Summer Lovin'!

You just gotta' love summer! I visited the local farmer's market again this weekend, and came home with a whole slew of stuff, including three handmade necklaces from a local craftsman! The park where the market is, is also occasionally host to events like they had this time, with different craftspeople selling their original, local wares.

Anyway, I happened upon some squash blossoms, and remembering how I had passed them up last summer, snatched them up this time! I found lots of recipes to fry them, but didn't want to go to the bother, or the calories. Instead, I modified a Vegetarian Times recipe from online, which called for goat cheese and dried herbs for the stuffing, and then to bake them in the oven. I used Tofutti cream cheese (recommended in another recipe) and fresh herbs from my potted garden. They were killer! My hubby said they'd be better fried, but hey - who's the chef tonight? Me, that's who! They kicked ass, mostly due to the flavor of the fresh herbs. These are male blossoms. I don't think there's a whole lot of protein in the cream cheese...

Here are the blossoms just going into the oven. This picture reminds me that my oven needs cleaning :P












This was the other meal of the night: Aztec Salad from The Candle Cafe Cookbook. I just love this new cookbook. I got it in January or so, and I can't stop using it! The recipes are so fresh and inspiring! This called for marinating tempeh, then basting it with BBQ sauce (sorry, we did use bottled stuff- ran out of time!), and grilling it. It's served over a salad of red leaf lettuce, quinoa, black beans, fresh corn, red pepper, red onion, and cilantro. Most of these were also from the farmer's market. Yay, local produce! The dressing was Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette, with toasted pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top. It got the thumbs up from my hubby, a man who's not easy to please when it comes to salads.


Here's the salad before the dressing and seeds, so you can see the nice grill marks. I did let hubby do the grilling while I did everything else ;)











I found some photos from a while ago, which I never got around to posting, so here is a backlog of yummy recipes! It should hold you for a while, since I will be busy studying for my comprehensive exam for my masters in the coming weeks, as well as doing a practicum! I guess school is not out for me!

This is a long time ago recipe, also from The Candle Cafe Cookbook. It is called the Portobello Mushroom Panini, but we couldn't figure out why, since it's not grilled like a real panini! However, it still kicked ass. It consists of roasted portobello shrooms and red pepper on ciabatta bread, with an excellent Herbed Tofu Spread. We just couldn't stop raving over it! The kale was drizzled with our new favorite Sesame Tahini dressing from Vive la Vegan! The only downside: the bread was a little "holey," and the spread was leaking through everywhere. Just an excuse to lick our fingers!


This here is Chana Masala, or Indian Chickpea Stew from, you guessed it, The Candle Cafe Cookbook. Great flavor, quick and easy for a weeknight meal. My only complaint was that it was not quite a stew. I added more tomatoes than it called for and cooked it for less time, but it still turned out a little dry.







Last, and probably least, was the Soba and Snow Pea Salad from the most recent Vegetarian Times magazine issue. It was pretty good. I used the peanut dressing for another recipe. But as usual, there were too many noodles and not enough veggies! I eat low-carb on a general basis, so I rarely make sandwiches or pasta anyhow. Sorry to leave this post on such an uninspiring note! If I were you, I would scroll back to the top for a happy ending :)