Summer Eating

(BTW - if you thought I forgot about the giveaway, I didn't! And thanks to those of you who entered. If you didn't win, I still highly recommend Teach to Run or HowtoRun5K.com and encourage you to take a look!)

Its not over yet! School may have started, vacations may be in the past, but the summer season is still here! (Just look at the forecast for this weekend.) This struck me when I looked at our CSA schedule and realized that our boxes are still marked as "Summer" through the end of September. So if you're looking for a "cool cooking" idea, or a lighter salad, or just something to do with all of those tomatoes and zucchini in your garden, take a look.

This recipe is totally customizable. Switch up the grain (farro, bulgur), change out the veggies (white beans, yellow squash, pieces of green beans), swap out the vinegar (rice, apple cider), mix up the herbs (italian parsley, perhaps?). Use what you have, but I do highly recommend this combination. And wow, is it filling - I ate it for lunch yesterday and I didn't have that nagging hunger around 3, I went for a run, and I was still good until dinner last night.

Photo from Weight Watchers, though mine looked pretty much like this too:)

Summer Vegetable & Grain Salad

From Weight Watchers

Click here for Printable Recipe

Ingredients

¾ cup pearled barley, uncooked

¼ teaspoon salt

2 cups water

1 cup corn kernels (either thawed from frozen or 2 ears fresh)

1 cup uncooked zucchini, diced

1 cup diced tomato (2 plum tomatoes or 1 beefsteak tomato)

2 green onions, chopped

¼ cup fat free plain greek yogurt

¼ cup olive oil mayonnaise

¼ cup fresh dill, chopped

1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar

½ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

Combine barley, salt, and water in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer until barley is tender and water is mostly absorbed, about 20 minutes. Drain well and rinse under cold water to cool and to get rid of the excess starch.

Combine cooked barley with corn, zucchini, tomato, and green onions.

In a small bowl, whisk together yogurt, mayonnaise, dill, vinegar, salt and pepper. Pour yogurt mixture over barley and vegetables; fold together gently to coat. Cover and chill at least 30 minutes before serving.

WW Points Plus: 4 per cup of salad

Nutritional Information (using My Fitness Pal): 233 calories, 45 carbs, 5g fat, 7 protein, 4 sugar

Home-Grown

This summer, I'm trying something new - a garden! More specifically, our garden is a container garden on our deck. I'd love to have a big garden in our backyard, but I don't always know what the neighbors put on their lawn, and I don't know if I want to eat whatever it is! So Roma Tomatoes, Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes, chives, basil, and cilantro are all growing splendidly on our deck. The best crop so far has been the basil - throw it in bruschetta, pasta, eat it plain... But the chives and cilantro have made brief appearances as garnishes as well.

The real up-and-coming stars, though, are going to be the tomatoes.

We at our first cherry tomato today, and can I tell you how sweet it was? It tasted so tomato-y. We've had green tomatoes on the vine for about 5 weeks now, and I'm getting a little antsy, although I suspect that they'll all turn red at once and we'll have tomatoes coming out of our ears. But we'll share! What could be better than bruschetta or salsa made with tomatoes and herbs from three steps away? It doesn't get much fresher than that.