Carrot Salad

First off, please excuse the photos for this entry. Her camera skills are not very good and taking pictures of orange things in bright light just doesn't work too well!

This carrot salad is very quick and easy and a nice change from normal lettuce salad. The important thing is to make it early enough that it can sit at least 30 minutes before eating. This really does make a difference in the flavor!

Serves 2-4 depending on if it is the pain part of the starter

1 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp mustard (we used spicy but they recommend Dijon)
3 Tbs olive oil
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and shredded
1 Tbs parsley 
1/4 tsp salt
 pinch of freshly ground pepper




Peel and shred the carrots. Add all other ingredients and mix well. Set in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving so that the flavors really mix.

Enjoy! (We told you it was easy!!)

This recipe was from Rebecca Franklin

Italian Pasta Salad

We enjoyed this refreshing pasta salad on the bank of the Main. Nothing like a picnic to kick off the weekend on a warm Friday evening.





Two-three (meal-size) servings:

300 g noodles (whatever shape you want)
300 g tomatoes (we used slices baby tomatoes)
2 red bell pepper
1 bundle of green onion
4 Tbs oil
2 Tbs balsamic
1/2 tsp spicy mustard
1 clove garlic 
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta according to its directions. Drain and cool down using cold water.



In a small bowl, mix the oil, balsamic, mustard, and diced garlic.

Dice the tomatoes, green onion, and bell pepper. Mix with the pasta. Pour the oil mixture over the pasta and cover well. Season with salt and pepper as needed.








Serve right away or keep in the fridge to let the flavors really mix.

This recipe was adapted from Rince.

Italian Asparagus Salad

It's that time of year - Spargelzeit! Germans run to the grocery stores, street vendors, farmers markets and restaurants to get filled up with asparagus (white asparagus) before time is out, only a few weeks after Spargelzeit begins.

We are not too crazy about white asparagus but we can't help but get wrapped up in the excitement. For that reason, many of our meals recently have been planned around asparagus eating.

We started last weekend off with crepes filled with white asparagus and topped with Hollandaise sauce. Yum. It was our own simplified (and less sweet) version of the recipe we shared last year: Kasierschmarren, Asparagus, and Hollandaise sauce.

That night, we kept going with the asparagus theme and made Italian Asparagus Salad - to her, tomato mozzarella topped with asparagus (no complaint there!) but he says it is truly a different recipe!

To make this salad for two you need:

Asparagus (use as much as you want, we used about 300 g)
A few pinches of sugar
100 g mozzarella (use what seems right!)
200 g tomatoes (again, use as many or as few as you want)
3  Tbs Balsalmic
2 Tbs Olive oil
Fresh basil
1/2 fresh avocado (we left this out)
Salt, pepper

Peel the asparagus and boil in sugar water for about 14 minutes. Remove and pat dry.

Slice the tomatoes and cover with the cheese.



In a bowl or glass, mix the salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic, and fresh bail (this is basically our Tomato Mozzarella recipe but mixed together instead of put directly on the tomatoes).




Slice the optional avocado and the asparagus into one-half to one inch slices and place on top. Drizzle the olive oil mix on top and done!

It is as easy as that!

Serve with warm bread and enjoy!

Her Addiction: Tomato Mozzarella

He let is slip in his in his last Tuesday Tales entry. She is completely and utterly addicted to tomato mozzarella. She could eat it every single day, and often does, until he makes her change it up a bit.

This might not be the fancy Italian restaurant version, but after months of eating tons of tomato mozzarella, she knows what she likes. Try it, and then make the changes you need to find your own perfect version.


For one (enough to fill you up for lunch or dinner):

2 tomatoes (if they are tiny use three)
1/3 - 1/2 of a mozzarella ball*
oil, balsamic, basil, oregano, tomato salt, garlic seasoning
 2-3 rolls for dipping


* We use cheap mozzarella made from cow's milk. A large ball of this (enough to make tomato mozzarella two to three times) is only 45 cents in Germany. Sometimes she uses the low fat version of this. It is not nearly as good but when she eats this all the time it is much healthier. Last week we went to a market hall here in Frankfurt and bought real buffalo mozzarella. It was very expensive and we felt that the quality did not make up for the price. Since we do not use expensive oil or balsamic, why waste expensive cheese?

