Summer Meals in Arizona: Greek Quinoa Salad

A few weeks ago, Danny and I went to a party for a club he is a part of. It was potluck and I brought these delicious cookies. I was really looking forward to going since one of the members of the club is a great cook. Her name is Lena and she is from Italy. She makes really fresh, really delicious food.  Of course, I am trying not to eat so many breads and pastas right which limits my choices in Italian food, but I was hopeful. To my delight, she had prepared a dish centered around farro and barley, so whole grains, and added a bunch of other things to add flavor. It was so good! I took note of all the little things she added and was determined to make a similar version at home. I opted to use quinoa since we had it in the house and it gives a kick of protein and I used feta instead of her choice of mozzarella, making it more Greek than Italian, in my eyes. So here you have it!

Greek Quinoa Salad
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa (serves ~4 when cooked)
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
2 C. grape tomatoes, halved and quartered
1 C. kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
1 C. corn (I used canned corn)
1 C. Feta
fresh parsley, minced, to taste
garlic, minced, to taste
salt and pepper
Olive Oil, to taste

Cook quinoa according to directions and let cool. Prepare mix-ins: bell pepper, tomato, olives, corn, garlic, parsley. Add them to cooled quinoa, stirring well with each addition. Add cheese. Dress in olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste. (I prefer my quinoa a little saltier).

I have been eating this as is and atop a bed of lettuce (as pictured above). Both are delicious! :) If you wanted to add a little more protein, then you could easily pan fry some chicken and toss it in! And again, no oven, for the win!

Summer Meals in Arizona: Asian-Inspired Lettuce Wraps with a Peanut Sauce

My husband is awesome. Which is related to lettuce wraps how exactly? Well, you see, he passed the CPA and so we had a party. I had never hosted a party for 30 people before, so I sort of over-prepared and bought way too much food. One thing I had way too much of was lettuce-iceberg lettuce. I am not really a fan of it, either. We just purchased it for burgers and were left with almost a whole head. So what's a girl to do? Make lettuce wraps!

I'll admit that I looked up a few recipes before beginning this process since I had never made lettuce wraps before. It gave me an idea of what it should have, but I was surprised that I already knew most of the ingredients. I also didn't have a lot of the typical veggies one might put in lettuce wraps, like green onion and watercress, so I was just going to wing it with what we had and hope for the best. We were also having two people over for dinner...so if it was a fiasco, it would not be a good thing. Luckily all turned out well. Better than well, really. These were absolutely delicious. I had all three men spooning off the sauce from their plates and there was absolutely nothing left. No chicken. No sauce. No lettuce. Victory! And to make it even better...you don't even need to turn on the oven. You do have to use the stove top, but only on medium heat, so it really isn't bad. 

Asian-Inspired Lettuce Wraps with a Peanut Sauce (served 4)

Chicken Filling

1 lb of chicken, minced or ground

1/2 sweet onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 carrots, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 T soy sauce (or to taste)

2 T red wine vinegar (or to taste)

1 T red pepper flakes (or to taste)

2 T Olive Oil

salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large pan over medium heat. While pan is heating, prep the veggies, dicing the onion, bell pepper, and carrot. Place olive oil in pan and wait a minute for it to heat up. Place all veggies in pan. Wait for onions and pepper to soften and then add minced garlic. Place chicken in pan. (I didn't have ground chicken so I used my food processor to ground the chicken). Break up the chicken like you would ground beef. Wait for it to book a bit and then add the soy sauce, vinegar, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Once chicken is cooked though, set aside. 

Peanut Sauce

1/4 C. creamy peanut butter

1 T. soy sauce

1/2 C. water

1 clove garlic (or more)

red pepper flakes to taste

curry powder to taste

juice of one lime

salt and pepper

Place first three ingredients in a food processor or blender (after you wash it from mincing the chicken, of course!). Emulsify the peanut butter with the soy sauce and water. (Sounds fancy, right? It basically just means to blend all of them together so that the PB becomes more liquified.) You might need to add some more water, but just see. Then add garlic (minced before putting it in might help it blend better), red pepper flakes, curry, juice of lime, and salt and pepper. You should keep tasting as you go. 

Serve chicken atop a piece of two of iceberg lettuce, top with the peanut sauce, and enjoy! 

Summer Meals in Arizona: Gazpacho

About a week or so ago, I posted about making spring rolls as our first attempt at keeping the oven off during this hot AZ summer season. Today, I am excited to tell you about gazpacho! First off, it is fun to say. Win. It is also extremely easy to make. Win. We didn't have to turn the oven on. Win. And last but not least, it has tons of fresh veggies. Win. Win. Win!

