Saturday, July 28, 2018

2018 RECIPE TWENTY SIX: Wednesday July 4 - popcorn with nutritional yeast


BACK STORY:
Ellen Reid recommended nutritional yeast on popcorn. So I tried it.

NOTES:

I had never tried this before, focusing usually on putting cheese on my popcorn. This does add a buttery, cheesy flavor, and tastes pretty good. I do use a small bit of butter to adhere the yeast to the popcorn, which I don't usually do when I eat it with cheese.

STARS: 

4 out of 5. Easy and I've got the yeast now. I won't make it every time but it is easy and good.

RECIPE:


https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/best-butter-free-popcorn-nooch-popcorn/

2018 RECIPE TWENTY FIVE: Monday July 9 - beet strawberry salad with balsamic honey mustard

BACK STORY:
I had some old beets and needed to cook them fast. This was the perfect salad to fit other ingredients in my refrigerator.

NOTES:

This is an incredibly easy salad if you have already cooked beets on hand. The beets and strawberries mingle nicely, and adding the greens and a sharp salty cheese rounds out all the flavors. It's delicious and easy to eat lots of it.

STARS: 

4 out of 5. Easy if you have the ingredients and very tasty.

RECIPE:

https://livesimply.me/2014/03/25/beet-strawberry-salad-with-balsamic-mustard-dressing-recipe/

2018 RECIPE TWENTY FOUR: Saturday June 23: grilled eggplant with caponata salad

BACK STORY:
When visiting Lindsay and Rich, they had 2 eggplants ripen in the garden and we were looking for a recipe to cook with them. I found this online from Smitten Kitchen.

NOTES:

The eggplants were small and long so we sliced them lengthwise but they still didn't cook very well, becoming chewy after cooking (and then cooling down as it took us a while to eat them). The preparation was fairly easy but the out come was poor.

STARS: 

2 out of 5. Not that great but with room for improvement.

RECIPE:

https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/grilled-eggplant-with-caponata-salsa/

2018 RECIPE TWENTY THREE: Monday June 11 - cucumber and avocado salad

BACK STORY:
Anna recommended this, after seeing it on the Smitten Kitchen Instagram.


NOTES:

This is basically the best salad in the universe. I will eat it every day. Mini cucumbers are the best for the salad - I do a ratio of two mini cukes to one avocado. I used greek yogurt and a scooge of sriracha along with the lime for the dressing. I will literally eat it every day.


STARS: 

5 out of 5. I would give more stars if I had them.


RECIPE:


https://smittenkitchen.com/2015/04/obsessively-good-avocado-cucumber-salad/

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side
3/4 to 1 pound seedless cucumber, washed and chopped into chunks
2 thin or 1 regular scallions, thinly sliced
1 large avocado, pitted and diced
2 tablespoons mayonaise
Juice of half a lime, plus more to taste
Salt and hot sauce (we used Sriracha) to taste
Chopped cilantro or flat-leaf parsley to garnish
Combine cucumber, scallions and avocado in a bowl. Whisk together mayo, lime and seasonings, adjusting levels to taste. Drizzle salad with dressing and garnish with cilantro or parsley. Repeat again tomorrow.

2018 RECIPE TWENTY TWO: Sunday June 9 - cauliflower and israeli cous cous

BACK STORY:
I wanted to make this for Emily and Colby when I visited baby Madeline. It's a simpler version of my favorite israeli cous cous curry salad.


NOTES:

I didn't actually eat it. But they said it was good! I'll have to try again.


STARS: 

Unknown, as I didn't eat it. But it was easy to make.


RECIPE:


https://ohmyveggies.com/recipe-warm-cauliflower-israeli-couscous-salad/

2018 RECIPE TWENTY ONE: Thursday June 7 - banana ice cream

BACK STORY:
Carrie recommended this from the Mark Bittman cookbook. It's basically just bananas.

NOTES:

I had a bunch of frozen bananas and it's too hot to cook them as banana bread so I decided to try this. It didn't blend very well so I added some creamer (as I didn't have any other fatty dairy products). It still tastes very banana-y but was a good summer treat.

STARS: 

2 out of 5. Tasty but not that great to make over and over again, unless you love banana flavored things (which I don't)


RECIPE:

https://blog.thatcleanlife.com/one-ingredient-banana-ice-cream/