Jewel Box Salad

Jewel Box Salad

While doing the round up of the Best of 2011's recipes, which are our favorites, I realized I have some how omitted sharing my favorite salad with you all! So of course today, I had to fix that and I really enjoyed doing that for you. (I know, the sacrifices I make for this blog.) ;-)

I call this a Jewel Box Salad because each little ingredients is like a gem of different flavors, each tasty on it's own but pulled all together is just delicious!

This could also be a Fall Salad, and one local restaurant calls this their Summer Salad but the beauty of it really is that all the ingredients are available year round. Right now the red grapes are in season and are especially yummy .

Bragg's Healthy Vinaigrette

I use a light vinaigrette to toss it all together and not overpower the flavors.

Our standby is Bragg's Healthy Vinaigrette, which for convenience I always keep on hand. You can get this from most health food stores or even online sources.

What I especially like about it is that
it's a vinaigrette that doesn't bite back,
if you know what I mean.
Tangy enough but not so much that it chokes you.
Ever had that happen? Not fun!

While apple cider vinegar, at least' Bragg's is still raw, the dressing bottled and all is probably not.

So I have also included their recipe so you can make it yourself too. 

But first...

The Jewel Box Salad

Toss the following into a big bowl and add dressing, 

Toss Again.

Eat!

 or if you have to share, plate in and then eat!

Tender Greens

like Butter Lettuce and Radicchio 

or Baby Romaine

Apples, diced

(figure half and apple per person)

Grapes

halved, if big

Raisins or Dried Cranberries

Walnuts

Ingredient amounts are completely up to you but don't be stingy. 

You don't want to have to hunt for the gems.

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Bragg's Vinaigrette

from the back of the Bragg's ACV bottle

1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar ( ACV) 

(make sure it is organic and has the "mother"- other ACV may taste different)

1/3 cup Oil

1 tsp Bragg's Liquid Aminos 

(soy sauce or tamari may work)

1-2 tsp Honey

 1-2 cloves minced garlic

1 pinch all purpose seasoning, 

like Bragg's Sprinkles, Spike 

or Salt and Pepper to taste

Shake!

makes about 4 servings

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How about you? 

Any favorite Jewel Box Salad combos you feel like sharing?

Shredded Carrot Apple Salad

Shredded Carrot Apple Salad

Wonder what to do with left over carrots besides juice them? 

How about a nice simple salad?

 Great for a light snack or side dish!

Plus I think you'll find kids will like this one too!

It's one of those that gets better overnight.

No fancy tools needed. Just a knife, a peeler and a shredder.

Shredded Carrot Apple Salad

5 carrots, peeled & shredded

2 apples, peeled & shredded. 

(Sweeter apples better than tart- I think nut why not try the other too?)

juice of 1 lemon

3 tablespoons honey or to taste

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1/4 cup dried cranberries or raisins

Mix together lemon and honey until honey is dissolved. 

Put all together in bowl and toss well. 

Let sit covered in fridge overnight (least that's what I did) and 

Enjoy!

I'm wishing I made more already. ;-)

Note: easiest to peel apples first and shred whole around core .

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Watermelon and Lime- Ice Pops and Aqua Fresca

It's not often that flowers inspire something to eat but when I picked up these flowers and starting shaping this arrangement I realized how much I love the colors of watermelon and lime together. They are both cheery as well as refreshing and cool. The more I thought about it, the more my mouth watered.

Since there doesn't seem to be an end in sight yet to the hot weather, I've decided to keep focusing on recipes that will help cool us off. Watermelon and lime are two perfect examples of fruit that do that well.

So here is a recipe that makes a wonderful ice pop as well as a refreshing and tasty drink over ice.

Watermelon and Lime Ice Pops

Watermelon and Lime Ice Pops

Forget the store bought who knows what is in them type popsicles and look no further than your produce department to make your own ice pops.

Recipe

*  About 4 cups of fresh watermelon
   (I left the seeds in)

*  Juice of one lime

*  A big squeeze of Agave Nectar
   (maybe 1- 2 Tbsp) depending on        the sweetness of the melon you         have

*  1/4 cup water (optional)

*   Pinch of sea salt



Blend all in a blender and pour into mold

Using the molds pictured, I filled almost to the top, leaving about 1/4 inch at the top for expansion. This keeps the liquid from sticking to the top.

