lunch

  • Sep072016

    a simple thai zucchini soup

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    There comes a time every September when I find myself in a food rut. Summer produce is still going strong but nights are cool and I crave change. Although autumn produce is starting to show up at the farmer’s market and in my garden, I’m not quite ready to let go of summer. Somehow I make the transition with warm summer soups and cold autumn smoothies. This thai spiced zucchini soup is perfect for cool summer nights. I like to spoon it over quinoa (a complete protein) to make it a filling meal. Making a large batch of quinoa in the beginning of the week allows for a quick add on to weeknight meals.

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  • Aug162016

    raw zucchini noodles with balsamic marinated tomatoes

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    You’ve seen the spiralizer right? This is one of the coolest kitchen tools out there! You can literally turn anything into a noodle in seconds! Sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, zucchini, cucumbers, radishes, you name it. My favorite vegetable to put through the spiralizer is summer squash. Zucchini noodles (zoodles) are so refreshing and are wonderful eaten raw! If you don’t have a spiralizer or don’t have room to store one, no worries, I’ve seen vegetable noodles prepackaged in grocery stores now. The recipe I’m sharing today takes only about 15 minutes to prepare and even faster if you buy the pre-spiralized noodles.

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  • Aug092016

    heirloom tomato salad

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    When I told my husband I wasn’t really sure what I was going to write about in this post (besides for bragging on the health benefits of the ingredients), he said, “tell them that heirloom tomatoes are the best and the tomatoes we grew up on are just no good.” He’s right, and we hate to break it to you, but if you’ve never had an heirloom tomato, you’ve never tasted a real tomato. The flavor has been bred out of conventional tomatoes and the texture is awful; they’re bred for easy harvesting, shipping, and shelf life. Besides for being wildly beautiful, heirloom tomatoes have a wide variety of flavors and levels of acidity. These subtle differences are what make heirloom tomatoes so much better!

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  • Jul252016

    summer quinoa salad with cucumber, arugula & sun dried tomato

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    Summer is in full swing here on the east coast and I’d like to share my favorite summer quinoa salad recipe with you. I’ve made this dozens of times and love bringing it to parties or family gatherings. If you are unfamiliar with quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), it is a gluten free grain-like seed that originated from South America. I love that it is versatile, easy to prepare and best of all is a complete protein; meaning it contains all nine of the essential amino-acids that our bodies need to thrive. Quinoa is also considered a valuable…

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