Summer filled with fruits and veggies – my favorite time of year

I've been remiss about getting my post up the past couple weeks not because I haven't been cooking mind you because we've been keeping it simple lately.

I have a love-hate relationship with summer. I love the long days, the warmth, the smell of lilacs and freshly cut grass. I love getting up early on Sunday morning and heading off to the local farmer's market to see what's fresh and in season. On the flip side, we seem to have too much to do and too many places to go once the weekend comes. And by the time we have a "free" weekend it's the 4^th of July, which in Minnesota means the summer is half over. So as I said love-hate.

One of the things we've been eating a lot of lately is salad. In the before I was a vegetarian days, there would be a brat or a piece of chicken to go with that salad. There are some great vegetarian sausages out there and we really like the Field Roast brand I recommend you give them a try; especially the Italian version.  But lately I've been getting my protein from legumes and quinoa – great sources.

Last week I made a quinoa salad that really hit the spot and then because I could, I made a watermelon salad too.

For the quinoa salad I started with ¾ cup of quinoa and cooked it in vegetable broth according to the package directions. While the quinoa was cooking I chopped a shallot, some cucumber, 1 carrot, a handful of cherry tomatoes, ½ red and ½ orange pepper and put them in a bowl. To that I added ½ of a can of black beans and an avocado (cubed). When the quinoa was cooked and cooled I added it to the veggie mixture and topped it with a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper –poof salad.

As I said I made this watermelon salad too.

Chop watermelon into cubes (approx. 4 cups). In a measuring cup juice 1 lime and add a few shakes of cayenne pepper and a few shakes of salt, mix and then pour over watermelon. The mint in our garden is in full bloom so I picked about 10 leaves, washed, dried and sliced into thin strips and sprinkled on top – poof another salad. If you want to add a bit of feta to this salad eliminate the salt and crumble the feta on top.

If your garden is beginning to produce spinach and other greens (like mine is) a simple salad of greens, thinly sliced shallots or red onion and strawberries topped with a balsamic vinaigrette is always a good choice. And speaking of gardens I'm heading out water mine and pick some more spinach, arugula and leaf lettuce – as I said it's salad season at our house.

Have a good day!