The first time I ever had gazpacho was at my sister-in-law's house. Candyce is a great cook and likes to make fresh things. I think we also had it during the summer, but I am not sure. Anyway, it was one of the first summer meals that came to mind. I was super excited to find out that it was also very simple to make and didn't require any random ingredients. I looked on pinterest and google for a few recipes and finally decided on this one. I just used it as a guide and changed a few things, but I used all of the veggies suggested. I didn't add any sugar, the tomato juice, or the Worchestire sauce (though I could see how this would add a nice dimension). I also didn't use tabasco, as I generally don't like the flavor.

The first step I took was chopping up all of the veggies: cucumber, red onion, red bell pepper, celery, tomatoes (I didn't peel the tomatoes which didn't seem to matter), chives, and parsley.

All the ingredients. 

I then added all of them to a large bowl. I added to the bowl the 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar, 1/4 cup of olive oil, lemon juice and minced garlic.

How delicious does that look?!

I mixed it all together since I knew I was going to have to process it in batches (I don't have a huge food processor; a blender would work also!) and I wanted it to have an even flavor. Then I started processing it. I only had to do two batches which was awesome.

My only adjustment to flavor was adding a little kick. Since I didn't use tabasco, I decided to throw in some Tapatio hot sauce. This added a great little kick to the soup. Then it went into one large pyrex container and into the fridge! The best part is, dinner is ready for tomorrow! Love that!

Wait a day for all the flavors to really blend together! Can't wait!

The best part is dinner is ready for tomorrow! Love that! 

Summer Meals in Arizona: Spring Rolls

Obviously Arizona is a hot state. But hot doesn't really do it justice. Today it was somewhere around 110 degrees. Despite it being so hot, you have to live. And to live you have to eat. Well, how do you eat without turning on the oven or getting the house too hot? Since I am already warmer than normal (perhaps due to own little oven working away), I want to do everything possible to cook delicious meals without turning on the stove. One might think the grill would be a good option, but we don't have one, nor does it seem right to send Danny out in 100 degree whether just to avoid the oven. This weekend I decided, at the suggestion of Danny, to make spring rolls. I was a little bit intimidated by that suggestion, since I have never even thought of making spring rolls, but they turned out to be so easy!

To make spring rolls, you will need a few ingredients which you probably don't have on hand like rice paper and rice noodles, but most of the other ingredients are pretty typical. They call for a lot of fresh veggies: carrots, bell pepper, cabbage, green onion, cilantro, and mint. All of those ingredients should be thinly sliced and set in a bowl to marinate in olive oil and salt and pepper, save the mint. (The mint will just be sliced thinly and garnished on top of the veggies). I don't have proportions because I eye-balled everything based on how hungry Danny and I were. The spring rolls were going to be our only course, so I made a good amount. Marinating all together, the veggies fit in a medium size bowl. While the veggies marinate, you should cook the rice noodles. It only takes a few minutes, and you don't want them to get overcooked otherwise they get gummy. After these two steps, you are ready for the best part! Prepping the rice paper and preparing the rolls is fun and they look pretty, too!

The rice paper comes in a little flat like this. 

 The rice paper is very firm and has to be soaked for about 10-15 seconds before they are ready to be rolled. You will know because they become clear and very flimsy.

Soaking the rice paper. 

 You can see in the photo above that I have a little set up. I have my laptop there because I watched a video  on how assemble the spring roll. I also have a large cutting board and in front of that the plate of noodles and the bowl of veggies.

 After soaking the paper, lay it on the cutting board and put a layer of rice noodle.

Rice should go down first. If you are using shrimp or tofu, these would go first. Basically you need a base so that the veggies don't poke through the paper too much

On top of the noodles, place a little serving of the veggies. You want to make sure you grab a good mixture so you get the flavors of each veggie.

 Then put a little bit of mint on top of the veggies.

Isn't it so pretty and fresh looking! 

Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of the rolling process but you can watch this video which makes it very clear. All you do is fold in the sides and then roll from the bottom. You want to get it pretty tight. If the veggies pop through, just wrap it with a second piece of rice paper. Then place them on a plate, seam down. After assembling them all, place them in the fridge for about 10 minutes so they can chill and the paper can seal.

The finished product!

These spring rolls were the best summer dinner! They were so cold and refreshing. They were also extremely filling! We each ate three for dinner and then had the rest for lunch the next day. Next time I would do a few things differently: 1) I would use a bean sprout instead of rice noodles, or maybe just less noodle. With the rice noodle and the rice paper, there is a lot of the same texture and flavor. 2) I would also make my own dipping sauce. This time I just bought some hoisin sauce. It worked fine but it would be pretty simple to just whip up a sauce pretty fast.

All in all, we loved these and will definitely be making them all the time this summer!