Oh friends. These are dark times. In some sort of weird summer delirium, I challenged myself to do a stupid 7 day cleanse and fitness regime partially because I had meals of only smoked meats, cheese and wine for 2 straight weeks WHICH WAS AWESOME but also made me feel a little bit gross. And also because I wanted to see what happened when I gave up cheese, sugar, alcohol and grains, while working out twice a day. Six days in and I know the answer: I become a person who hates salads and mostly want to punch everyone I meet except I am too weak to do so.
This is what I used to be like...
Look at that girl: She's happy, she's social, she's indulging in the four food groups of sugar, cheese, booze and pasta.
But now...
So I know I've made pesto on this blog before, but actually the addition of olives makes this recipe even more bold than the other pesto from last year. My absolute favorite part of this recipe is, like all other sauces, you could just make a bunch and then freeze until needed, which when you have a bunch of lettuce that can go bad, is extremely helpful. I plan on adding this to shrimp or chicken then tossing lightly with pasta. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Pasta. AGHHH. TWO MORE DAYS.
reade more...
This is what I used to be like...
Look at that girl: She's happy, she's social, she's indulging in the four food groups of sugar, cheese, booze and pasta.
But now...
I mean. Sure. Those cheekbones are amazing. But this shell of my former self is friendless, angry and physically frail.
On the upside, having a diet of only vegetables and proteins does make it easier to get through our large bags of produce from the Community Supported Agriculture program I mentioned the other week when I blogged about that awesome rhubarb vodka WHICH I CAN'T HAVE FOR ANOTHER TWO DAYS, DANG IT.
One week we were given lots of cucumbers and something like 4 heads of different kinds of lettuce.
WHAT?! WHO CAN EAT THAT MUCH LETTUCE BEFORE IT GOES BAD?
So I decided to do a google search: "What the crap do I do with all this lettuce?" Thanks to the internet and other people befuddled by the same problem, I found something other than "make lots of salad."
Recipes #18, 19 and 20: Salad Greens Pesto,
Homemade Tzatziki Dressing and Greek Chicken Salad
Choice of libation: No booze, so, you know. MY OWN TEARS. And stupid water.
Choice of music: Har Mar Superstar's Bye Bye 17. Oh. Everything about this makes me almost forget that I miss eating donuts. I feel like maybe I've posted about this album before, but it bears repeating. It is bluesy, Sam Cooke, summer and soul.
In honor of my current mental state, I'll go with this awesome track, "Don't Make Me Hit You."
But all of the songs on this album are a rocking good time.
Cucumbers do last a longer time, but we were given 5 or 6, and I remembered that tzatziki sauce requires a bunch of them and then I could pour it on all the stupid vegetables I had to eat for the next week. I'm usually too lazy to peel, seed and dice the cucumbers, but this recipe highly recommended it, especially to take out any bitterness, so I took an extra ten minutes.
Then I took my aggression out on it when asked to violently wring out the salted and diced cucumber. It may not have said violently. I may have hallucinated reading that.
TWO MORE DAYS.
This was actually a fabulous recipe which made a little more than a mason jar full of dressing. I ended up marinating chicken breast in the dressing over night so it soaked in all the delicious garlic, lemon, cucumber, dill flavors, then poured it onto a salad with olives, cucumber, red onion and, yeah, more lettuce.
The picture above was taken by someone else on the internet because I was too weak to remember to take a picture of the actual salad I made. Also it features feta cheese which sounds amazing but I'm not allowed to have for TWO MORE DAYS but you can and I bet it's delicious.
stolen from eating-made-easy.com
Salad Greens Pesto
2 heads of lettuce or 4 cups of salad greens, packed
2 small cloves garlic
¼ cup raw almonds
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup olives
¼ cup lemon juice (the juice of one large lemon)
¼ cup vegetable broth
¼ cup olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Grind the garlic and almonds in a food processor until finely chopped.
Scrape down, then add the greens, cheese, olive tapenade and lemon juice and blend until a paste forms.
Add the remaining liquid, keeping in mind that you may need more or less liquid depending on the consistency you're looking for.
Taste, then season with salt & pepper accordingly.
Serve on sandwiches, wraps, pizza, bagels, or mix with salad, roasted vegetables or pasta; or pour into an ice cube tray, freeze and save for later
stolen from mycaliforniakitchen.com
Easy Homemade Tzatziki
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1 tsp kosher salt for cucumber, plus additional, to taste
7 oz Greek yogurt
1/2 clove garlic
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried dill
Freshly ground black pepper
Let cucumber sit in colander with a teaspoon of salt for at least 10 minutes. After 10 minutes has passed, wring cucumber dry in a cheesecloth or kitchen towel.
Place cucumber and all other ingredients in food processor and pulse until well-blended and no large cucumber chunks remain. Add additional salt, to taste.
stolen and heavily adapted from eatingwell.com
Greek chicken salad
6 cups chopped romaine lettuce
2 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken,
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 cup sliced ripe black olives
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
Marinate chicken in tzatziki dressing (enough to cover) for at least one hour.
Add lettuce, chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, olives and feta; toss to coat.
