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Tale of Two Seasons

October 28, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 9 comments

I’m trying to embrace Fall, I really am. I made pumpkin brownies, had a bonfire at a friend’s house the other night, and have made the pretty big switch from cool, crisp white wines to our seriously never ending collection of Cabernet Sauvignon. We went a little Cab crazy over the past few years, and now it’s everywhere! I’m loving the brightly colored mums I see around town, and I really like the creepy feeling that happens around Halloween. I am a big fan of ghost stories, scary movies, and other chilling things.

But I am already over the very dark mornings, being freezing during the work day (I literally wanted to put my feet in the oven after baking the brownies the other day.), and being hungry all the time. And when it comes to food, I never got my fill of tomatoes, fresh salads, cucumbers, and grilled vegetables. With the desire to start eating more healthily (again!), I visited The Fresh Market this Sunday after we dropped the boat off nearby for winter storage (sniffle). I love The Fresh Market and take any chance I can get to visit.

I have been enjoying quinoa lately where I have not in the past. The difference? I really dislike any dry foods like rice and grains, but if I add some sort of nice sauce, I can eat them just fine. With this easy, healthy lunch recipe, I crossed over two seasons and came up with a beautiful result.

A few cups of mini patty pan squashes, cut in half.

Three cups quinoa, juice of one juicy lemon, and 1/4 cup of fruity olive oil

Lots and lots of fresh cilantro

1/2 chopped white onion

A pint of grape tomatoes

Quickly cook the squash until tender while quinoa is cooking according to package directions. Once done, toss all ingredients together. I topped mine with kalamata olives and goat cheese and enjoyed every healthy bite. Yum.

This solved our lunch dilemma for a few days at least, and it was a valiant effort at bringing some fall flavors into our repertoire. Since discovering ways to make myself like quinoa and the like, I am really looking forward to incorporating more of these healthy things into my life.

Do you have any ingredients that you used to dislike that you have changed your mind on?

Technorati Tags: Food, Lunch, recipe, salad, vegan, Vegetarian

Tags: Food, Lunch, recipe, salad, vegan, Vegetarian

Grilled Vegetable and Grains Salad

July 2, 2011 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | 7 comments

Happy weekend! We have all sorts of fun plans that include a trip to Newport, visiting family, and hopefully, if all goes well, lots of time on the boat. If you are grilling and looking for a healthy side dish or perhaps even a dinner for your vegetarian guests, I have the perfect thing. Inspired by some beautiful, local zucchini and zucchini squash, this dish is super simple and utilizes some store-bought ingredients to make it something you can toss together very quickly.

You will need 3 medium sized zucchinis, summer squashes, or a mix of the two.

You will also need a half cup of a good bottled vinaigrette, unless you want to make your own, which is fine. I was purposely looking to cut corners here to get dinner on the table fast. I put my vinaigrette into the food processer with four cloves of raw garlic, crushed red pepper, and a squeeze of my Gourmet Garden basil to make it my own.

Once the dressing was all set, I heated up about a cup and a half of chickpeas I had already soaked and cooked the day before. I also cooked, according to package directions, half a package of Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains Blend, one of my favorite products ever. I love the texture!

The last step was simply grilling the veggies and assembling the dish. Right before serving, I poured in the dressing and tossed the grains and chickpeas to blend them together with it. A little sprinkle of salt and ground black pepper, and we were good to go!

I adore the flavors of grilled vegetables so much that I had a giant pile of them for dinner a few nights ago. May as well embrace summer as much as possible!

I love how healthy and easy this grilled vegetable salad is, and as I said earlier, it really is a complete vegetarian meal.

What are you cookin up this weekend?

Technorati Tags: dinner, Food, recipe, side dish, summer meals, vegan, Vegetarian

Tags: dinner, Food, recipe, side dish, summer meals, vegan, Vegetarian

Grilled Corn Salad: The Perfect BBQ Side

June 28, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 16 comments

*If you are visiting from Boston.com, welcome! I hope you enjoy this grilled corn salad recipe, and I would love it if you check out the rest of my site like the Marketing services I offer and my directory of recipes . Thanks for stopping by! *

This past weekend, I went over to Megan’s house for a little potluck dinner centered around the Tortilla Land tortilla samples that we both received. I will definitely be blogging about that dinner; it was chock full of delicious food and drink and fun ladies, but I wanted to get this corn salad recipe in before the 4th of July weekend. It is a PERFECT barbecue side.

This corn salad is refreshing and incredibly simple. The ingredients:

12 ears of corn, shucked

1/2 large jicama, diced into small pieces

1 pint of grape tomatoes cut in halves or thirds, depending on their size

handful of cilantro

juice of 3 limes

3 teaspoons blood orange olive oil (regular olive oil and a splash of orange juice would be fine!)

I started by grilling the plain corn on my grill pan. I love this thing! I can’t believe it sat in my cupboard for a really long time before I used it. I turned the corn frequently so that it didn’t burn, but I definitely wanted it to have some color.

While the corn was grilling, I was dicing jicama and cutting tomatoes. Once the corn was grilled and cool, I cut it off of the cobs and got started on the dressing.

A simple blend of lime juice and blood orange olive oil, the dressing gave the crunchy corn and jicama a refreshing twist. For the tiniest kick, I added a few pinches of chili powder, a sprinkle of sea salt, and finally a generous helping of torn cilantro.

I loved this salad once everything came together. My first bite seemed a little tart, but once the salad sat for a few hours, the citrus mellowed out. It was a great accompaniment to a delicious meal and would make a great side dish for your 4th of July weekend.

What are your favorite barbecue side dishes? My mom makes a mean potato salad. I also love baked beans, grilled potatoes, macaroni salad. . . I could eat side dishes all day long!

Technorati Tags: corn, Food, sides, summer, vegan, Vegetarian