I placed the top in place and let the pops freeze for about 2 hours.

Then I placed the sticks into the mold. This keeps the sticks from either floating up or sinking all the way to the bottom.

I chose to use the kind of molds with sticks, as opposed to the ones with the plastic sticks so that I could remove from mold when done, store and reuse the molds.

After frozen solid, let thaw a few minutes and pull from molds.

Now if you don't want to freeze this into pops, you can just pour it over ice and enjoy it as

Watermelon and Lime Aqua Fresca

Enjoy!

Mountain Getaway and Fresh Peach Ice Pops!

Our Cabin in the Woods

We were actually just on vacation! We decided to escape the heat of the California desert and head up into the mountains. So here we were in Big Bear Lake, California where we had made a little log cabin in the woods, our home away from home. Up here at an elevation of around 7,000 feet the weather is cooler, the pine air is refreshing and the nights are just plain lovely.

Heirloom Tomatoes

Our first stop upon arrival was to hit up the local Tuesday Farmer's Market. We made it about an hour before closing time and managed to scurry around and buy some wonderful produce from the local farmers. This particular market is interesting in that they make all the farmers submit photos of their actual farms for their website. "No fakers here" being their motto. All farmers are from within a one hundred mile radius and most from the high desert region.

We met a woman who had a tomato stand- just tomatoes and a few different peppers. She had so many kinds and an absolutely gorgeous selection of heirlooms. She gave us a sample of one of her red tomatoes and it literally melted in my mouth- amazing!

We picked out some wonderful varieties and I knew even before we got in the car that we should have bought a lot more tomatoes!  We also picked up fresh peaches, grapes, seeded watermelon, apricots, fresh lettuces, lemons, limes, and berries. There was also a french gentleman selling his wife's fresh bread. We actually bought some wheat rolls for Rich to make tomato sandwiches- his favorite snack. The only ingredients with these were wheat, salt and yeast- hmmm. Very light and airy.

 I Love Farmer's Markets!!

I love to talk to the farmers, hear their stories and learn about the food. So very interesting!

Mon Chapeau Neuf

I kept seeing these fabulous hats wandering around me and I had to track down where they were coming from. A lovely gal had a booth with hats that she had made by hand. They are a little oversized, rumpled and indestructible and with the big flowers and lace bands they really spoke to the romantic in me. She had several different fun colors making it hard to decide. I went with the more neutral shade and donned it immediately. So glad I did! I love it!

So vibrant and colorful- Doesn't it make your mouth water?

Our next stop, since our cabin was not ready was to hit up a local restaurant called BLT's, sporting an outside deck for dogs and their owners. Lili was very happy sitting under the table watching the other dogs under their tables. They even had a portion of the menu for dogs that included things like chicken and kibbles, hot dog and kibbles, burger and kibbles, you get the picture.

For people they had the most amazing fresh Signature Salad, one of the few places around that included more than just lettuce, meat and cheese in their salads and believe me I read a lot of menus before we headed up.

This salad had five varieties of fresh lettuce and another five varieties of fresh fruit plus a sprinkling of walnuts and a strawberry balsamic vinaigrette- Delicious!

So after getting settled into the cabin which was adorable by the way, I decided to make something cool and refreshing to go along with the cool and refreshing theme of our trip. I put those little fresh peaches from the market to good use.

Fresh Peach Ice Pops

Nothing like fresh ripe peaches!

Last year we went the whole season with never having a ripe peach! We bought lots of them but they were always hard and unflavorful, and never ripened. This year we have been fortunate that Trader Joe's has been selling crates of local fresh peaches. A peach should smell ripe at the time you buy them. They should have that lovely peach aroma at the stem. If you buy at farmer's markets they will usually let you sample one. Our local market closes for the summer due to the heat but this farmer up here in Big Bear let us just eat one to test and they were delicious!

Ice Pop Ingredients- Peaches, Honey and a little water and some pop molds

Peach Ice Pops

Blend up some ripe peaches

Add in a touch of water to get things moving in the blender

Sweeten to taste with a mild honey or agave

(My honey turned out to be not so mild and overtook the flavor of the peaches.

