Creamy Cucumber Salad

I have been obsessed with this salad lately! It's great with just cucumber (typically it has thinly sliced onions in it but D doesn't like that so I just do cukes) or a mix of halved cherry tomatoes and slices or chunks of cucumber - and it's the inspiration for the cuke and chickpea salad I made last week (click here for that post).  I've never been a big cucumber lover but this salad is sort of like creamy pickles so I'm a huge fan.

• 2 cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced (sometimes I leave them in chunks, your call)
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise (or to taste, I don't usually use this much. and sometimes I use half plain greek yogurt and half mayo)
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Mix cucumbers and salt together in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.

Turn cucumbers into a colander set in the sink and let drain, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has drained, about 30 minutes more. Transfer drained cucumbers to a large bowl.

Stir mayo, vinegar, sugar, dill, garlic powder, and pepper together in a bowl until smooth; pour over the cucumbers and stir to coat with the dressing.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours. 

grilled chicken, cucumber salad, and my go-to side of black beans, corn, tomatoes,
and avocado with a little olive oil and southwestern seasoning mix. Yum. 

Caprese Salad with a Twist (tomato, mozzarella, blueberry salad)

This is one of my favorite summer salads, and it's the perfect salad to make this first week of July (very patriotic red, white, and blue!) - just add blueberries to some halved cherry tomatoes and small bites of fresh mozzarella (I found some very small bite-sized balls at the grocery store, if you can't find those you can cut up a larger ball), drizzle with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, season with salt and pepper. A traditional Caprese salad has fresh basil but I didn't have any on hand and we didn't miss it. Yum, love this dish!

Caprese Salad

This is a pretty traditional caprese salad - slices of mozzarella and tomatoes layered with basil, drizzled with balsamic syrup and olive oil, sprinkled with coarse salt. I saw someone stand the slices up in a square dish and liked how that looked - I tried it using a deep dish round pie plate and love the result. I will say the only negative is that the bottom of the layers didn't get much dressing and I thought it was a little dry but everyone else gobbled it up and loved it. Next time I will separate the layers a bit so the oil and vinegar will cover more of the tomatoes. Otherwise this is delicious - perfect summer salad...and it's gorgeous!

oops, forgot to take a picture after
drizzling with oil and vinegar! 

Balsamic syrup is simple to make - put a cup of balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan, turn on medium and let it reduce until it's thick like syrup and there's about 1/3 cup reduced vinegar remaining. I drizzle this on my wedge salad too - it's SO good! Different than plain old balsamic for sure.
















one year ago today: the chocolate peanut butter dessert I made for my sissy's birthday.

Orzo Pasta Salad

I make this simple salad ALL the time and can't believe I haven't posted it before now - maybe cuz it's so simple and easy I just didn't think to tell you...If you are looking for a simple light summer dish give this a try - it might be a new addition to your menu planning.

Not really a recipe - eyeball the amounts and change it however you want! I just boil orzo (it's a small pasta that looks like fat rice) until al dente (that means don't cook it till it's mushy!) and then drain it and rinse under cold water to cool it down. Drain well and put it in a big bowl. For the basic dish I add chopped tomatoes, chopped parsley, crumbled feta, olive oil, a splash of lemon juice or white vinegar, coarse salt, coarse pepper. You can also add garbanzo or small white beans, leftover meat (chicken, steak, pork chop, shrimp...whatever!), sometimes I season with some italian seasoning or add other herbs, you can add chopped arugula or spinach - really, it's good no matter what!

Asparagus Strawberry Salad

This is a simple delish salad that my nieces make - asparagus, strawberries, and poppy seed dressing, it's only 3 ingredients and is the perfect summer salad. 

As usual I don't have amounts, just wing it! Cut up asparagus in bite- sized pieces and blanch for a couple of minutes (you don't want it mushy! It should still be a little crunchy). After it's cool put it in a bowl with some chopped strawberries then mix in poppy seed dressing. That's it and it's really really good - it sounds a little weird I know, but it's good!  Promise :)

Greek Inspired Salad

This is my spin on a Greek salad, it's so good and fresh I want to share it. Simple and delicious.

Ingredients:

• cucumbers
• cherry tomatoes, halved
• avocado, cut into bite-sized pieces
• feta cheese, crumbled
• spinach, roughly chopped
• olive oil, white vinegar, coarse salt and pepper

note: like my exact measurements? It all depends on how big you want to make your salad! I do about equal parts sliced cukes and halved cherry tomatoes.

Peel, remove a bunch of the seeds,and slice a couple cucumbers. I really like to use the little baby ones - you can skip peeling and seeding with those, but this time Dave went to the store for me and bought pickling cucumbers which worked just fine.

Put the veggies in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, splash with vinegar, season to taste. Once again I don't measure, just add how much you want! Add feta and toss.

I've been making this salad often as a side to grilled chicken or steak, it's also really good with grilled tuna or shrimp. A great summer salad.