Jaclyn Can Cook: Light and Satisfying Veggie Plate

It’s fall everywhere else, but here in Florida, it’s still about 1,000 degrees out.  Actually, I just wrote an email to my father in which I said it seems to be cooling down in Orlando.  So it’s like, 999 degrees out.  My point is, while everyone else in the free world is buying gourds and cinnamon brooms, I went to the beach on Sunday and it was 93 degrees outside.  I actually went to a nude-friendly beach and saw a lot of stuff.  A lot.

Like, a lot.

Because it’s so hot outside, eating delightful, warm, hearty, fall and winter-centric meals is not yet a serious option around these parts.  I mean, I could make some veggie shepherd’s pie or some homemade soup or some apple crisp, but those things would just sit in my stomach like bricks.  Big, hot, heavy bricks.

Mmm, dinner.

Since I don’t like feeling like I ate a brick in 100 degree weather (which I did after my Cajun lunch today–fried pickles make my soul complete, but have just been sitting there all afternoon), I’ve been forgoing traditional meals in favor of my very own delightful mixed veggie plates.

Oooh

Ahh

The first photo is of the starter plate, which features carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado, whole wheat pita, reduced fat feta, and a red bean dip.  The second photo is of the advanced plate, which has the base vegetables on the starter plate, but also includes organic wheat crackers, some thinly sliced Parmesan cheese, and FRESH FIGS STUFFED WITH FETA.

Seriously, fresh figs will change your life.  For the better, of course.

I had the advanced plate with some red bean dip leftover from the starter plate.  It’s not pictured because FRESH FIGS STUFFED WITH MOTHERFUCKING FETA took up all the space.

This is something of a variation of Rachel’s The Feast, but absolutely no cooking is required.  A little chop of some fruits and vegetables, a little spin of beans and garlic in the food processor, a tablespoon of cheese, and I’m done.

You can use whatever vegetables, fruit, and cheese you have on hand.  If you have some wheat crackers, whole wheat pita, or even a chunk of whole wheat baguette, throw that on there too.  I just got some grapes and a cantulope from Orlando Organics and I bought some fresh strawberries and Muenster cheese earlier today.  I see a fruit plate in my future.

You can make this meal without breaking a sweat. It’s light, it’s satisfying, and it will keep you cool and collected.

If you go outside in Florida in September, however, I can’t make any guarantees.

Jaclyn Can Cook: Delightful Sweet & Spicy Summer Salad

Salads are usually one of two things: either they’re swimming in more fat and calories than a double Whopper, or they’re so miserly, they might as well be for the birds.  As a vegetarian, I’ve eaten my fair share of salads, and it’s rare that I get one in a restaurant that I’m truly impressed with.  The actual skeleton of a salad–the lettuce–is often in the form of throwaway iceberg lettuce, the red-headed stepchild of the leaf vegetables, and rightfully so.  Iceberg lettuce pretty much sucks, both nutritionally and taste-wise.  The best that iceberg lettuce can do is provide a little crunch, but really, a little crunch just isn’t enough to excuse iceberg lettuce from being so worthless.

It ain't easy being green

My best friend really hates lettuce.  She even contemplated starting a Lettuce Haters Anonymous club.  Her hate isn’t only reserved for iceberg lettuce.  She doesn’t discriminate–she hates all lettuce equally, but the truth is that all lettuce is not created equal. There are lots of different kinds of lettuce out there and some of them are truly delicious.

I always get a head of lettuce in my Orlando Organics delivery; usually I get green leaf lettuce or romaine.  A few weeks ago I got an extra large head of green leaf lettuce, so I decided it was time for some delicious salad action, which translated into one of my favorite salads ever:

Exhibit A

This is my Delightful Sweet & Spicy Summer Salad.  It had Quorn Southwest Chik’n, dried cranberries, homemade honey mustard, and shaved parm, along with awesome vegetables.  It’s better than any bullshit salad you’d get at Crisper’s or Panera.

That’s right.  I said it.

Here’s what you need to make the salad:

2 cups of green leaf lettuce, or other hearty, flavorful lettuce.  No iceberg.

1 shredded or shaved carrot

Grape or cherry tomatoes–however many you want

1/4 onion, sliced thinly.  I used sweet onion here, but red would be nice too (and red would be spicier!)

1/2 cucumber, sliced or chopped

5 Quorn Southwest Chik’n nuggets, baked per instructions and chopped into bite-sized pieces

1/8 cup dried cranberries (dried cherries work too!)

1 oz. shaved parmesan cheese.  Get it fresh or bust!

Homemade Honey Mustard Dressing:

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp dijon mustard

Dash of salt and pepper to taste

A few drops of water if you like your dressing to be a bit thinner

Throw all the salad ingredients in the bowl, except for the cranberries and parm.  Whisk the dressing ingredients together, pour the dressing on top of the salad, toss it around, and top the salad with the cranberries and parm.  Eat it up!

This salad is wonderfully crisp, spicy, and sweet.  It works really well in the summer with fresh vegetables, but it also works in the winter because of the sweet cranberries.  Give it a whirl one of these days.

Need convincing?  Okay.

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

My work is done here.