A Summer Salad

For many years CountryBoy and I would spend one week of our vacation going on mission trips to Honduras and Nicaragua.  We went with a group from our church where we spent the week building a church in remote villages in those countries.  The villagers worked alongside us with all ages pitching in to help; men hammering nails, children carrying lumber and cleaning up scrap pieces, women cooking for the workers.

The accommodations were primitive at best.  A tent with an army cot, the local latrine (which was built by the missionaries we were working with and provided for these remote villages and were thoroughly cleaned and limed by our team upon arrival), and baths were taken in the river.  The same river where we got our drinking water and the villagers washed their clothes. No worries.  You bathed down river from where you got your drinking water, wink!  (Just don't think too hard about the village up river that is bathing down river, well, you know where I'm going with that! You just hope that the water has been purified by nature by the time it gets to the next village!)

Even with the best luxury item being the latrine it was always a wonderful week and always difficult to leave.

Before heading home our team is treated to a nice meal in one of the restaurants in the more modernized parts of these countries.

One restaurant was outdoors in a very tropical setting.  It was so lush with plants that I felt as though I was eating in the midst of a rainforest.  It was awesome!

I can't remember what I ate for the main course but I remember eating a corn salad of sorts that was on the salad bar.

Seeing all the beautiful corn on the cob at the grocery stores this summer reminded me of that salad and I wanted to see if I could recreate it.

Here's what I came up with...

Crunchy Corn & Veggie Salad

3 ears fresh corn on the cob, kernels removed from cob
5 stalks of celery, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
2 green onions, sliced
4 oz. crumbled goat cheese
handful of cilantro, chopped
4ish tsp. olive oil
2ish tsp. garlic infused red wine vinegar
1ish tsp. sugar
1ish tsp. sea salt (or to taste)
1/2ish tsp. black pepper (or to taste)

Combine corn kernels, celery, red pepper, green onions, goat cheese and cilantro in large bowl.

Whisk olive oil, red wine vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper together then pour over vegetable mixture and stir until combined.

That's it!  The crunchy, raw goodness of summer, yum!

There are many ways you can make this salad.  Use what you have.  Add more veggies or different veggies. For those of you that like some heat you can add a diced jalapeno.

Some things I might do differently next time would be to add the cheese last.  Goat cheese is very soft and ended up breaking down making the salad creamier as I mixed all the ingredients.  Same taste you just don't have the nice bits of crumbled cheese.  You could also use a different cheese; blue cheese or feta would be nice. Or you could use a firmer cheese.  Don't like cheese?  Leave it out.  Don't care for cilantro?  Basil would be nice.  I also didn't mix the wet ingredients separately, that's why the measurements are approximate amounts, but that would help cut back on the mixing and stirring so next time I will do that.

There ya have it!  I'd love to hear what ingredients you would use or not use if you made this salad.  Just keep the main ingredient of raw corn then go from there.

Till next time folks...

Zucchini Pizza Boats {The Recipe}

I posted a photo of our dinner one night last week on Facebook and got a nice response from that image.  Several people even asked for the recipe.

Here's the photo I posted...

Zucchini Pizza Boats

And, yea, they were as good as they look!

CountryBoy and I love pizza (well, anything with red sauce actually!) but since going gluten-free we, sadly, haven't found a local pizza place that serves gluten-free pizza.  And, if you just happen to find a frozen one in the grocery store they tend to be quite pricey.

Around the same time we changed our diet I won this beautiful book, Paleo Indulgences, from a giveaway Patrice at Everyday Ruralty was hosting.

Perfect timing I'd say!  (I'm still planning on doing a post about our change of diet... some day!)

This book is chock full of recipes that will satisfy your cravings for breads, cookies, candy and even ice cream.  (An ice cream maker is on my wish list before summer hits!)  Who says being on a healthy diet has to be boring and tasteless?!

While this book primarily focuses on satisfying your cravings it also has several tasty main dishes, of which I've made several along with some of the sweets, and they've all been delicious!

So, without further ado, here's the recipe many of you have asked for...

Zucchini Pizza Boats

Makes 4 servings

Sauce

1/4 cup (60mL) olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup (40 g) chopped parsley

1 28-oz (831 mL) can tomato sauce

2 4-oz (113 g) cans tomato paste

1 28-oz (831 mL) can diced tomatoes

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp basil

Pinch rosemary

1 tsp sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Zucchini

4 large zucchini, washed, ends trimmed off, cut in half lengthwise

Toppings of choice (uncured pepperoni, salami, Italian sausage, ground beef, caramelized onions, black olives, sundried tomatoes, etc.)

1.  Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2.  Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.

3.  Add the garlic and parsley.  Stir.

4.  Add the remaining sauce ingredients, stirring well to combine.  Turn the heat down to low and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.

5.  Meanwhile, clean and prep the zucchini.  With a spoon, hollow out the middle of each half, removing only enough flesh to make a shallow well.  Place the zucchini on a parchment-lined baking sheet, hollowed-out side up.

6.  Spoon some sauce into each zucchini.  Top with your favorite items.

7.  Bake about 20 minutes, or until toppings are cooked, sauce is bubbling, and zucchini are soft.

Note:  To make a true pizza sauce, puree with and immersion blender.  Store leftover sauce in small Mason jars in the freezer.

My notes:

*The sauce is the key to this delicious recipe.

*I use the leftover sauce as my base for spaghetti sauce adding more garlic, onion, mushrooms and peppers (if I have any) and either lean ground beef or bison.  Sometimes I don't even add the meat, it's that good!

*I don't puree my sauce.  I like the chunks of diced tomatoes in it.

*Add whatever you have on hand for the toppings.  The toppings on the above photo are onions, red  and yellow peppers, mushrooms and black olives topped with mozzarella cheese.

*I forgot to use parchment paper last time and it was still OK.

*Serve with a nice salad using many of the same ingredients as on the pizza boats.

That's it folks!  Easy peasy!  And, it satisfies our pizza cravings and is much healthier than crust, mmmm!

The author of Paleo Indulgence, Tammy Credicott, has another cookbook out, The Healthy Gluten-Free Life, that I don't have yet, and another is due out in September that I'm really interested in entitled 'Make Ahead Paleo' that can be pre-ordered at a discount.  Check them out if you're interested in some tasty, good-for-you recipes that you can actually live by.

Please note:  For copyright purposes, this post has been approved by the author of Paleo Indulgences and creator of the recipe, Tammy Credicott.

Till next time,

Tasty Treat

What does half a brick of each...

PLUS a bag of this...

EQUAL?

Pure yumminess!

Here's how you do it...

Toffee Clusters

1 Chocolate Almond Bark

1 Vanilla Almond Bark

1 bag English Toffee bits

Melt six squares of chocolate and six squares of vanilla almond bark according to package directions.  (I break them into individual squares and put them in a microwaveable bowl.  Heat for 45 seconds and stir.  Continue in 15 second intervals stirring each time until completely melted.)

Add the toffee bits and stir.

Drop onto wax paper by tablespoonfuls.

Let harden.

Enjoy!

You can make these with peanuts, almonds, pecans, anything you like mixed with chocolate!  One of these days I'm going to try caramel and pecans!

Till next time,