Tomato - Brandywine / Tomato and Cucumber Salad

I've been eating home grown brandywine tomatoes my whole life. They are a wonderful flavor packed heirloom tomato. With a beautiful pink blush, they have a perfect balance of sweet and acidic.  Large and meaty, they are great for slicing and chopping.

Brandywine tomato

One of my favorite things to make with tomatoes is cucumber and tomato salad. I often make it with tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet onions, basil, red wine vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper. 

The salad pictured below is made of one brandywine tomato, a few cherry tomatoes, five small pickling cucumbers, a splash of olive oil, a tablespoon chopped basil, salt, and freshly ground pepper. The tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil were fresh from the garden. In this particular version left out the vinegar and onions, so as to fully savor the pure freshness of the tomatoes and cucumbers. It was fantastic.

If you are dressing a salad like this a good base ratio of vinger to oil is 2:1.  And if you can, use olive oil. 

Cucumber Tomato Salad

Last night I had this salad served alongside quinoa topped with steamed kale with a honey mustard dressing.  My family also grilled shrimp that had been marinated in a margarita marinade (made with tequila, triple sec, lime, garlic, salt, pepper and oil I believe). The shrimp is not vegetarian, but I know not all of my readers are vegetarian either, so I figured I would mention it. 

Yummy Lunch - Quinoa and Steamed Kale Salad

I just had an absolutely delicious lunch. I wish I took a picture, but I was too hungry and excited to eat it to bother...I guess that just means I'll have even more reason to make it again.

Anyways, here's what I had: quinoa topped with steamed kale, blanched green beans, fresh cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh basil, and honey mustard dressing. The kale, green beans, tomatoes, cucumber and basil all came from my garden.

UPDATE: Here's a photo of the salad when I made it again. Instead of using cherry tomatoes I used a small Black Krim tomato. Also, you can't really see the quinoa in the photo, but it's there. I used about 3/4 of a cup of quinoa in this salad, but everything else is piled high on top.
One more thing, I ate this as a full meal. The picture is of one serving. It really does have a lot of body to it because quinoa is such a great source of protein and other good stuff. But it also would work well as a side dish.
Hope you enjoy!

Tomato - Black Krim

Here's a picture of a variety of tomato that we're growing for the first time. It's called a black krim. This summer we're growing five varieties of tomatoes.

It was sweet and very low acid... Absolutely delicious.

Here's a picture of the cucumber, tomato, and basil salad I make (chop them up and add a little bit of olive oil and red wine vinegar 1:2), made using black krim tomatoes and pickling cucumbers. These tomatoes have a beautiful dark inside.

Ginger Lime Salad Dressing

I absolutely love ginger. It's so fresh and spicy tasting, and it goes well in so many things, from stir fry, to pumpkin muffins (yes they are vegan and yes I will post a recipe soon), to candied ginger, or ginger beer (dark and stormys anyone?).

Sometimes I'll even munch on it raw.

So when my mom made a ginger salad dressing the other night, I almost melted. 

My mom is truly a salad dressing master. People always say she's wicked talented at this that or the other thing, and I agree wholeheartedly, but I think one of her greatest talents is making salad dressings. And this new ginger one was so fresh, spicy, sweet, and tangy all at the same time. So, if you like ginger, try it out and you'll see what I mean. 

Ginger Lime Salad Dressing

1 large clove of garlic

1/4 tsp salt

piece of ginger - grated and squeezed out juice = 1Tbl

3 Tbl lime juice

2 tsp agave nectar (if you don't know what this is, it kind of tastes like honey)

ground pepper

3 Tbl olive oil

mash garlic with salt. added everything else except oil. mix. add oil slowly while mixing. 

FYI: there are also a bunch of health benefits to eating ginger. I'll post about them soon.

I Like to Take Pictures of My Food

portabella mushroom burger (marinated, grilled and topped with fresh basil and tomato) on a whole wheat bun, with cucumber salad and corn

lettuce, kale, spinach, tomato, cucumber, onion, red cabbage, and blanched sugar snap peas, with a lemon mint dressing

portobello mushroom, pepper, and onion fajitas topped with guacamole and salsa

Awesome Granola Without Whey or Any of That Other Non-Vegan Stuff

Granola is mind blowingly delicious. It is one of those foods like trail mix that just about everybody loves. It's sweet, crunchy, and packed with a million yummy flavors. It's great as a filling snack while hiking or as an addition on breakfast cereal.

It may be high in calories (all those nuts, dried fruits, and sugar), but other than that it's great, right?

I think so.

But when it comes to buying granola as a vegan, there is one fundamental problem: the majority of granolas sold in stores aren't actually vegan. I'm not quite sure why, but for some reason most store granolas have whey powder added into them. Maybe it's in an attempt to add a cheap source of protein so they can buff up their nutrition facts label, but honestly I don't see why they would need to do so when so many granolas are made with nuts (a great source of protein).

Whatever the reasoning behind this is, whey is a milk product and therefore not vegan. So it's unnecessary addition into granola really limits our choices.

Fortunately, with a few yummy ingredients and only a little bit of time, it's wicked easy to make homemade granola without any dairy. If you haven't ever made your own granola, or would like to try a new version, here's my recipe:

Awesome Granola Without Whey or Any of That Other Non-Vegan Stuff
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup sliced almonds (or 1/2 cup whole)
1/2 chopped walnuts (I don't chop them much, just a little)
1/4 cup flax seed (I often grind them up - ground, they are really good for digestion)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce (I use unsweetened)
2 Tbl agave nectar (you could also use maple syrup or honey)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
5 cups old fashioned rolled oats, uncooked
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine all ingredients except the cranberries and raisins. Spread onto baking sheet (you might need to use two). Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges are getting lightly toasted. Then mix it around on the sheet and bake for another 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and add cranberries and raisins. 

Note: It's sweet, but not super sweet, so if you like sugar a lot, just add more. Also, like all the recipes I post (except for baked things like muffins or cookies) the proportions in the recipe are very flexible. If you don't have an ingredient, or don't like one, then leave it out or replace it.