I’m back with another round of “let me annoy you with my questions because it’s Friday!”
What tastes like summer to you?
Maybe it is just because we are on the world’s longest Whole30, so it feels like we can’t have annnyyyyy of the fun summer meals, but I am in a little bit of a food run. I really want caprese salad covered in big hunks of mozzarella and all sorts of sweet tea making condensation down the side of tall glass. I want fresh scoops of ice cream dripping down waffle cones and pizza eaten on patios. I want roasted corn on the cob and a Starbucks s’mores frappucino so badly. These are the super-bad-for-me tastes of summer that I love. But instead, we have been eating:
Lots of fruit. Nectarines! Watermelon! Cherries! Peaches!
These muffins, with unsweetened raw cocoa powder and fresh cherries added.
Strawberry mojitos… minus the alcohol and sugar. So basically fizzy water with mint and fruit.
Arugula with radishes and fresh peas.
Peach, spinach, prosciutto, and almond salad, tossed with lavender balsamic and olive oil.
All of these things are good, especially the fruit… but I would really love some new recipes to mix up our rotation. After aimlessly drifting through the quicksand that is Pinterest, I decided to ask you fine people. What do you crave during the summer?What are you cooking/eating these days? All recipes are appreciated, especially clean eating ones. The others I will just drool over for the next week and a half and then pounce.
Happy eating!
The Art in Life 
Gazpacho. All the gazpachos! http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/the-best-gazpacho-recipes. Melon and prosciutto. Grilled asparagus wrapped in prosciutto. Grilled romaine hearts with vinaigrette. Variations on watermelon, lime, and mint – in a salad or blend and sweeten with whatever you’re allowed to sweeten with (juice?) and put in the freezer as sorbet. ALSO, use dates to sweeten things, especially “ice cream” made by blending bananas. And try replacing your mozzarella with this vegan ricotta recipe (replace the processed Ener-G with a real egg or by mixing 1T of ground flaxseed with 3T water and letting it sit for like 5 minutes before using; this is a whole food “flax egg”): http://www.olivesfordinner.com/2012/02/molecular-vegan-deep-fried-ricotta.html. The Starbucks s’mores drink could probably be somewhat replicated with a blended combination of coffee/ice/cocoa powder/vanilla/almond milk/dates and maybe even coconut cream? Good luck!
I just can’t do gazpacho. I want to, really I do, but it makes me think of V8 juice and gag. But I am all on board for the rest! Please come back from France and teach me your vegan ways, so I can eat them alongside my meat. Also teach me the ways of using dates in everything.
I’m afraid my summer foods wouldn’t fit well in whole 30, but we’ve picked the last of the blackberries before the rest is consumed by Japanese beetles, and made blackberry jam. We discovered that said jam, besides the usual, is fabulous on vanilla ice cream. Cooks illustrated pasta primavera has been a staple too with the fresh zucchini that’s around in summer. It does contain cream, but isn’t too heavy. The recipe is also intended for two people, so it’s perfect for us. Frozen strawberry pie is also a summer favorite. Just blend a few cups of strawberries with whipped cream and put in a Graham cracker pie crust and stick it in the freezer for a day. The result is a refreshing dessert with surprisingly few calories (as long as you don’t add too much sugar). I also second the caprese salad. Yum. Email me if you would like specific recipes.
ALL JAM ALL THE TIME. That’s what I want. Ok, so really I want all of this.
Kabobs! And you should try to make sweet potato custard. Dude. It’s like chocolate pie filling and totally whole30:
2 Medium Sweet Potatoes
1/3 cup raw cocoa powder
3 – 4 soaked dates
2 T coconut oil
Bake sweet potatoes at 400, 50 mins until soft. Take out of skins and blend in food processor with other ingredients. Serve hot or chilled.
Also, I make a LOT of frozen banana/coconut milk/cocoa powder smoothies. I trick myself that it is a milkshake.
Tasty! I have stolen many a whole30 treat from you and looking forward to trying this one!
Let’s see…is pesto ok? That’s SUPER summery to me and we have a literal crap-ton of fresh basil in the front yard if you want some!! We’ve made it both with walnuts and pine nuts (walnuts = wayyy cheaper though) and my mom claims you could make it nut-free too. I’m not sure how omitting the Parm would affect the texture, but I think it would be totally fine.
Can you do quinoa?? If so, quinoa tabouli is delicious (again, we have copious amounts of parsley and I’m trying to think of ways to use it up). Super lemony, crunchy, and summery.
Prosciutto-wrapped melon– will always remind me of our summer in Rome.
BBQ chicken in the crock-pot. I make a home-made BBQ sauce, but if you can find something compliant online or in a bottle it’s legit the easiest and tastiest summer dinner.
We ate SO MUCH PESTO in Italy and I still want more. The cheese in it is a no, but I’m sure it would be good without! No quinoa, but when we go off it next weekend (insert cheering) I will totally add quinoa back in our diet.
Quinoa salad. Cucumber, black olives, tomato, sugar snap peas, whatever you have on hand. Basically it’s just a vehicle for the balsamic vinegar I douse it in.
Isn’t EVERYTHING basically a vehicle for balsamic vinegar? Or is that just me?
Kale salad! My go-to salad, because it isn’t boring.
5-6 cups kale. Wash and tear leaves into bite-sized pieces. Toss with 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (actually, this is too much sauce. I usually fill my measuring cup about 1 cm less for each) until each leaf is coated. Add 1 clove garlic, minced; 1/3 c red onion, sliced however you like onion; 1/2 c dried cranberries; 1/2 c raw unsalted sunflower seeds; 1/3 c crumbled feta cheese. Don’t worry if you have to skip the cheese, the salad tastes fine without it.
My Mum used to make fruit popsicles for my siblings and me – great way to use up last year’s frozen fruit. Thaw fruit so you have fruit soup. Pour into popsicle containers and freeze. OR make fruit smoothies – I’ve been experimenting with different yogurts to add, and spices/extra stuff, like grated ginger. Alternately, you could make fruit crisps. I’ve forgotten what Whole30 allows but if oats are forbidden, an alternate crisp/cobbler topping could be substituted, such as sweet potato crust..
YUM. I want all that!