Summer salad with black eyed peas

I'm always looking for fun vegetarian meals to eat in the summer. In the winter we gobble up all kinds of vegetarian soups, stews, and casseroles, but that's not really summery, is it? So I did a few searches and found a few options, melded some, alterred others, and now I have a whole file of summer style veggie entrees. It looks like salad is the way to go! That makes sense to me, and the less time I can spend over a hot stove, or with the oven heating my already warm house, the better.

This recipe is a combo from several others scattered around the web. Some changes I'd make: next time I'd like to try the sun dried tomatoes not packed in oil, or maybe even fresh ones.

Summer Salad with black eyed peas

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:
  ● 2 cups dry black-eyed peas (or about 2 cans)
  ● feta cheese, about 1 cup, crumbled
  ● 1 jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, about 8 ounces
  ● 1 cup Kalamata olives
  ● 2 green onions, chopped
  ● 1 garlic clove, minced
  ● 1 large bunch of spinach, washed, dried, and torn
  ● 1 lemon, both zest and juice

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the black-eyed peas and turn heat down to below a simmer. Cook uncovered until done, about 45 minutes. When done, pour into a colander and  wash with cold water to stop the cooking and cool.

2 In a large bowl combine spinach, feta, olives, onion, tomatoes, lemon zest, and garlic, and cooled peas. Toss to mix well. Squeeze lemon over top, to taste, right before serving.

Whole wheat waffles with honey butter

For Calvin's birthday we let him choose his meals and breakfast for him was a really easy pick. I was surprised because although we have waffles maybe one weekend a month, we haven't made the honey butter in about a year, but this is exactly what he asked for.

Whole Wheat Waffles with Honey Butter

Yield: 12-14 waffles

Waffle ingredients:
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 3/4 cup milk
• 4 tbsp oil
• 2 eggs

Honey butter ingredients:
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup honey

Directions:

1. For waffles, mix dry ingredients well. In a separate bowl mix wet ingredients, then add to dry ingredients slowly and blend with a whisk until well mixed. We use 1/3 cup of batter for each waffle, but that will depend on the size of your waffle maker.

2. For the butter, whip ingredients together until fluffy. Serve drizzled over waffles or other yummy foods. We also serve fruit with our waffles and honey butter.

Play dough

There's recipes for this everywhere and ours isn't special, but in case you were looking, here it is.

Play dough

Ingredients:
  ● 2 cups of plain flour
  ● 2 cups of coloured water
  ● 1 Tbsp. of cooking oil
  ● 1 tsp. cream of tartar
  ● 1 cup of salt

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan. Cook over low heat and stir it until dough thickens. Remove from pan to wax paper for cooling. Store in air tight container.

Pea Soup with Mushroom Cream Sauce

This is a Taste of Home recipe. I know a lot of people will be turned off by the green-ness of it, but it's brilliant spring hue is exactly what drew me to it in the first place. I love fresh green things to eat, and we've been waiting so long, and will wait still longer thanks to a sluggish season, for that baby green. So I created it for the dinner table. It was good, but I don't care how many times they tout it as a main course, I think it got a little monotonous that way and would be better as a beautiful, and yummy, side dish. Additionally, I don't think it had enough protein as written so I added about the cannellini beans.

Pea Soup with Mushroom Cream Sauce

Yield: 6 Servings
Prep Time: 25 min
Cooking Time: 15 min

Ingredients:
  ● 1/2 lb. sliced baby portobello mushrooms, divided
  ● 1 tbsp. butter
  ● 1/4 cup chopped onion
  ● 1 garlic clove, minced
  ● 1/2 cup half-and-half cream
  ● 3 tbsp. sherry or reduced-sodium chicken broth
  ● 1 tbsp. minced fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  ● 3/4 tsp. salt, divided
  ● 5 cups fresh or frozen peas, divided
  ● 2 cups cannellini beans (or one can)
  ● 3-1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
  ● 2 tbsp. lemon juice
  ● 4-1/2 tsp. minced fresh basil or 1-1/2 teaspoons dried basil

Directions:
Set aside 3 tablespoons mushrooms for garnish. In a large skillet, sauté remaining mushrooms in butter until tender.

Add onion and garlic to skillet; sauté until tender. Stir in the cream, sherry, thyme and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes. Cool slightly. Transfer to a bowl and cream with stick blender.

In a large pot, combine 4-1/2 cups peas, cannellini beans, chicken broth and remaining salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until peas are tender (about 5 minutes). Stir in lemon juice and basil and heat through. Use stick blender to soupify.

Serve hot and topped with mushroom and cream sauce (we mixed our cream sauce in). Garnish with reserved mushrooms and remaining peas.

Nutrition Facts (from Taste of Home, not including cannellini beans): 3/4 cup soup with 2 tablespoons sauce equals 169 calories, 5 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 15 mg cholesterol, 612 mg sodium, 22 g carbohydrate, 7 g fiber, 10 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 1-1/2 starch, 1 fat.

Stuffed Italian pork tenderloin

I almost called this Italian stuffed pork tenderloin, but I'm neither stuffing Italians with pork tenderloin nor pork tenderloin with Italians, so I switched the order. It still doesn't sound right, but really it's better than the other way around. Calvin and I made this one together today. He helped me pound out the tenderloin (his favorite part, of course), spread the cream cheese, cut the peppers, crumble the bacon, and spread all the toppings.

Stuffed pork tenderloin, Italian style

Ingredients:
  ● 2 pounds pork tenderloin
  ● 6 oz neufchatel cheese, softened
  ● Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, to taste
  ● ~1 cup fresh arugula
  ● 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
  ● ~8 oz roasted red pepper (home roasted or from a jar, drained), chopped
  ● Olive oil

Directions:
1. Cut pork loins down the center without cutting all the way through, then open as though opening a book. Use smooth side of tenderizer to pound meat to an even thickness.
2. Spread cheese evenly over pork. Sprinkle with seasonings to taste. Top with arugula, crumbled bacon, and roasted red peppers.
3. Roll pork back up into original shap (leaving seam along long side). Tie closed with string where needed. Brush with olive oil to keep moist.
4. Place pork, seam side down, In baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes or until 150 degrees. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting to serve.

I served this with tender thin green beens, sauted in olive oil and garlic and tossed with almond slivers, and with wild rice tossed with cherries.