No Heat Week Part 2- Greek Salad

Another thing I relied on during our week without air conditioning was healthy prepared or ready to eat items from the grocery store. One night I paired store-bought roasted red pepper hummus, marinated olives, and whole wheat pitas with some fresh, summery crudites and a Greek salad I threw together. Not a smidge of "cooking" involved in this meal, but plenty of flavor all the same.

Fast Greek Salad
Recipe adapted from Everyday Food














2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chunked
1 small cucumber, seeded and chunked
1/2 red onion, cut into chunks
1/4-1/2 cup coarsely chopped parsley
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
coarse salt and ground pepper

• Combine tomatoes, cucumber, onion and parsley in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together lemon juice and olive oil. Toss vegetables with dressing and cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

No Heat Week Part 1- Cold Pesto Pasta w/ Tomatoes and Mozzarella

Recently we had the displeasure of discovering our air conditioning wasn't working properly, and upon inspection by our home warranty servicer, that we in fact needed an entirely new condensor. That is unfortunately not the kind of repair with a speedy turn around time. This situation rather inconveniently coincided with the increase in temperatures- it is indeed summer here in Texas. We used the windows when the heat wasn't severe, lots of fans, and kept almost all the lights off to cut down on creating any unnecessary heat. Once we had our "cooling" plan in place, my mind naturally turned to our cooking plan, ha. What exactly could we eat all week? I knew that it wouldn't take much cooking in that hot house before I'd pass out from heat stroke. So I came up with a week of food that required very little cooking. I guess the one bonus of it being summer is all the great fresh produce I could take advantage of. We usually eat salad with dinner each night, but this week I made them a bit bigger and added even more veggies in. This is the one recipe that really required any cooking, and as I suspected the mere boiling of a pot of pasta was borderline torturous! But the meal was delicious, so I suppose it was worth it. I based this recipe off the Caprese combo of basil, tomatoes and mozzarella- using the pesto my step mom-in-law generously shared with us.

Cold Pesto Pasta with Tomatoes and Mozzarella
Recipe by me














3/4 lb. rotini pasta
1 cup prepared pesto
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
4 oz. fresh mozzarella, cubed

• Prepare pasta according to package instructions. Drain pasta and rinse with cold water till cool to touch.
• Toss pasta with pesto, tomato and mozzarella. Season with coarse salt and ground pepper. Chill in refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. Serve.
  

Pot Sticker Dinner

After getting a bag full of sugar snap peas from my pop-in-law's garden I was thinking about what I'd like to use them for when I remembered a recipe I had torn our of an issue of Real Simple. I decided this would be a good time to give it a shot, but ended up using the recipe as more of a jumping-off point for putting together something more my own. Real Simple's recipe called for several ingredients I didn't have on hand, so I just worked with what I had and really enjoyed the outcome.

Pot Sticker Dinner
Adapted from Real Simple; Serves 2
















6 frozen pot stickers (I used chicken)
2 cups sugar snap peas, trimmed
2 cups fresh broccoli florets
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 red bell pepper, in strips
2 servings of brown rice
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup soy sauce
Fresh ginger, peeled and grated

• Prepare rice per package instructions.
• Meanwhile fill a large saucepan with 1 inch of water and fit with a steamer basket (or fill a large skillet with 1/2 inch of water). Bring the water to a boil. Place the pot stickers in the basket (or skillet), cover, and steam for 4 minutes.
• Add the snap peas, carrots, bell pepper, and broccoli cover, and steam until the pot stickers are cooked through and the vegetables are tender, 4 to 6 minutes.
• In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce and fresh ginger to taste. Toss the pot stickers and vegetables with the sauce. Divide the brown rice among bowls/plates and top with the pot stickers and vegetables.

Stuffs

I've been so busy editing pics from the DC trip, wedding and my sister's graduation that I haven't had any time to fix up some of the food pics I've got in my queue. But stuff is coming- I swear. And I'm really looking forward to more cooking this summer. Is there anything quite as wonderful as summer produce? It's still a bit early yet, but just this week I've had zucchini, yellow squash, peaches and cherries. Heaven! We've got plans for a nice dinner on our deck this weekend which I will most definitely document, and I've already got ideas swirling around in my head for our planned outing to the Concerts In The Garden for this year.

Also I am super excited about a new food-related blog on the block. I think it's pretty fair to say that I have a bit of a blog crush on Joslyn at Simple Lovely. I often find myself quite envious of her style. And she has just started a second blog, Raising Foodies, to document the task of opening up the food world to her two darling daughters. I'm definitely looking forward to keeping up with their new adventure.