Tomato-Basil Couscous Salad

(I still don't have a camera, so this was taken with Addison's Fisher Price camera - not great quality, but a great kid camera. It is totally indestructible!)

At Steph W's request...

I love this recipe. It is so easy and yummy. It's from the South Beach Diet Book.

3/4 cup cooked couscous

1 tomato chopped

1/3 cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 scallions, chopped

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

Lettuce (I usually use chopped red leaf, but I only had a bag of spring mix when I made this.)

Combine the couscous, tomato, chickpeas, scallions, oil, lemon juice, and basil in a bowl.

Toss, and serve on a bed of lettuce.

Orzo Spinach Salad

Okay, Okay. Finally a theme I have a recipe for!! Now you can stop fussing at me Steph.

This salad recipe I TOTALLY stole from Steph and I think she got it from the real Lunch Bunch but here it is anyway. It is my favorite!

Boil Orzo pasta according to directions on bag. How much you use depends on how much pasta you want in the salad. For a normal sized bag of Baby Organic Spinach I boil 1/2 of a cup. While that is boiling add some sundried tomatoes (again, the amount depends on your taste) with their oil and garlic to a skillet and let simmer a bit. Once the pasta is done drain and rinse it, add it to the spinach along with the tomatoes and garlic and toss. DE-LISH!!

Grilled Zucchini Greek Salad

Here's another way to use all of that zucchini you Utah cooks are growing!

I love to grill in the summer because, as I mentioned before, I don't have to turn on my oven. Unfortunately, my grill is still in Utah, so when I make this salad (taken from one of my favorite recipe blogs - Kalyn's Kitchen) I have to just saute the zucchini. Instead of brushing the zucchini with the Italian dressing and olive oil, I saute the zucchini in it and then don't add much when I'm tossing the salad because the zucchini retain a lot of the oil. I couldn't ever find the Greek seasoning, so I just looked up what was in Greek seasoning and made my own little mix. I left out the beef bouillon and it was great. I'm sure you can find the real stuff... I didn't look that hard.

GRILLED ZUCCHINI GREEK SALAD(for each serving)

1 zucchini about 10 inches long

2 medium summer tomatoes, any type of salad tomato

1/4 cup Kalamara olives (pitted olives are nice in this)

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (or less)

olive oil, to brush on zucchini

1 tsp. Greek seasoning (Cavender's Greek seasoning)

1/4 cup Italian dressing (for brushing zucchini, leaving 2 T Italian dressing for salad)

I like Newman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar dressing)

fresh ground black pepper to taste

Turn on grill to heat. Cut tomatoes into large chunks and put in colander. Sprinkle with salt and let tomatoes drain while the zucchini cooks. Cut ends off zucchini and cut into quarters lengthwise. Cut away the white inside from each zucchini piece so you have the green skin with about 3/8 inch of white on it.Brush both sides of zucchini with olive oil and sprinkle white side with Greek Seasoning. Place white side down on medium hot grill and cook about 5 minutes, or until starting to brown and barely starting to soften. Turn zucchini over, brush with Italian dressing, and cook about 3 minutes more. Zucchini should still be slightly firm. Cut zucchini strips into pieces about 1 inch wide.Put zucchini and drained tomatoes in salad bowl. Pour 2 T salad dressing over (or less, you don't need much because the zucchini is already very flavorful). Top with Kalamata olives and crumbled feta.

Serve this with Erin's (or Schuyler's) bread and it sounds like a perfect summer dinner!

July's Recipe Theme

After talking to Stephanie W. and Erin, and having to take so many salads to so many barbecues and summer picnics, I decided to have this month's theme be dinner salads - salads you can serve as a meal (if your family doesn't object to having salad as a meal!). I love when I can make dinner without ever having to turn on the stove or oven when it is so hot outside...(don't let that discourage you from adding a salad that has some cooking involved though...).

...Looking Ahead...

August: Cooking with kids.