Tuna Pasta Salad and Black Bean Salad

On a night when you can't decide on a good dinner plan, why not just make all your little favorites? It's still healthy even if you just make a bunch of sides, right? Well these actually seem to balance out, and make a delicious meal!


Tuna Pasta Salad:
whole wheat pasta
mayonnaise
fresh lime juice
seasoning
cilantro
red bell pepper
canned white tuna

Black Bean Salad:
can of black beans
tomatoes
red bell pepper
cilantro
avocado
fresh lime juice
balsamic vinegar
seasoning

Grilled Swordfish over Coscous and Greens

Couscous:
-leftover black bean salad
-seasoning
-whole wheat couscous made with broth
-chopped up red bell pepper
-lots of chopped cilantro and scallions

Okra

After seeing okra in the grocery store the other day, I have been tempted to make some on my own. I cut it the long way, so it'd be a bit more interesting. Sauteed it in garlic and seasoning in olive oil. Delicious!

Waffles!

I finally caved in and bought a waffle iron! In making the first batch of waffles, I decided to use an old family recipe for lemon waffles. It made for a delicious brunch, and I can't wait to try out more recipes in the future!
And inspired by a friend, I made fresh cinnamon whipped cream.

Blackberry Limeade with Fresh Mint

Juice with blackberry, lime, and fresh mint. Delicious!

Strawberry Pancakes

My favorite way to make pancakes is to use yogurt instead of milk, then add a splash of milk at the end to thin it out enough to spread out in the pan. It makes them fluffy and adds a nice taste. I also experimented with adding a little bit of coconut to the batter today, and it was delicious!
This is how thick the batter turns out.

Raspberry Blueberry Muffins

I'm still avoiding sugar, but trying to re-integrate it slowly. I woke up craving muffins, so set out to make something that would work for me. These muffins are made with splenda and honey, and use half whole wheat and half white flour. I modified a recipe I found online. It's amazing how infrequently I use a cookbook now!

I realized half-way into making my "blueberry" muffins, that I only had about 1/4 cup of blueberries left. Good thing I had some raspberries in the freezer!


Ready from the oven:
Delicious, and with just the right amount of whole wheat flour!

Fun Water

When I was in Mexico last summer, I called these delicious drinks on the street (and everywhere)--fun water. They had agua de fresa (strawberry), jamaica (hibiscus), tamarindo (tamarind) and many more. Every chance I got, I'd drink one of these.
Now that it's summer, it's time to start making these again here! The first of the season was strawberry.

Here's our homemade version. I think we've already gone through almost a liter of it today!
Ingredients:
-Strawberries
-Water
-Sugar
-Lemon (only in mine)
all to be mixed up in the blender, and served in a glass with ice.

Topical Popsicles: Mango Coconut

Could be the best yet!

INGREDIENTS:
-Mango (I used Trader Joe's frozen)
-Coconut Milk
-Plain Yogurt
-Milk
-Sugar

Sunday Cake

My grandfather taught me how to make this cake, and I totally forgot about it until I was going through my recipe book last night. I went out and bought a bundt pan, which I thought I was too young to own, and made it this afternoon. It's a pretty simple yellow cake with lemon, and so cool to know where it came from!


It's actually not too sweet (just how my grandfather liked), so it's a great coffee cake, or accompaniment to fruit for a dessert.

Summer Pasta

I know it's not really summer yet (especially in terms of produce), but the beautiful weather makes me feel like eating summer foods.

So here's a great summer pasta, using tomatoes, zucchini, and basil (among other things).

INGREDIENTS:
whole wheat pasta
fresh basil
baby tomatoes
onions
garlic
dried oregano
zucchini
olive oil, salt, pepper
fresh mozzarella
parmesan
shrimp

mixing everything together