Lunchtime Summer Salad from my Little Urban Garden

Today's lunch is special because when it was time to eat, I got to go out and pick my first round of Bibb Lettuce from our little city garden!

I washed the greens and added:
2 strawberries,
4 cherries,
1 diced slice of red onion,
s&p,
1/4 avocado and this
AMAZING lavender-infused balsamic vinegar that a friend gifted to me as an early birthday present. I had a little side car of cottage cheese for some protein…Lunch is served! I love summer.

Chocolate (Pumpkin) Donuts

I mean...what kid wouldn't be excited to hear those words come out of mom's mouth? And Mom, you can feel good about it! My 4 year old and I love to make these and they are always a hit. The recipe is an adaptation of a Jessica Seinfeld recipe, just tweaked a bit, a la #fitmamafitwifefitlife 

Makes 12 medium donuts

1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 coconut palm sugar
1/2c milk
1 egg white
1T Vanilla
1T coconut oil

1c AP flour (you can use whole wheat flour but it would need to be WW pastry flour to keep donuts light)
1t cinnamon
1t baking soda
1/2t baking powder
1T unsweetened cocoa powder
(Powdered sugar to make them pretty after baking)

Heat oven to 350*, spray donut mold (mini muffins work too if you don't have the donut pan)

Beat together palm sugar, egg white, pumpkin, milk, oil, vanilla. Add in flour, baking soda & powder, cinnamon & cocoa.

Fill pan and bake about 16 minutes (less for mini muffins)

Can't BEET this simple trick.

I've recently had conversations with a few friends about Beets.  Not totally random, as it is Farmer's Market season, and we share our weekly finds and plans for our market goodies. But I was kind of surprised to hear in both instances, that my friends were shying away from the beautiful red, purple and golden beets of the season for fear of the hassle to prepare them.  Don't let these guys intimidate you!

Here's what I do.

Heat your oven to 425 degrees.

Start with your beets. Get them washed and Cut the ends/greens off (you CAN say the greens! But thats for another day…) No peeling, no seasoning.

Wrap each beet in aluminum foil. I also like to line the sheet pan with an additional piece of foil because chances are the pouches will bubble a bit.

Cook the wrapped beets in the oven for about 45 minutes. Take them out and let them cool completely.

Now the magic happens.

Unwrap your little beet-presents under cool, running water.  Gently rub the skins of the beets under the water and watch them peel away. Its hard to see in the picture of the purple beet, but look at that golden beet!  The peel just comes right off!

You're left with gorgeous produce and CLEAN HANDS with such minimal work!

Now its up to you how you want to prepare you beets. Simple salt seasoning for the most basic enjoyment, but I love to make a nice salad with granny smith apples, fresh mint, and goat cheese crumbles!

Chop the beets on a plastic cutting board.

I add about 2 tablespoons of fresh, chopped mint. 

Season with salt, pepper, and EVOO.

Dice a tart green apple.

Toss it all together. 

Top with goat cheese crumbles and enjoy your seasonal delight!

Other delicious ingredients to try with your beets: Quinoa, Avocado, Walnuts, Balsamic Dressing!

It's #grilleverything season! The simplest Shrimp Tacos EVER.

We are getting into the season that nearly every dinner at our house will be prepared on the grill.  I don't want the oven on. I don't want to be inside more than we have to be. I want yummy food thats simple and healthy!  The grill is the best.

We don't limit our grill to burgers and pork chops either (although we do plenty of that too! Stay tuned for my spicy pork and cherry skewer recipe coming soon!). We do the whole meal on the grill.  Roasted potatoes. Grilled vegetables. Mushroom caps. You Name It. We grill it.

Now we loooove Taco Night at our house and Tacos are a perfect match for the grill.  This recipe for shrimp tacos is seriously the simplest recipe you'll find.  I seasoned some shrimp with my Salt Free Southwest Seasoning (that I keep in the pantry at all times), a couple twists of sea salt (I try to keep the salt separate when seasoning to know just how much I'm adding), and…thats it. (I did spray them with some light cooking oil so they wouldn't stick to the grill.)

I also cut up a red onion and green pepper, added a pinch of the same southwest seasoning and 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil. A quick toss and put the veggies in a foil pouch to steam on the grill.

Finally I sprayed a few corn tortillas with cooking spray, and those went on the grill as well.

Top these bad boys off with whatever taco dressings you love. We are partial to avocados, salsa, plain greek yogurt, and when we can, fresh cilantro straight from the garden. Ahhhhh…. Summer, I love you.