Cucumber Tomato and Feta Salad with Balsalmic Vinaigrette

Cucumber Tomato and Feta Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Salads are my go to lazy girl side.  They require minimum effort and absolutely no cooking.  It doesn't get much better than that in my book, and salads are good for you.  Salads also go with practically everything.  My husband is a big fan of salads in general, he's one of those people who has to have a meal anchored by vegetables or he doesn't feel like he has gotten a complete meal.  I'm like that too.  When we traveled to Puerto Rico several years ago, we were both impressed with the food: steak, chicken, rice and beans, peppers, plantains. However, the food was always missing that anchor of vegetables, which we are both accustom to.  We always asked if there was a vegetable dish that we could order to round out our meal. We never found a vegetable dish, but they always had a basic salad.  

Prep time: 7-10 minutes

Cook time: none

Total time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1 medium cucumber sliced thinly or cubed

1/2 cup of organic cherry tomatoes sliced in half

1/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese

Ingredients Balsamic vinaigrette:

Sea salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

4 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar

1 small clove of garlic chopped finely

3 tablespoons of olive oil

Directions: Add the cucumber and tomatoes to a medium sized bowl, top with feta and set aside. In a small bowl whisk the ingredient for the vinaigrette, spoon over the cucumber salad and enjoy!

Grilled Asparagus

Grilled Asparagus 

Asparagus season is almost over here. If you are not paying attention the season can pass in the blink of an eye.  One of my favorite ways to make asparagus is on the grill.  The smokey flavor from the grill pairs well with the fresh crispness of this stalk green. Grilled asparagus has many fans in my house.   


Prep time: 2 minutes 
Cook time: 8 minutes 
Total time: 10 minutes  

Ingredients: 
1lb of asparagus bottom stalk portion removed 
1 tablespoon of coconut oil 
sea salt and black pepper to taste 
1 Tablespoon of fresh lemon juice   

Directions:  Lay asparagus on a flat plate, drizzle with coconut oil, season with sea salt and black pepper, and roll to spread seasoning.  Place asparagus on a hot grill, and grill until done about 8 minutes. Remove from grill, drizzle with a little bit of lemon juice, or with my spicy mustard vinaigrette and enjoy!   

Flourless Chocolate Meringue Cookies

Starbucks Inspired Flourless Chocolate Meringue Cookies

This heat has definitely made me a Starbucks fan. Everyday I find myself going there to buy a shaken green iced tea, and since I'm there, I pick up  a treat--their flourless, gluten free, chocolate cookie. It's probably the healthiest treat option in their refrigerated showcase, and my daughter and I love it. However, this afternoon tea and cookie thing is getting expensive, at $5 a day--$7 when we indulge at Disney--it's getting a bit out of control. I love treating myself, but I hate mindless spending too. I'd much rather spend that $200/month on a new kitchen gadget--like a Searzall, or a chamber vacuum sealer to go along with the new immersion circulator that my husband got me for Mother's Day.  So what's a girl to do? Buy a box of organic green mint tea, and make the meringue cookies myself, of course!  The best thing about these cookies is that besides the cream of tartar, I already had all of the ingredients.  These cookies are chewy, gooey and light all at the same time--just like the Starbucks cookies, but unlike the Starbucks version, these contain no added oil, so they are super low-fat, low-calorie and gluten free! Score!!!

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time : 10-15 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
5 ounces of bitter sweet dark chocolate (60%)
1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar
3/4 of powdered sugar (I used maple sugar)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Directions:  Pre-heat the oven to 375. Melt the 5 ounces of chocolate in a double boiler and set aside. 

Add the two egg whites to a bowl and beat on low until bubbles form, add the cream of tartar and beat on high, add in the sugar and beat until peaks are stiff and fluffy---you can turn the bowl upside down with out the mixture running. 

Pour in the melted chocolate and fold it into the egg white fluff--be gentle-- fold until the white streaks disappear.

Fold in the chocolate chips, then spoon onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.  

Bake for 10-12 minutes, the cookies should be soft and pliable. 

Let them cool for 10 minutes, then move them to a cookie rack to continue cooling 5-7 minutes. Serve and enjoy. 

Lavender Lemonade

A video --How to make Lavender infused lemonade

The heat certainly has me seeking out ways in which to keep cool. Almost nothing is more cooling on a hot day than a nice cold glass of lemonade. Infuse that glass of lemonade with a honey lavender syrup and you have the makings of heaven in a glass.

Ingredients
2.5 cups of water
1.5 cups of fresh lemon juice
2 Tablespoons of dried lavender
3/4 cups of honey
2 cups of ice

Directions:
Add the honey, and 1/2 cup of water to a sauce pan, and heat until honey melts, then add the lavender, and cook to just below a simmer, and you start to smell the lavender. Turn off the fire and allow to steep for 10-15 minutes. Strain the honey lavender syrup, and set aside. Add the remaining water, lemon juice, and the honey lavender syrup to a pitcher, stir well then add the ice, serve and enjoy!

