Fresh Corn Salad

Corn salad this time, to beat the heat. This recipe is from allrecipes.com as well.

Ingredients:

• 8 ears fresh corn
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 1 cucumber, peeled and chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup Italian-style salad dressing

Okay, if you know me, you know I'm lazy and I'm not going to spend the time to shuck 8 ears of corn. I used two cans of corn, drained.

Chop up the zucchini, cucumber, and onion. I used baby cherry tomatoes and sliced them once down the middle. I forgot the bell pepper, so I sprinkled some red pepper in there for a little kick, along with some black pepper.

I mixed inNewman's Oil and Vinegar dressing.

Summer Broccoli Salad

So it finally feels like summer here in San Diego, so I decided I needed a yummy recipe that required little involvement from my stove. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and made a few vegetarian alterations.

Ingredients:

• 2 heads fresh broccoli
• 1 red onion
• 1/2 pound fake bacon
  
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
  
• 3/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Cook your fake bacon first. I used Smart Bacon from Henry's. It worked fairly well, and smelled like real bacon.
While that is warming up, chop up your fresh broccoli. I used about 3 medium sized heads. Chop your onion, and throw the two in a medium sized bowl.

Next prep your sauce. I personally found the sauce a bit rich- I will probably half it next time. I don't see why one needs an entire cup of mayo for this- it's overpowering if you don't eat a ton of dairy or sugar (*Use Vegannaise if you have it). Add the vinegar and sugar and mix well.

Dowse your broccoli with the sauce, and throw in the bacon, almonds and cranberries. Other suggestions include sunflower seeds, which I think I will definitely give a try next time around.



Chill for at least one hour, then gobble.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Wait time: one hour
Yummy factor: 8/10

Squash for Shane

Here you go Shane, my mom's method of eating tons of delicious squash.

Slice 2 large yellow squash, and 2-3 zucchinis.

Warm fry pan to medium with a few drops of olive oil. Cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.











Once they become soft, add some sliced tomatoes. Let every thing simmer again for a minute or two. Once everything is soft and warm, add cheese. Cheddar works the best, but here I used a mixed pack with cheddar in it.





Remove from flame and let the cheese melt in. Serve immediately, or deal with a mean cheesy mess in your pan. I made this last night with a fake chicken breast. Delicious!

Portobello Mushroom Burger

I love this one! If you ever get bored of veggie patty-type burgers, this is a super alternative. Look around for some big old juicy-looking portobello caps at your local store. You will also need:

Buns or kaiser rolls (perfect for these!)
Fresh Basil
Red Bell Peppers- get the ones in the jar that are marinated
Provolone cheese slices
1/4 c. Balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp. Olive oil
Fresh Garlic
Onion
Tomato
Mayo

Heat a grilling pan to medium. Prepare the mushrooms by brushing them off with a vegetable brush and cleaning out the underside with a spoon. Mix a marinade of olive oil, with some crushed garlic. Brush the underside of the shrooms, and place on the pan. I love balsamic, so I pretty much soak the little guys in the marinade but it's up to you how much you use. Grill for 3-4 minutes, then flip. Once the mushrooms are almost done, add the cheese and basil leaves and let it get nice and melty.

Put the burgers together layering the red peppers, onion, tomato, and whatever else you dig. It's pretty quick and easy, and a nice summer burger.

Vegan Mousse with Rasberry Sauce! No way! Way.

So we were sitting around in this miserable heat hungry for something. What could I bake that required no baking? I flipped through the trusty Joy of Vegan Baking and found a recipe for chocolate mousse. No baking, just some fridge time. Also, this is like, the easiest thing ever in the history of history.

Traditionally, mousse is made with really disgusting items such as milk, butter, eggs, and heavy cream (dear lord no!). Here is what this recipe will require of you:

1 cup non dairy chocolate chips
12 ounces silken tofu
1/2 soy milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Whaaaaat? lol no way! WAY! Easy as pie! (okay not really but you know..) Zap the chips in the micro for 2 minutes, stirring along the way. Process the tofu, milk, vanilla and chocolate. Um, okay, you're done. Muhahaha! This tastes AWESOME, very chocolaty and fluffy.

I decided to make a pie out of this, because I have no individual serving dishes, and I can't buy any more dishes because apparently an elf made my kitchen. I used a pre-made graham cracker crust, but I think next time I will go for the gold and get a chocolate cookie crust. It's probably not vegan, but as you know, I'm not 100% vegan anyway. So there.

For the topping, I did a raspberry sauce- also, ridiculously easy. Take 2 cups of fresh raspberries (about two packs) and process with 1/4 cup of sugar or sucanat. Chill in an air tight container.

Oh, what the heck is SUCANAT?? Don't worry, I looked it up. It's actually an acronym for sugar cane natural. Thank you wikipedia. Here's the article if you are so inclined to read about it.

Funky Summer Lasagna-Tasting-Like Asparagus Pizza

The 5-Ingredient Gourmet has a recipe for asparagus and red pepper pizza which I used as a base recipe for this one, it was mighty tasty, and filling!

The layers were in this order:

Pre-made crust
Red sauce ( I used a mushroom marinara)
Ricotta cheese
Blanched Asparagus and Red Peppers sliced up in bite size chunks
Mushrooms
Mozzarella cheese

Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Cherry Pie

I made a pie! This was very exciting, being that it was my first pie, with non-store-bought crust. I have never been a fan of anything pie except for apple pie, but I let my husband pick a recipe and he picked cherry pie. I'm glad he did, because otherwise I probably never would have made this groovy pie.

The recipe calls for cherries either canned, fresh, or frozen. I went for frozen black cherries since those were the only cherries left in Trader Joe's the day I went. The filling was crazy easy. Just get a big bowl, and mix 5 cups of cherries (that's almost 2 frozen bags) with sugar (3/4 cup) and cornstarch (4 tbsp) and then let it sit for 10-15 min. This is when you can bake your crust, which conveniently takes 15 minutes as well. After 15 min, add 1 tbsp lemon juice and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract. Done with filling!

Okay, so crust is really hard to make. I did everything the recipe calls for, but when I got to the rolling out part, the dough was like a red-headed stepchild. It rolled out nicely when I started, but when I started to roll it a bit more, it started breaking. I added sprinkles of flour to get it to get the frack off my rolling pin, and water to mend the breaks, but it just kept breaking again. Two things I will do differently next time: 1) Chill it for longer. The recipe says to chill it for a minimum of 30 minutes, but I think I am going to do it overnight or something next time. 2) More water. The recipe calls for water when you are mixing the dough, but the author also says to chill all the ingredients, including the rolling pin, prior to mixing it together. Well, I did that, and my water froze. But I didn't notice that about a 1/3 cup of my water was frozen on the bottom of the cup until after I mixed it all together. Anyway, I wrestled to get the dough in the pan, and for the top, you can see all the patches I had to make to get it to cover the top. Regardless, it was a really yummy pie, and I would definitely make it again.

Here's the crust recipe:

2 1/2 unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup veg. shortening
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp ice water

Blend on low in food processor. Divide evenly and chill in plastic wrap for a long time. haha.