In A Pickle: Cucumber Salad

     With garden season over, all we had left were a few cucumbers hanging around the kitchen.  I needed a side dish one night so I pulled out a cucumber salad recipe.  I had found it in a low carb cookbook no idea what one since I photocopied it eons ago.  I used apple cider vinegar.  It was an easy put together and a hit with the home crowd!

Dilly Cucumber Salad

2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup white vinegar
salt to taste
coarsely ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped

Place the cucumber slices in a large bowl. Add the vinegar, salt, pepper, and dill and mix well. Serve immediately or store covered in the refrigerator. 

Wok Around The Clock

Pork fried rice is nice. 

    It's 4:30. Do you know what your dinner is?  Yeah, me neither.  I was going to put a nice roast  in the oven at 3:00 p.m. for that cozy Sunday meal.  Well I got a little too cozy and ended up taking a little snooze. Then dinner time was fast approaching.  What to do?  Don't panic.  Don't call for pizza yet.  I can stir something up. Yes that's it; a stir fry night is just the solution.

I had made a pork roast with sweet potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts two days before so there was meat leftover. We had eaten a second meal of "reruns" already.  Now it was time to transform what was left.

   I pulled out my cook book and found a recipe for pork fried rice.  My friend's daughter has been craving this dish lately so it would be nice to learn to make it at home.  I didn't follow it exactly.  It called for bean sprouts and green onions .  I used leftover peas, green beans and cut up Brussels sprouts.  I was hoping to make the sprouts more popular in this disguised format.

   I had quick brown rice that I had stocked in the camper.  I started that cooking first.  Meanwhile, I trimmed pork from the bone and diced the vegetables.  When the rice was almost done, I threw the veggies in to warm and tossed the eggs in following the recipe.

   What are your favorite meals in a hurry?

Pork Fried Rice from: Betty Crocker Cookbook

1 cup bean sprouts
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms
3 cups cooked long-grain rice
1 cup cut-up cooked pork
2 medium green onions, sliced
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Dash of white pepper

Rinse beans sprouts and drain. Cook mushrooms in oil 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add sprouts, rice, pork and onions. Cook over medium heat 5 minutes, stirring and breaking up rice until hot. Move rice mixture to side of skillet. Cook eggs in oil over medium heat, stirring constantly, until eggs are thickened. Stir eggs into rice mixture. Stir in soy sauce and white pepper.

Take A Dip

Dill Dip is going on the road

   As the summer winds down, it is time to start thinking about school lunches. I am not a big fan of cold cuts.   I prefer the cost and nutrition of natural peanut butter.  My children love my dill dip and vegetables.  It is a great appetizer for guests and parties.  Now it is going to make it's way into the school lunch box.  The children can choose their favorite vegetable and have a cup of dip to go with it.  The little Gladware containers are inexpensive and make it easier for me to send items without wasteful packing.

    Dipping is a fun way to eat your vegetables. It is also a great way to get a little dairy into the diet.  Plain yogurt is a staple at our house.  With no sweetener it can be used on baked potatoes, in cream sauces or in fruit smoothies.  This recipe is one I made up so I will try to be accurate.  What is your favorite healthy item to pack for lunch?

Dill Dip

1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup Vegenaise (or Olive Oil mayonnaise)
1/2 capfull dried dill (approx one teaspoon)
1 clove garlic, pressed

Stir everything up and chill.  It tastes great the next day and can be thinned for a creamy salad dressing.  Serve with your favorite chopped, raw vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, carrots and celery.

Easter Eggplant

    There's a joke in my house.  Every time I buy an eggplant, my husband says, "How long before I throw this one in the garbage?"  A few years back I got into the habit of buying eggplants and never getting around to cooking them.  In fact, I did that with a lot of food.  Now I try to cook around what I have, not what I am in the mood for that day. So, naturally he was skeptical when I bought two eggplants this week.  I am happy to report that the latest eggplants did not rot in vain and actually make it to the dinner table in a delicious dish I will add to our recipe binder. This recipe does take awhile, but it produced a big batch.  I was tempted to skip the extra step of letting the eggplant sit, but as soon as I salted it, my neighbor pulled up to deliver eggs.  She has her own chickens and her eggs are the best. By the time we were done chatting I only had 15 minutes left on the eggplant prep and I still had to prep the other ingredients. The timing worked out perfectly.  Next time I will have to freeze some so I have it on hand.  We just ate it for lunches and never tucked away any in the freezer.

Ratatouille
from: Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Cookbook
I modified the recipe to what I had on hand.

2 eggplants
2 zucchini
2 green peppers- I used 1
2 red peppers- I threw in some canned red peppers at the end instead
4 onions- I think I used 1
6 tomatoes- I substituted 1 can Muir Glen Fire Roasted tomatoes, including liquid
6 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1/4 cup fresh basil- I used dried
1/4 cup fresh dill- I used dried
3 1/2 tsp sea salt
black pepper

Peel and cube eggplant. Toss with 2 tsp salt and cover for one hour.  Transfer to colander and rinse well. Pat dry.  This reduces the bitterness in eggplant. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  *Saute eggplant and vegetables in batches. Toss the herbs, garlic, sea salt and pepper into remaining liquid and cook until fragrant. Coat a roasting pan with olive oil.  Bake uncovered for an hour.  Serve over brown rice or as is.
* I skipped the sauteing of vegetables and spices and went straight to putting the vegetables and spices together to roast in the oven.  Afterwards, I added some roasted red peppers.  It was delicious.