Grilled steak salad with Spicy Mustard Vinaigrette

Grilled Steak Salad with Spicy Mustard Vinaigrette 

Boy has it been hot here! For the past 2 weeks temperatures here have stayed above 100 degrees and that's in the shade. When it gets this hot, the last thing I want to do is move, let alone cook. The grill has definitely been a life saver for us these past few weeks. It allows me to push all the work of cooking onto my husband. He loves grilling--thank The Lord! Since he is so happy to cook on the grill, I thought I'd make a steak salad, which requires little effort from me other than cutting veggies, and marinating the steak in my FoodSaver. Oh and making a vinaigrette to go on the salad. All easy, peasy, lemon queasy;-)

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 5-7 minutes

Total time: 17 minutes

Ingredients:

1lb of flank or skirt steak

3 cloves of garlic pasted

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

5 cups of mixed organic salad greens

1/2 cup of  organic cucumber cubed

1/2 cup of organic orange bell pepper sliced

2 small organic  heirloom tomatoes sliced and quartered

1/4 cup of radish sliced thinly

Ingredients for  Spicy mustard vinaigrette

1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar)

1 small clove of grated garlic

4 tablespoons of olive oil

1/8 teaspoon of Worcester sauce (optional)

1/2 teaspoon of maple sugar (can sub with maple syrup, agave, or honey)

Sea salt to taste

Directions: in a small bowl whisk all the ingredients for the vinaigrette together and set aside.  In a large bowl toss together the mixed greens, cucumbers, bell peppers, and tomatoes and set aside. In another bowl Mix together the pasted garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. Season the steak generously with sea salt and black pepper, then pour the lemon and garlic marinade over both sides of the steak. Grill the steak for 5-8 minutes on each side, let it rest for 5-7 minutes, then slice on a bias, and serve over the salad. Top with a few spoonfuls of mustard vinaigrette and enjoy.

Tofu Scramble

Tofu Breakfast Scramble

My daughter loves tofu--loves it!  Lately she has been refusing to eat breakfast, I think mainly because she tires of having the same thing over and over.  One of my favorite natural restaurant's serves a tofu scramble which I adore.  I thought I'd give it a try in my own kitchen, in hopes that my daughter would enjoy it--she did.  She actually thought this was a real egg scramble--she kept saying "mmmm egg's are good for you?" This is equivalent to her seal of approval.  So everyone is happy when I make this;-) Mommy win!!

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
7 ounces of soft tofu
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 cup of diced onion
1/2 cup of diced red or green bell pepper
sea salt and black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Directions: Heat oil in a skillet, add bell pepper and red onion and saute until the onion is translucent, about 4 minutes, add in the turmeric and cook for 20-30 seconds.

Add in the tofu and break up with a fork, mix until the turmeric, onions and bell pepper have been well incorporated into the tofu, and the tofu has been warmed-about 3-4 minutes.

 Transfer to a serving bowl and enjoy.

How to make Cauliflower Rice

How to make Cauliflower rice

View the video to see how to make cauliflower into "rice' then click on the link to get my recipe for Lemon Cauliflower rice

Moroccan Spiced Grilled Lamb Kabobs

Moroccan Spiced Lamb Kabobs

I don't know where you live, but for the last week or so it's been in the high 90's here in Southern California.  When it's hot like this, I resort to making my husband cook on the grill.  No one wants to cook in this kind of heat, but we must eat, so grilling it is. I love grilled meat period.  Lamb was made to be grilled.  I remember several years back introducing my southern family to lamb grilled on the barbecue. I had invited them over for a cook out, and in addition to grilled chicken, I was serving grilled lamb.  When they found out that chicken and lamb were their only meat options, I had a family mutiny on my hands.  "Lamb?!!! We don't eat lamb! You just wasted your money!" "Where is the real food? What happened to the ribs?!" Haha! I still laugh thinking about that day, because, after a bit of convincing I got one of them to try it, and they all quickly fell in line! Ten seconds into them all trying it, they were fighting over who was going to get the last piece!  Now when we have a barbecue, lamb is on the menu, and I'm not the one bringing it, they are!  I've converted several friends of mine who aren't  fans of lamb into eating lamb by serving it to them grilled also. I personally love lamb anyway you serve it. But there is just something about grilled lamb that speaks to everyone's taste bud's.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound of lamb loin cubed

1/2 teaspoon of cumin

1/2 teaspoon of coriander

1 teaspoon of garlic paste

2 Tablespoons of lemon juice

1 Tablespoon of finely chopped mint

1 Tablespoon of olive oil

sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

In a  small bowl mix the cumin, coriander, lemon juice, mint and olive oil together.

Season lamb meat generously with sea salt and black pepper. Pour the marinade over the lamb and mix well. 

Add the seasoned lamb to skewers, then grill for 5-7 minutes on each side, or until the lamb reaches your desired level of doneness--about 15 minutes for medium.  Serve with veggie skewers or this cucumber and tomato salad, or this Cucumber Salad with Lemon Basil vinaigrette and this lemon cauliflower rice and enjoy!

Cucumber Salad with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette

Cucumber Salad with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette

I have a confession to make, sometimes I make salad when I don't want to cook a side---okay maybe I do that more than sometimes, I do it a lot. There is a reason I named this blog lazy girl dinners.  This salad is a result of me being lazy and needing to use the ingredients I had on hand.  It was a hit with both my husband and my daughter.  It was the first time I got her to eat cucumber without chewing it up and spitting it out. Slicing them with my spiral vegetable slicer had everything to do with that because when it comes to getting her to eat something, it always comes down to texture.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: none
Total time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
2 large cucumbers sliced thinly
4 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of fresh basil, finely chopped
Sea Salt to taste

Directions:
Add the lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt, and basil to a small bowl and whisk together. Spoon as much of the vinaigrette as you'd like over a serving of the cucumbers and enjoy!Note: If you are serving this at a dinner party--yes it's lazy but it's elegant and very delicious--then be sure to spoon the vinaigrette over the salad just before serving, otherwise the cucumbers will loose their crunch and get soggy.