Brussels sprouts tend to be one of those polarizing foods. People either love it or hate. I am on team Brussel sprouts and I’m on a mission to get everyone to join the team. 
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side dish
Spiralized Greek Salad
Last week Adam and I headed to Millennium park to hear the Grant Park Orchestra play Mozart’s Mass in C minor. You might not know, but I actually have a degree in music and while I don’t do much with it at this point in my life, I still love listening to performances.
This concert in the park was a lot like Ravinia. Free for the lawn seats and you can bring a picnic and chairs and set up camp while listening to some good music. You can pay to sit in the bowl of the park, but why pay when you can still hear the performance AND eat. Food and music. My two loves. And Adam, of course.
So I knew I needed to come up with some simple and easily transportable food for dinner. I tried out these bean burgers from Minimalist Baker and they were phenomenal. I had mine wrapped in butter lettuce and got a few buns for my bread-loving husband. I also came up with this simple Greek salad but added a little twist by spiralizing the cucumbers. The dressing is equally as simple and it also works great as a marinade (more on that in a later post….)
Whether you have a concert in the park or a summer party to attend, this is a great dish to bring along. If you have time, make it the night before so the dressing can really soak into the salad. This is one of those dishes that taste better over time.
Spiralized Greek Salad 
- 1 large cucumber
- 8 oz of cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cup red onion, diced
- 2/3 cup Kalamata olives, sliced
- 1 green pepper, sliced thinly
For the dressing:
- 1 tsp dried minced garlic
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp spicy mustard
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- Whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
- Rinse and dry the cucumber and then spiralize. If you don’t have a spiralizer, you can also slice the cucumber however you would like. Once you spiralize the cucumber cut up the noodles a little so they are easier to manage. Place into a large bowl.
- Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and then add the rest of the vegetables to the cucumber. Stir to combine everything.
- Quickly stir the dressing again and then pour about half of it over the salad. Stir everything so all the vegetables are coated and then cover and store in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. You can add more dressing before eating if needed.
I know I have been giving you a lot of simple recipes lately and A LOT of recipes that don’t require a heat source. It’s summer. It’s hot and ridiculously humid. And honestly, I’m struggling to come up with a ton of super creative meals lately. I know I’ll get my creative juices flowing again soon, but for now I’m just going to share the few things I have going on in my kitchen right now. Thanks for sticking around and enjoy!
Asian-Style Green Beans
Are Chinese buffets still a big thing? I haven’t been to one in many years, but for a while when I was younger my family and I would go often. It was just easier because everyone could get what they wanted and it was good for my notoriously picky sister because there were always a few things like pizza and chicken nuggets. Which of course are Chinese. 
One of my favorite things at the buffet were the green beans. They were crispy, crunchy, green, sweet, and salty. They had those huge granules of salt and garlic and they balanced so well with the other flavors. I would always get numerous helpings and could have easily made a meal of them.
Of course, they were probably SUPER high in sodium and flavorings that might not have been the best but when compared to the other offerings at the buffet (I’m looking at you General Tso’s chicken and crab rangoon) they were a pretty good choice. The other day I had a hankering for those green beans and decided to make my own healthier version and I’m pleased to say I think I got pretty close!
Fresh green beans are making their way back into grocery stores so you should be able to find them pretty easily. But if you can’t don’t worry, you can use frozen green beans too. Give these green beans a try at your next meal and I guarantee your family will polish them off. At least, my husband did….
Asian-Style Green Beans
- 2 cups fresh green beans, ends trimmed (if using frozen make sure to thaw them first)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp dried onion flakes
- 1 tsp powdered ginger
- 1 to 2 tsp coarse sea salt (if you don’t have coarse that’s fine just adjust the amount so it’s not too salty)
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos (you can use soy sauce or liquid aminos too)
- Heat a little oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the minced garlic and swirl everything around the pan a few times.
- Add the green beans to the pan and then add the onion flakes, ginger, and salt. Stir so everything is mixed together. Saute for 5 minutes.
