Sesame Cucumber Salad

Everyone in our family loves cucumbers.  Our favorite way to have cucumbers is marinated in apple cider vinegar.  I wanted to find a new and easy way to prepare cucumbers and came across this recipe for Sesame Cucumber Salad.  It is from the Carolina Country magazine that my mom gets every month.  

This is now one of our favorite ways to eat cucumbers.  The flavors are well-balanced and they are almost like potato chips, where you can not eat just one.

Sesame Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

1-2 Large cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 Tsp salt
1 Garlic clove, minced
2-3 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil (or sesame oil)
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1/8 Tsp cayenne pepper

Place cucumbers in a colander.  Set in the sink and sprinkle with salt, toss.  Let stand for 30 minutes.  Rinse and drain well.

In a bowl combine garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, oil, sesame seeds and cayenne.  

Add cucumbers to a bowl and toss with dressing to coat.  

Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

* Another great ingredient to add would be green onions, sliced.  I did not have any on hand or I would have added them.

Cucumbers in Vinegar

This may seem kind of weird to post about something so simple like cucumbers and vinegar, but I think it gets forgotten sometimes.

You may say "this is not a healthy side dish". Well let me tell you about the health benefits of apple cider vinegar.  Studies have shown that apple cider vinegar can lower blood glucose levels, cholesterol, blood pressure and may slow the growth of cancer cells.  Who knew, right?

My kids really love cucumbers with apple cider vinegar and yours may too.

Cucumbers in Vinegar

Ingredients:

1-2 Large cucumbers (depending on your family size), peeled (optional) and chopped

Enough apple cider vinegar to almost cover the cucumbers

Fresh ground pepper according to taste

Salt (optional)
1-2 Tbsp water (optional - it will reduce the strong flavor of the vinegar)

Mix all ingredients together and serve.  You may also put in the refrigerator to let the flavors marinate until you are ready to serve.

* My mom said that adding fresh tomatoes and onions is also a great twist to this classic.

Okra Black-Eye Pea Saute

This is the first year that we have planted okra in our garden.  It has taken much longer than the other vegetables, but we finally have some okra.

Both my kids (and myself) prefer okra, battered and fried.  I wanted to find a recipe that I could use that was not fried and I found this incredible recipe for Okra Black-Eye Pea Saute on Food Network.  

I did make some minor changes to the original recipe to suit my family, like deleting the chili peppers and adding fresh chopped tomato at the end instead of oven roasted tomatoes.  Both my kids prefer uncooked fresh tomatoes instead of cooked.

This was a great recipe that we would definitely make again.

Parmesan Kale Chips

Kale Chips are one of our family favorites.  I usually serve these with just a touch of sea salt, but this time I thought I would add parmesan cheese.  These Parmesan Kale Chips are just amazing.  What a inexpensive healthy way to get kids to eat their vegetables.

Parmesan Kale Chips

Ingredients:

1 lb or more of Kale, cut away from the stem in pieces (try to get them about the same size so they cook evenly)

Olive oil, I spray several sprays with the olive oil pump

Dash of sea salt (optional)

1/4 Cup parmesan cheese

Preheat oven 350°.

Combine kale, olive oil, and a very small amount of salt (optional).  Kale seems to absorb the salt so be careful not to over salt.

Place on a baking sheet spreading evenly not layering if possible.  Top with parmesan cheese.

Bake for about 15 mins.  You want them to be crispy and dark green, but not brown.  If the ends become brown take them out right away.

Grilled Vegetable Medley Foil Packets

Summertime is a bounty full of fresh and mouth-watering vegetables.  My husband and I created these grilled vegetable medley packets for dinner on Sunday night.  We thought the kids would enjoy it because it was like opening a present.  They had no idea what was inside.

The vegetables we chose for the packets were not our kids favorites, but they did decide to give them a second try because of how they were presented.

Grilled Vegetable Medley Foil Packets

Ingredients:

3-4 Ears of corn, cut into 3 inch chunks

1-2 Zucchini, cut into chunks

1-2 Yellow squash, cut into chunkc

1 Purple onion, diced or sliced

1 Green, red, yellow, or orange pepper, diced or chunks

Any other vegetables you would like to add, eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms...

1-2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tsp salt

1/2 Tsp pepper

2-3 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped

1-2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

1 sprig of rosemary, pulled away from sprig

2 Tbsp butter

Combine all the ingredients except for the butter in a large bowl.  

Spray each individual piece of foil with cooking spray.  Add vegetable to foil and place a small amount of butter on top of each mound of vegetables.  

Fold the foil around the vegetables and seal tight.  If you are not using heavy duty aluminum foil you can double the foil and then wrap the vegetables.

Place on grill about 20 mins.  You may want to turn it once so the vegetables do not burn to the bottom.

Please use caution when opening these packets to allow the steam to escape.
 

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

If you saw the post before this one you know I have an enormous amount of zucchini.  Since my kids are not to fond of the texture of zucchini I went in search of a great recipe to hide it.


I came across this awesome recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Muffins and had to give it a try.  WOW!  These zucchini muffins, or you could call them cupcakes, were so spectacular.  


Here is the original recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Muffins.  The only changes I made were to use whole wheat flour instead of pastry flour and buttermilk in place of non-dairy milk.


Let me know what you think.

Zucchini

Super Size Zucchini

Check out this huge zucchini we found in our garden yesterday.  I can not get over how large it is and that even after looking over our garden everyday we missed it.


Last night I grilled and fried some zucchini and only used about a quarter of it. Besides zucchini bread I now need to find some additional recipes to incorporate zucchini.  My kids do not like zucchini or squash so it becomes difficult trying to find ways to cook it that they may not notice.


If you have any great zucchini recipes you can share please feel free to do so in the comments section.