Fooding

I finally found that salad dressing recipe I had been looking for — and yes, it was on a little slip of scratch paper shoved to the back of the shelf where I keep my cook books, just as I thought it would be.

Rejoice! It’s salad season! The lettuce is growing wonderfully in the garden (I break off a few leaves at a time of the ones that aren’t nibbled at, just what I need for that day). The tomatoes are growing nicely and will yield up their sweet fruit before too long. This year I didn’t plant cucumber because, while they were sweet to eat, they were kind of prickly — funny, huh? I went with the eggplant instead. Last year I also planted sweet green peppers, which I also didn’t plant again this year (they had a kick to them that was delicious). But all of these wonderful salad ingredients can be found in abundance (and locally grown) from my supermarket. Only the tomatoes from the supermarket can’t compare to what I grow in the garden, so I continue to grow those at home.

I love summer salads. But you’ve got to have an interesting dressing to keep your taste buds from getting bored. I also have different things which I put into my salad for different flavors — artichoke hearts, marinated mushrooms, or hearts of palm for a non-sweet salad; apples and dried cranberries for a sweet one.

What are your favorite salad toppings?

Peanut-Tahini Salad Dressing

  • 1/8 cup rice vinegar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Dash black pepper
  • 2 tsp tahini
  • 2 heaping tsp creamy peanut butter
  • 1 Tbs sesame seeds
  • ¼ cup sesame oil
  • ¼-1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 small garlic clove (about ½ tsp)

Mix everything in a mini blender for a delicious salad dressing.

With this salad dress, I make a sweet salad with apples and dried cranberries in addition to the regular salad stuff (lettuce, cucumber & green pepper)

Black Bean & Cheese Enchiladas

Black Beans — they were the main ingredient in last week’s recipe, and I’m sorry, folks, they’re the main ingredient in this week’s too. “Why all the black beans, Merry?” I hear you whine. Well, stop whining these little things are damned good for you! Black beans are among the most nutritious of all legumes. …

View page »

CIMG2543

Black Beans and Rice

We are all trying to eat healthier with “Meatless Mondays” and the like. In my house, we eat vegetarian every Tuesday (among some Hindus, Tuesdays and Thursdays are days you devote to God and therefore are when you should eat vegetarian). I try to sneak in a veg meal on other days as well, just …

View page »

CIMG2543

Dal

Similar and yet completely different from black beans, are lentils. Lentils, like beans, are a staple of any vegetarian diet. They provide tons of protein as well as a lot of those fabulous minerals and vitamins we find in black beans. They’ve got lots of folate, fiber, phosphorous, vitamin B1, potassium and very few calories. …

View page »

CIMG2543

Egg Curry

I have gotten requests, from those who know I have connections to India, for a yummy, easy curry. So, last Sunday I convinced my husband (who is a great cook when he has the time to stand in front of the stove) to cook a curry for me so that I could copy down the …

View page »

Peanutbutter-Tahini Noodles

Peanut Tahini Noodles I was looking for a fabulous recipe for a tahini-peanut butter salad dressing and came across this delicious recipe for a noodle dish. Here’s the link to the original recipe: http://www.artoflivingwell.ca/recipes/pasta-a-grains/821-soba-noodles-with-creamy-peanut-tahini-dressing. As always, however, I’ve changed the recipe just a touch. Ingredients: Whole wheat spaghetti — cooked according to normal instructions mix of …

View page »

fooding lodging

Spinach Herb Souffle

The other night I had a hankering for something really light for dinner. Because it was Tuesday, veg day in my household, it had to be something without meat. That’s fine, because I’m rather liberal when it comes to defining vegetarian — I include eggs, and sometimes even seafood.  So, to pander to my craving, …

View page »

CIMG2543

Stuffed Meatloaf

    Just to be different, here’s a meatloaf recipe. I make it with ground turkey, but you can use real beef if you like. Stuffed Meatloaf Ingredients 1 beaten egg 8 oz can tomato sauce ¼ cup bread crumbs ¼ cup wheat germ 1 ½ lbs ground turkey ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese ¼ …

View page »

CIMG2543

Sweet Noodle Kugel

Many Jewish families have their own sweet noodle kugel recipe. My mother made one every Rosh Hashanah, reluctantly, for my father. Her family was from Romania and had savory onion noodle kugel which she would make for herself (because the rest of our family preferred the sweet one). Unfortunately, my mother was a lousy cook …

View page »

CIMG2543

Vegetarian Stew

I was really in the mood for stew this week. I don’t know what it is, because it hasn’t been that cold or rainy, but, there it is. And yet, Tuesday, when I wanted the stew, was veg. day. So, I searched through my pantry, pulled out a whole bunch of cans and put together …

View page »

6 comments

  1. Alix Rickloff

    Merry,
    Congrats on getting the fooding blog up and running. And thanks for the recipe! I can see I’ll be stopping here often when I’m stuck in my what-to-make-for-dinner rut.

  2. Gail Barrett

    I love the sign! I wonder which dictionary they used?

    1. Merry

      They probably came up with it off the top of their heads — I mean, it does make sense. If you call a place where you can lodge, lodging, why not a place where you get food, fooding? :-)

      1. Gail Barrett

        We have an old mah jong sent my parents bought in China about 30 years ago. The instructions are in English…sort of. We have spent many perplexing hours trying to decipher them.

        1. Merry

          Chinese translations are the worst! And sometimes very funny. But that’s one good thing about India, most people speak at least some English (or a version of it, anyway).

  3. Linda

    Great recipes. Hubby and I try to eat vegetarian at least 2-3 days a week, and naturally center on healthy foods. As a result, my youngest son Nick is now hooked on Indian food. I’m making a Mexican black bean & chicken caserole tonight for dinner, but really must try each of your recipes on the family. They look scrumptious … and I’m really into lentils, which are very tasty. :)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

.