Super-Simple Summer Tomatoes

A super-simple dressing for all the summer’s homegrown tomatoes!

Slice your tomatoes into bite-size, and drizzle with olive oil and a good balsamic vinegar. Shake in some dried basil and parsley - or use fresh if you’ve got them! - and let it sit on the counter, room temperature, for about 15 minutes before serving.

Not Your Mother’s Potato Salad!: Cauliflower Salad

 

I got this idea from another cooking website, but of course changed this - and that - and I didn’t have yellow mustard, so I used stone ground - and then I don’t like red onions, so I used green - 

The usual way I ‘follow’ a recipe, in short, lol.

Potato salad made low-carb and low-calorie with cauliflower!

First, trim your cauliflower into florets. Cover and steam in the microwave three minutes, then stir, re-cover, and steam three minutes more. 

Chop three hard boiled eggs (I use a pastry cutter right in the bowl). I crumbled two slices of bacon, diced up three green onions, and really went to town with the dill. 

Then I made the sauce: mayo, mustard, and milk whisked together. Toss your cauliflower and sauce with the bacon, eggs, and onion, and - voila! You'll be a hit at the next summer potluck. 

NOT YOUR MOTHER'S POTATO SALAD!: CAULIFLOWER SALAD

3 hard boiled eggs

2 slices bacon

3 green onions

2 T dill

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets 

1/4 c mayonnaise 

2 T mustard

1/8 c milk

Steam your cauliflower covered in a microwave-safe bowl three minutes and stir. Cover and steam three minutes more.

Chop your eggs into a bowl. Crumble the bacon, dice the green onions, and toss with the egg. Add dill. Add your cauliflower and toss well.

Mix mayonnaise, mustard, and milk with a whisk. Add sauce to cauliflower mixture and toss until all cauliflower is covered.

Serve cold.

Inside-Out Spinach and Cheddar Quiche

Playing around with a recipe here, because I got spoiled when I was able to just buy regular frozen pie crusts nice and quick and cheap and easy!

That is to say, before I was diagnosed celiac and had to go gluten free, of course. 

I have made all variation on gluten free crusts for quiche, the ones you try with actual GF flour and pie-crust them, hashbrown ones, rice ones - I don’t think I was ever willing to pay what they wanted for the store-bought ones - but, yeah, you get the idea.

Trying a variation, here, that puts your (good healthy whole grain) carb into the quiche itself! I’m using my favorite basmati brown rice, and here you simply stir the rice into your quiche rather than make a crust out of it.

I did a cup of rice in the Instapot (the link's here: Instapot Brown Rice ). Brown rice, because getting enough whole grains is something we gluten-free-ers struggle with, and brown basmati rice, because going gluten-free turned me into a real snob when it came it rice. 

Hey, if we can eat it, might as well eat the best, you know? 

Starting the garlic and spinach! 

Don’t reach for the olive oil: adds fat and hundreds of calories! I know we need some fat, and I know it’s a healthy fat, but I promise you, promise you, you are getting plenty of fat in your diet anyhow! You’re getting egg-fat and cheese-fat both here; and garlic browns just fine in olive oil pan spray.

Especially in a good seasoned cast iron skillet. I love this one. The whole quiche is going to go back into it to go into the oven, as a matter of fact.

When your garlic is browned and your spinach in cooked, put that in a large mixing bowl with the rice and sharp cheddar cheese. 

Whisk eggs and milk together in a bowl. Stir into the spinach and rice mixture. Pour into a pie pan or an oven-safe skillet to bake. (I’m using the same cast iron I did the spinach in.) Bake at 425 for 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

M

INSIDE-OUT SPINACH AND CHEDDAR QUICHE

4 cloves garlic, minced

12oz bag frozen chopped spinach, thawed

2 cups brown rice, cooked

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

6 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425.

Cook garlic in pan spray until browned; add spinach. Cook 5 minutes more.

Put spinach mixture in large bowl. Add rice and cheese. Mix well.

Whisk milk and eggs. Add to spinach mixture; mix well. 

