I am on the countdown- 6 more days of students and 1 teacher workday!!! I LOVE summer! I especially love all of the fresh fruits and vegetables! Here is a great slaw recipe if you are tired of traditional slaw. It is sweet and crunchy, a favorite combination of mine! Enjoy :)
Strawberry Apple Slaw
Ingredients:
3 Cups Cabbage, shredded
1 Red Bell Pepper, thinly chopped
1 Apple, thinly chopped
8 to 10 Large Strawberries, chopped
1/4 Cup Red Onion, finely diced
3/8 Cup Vinegar & Oil Fruit Based Salad Dressing (E.g. raspberry vinaigrette, strawberry balsamic, etc.)
1/8 Cup Honey
Juice of 1/2 a Lime
1/2 Cup LaChoy Rice Noodles (the crunchy, salad topping kind)
In a large bowl, mix together cabbage, pepper, apple, strawberries, and onion. In a separate bowl, mix together salad dressing, honey and juice of 1/2 a lime. Pour over salad and mix gently. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve. Immediately before serving mix in the LaChoy rice noodles. Serves 6 to 8.
Cauliflower and cabbage are not my favorite veggies. I love cole slaw and I love fried cauliflower, but beyond that they're just okay. My family feels the same way. We had a whole bunch of frozen cauliflower and cabbage that we needed to use up. This dish was a huge hit for everyone. Celia even had thirds! So now I have a third way to serve these veggies that everyone loves.
Au Gratin Cauliflower & Cabbage
Ingredients:
4 to 5 Cups of Cooked Cabbage, Chopped
1 to 2 Cups of Cooked Cauliflower, Chopped
1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Milk
1/4 Tsp Dill Weed
1/2 Tsp Onion Powder
1/4 Tsp Salt
Large Squirt of Mustard
1/2 Cup Shredded Parmesan or Roman Cheese
2/3 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1/3 Cup Bread Crumbs
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put cabbage and cauliflower in a large baking dish or bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together mayo, egg, milk, dill, onion powder, salt, mustard and parmesan cheese. Pour over cabbage and cauliflower and mix.
2. Bake for 20 minutes. Spread cheddar cheese and bread crumbs over top. Broil for 5 to 7 minutes until cheese has melted and bread crumbs have browned.
Now that Spring is in full swing and Summer is right around the corner (hallelujah!) fresh fruits and veggies are popping up everywhere. We have the cutest little vegetable stand right down the street from us and everytime I go there, I buy just a little too much! It all looks so good and the prices are very reasonable. We're also attempting to grow our own fruits and veggies this year. I'll keep you updated on how it's going. So now I'm motivated to create some new vegetable recipes. Here's the first for the season- Italian Style Cabbage.
Italian Style Cabbage
Ingredients:
1 Head of Cabbabge
3/4 Cup Spaghetti Sauce
2 TBSP Grated Parmesan or Romano Cheese
Olive oil
1. Wash and chop cabbage into small strips.
2. Pour a thin layer of olive oil into the bottom of a large frying pan. Toss cabbage into pan. Start frying. Stir while frying so cabbage doesn't stick to bottom of pan.
3. When cabbage turns brighter, stir in spaghetti sauce. Continue cooking until cabbage is cooked all the way through (7 to 10 minutes). Add parmesan cheese. Let melt and serve.
You're probably asking yourself who has leftover blue cheese, well we do. And like so many other things in my life, it was given to me. My mom works as a secretary at a rectory. One of the priests had a party and served a cheese tray. The priest gave my mom all of the leftover cheeses, who in turn gave it to us. I've been meaning to use it and tonight was the night. We're having chilidogs with the leftover chili from last night, so I made coleslaw to go with it. While I initially set out to make Blue Cheese Coleslaw, it turned more into Blue Cheese/Ranch Cole Slaw when my little helper, Charlie, dumped half of the bottle of Ranch into the slaw when my back was turned. I've taken some of the ranch out of my recipe so it won't be so Ranchy (is that a word?).
Blue Cheese Cole Slaw
Ingredients
1/2 Cup Mayo
1/2 Cup Ranch
1/4 Cup Parmesean Cheese
1/3 Cup Blue Cheese
1/4 Cup Honey
3 Splashes White Wine Vinegar
1/8 tsp Celery Powder
1/8 Cup Blue Cheese Salad Dressing
Pinch of Salt
16 oz Bag of Cole Slaw Mix or 16 oz of Chopped up Cabbage
1/2 Cup of Bacon
1/4 Cup of Sunflower Seeds
Mix together the first 9 ingredients in a large bowl until creamy. Slowly pour cabbage into bowl, mixing as you go along. If your cole slaw is too dry, add a bit of milk until it reaches the consistency you like (I didn't have to do this because we have a ton of ranch mixed into ours! You might not have to do it either.). When finished, add bacon and mix in. Finally, sprinkle sunflower seeds on top for an extra crunchy treat.
