Mealtime Monday with Miss Vericker's Adventures!

I'm going to be completely honest with you -- my husband is a better cook than I am. He is more adventurous, better skilled in dicing and chopping, and not afraid to make a mess. Now, while I enjoy cooking, I stick to the basics, and usually try to find recipes that have the least amount of clean-up involved! I am loving Miss Vericker's idea for "meal time Mondays" because I know planning a weeks worth of dinners is sometimes challenging (for me at least!). Since she started the link up, I've done a fair share of cooking, but it hasn't always been on Monday. I am going to use this post as a "catch up" session for the quick summer time meals my husband and I have been enjoying the last few weeks. 

Here in Manhattan we are experiencing those "lazy-hazy-crazy" "hazy-hot-humid" typical NYC summer days. Temperatures each the 90s, and we suffer from about 95% humidity. Lucky for me I have straight hair! Anyway, with those kinds of temperatures outside our apartment, my husband and I are always searching for dinners that do not require us to put the oven on -- and sometimes dinners that don't even require the stovetop! Although that last one gets a little trickier. Here's a look at a quinoa salad my husband and I love - it's chock-full of veggies, easy to make, and can be served on its own as a main course or as a side to a protein of your choice. I like it because you can substitute or delete vegetables that you prefer - and you can treat the quinoa as a blank canvas!

 For this salad, you will need:

-Quinoa 

-Cherry Tomatoes

-Cucumber 

-Crumbled Feta 

-Red Onion 

-Kale 

-Avocado 

 and for the dressing, you need:

-Dijon Mustard 

-Honey 

-Lemon 

-EVOO 

-Salt & Pepper to taste 

 All you do is dice and chop the veggies, boil up the quinoa, and top it with some avocado. For the dressing, mix dijon mustard with honey, EVOO, lemon juice, and salt and pepper, and pour over the quinoa. Voila! 

 My husband and I are total carnivores. I LOVE red meat, and I love it cooked rare, and seasoned delicately. Below is a shot of a strip steak my husband broiled, along side a kale, endive, pine nut salad, and served with the above quinoa salad! 

Another SIMPLE go-to summer salad we enjoy in our house is a corn, tomato and avocado salad, lightly dressed with lemon juice, EVOO, and salt and pepper. Can you tell I LOVE avocados? I eat them almost every day, and almost every which way (more on that in a later post!). I love cherry tomatoes, and I enjoy them best when they are sliced in half, so I cut cherry tomatoes, dice avocado, and mix in canned OR fresh corn. A little lemon juice (helps keep the avocado from browning), EVOO and S&P mixed in, and you have the perfect accompaniment to any summer dinner. 

 TODAY (finally, on a Monday!) I just finished making an orzo salad. Orzo is a lot like quinoa in the sense that its like a blank canvas. Today's temperature is "90 feels like 101" outside and our AC is broken! I figured a cold pasta salad would suffice for dinner tonight!

Here is what I used in my salad: 

-Orzo 

-Cherry Tomatoes 

-Sliced Kalamata Olives

-Cucumber 

-Feta 

-EVOO 

-Lemon Juice -S&P 

-Avocado slices for topping (optional) 

Here are the veggies before I added the orzo: 

And here's the salad complete:

We are big wine drinkers in our house - but after a weekend spent on the beach drinking beers and soaking up the sun, we need a little break from alcohol. This heat called for some home made iced tea. Here's my finished product:

I also couldn't resist picking up some white hydrangeas this morning at the corner market! 

Thanks for hosting Miss Vericker's Adventures! Can't wait to see what next week brings! 

What are you cooking tonight? I would love to hear from you!