Sweet-ish Broccoli Salad

I'm eating this for breakfast, although I realize that most people would eat it for lunch or dinner. Fortunately for me, it's great any time of the day!

This makes one serving--Steve prefers "regular" breakfast food! Ha! You can double or triple the vegetables for more servings. The dressing will need to be added and stirred, adding more if it's needed, to maintain a crunchy consistency.

And finally, I used my mini-chop for the broccoli and carrots. Bless the inventor of this gadget!

4 large broccoli florets, chopped

4 baby carrots, chopped

2 Tbs. thinly sliced green onion

6 grape tomatoes

small handful of raisins (I would use cranberries here for Chelsea; she hates raisins.)

6 walnut halves, broken up into 3 or 4 pieces each--small chunks

1/2 c. olive oil

1 Tbs. dijon mustard

1 1/2 tsp. agave nectar (you could also try pure maple syrup, and this can be doubled for a sweeter dressing.)

2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

Combine broccoli, carrots, green onions, tomatoes, raisins, and walnuts in a small bowl.

Whisk together the olive oil, dijon mustard, agave nectar, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Pour about 2 Tbs. on salad. Taste and add more, if you'd like.

I thought this tasted great--and I'm not a big sweet-eater!! Ha! I hope you enjoy it!

Portabella Mushroom Salad

I've been playing with a raw food diet, and in the course of this playing, I've learned a couple of nifty tricks to make things taste cooked without any cooking! Woohoo!

One of these is marinating stuff I wouldn't have thought to marinate before. Marinades soften vegetables, so you still get the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes present in uncooked food, and you also get the feel of cooked vegetables in your mouth. For instance, if you take a vegetable peeler and make strips of zucchini (down to, but not including, the seeds) and marinate them, they end up feeling like pasta, but there's no heavy, bloated feeling that accompanies the pasta--at least, for me! Ha!

And the best part is that you can have tasty, feel-good food without cooking--which, in summer, absolutely works for me!

Serves 4 hearty appetites

For the mushrooms:

4 large portabella mushrooms, stems and gills removed, caps sliced in 1/4" widths

1/4 cup olive oil

3 Tbs. soy sauce

2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Pour the oil, soy sauce, and vinegar into a covered bowl. Shake well to mix. Add the mushroom slices. Shake again to coat. Refrigerate for several hours. The longer they're marinated, the better they taste! And don't worry about soy sauce giving them an Asian taste; when the mushrooms are added to everything else, the flavors blend well.

For the salad:

1 5-oz. bag salad greens

1 5-oz. bag baby spinach

1 beet, grated (I use my food processor--less mess! And beets are optional!)

1 large, or 6 "baby," carrots, grated

1/4 jicama, cut into 1/2" cubes

4 green onions, thinly sliced

Mix the greens and spinach. Divide them between 4 dinner plates. Separately sprinkle the grated beets, the grated carrots, and the jicama over the greens. Top with the green onion slices.

For the dressing:

1/4 c olive oil

1 1/2 Tbs. red wine vinegar

1 1/2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar

1 small shallot, minced

1 small clove garlic, minced

1/16 tsp. pepper

1/8 tsp. salt

Add to a covered bowl and shake well to blend.

To serve:

Divide the salad between 4 plates. (See above.) Place the mushroom slices on the salad, spooning a little of the marinade over the mushrooms. Pour some of the dressing over each salad. You can serve this alone or with garlic bread. (Garlic bread isn't considered "raw!" Ha!) MMMMMM!

Whipped Cream Fruit Salad

I love this salad now, and I loved it when I was a kid! My brother was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 3 (I was 6), so we didn't get to eat sweet stuff! And my parents are from the midwest, so when we visited our extended families, there was always a picnic! And always, always, someone would bring Ambrosia, the sweet salad with marshmallows, jello, and canned fruit! I'm sure there's other stuff in it, but I never got to eat it, either, so I don't know! (My mother fed us only what Mark could eat. A serendipity was that I didn't get cavities, so there's always an upside! Ha!)

This is my mother's version of a diabetic "Ambrosia."

1 15 oz can unsweetened pineapple bites, or tidbits (rings cut into bite-size pieces), drained

1 14 oz. can unsweetened peach slices, drained and cut into bites

1-2 (depends on the size) bananas, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/8"-1/4" slices

1-2 cups whipping cream, whipped and sweetened (my mother used saccharine) with Splenda or xylitol, if you don't want to use sugar!

Mix the drained fruit and bananas. There will still be juice on them, so mix in 1 cup whipping cream, whipped and sweetened. This should be plenty for a dressing! The 2nd cup is for people like me, who like the whipped cream more than the fruit! Ha!

I've actually tried this with fresh everything. Ironically, I think this is the only fruit salad that I like better with the canned fruit. I wondered if it has something to do with the canned juice! I may try it again with fresh, because it goes against my "grain" to recommend canned anything! Ha!

Also, I've been dealing with my dad's failing health and heart for quite a while now, and "easy" is almost my middle name! The last few salads have been what I think of as "refrigerator salads," which means open the fridge and see what one can add to lettuce to make it at least more interesting! Also nutritious! Also tasty! Sleep is out, so I'm using food for energy these days!

Happy eating!

Zucchini "Quiche", Crustless

Okay, this "quiche" has no cheese!  I just couldn't think of another name to call it!  Ha!

My dad is still having health issues, and we've gotten tired of eating in more-or-less fast food places--the kind where you order at a counter, and someone brings it to you!--AND fast food places!  So, I've been making what I think of as "blender food."  I went from lots of soups, which we also got tired of, to other things that involve some sort of cooking.  This is probably the longest, time-wise, thing I've made.

 

It has occurred to me that these are good for those of us who "run and gun," to use my brother's descriptive phrase, pretty often!  They're also good for those of us who hate to cook and want to spend as little time as possible doing so!  Ha!

 

350 degrees F.

4 servings

 

Quiche:

1/8 small onion

1 small clove garlic

1 small zucchini

4 large eggs

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

OPT: If you're not using the sauce, you can add one of these to perk up the flavor:  1/2 tsp. of dried basil, dried thyme, dried oregano, dried rosemary, dried savory, or any other herb you like!

 

OPT:  Lemon Basil Sauce

1 small clove garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tbs. lemon juice

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

OPT:  1 tsp. sugar, or its equivalent, if the lemon juice is too tart!

1/4 c. packed basil shreds

 

OPT:  2 green onions, thinly sliced

 

For the quiche:

Put onion in a blender, and pulse until it's coarsely chopped.  Add garlic, and pulse it.  Add zucchini, and pulse it until it's coarsely chopped.  Add eggs, salt, and pepper, and blend it until everything's mixed, but not necessarily smooth.  Put this into a sprayed, 8x8 baking dish, and bake at 350 degrees F. until the top is light brown and a knife tip inserted into the middle comes out clean.

 

For the sauce:

Put the garlic clove, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and sugar (if you're using it), and blend.  Pour into the measuring cup you used, and add the basil shreds.  Stir.  

 

To serve:  put 1/4 of the quiche on a plate.  Spoon some of the sauce over it, spreading the basil leaves with the back of the spoon.  Add green onions, if you're using them.  Enjoy!