Let me introduce you to okra

How many of you eat okra and have it in your families vegetable rotation?  Okra is a vegetable that I throw into stews and turkey/chicken noodle soup.  It is delicious in all of these and this time I decided to branch out  and stirfry it with some aspargaus.  We had some AMAZING aspargaus in the fridge from my parents garden, HUGE difference in freshness than store bought but there wasn't a lot so I paired it with some okra and it was a great combination.

The okra was frozen when I added it to the pan and it took both vegetables the same amount of time to cook.  I used olive oil in the pan with some Mrs. Dash seasoning and cooked until veggies were tender.  One thing you should now about okra is that it produces a little slime as it cooks.  You will see what I mean once you try this recipe.

ENJOY!!

ruhbarb pie

You know it is the beginning of summer when you can start eating out off the gardens slowly.  Right now ruhbarb is at its prime and thanks to Isaac for picking one of our entire plants we have been eating lots of ruhbarb.  This pie is super fast and very good.  I did a little bit of cheating and bought a store bought crust for the bottom, where all I had to do was roll it out.
The filling is about three cups of ruhbarb, 2 cups of sliced strawberries, sugar and cornstarch
The top  is 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 cup flour and 1 stick of butter
I baked at 375 until the crust was a nice golden brown.  That's it.  It was so good.

without the top

top

after it was baked

croutons

I was looking for a way to spruce up our grilled chicken salads the other night and  then it dawned on me croutons would be great.  Checked the cupboard and nope we didn't have any.  It is not usually something I keep on hand.  Then the real light bulb went off...I could make some out of the old sourdough bread that was drying out anyways.  So glad that light bulb went on.

This is what I did: cut the bread into cube pieces and placed on some foil.  Drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper, basil,oregano, and parsley.  Bake at 425 degrees until golden brown and crunchy about 10 minutes.

If you are looking to dress up your summer salads this is a fast, easy way!

bread cubed with olive oil

spices

crunchy and baked

on top of my grilled chicken salad

Grilled Chicken pitas

I LOVE chicken tacos, I think I could eat them everyday.  So I decided to change it up slightly for the Mister and make chicken pitas.  Slightly different vegetable mix and I must say much for filling.  We both could only eat one.  You can fit a lot in one pita bread!!
This is what I did:
Grilled two chicken breasts on the grill marinated in some garlic and herb sauce
In a saucepan I put some bok choy, onion, celery and mixed colored peppers all chopped.  Saute until the veggies are almost done.  I also added some Mrs. Dash seasoning, choose your favorite.
Chop the chicken and heat through

When you are ready to eat heat your pita bread slightly in the microwave.  We first added mashed avocado, then chicken mixture and topped with baby spinach.  This was delicious and a great meal for a summer evening.  I don't even think we ate this with a side, it was a meal all in itself.

chicken and veggie mixture all cooked in olive oil and ready for the pita bread

layer of avocado, chicken mixture and fresh baby spinach.  Fold and enjoy!

kale/asparagus salad

A slight twist on the normal italian dressing noodle salad.

1/2 box of elbow noodles or any kind really.  It is just what I had in the cupboard.
5 sliced mushrooms
6 stalks of asparagus cut in about 4 pieces
a handful of kale
about 1/2 cooked green peas.
1/2 cucumber peeled and chopped
Mix together and then add enough Italian dressing to cover and to taste.  That's it.  No cooking the vegetables...they all taste delicious in this dressing with the noodles.

Avocado cabbage

I am not a huge fan of avocado, but I know it has a lot of health benefits and I want to try to incorporate it more into meals.  I found this awesome recipe to combine it with cabbage and use it instead of lettuce on burgers, pitas, or instead of slaw on sandwiches.  It is delicious, and I am liking the taste of avocado more and more since starting to make this.
Recipe:
a couple of cups of thinly sliced cabbage (or you could buy it shredded already in the bag)
1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 mashed avocado

Like I said you can use this in place of lettuce or in addition to any burger or sandwich.  Just this week I have made it twice already and we used it on top of turkey burgers, and on top of sloppy joes as a slaw.  It was great.

avocado slaw

This was my sloppy joe...got a lot sloppier with the slaw but well worth it.

Quick Summer snack

This is super easy, super yummy and so quick.  This week we had a couple pretty warm afternoons ( I am not complaining) but with the heat it made me want summer snacks.
In about 5 min. I whipped up this delicious frozen fruit treat.

1 cup of greek vanilla yogurt
frozen mixed fruit ( I used strawberries, pineapple, blueberries and mango)
dip frozen fruit in yogurt, set on wax paper and freeze until yogurt is hard.  what a quick snack to grab out of the freezer to help cool off.  Healthy too.