Salad, Salad, and More Salad

Sorry for the little hiatus. Things have been busy here at Bananas for Smoothies-ville. Well, I guess busy isn't the right word. More like, distracting. Olympics to watch? Distracting. Books to read? Distracting. The Bachelorette? Distracting. Especially Arie. I've been too distracted by life to blog much about it. But it's time to get back to business!

Mmmm, business. This is the Syrian Bread Salad from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. It's one of those chop-everything-up-and-toss-it-all-together-type salads that I just adore.

I toasted some Trader Joe's mini pitas for just a few minutes to dry them out a bit.

Then I chopped-chopped-chopped the salad stuff: cucumbers, grape tomatoes, oil-cured olives, red onion, red pepper, and parsley. I tossed in the mini pitas and added the oil and vinegar.

I served the salad atop some mixed baby greens and Basic Baked Tempeh from Appetite for Reduction. This meal was a party in my mouth: juicy, salty, chewy, carb-y, crunchy. Yeah!

This was a fun and tasty recent Saturday dinner. I made a base salad of baby greens, chopped tomatoes, avocado, red pepper, and cucumber, then topped it with a Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burger. I whisked together a simple dijon vinaigrette and drizzled it over the burger and salad. Some frozen Alexia fries (and lots of ketchup) completed the dish. I loved having a "decadent" meal that didn't leave me with a food hangover :) By the way, I never buy frozen veggie burgers EVER (not a big fan), but I grabbed a box of these burgers on my last Trader Joe's shopping trip. I love how they are vegetable-based and taste more like a croquette!

Finally, another salad - this one is the Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Toasted Cumin Seeds. This was one of the salads I hadn't yet prepared from Appetite for Reduction, mostly because...it didn't really appeal to me. And I was right. I didn't enjoy this :( I don't know what it is about cumin seeds, but apparently I am not a fan. I use ground cumin all the time and like it, but I don't enjoy the cumin seeds. I've made other dishes in the past with cumin seeds, and I never liked the flavor it added. So, now I know. No more cumin seeds! I piled it on top of some baby spinach and had some haricot verts and TJ's roasted corn on the side. That corn rocks! Seriously, yum. I could have eaten the entire bag!

I'll try to be better about posting more often!