Lentils and Rice with Salad

As summer turns our kitchen into a 95F sweat-box I will be cooking less, and you will see a lot more recipes based around not turning on the stove.

This is my attempt to re-create a dish I had at Aladdin's Eatery in Squirrel Hill.
The dish is a mix of rice, lentils and fried onions, topped with a salad of cucumbers and tomatoes.  The base makes enough for leftovers, but I assembled the salad fresh each time.

Part one, the base: (4-6 servings)

• Put 2 cups of brown rice in a rice cooker along with 2 chicken bouillon cubes, the juice of one lemon and 2 tbspns of olive oil (plus the recommended water for your cooker)
• Open and rinse a packages of Trader Joe's precooked lentils.
• Mix all these together, along with ~ 1 cup fried onions-- we bought ours at a middle eastern grocer, but I think you could also substitute sauteed onions made at home

Part two, the salad (2 servings)

• Take 1/2 a package of cherry tomatoes (1.5 cups)
• Add 3 Persian cucumbers, sliced
• Mix with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil to taste

Then you just put everything together like in this picture:

Without the bouillon this is a vegetarian dish (replace the water with vegetable stock for the rice).  I found it very tasty and filling.

Bruschetta

I made this as a quick lunch this weekend and wanted to note it down.  I am calling it bruschetta, but I think this may be a lie or an unforgivable abuse of grammar/the Italian language.  With the summer heat approaching I need a library of quick, cold, but satisfying meals.

Step One:  Toast 2 slices bread (optionally brush with olive oil first)
Step Two: make bruschetta by mixing these ingredients with salt and pepper to taste:

• Two tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 cup sweet onion finely diced
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, cut as fine as you can

Step 3: Layer sliced ovaline mozzarella and generous portions of bruschetta on the toast.  The above amount does well for 2 people, with the toasts cut in half for 2 bruschetta each.

Caesar Salad

A recipe for salad!  Ok, really a recipe for dressing, with a serving suggestion, but caesar salad is one of my favorite summer foods.

This dressing recipe is cobbled together from a few sources, and simplified down for speed:

1. Croutons:  I made mine with old bread set in the oven at 350 for 30min and then lightly fried in olive oil ala Alton Brown's suggestion
2. Dressing:  Put all the following together and hit with an immersion blender
1. 2 eggs well washed.  They can also be boiled for 1min (aka coddled) if you are really worried about salmonella.  This will leave most of the egg raw, but sterilize the shells at the expense of losing some whites.
2. 1 lemon's worth of juice
3. 1/4 cup olive oil
4. 1 small tin of anchovies
5. some pepper (to taste)
3. Lettuce: whole hearts of romaine
4. Cheese: Parmesan (I used my endless supply of Costco Romano)

To assemble I drizzled some dressing on the leaves (the consensus was that <1tbspn covered a LOT of lettuce-- this stuff is strongly flavored).  I then sprinkled 1-2tbpns cheese and 4-5 coutons on top.

I will definitely be making this again, I just wish it kept.

Blueberry IceMilk

Another post sans-picture (thought I will add one the next time I make this)

This is one of the simpler of my attempts at healthy ice creams; which I haven't been wanting to put up until I am satisfied with them.  It is the lower calorie version of my Blueberry Ice Cream.

• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1 cup frozen wild blueberries
• 3 TBSPN powdered milk
• 2 TBSPN sugar

Hit everything with an immersion blender (or normal blender) to mix, I woudl recommend keeping at this for quite a while until it is smooth.  AT that point you have a passable smoothie/soft serve crossover, but you can throw it in an ice cream maker for a thicker product.

This makes 3-4 cups of ice milk and has ~400 calories, and is mostly fruit and milk.