Generously spray large pie pan or oven-safe skillet with pan spray. Pour quiche into prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Servings: 6

Calories per serving: 255

Pasta with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce

This is another one of Ashley’s favorite sauces, here, guys, fancy enough for company but all coming out of the pantry and/or things you’ve already got on hand!

Apron.

Start with an apron, this time, if you’ve got one.

I don’t wear one often, but we’re starting out by crushing whole peeled tomatoes by hand. 

Tomato juice is hard to get out!

Preheat your oven, then open your can of whole peeled tomatoes. These San Marzano tomatoes are my parents’ and my very favorites!

Don’t drain them; pour the whole can into a 9x13 pan. Start crushing the tomatoes by hand. You want them to look about like this:

I use minced garlic that I buy in a jar, so that’s one of those things I always have on hand - add lots of garlic! And a quarter cup butter (half a stick) cut into small pieces.

Bake - yes, you’re baking a sauce! - at 425 about half an hour, stirring once about halfway through. 

I am using rice noodles today, from the Oriental Market, so those just needed soaked. Rice noodles you just pour boiling water OVER them, and let them stand until soft. *Keep stirring while they stand, though!

I also have some bounty from my parents’ garden to add: fresh oregano!

And then just toss it all together and top with Parmesan!

PASTA WITH BUTTER ROASTED TOMATO SAUCE 

1 lb pasta

28oz can San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes 

4 T minced garlic

4 T butter, cut into small pieces

Fresh herbs

Fresh Parmesan 

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Pour entire can San Marzano tomatoes into a 9x13 baking dish. Crush with your hands. Add garlic and butter, and bake for 30 minutes, stirring once.

Toss sauce with pasta. Top with fresh herbs and Parmesan.

Servings: 7

Calories per serving: 290

Variation: Hungarian-Style Sheet Pan Cauliflower with Bacon

A variation on the Hungarian-Style Sheet Pan Brussels Sprouts with Bacon post of May 9th!

I love roasted cauliflower, too, and what doesn’t improve with thick center-cut bacon?

HUNGARIAN-STYLE SHEET PAN CAULIFLOWER WITH BACON 

2 heads cauliflower

6oz thick-cut bacon

Olive oil pan spray 

Salt and Pepper

1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt 

Preheat oven to 425.

Trim your cauliflower into bite-sized florets. 

Use olive oil pan spray to prepare a sheet pan. Place cauliflower in a single layer on the sheet pan. Spray the tops with pan spray; grind salt and pepper over the cauliflower. 

Place bacon strips over the top of the cauliflower.

Roast at 425 for 15-20 minutes, turning once, or until bacon is done and cauliflower is starting to brown.

Crumble bacon over cauliflower. Stir in one cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt.

Instapot Quinoa OR Brown Rice

So. QUINOA. Quinoa gets a terrible rap for being this faddish Gluten Free food. And it is true I probably wouldn’t have tried it if I wasn’t gluten free - but I never did grits before I went gluten free either, and live right down in grits county, North Carolina in the U.S. of A.!

You need to give quinoa a chance. I buy it in bulk at Sams, now, as you can see - eat it instead of rice with dinners. This is going in Buddha bowls with the lentils in today’s other post!

THE BEAUTY OF DOING RICE AND QUINOA IN THE INSTAPOT? This won me over immediately: it DOES NOT STICK. Brilliant. 

Quinoa is easy enough in the Instapot. Two cups quinoa, two and a half cups water (you see I tossed in some broth base too, for added flavor), in the Instapot on Pressure Cook/high pressure for 22 minutes. 

Brown rice cooks exactly the same. Two cups rice to two and a half cups water or broth, into the Instapot on high pressure (Pressure Cook or the Rice setting, it’s the same on mine) for 22 minutes.

There it goes!

And easy as that, it’s done. Fluff with a large spoon or fork before taking up!

INSTAPOT QUINOA or BROWN RICE

2 cups quinoa or brown rice

2 1/2 cups water or broth

Cook 22 minutes on Pressure Cook/high pressure. Fluff with a fork. Serve.

Servings: 8

Calories per serving: 170