 I ended up making them again with a light agave and it was much better!!)

 Pour into molds

Freeze

Enjoy!

I promised to keep it real with this blog and tell you even the not so good results and tips and tricks that I learn along the way. This little experiment was a good example of this. Not sure if my raw honey turned on me but it took on a strange flavor with my recipes this week. I ended up remaking these with agave and they were wonderful! 

I will need to hunt down a local raw honey vendor, since out farmer's market is gone for the summer. Local honey is always best as it is kind of like gradually vaccinating the body against local allergens, a process called immunotherapy- like allergy shots.  Stay tuned for more on this adventure.

Another not so great item for these ice pops was the molds. I do not recommend the ones pictured here at all! They were some cheapies I got at Target or Walmart, I can't remember which but I was so frustrated with them either not coming out of the mold or just the sticks coming out, or them coming half way out leaving the other half to be washed down the drain that I ended up "donating" them to the cabin when we left. I have ordered some new molds and will let you know how those work out with a new recipe that I am dying to try out when they arrive. 

Meanwhile....

Here are some pictures from around town:

I just adore hollyhocks

 and they were everywhere.

So pretty!

Daisies always make me smile!

I also love American flags.

We got a kick out of these chairs out in front of a pub.

Next Post: We head out hiking, picnicking and exploring around Big Bear Lake but only after setting out the sun tea!

Easy Thai Flavored Staples

This week, we were both feeling a little under the weather so we needed something really easy to keep ready to eat in the fridge. Enter the Favorite ...

Thai Crunch Salad.

Thai Crunch Salad

There are a couple of ways to enjoy these flavors - as a salad and as lettuce wraps.
I have posted them both below.
If you want simple and tasty, it doesn't get much easier than this.

The Thai Crunch Salad

Ingredients:

Bag of shredded Cabbage
Bag of Broccoli Slaw
Bag of shredded Carrots
Bag of Mung Bean Sprouts
Cucumber, peeled, and chopped or julienned (depending how much time you want to spend.)
Raw Cashews, roughly chopped

If you have a larger family or more time, of course you can buy the whole ingredients and shred them yourself as well.

Put all but the cashews into a big bowl and mix well. Then put into a ziplock bag or container until ready to portion out and serve.

To Serve: grab a handful or so per person, add to a bowl, add dressing and toss. Plate and sprinkle cashews over top. This is perfect to take to work as well.

Dressing:

If you are fortunate to have a Trader Joe's Market around and are not concerned with eating peanuts, then the Asian Style Spicy Peanut Vinaigrette is a wonderful dressing!!

You can find it in the refrigerated produce section at Trader Joe's.

For a raw version without peanuts try this:

Mock Peanut Sauce
1/2 cup raw Almond Butter
1/4 cup Water
1 Tbsp fresh Lemon juice
2 tsp Agave Nectar or Maple Syrup
2 tsp Tamari
1/2 tsp crushed Garlic ( 1 clove)
1/4 tsp grated fresh Ginger
dash Cayenne Pepper
dash Sea Salt

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Store in sealed container in the fridge. Should keep 5 days. Makes 1 cup

Dressing Recipe found in Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 people, which by the way is a really great book!
I haven't ever made something from this book that we did not like.

Thai Lettuce Wraps

Thai Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients:

Boston Bib Lettuce

Carrot -grated

Broccoli Coleslaw (comes in bag pre shredded)

Cucumber - julienned or cucumber salad (recipe to follow)

Sunflower Sprouts or Mung Bean Sprouts

Raw Cashews, chopped

Spicy Peanut Dressing or Mock Dressing from above

Assemble like a taco using lettuce leaves, putting dressing on top with a sprinkle of cashews to finish. 

Lettuce wrap

Cucumber Salad

cucumber- julienned

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp agave

1 Tbsp nama shoyu

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tsp sesame oil

1 Tbsp sesame seeds

Mix all except sesame seeds and place in bowl over cucumber to marinate in refrigerator. 

Sprinkle sesame seeds on top at serving.

I hope you try this. It is so delicious!