cup of white rice flour with a cup of brown rice flour.

I paid a total of $13.47 for the different flours. I made 9 cups of flour, and only stopped because I ran out of cornstarch. So I still have almost all of the brown rice flour and potato flour, and half the bag of the tapioca flour.

I am figuring I can make at least 4 things with the 9 cups of flour. So it's still pretty expensive, at $1.50 per cup, which would make most things (since I use 2 cups of flour mix for a batch of pancakes and muffins) about $3 for just the flour. But of course that is ignoring the fact that I will be able to make more flour as soon as I get more cornstarch - happily enough the cheapest part of the mix.

In other news, I'm currently eating the recipe Heather suggested, the Salsa Pasta recipe. Yum-o. And can I say a huge thanks, because all of those ingredients are actually things that I usually have in my fridge.

I have no recipes to suggest from this past week. It was a raw-veggie-heavy week. I bought fresh mozzarella and made Insalata Caprese. It was delicious. Then I ate corn on the cob. Then I made a half a cup of quinoa and put it in a lettuce free salad.

I said no recipes, but for those of you not in the know, I will explain the Insalata Caprese.
1 ball of fresh mozzarella - no, you cannot buy the block of what they call mozzarella and have this taste good. splurge.
tomatoes - real ones that you just picked from your garden, or a friend's garden, or the farmer's market
fresh basil
olive oil
salt and pepper

Dice the tomatoes and mozzarella and put in a bowl. Rough chop the basil, a good handful, and add to the bowl. Pour a drizzle of olive oil over everything and a little salt and pepper. Toss everything well, and enjoy.

Seriously, if you use good ingredients, it's the best thing ever.

Do you know the muffin man?

So the new recipe was a total flop. It's so disappointing, I had such high hopes... It was called "Herbed Tuna in Tomatoes," so basically a stuffed tomato. I finished mine and was just like hm. I wouldn't ever make that again. Which I said in order to give my two friends permission to not eat it any more. And they didn't.

The rest of dinner was very good though. I have been working on another muffin recipe all week, and finally feel like I got the proportions and measurements right so that the muffins turned out really well. They actually even stood the eating at room temperature test.

So I'll share the two recipes.

Heather's Pasta Salad
8 oz box of rice penne pasta
1 box of grape tomatoes
1 can of olives
1 green pepper
1 container of feta cheese
italian salad dressing (This time I used a balsamic vinagrette, it was quite good, although I think usually I do a "zesty italian).

Cook the pasta, then shock it in ice cold water. Drizzle a little of the dressing over it, to keep it from sticking. Cut up the pepper, tomatoes, and olives and add in. Add the crumbled feta. Add a little more dressing. Stir. Enjoy.

Note: with the rice pasta this salad is better at a more room temperature. Rice pasta gets really hard when it is straight out of the fridge. So if you refrigerate it (as you should for food safety), just microwave it for 10-15 seconds.


Orange Juice Muffins
This is a modification of an "Orange Muffin" recipe I found on allrecipes.com
2 cups of "Life Tastes Good Again" gluten-free flour mix
1 tsp xantham gum
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 egg
1 1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup canola oil

Mix the wet ingredients. Add in the dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated. (It is very important to not over-mix gluten free flours. It makes them gross). Your dough will be thicker than cake batter and kind of stiff.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Yield 12 muffins.

Put the muffins on a rack to cool. This is important. I left the first batch in the pan to cool and the bottoms got all soggy and that is gross.

UPDATE: What I should have said is that the orange juice muffins stood the test of being fed to non-gluten free people at room temperature. They ate them all. I call that a success.