- Pour the coconut aminos over the green beans, stir everything together, and cover. Lower the heat to low and cook for another 2 minutes.
The Last Summer Pasta Salad
Summer
is having its last hurrah. Half of this week has been ridiculously hot and humid. I’m talking two showers-a-day hot and humid. But that humidity finally broke a few days ago and now you can feel a touch of fall in the air.
While I absolutely love fall, I’m not quite ready to give up my summer just yet. My farmer’s market still has plenty of end of the summer vegetables like corn and tomatoes and there are still a few 80 degree days in the forecast. Warm days like that beg for a meal that doesn’t require you to turn on the oven. 
I came up with this pasta salad last Sunday when even thinking about turning on the oven made me sweat, and I was already sweating buckets. This meal comes together fast and tastes amazing served up cold. It also packs in a lot of vegetables and herbs and can be customized to whatever produce you have lying around.
So if you’re like me and aren’t ready to say goodbye to summer, whip up this salad and enjoy these last few days.
The Last Summer Pasta Salad with Herb Sauce
- 2 cups cooked pasta, I used brown rice rotini
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 2 ears of corn, kernels removed (you can also use frozen kernels, thawed)
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
- 1 cup bell peppers, I used a mix of yellow, green, and red
- 1 cup zucchini, diced
- 1/2 cup onion, diced
- 3-4 cloves garlic minced
Herb Sauce
- 1 small bunch of basil leaves, about 1/2 cup tightly packed
- 1 small bunch of cilantro
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/3 cup full-fat coconut milk
- juice of half a lime
- salt and pepper to taste
- Combine all sauce ingredients in a blender and set aside.
- Heat a little olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the onions until softened and then add in the peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and corn. Cook until the edges are slightly brown. Add in the garlic at the very end and saute for one more minute.
- Remove the vegetables from heat and let them cool. In a large bowl combine the pasta and quinoa and the cooled vegetables. Mix everything well.
- Pour the herb sauce over everything and stir to combine so everything is coated. Taste and adjust the seasonings. You can serve it right away or put it in the fridge to cool completely.
Quinoa Cornbread Bites
I’m not much of a baker. I like to play around with ingredients and I’m not one for using exact measurements when I’m cooking. Baking needs exact measurements or more often than not you end up with inedible hockey pucks. Trust me. I know. I had some leftover quinoa and wanted to do something out of the ordinary with it. I knew it did well in bread like dishes and I just happened to be making sloppy joes for dinner that night. So obviously I had to turn my quinoa into cornbread. Yes, that is a logical progression. At least in my mind. These bites come together quickly and freeze rather nicely, so you can make a bunch and not worry about them going bad. That is if you have any left over!
Quinoa Cornbread Bites
- 1 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
- 1 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1 1/2 tbsp flax meal (you can buy the seeds in bulk which is cheaper and then grind them in a food processor at home)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2-3 tbsp molasses, depending on how sweet you want it
- 1/2 tsp salt
1. Preheat oven to 375 and mix almond milk and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl and set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together.
3. Add 1/2 cup of the cooked quinoa to the milk and ACV as well as the 2-3 tbsp molasses. If you have an immersion blender, blend this mixture until it is smooth and creamy. If you don’t have an immersion blender, transfer to a blender or food processor.
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir everything together. It will foam up a little bit due to the vinegar and baking soda, but it will go back down. Fold in the rest of the quinoa.
5. Spray a little olive oil into a mini muffin tin and spoon about a tbsp of the mixture into each cup. Don’t over fill because the bites will rise as they cook. Bake for 10-12 minutes and then let them cool on a wire rack.
These go really well with sloppy joes or chili. I’m sure they would taste really good with some homemade jam or as my mom told me, “These are just another vehicle to get butter into my mouth.” Now you know where I get my clever wit! Eat up and hope you enjoy!
Life Healthfully Lived 