If you use rolls that you have to bake like we do, start them in the oven before you start on the tomato mozzarella part.

Slice your tomatoes and lay them out on a plate. Add the cheese on top. She used to slice the cheese and lay it out all pretty like a restaurant would, but to save time and because it tastes better (says both of us) now we just crumble the cheese over the tomatoes. 



Season with mozzarella-tomato salt (an amazing seasoning here in Germany and hopefully in the USA.) If you do not have this you will need to play around with what tastes good to you. A lot of people like fresh pepper but she does not. She also uses a little dried oregano, basil, and garlic seasoning.



Add oil and balsamic. We have used nice oils and vinegar from Italy and we have used the cheapest stuff at the store. Yes, there is a difference but since she eats this so often she is very used to, and likes, the cheap stuff. (We know, all you foodies out there are rolling your eyes!)

She used to measure the oil and balsamic but now she does it by feel. About two seconds of pouring for the oil and almost four seconds for the balsamic make the perfect mixture for her, with enough leftover to dip the rolls into.

Sometimes we have fresh basil (like this time when she took pictures) and put that on top. Although full leaves look prettier, the taste is stronger if you rip them into small pieces.

Serve with fresh warm bread and enjoy. Yum yum yum, soooooo good :)

Taco Salad

After making our baked fajitas last week we were still craving Mexican food but had no tortillas or chicken. Instead of going out and buying more we decided to get creative and made taco salad for dinner. Not much healthier than a normal dinner of Mexican food but a nice change and a quick way to use any leftovers in the fridge you may have.


Two large salads:

1/3 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
1/2 to 1 bell pepper, diced
3/4 - 1 can kidney beans
1/2 can diced tomatoes
2 hot peppers, diced 
sugar, salt, red pepper flakes, pepper, oregano
3-4 cups shredded lettuce (or as much as you wan)
cheese
sour cream
tortilla chips

In a pan over medium heat. Cook your onions, bell pepper, hot peppers, and ground beef. Once the beef is fully cooked, drain off the excess fat and return to the stove.





 
Add the kidney beans and tomatoes. Start with 1/2 Tbs of sugar and continue to add until the sweetness is how you would like it. Add a pinch of salt and a healthy dash of oregano, red pepper flakes, and pepper.

Cook until everything is heated and the tomato sauce begins to reduce.

During this time place the lettuce in a bowl or on a plate. Top with a handful of nacho chips.

When the ground beef/tomato mixture is finished. Pour on top of the lettuce and top with a spoonful of sour cream and some cheese.

Enjoy!

Tuna Cakes

A very happy New Year to everyone! This holiday season as been filled with a lot of cooking for us. Unfortunately, we have very few pictures to show for our work. We were busy busy busy!

So now it is a new year and we are back on track eating and cooking a more normal amount.

Today, we made tuna cakes for lunch. We don't eat tuna cakes very often, especially in comparison to the amount of tuna we eat, but when we are looking for something quick tuna cakes are a great choice. The other good thing about tuna cakes is that you can eat the same recipe for three completely different meals: Tuna cake sandwich, tuna cake alone with sides like mashed potatoes and green beans, or like we did today, tuna cakes on salad. You can also choose to make them on the stove by frying them in oil or bake them in the oven if you are looking to be a bit more healthy.

For 4-5 good sized cakes you need:
1 can of tuna
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 egg
2 Tbs lemon juice
3/4 cup bread crumbs (more if you would like to coat them)
Salt and pepper
Chopped onion, corn, or bell pepper can be added by choice
Oil  (if frying)


[ We have started using Miracle Whip (Miracel Whip in Germany) to save on calories. This mayo is very sweet and if you use a low-fat mayonnaise you might need to do something to cut the sweetness. We do this by adding mustard.]




Drain tuna and mix with the egg, mayo, lemon juice, salt. pepper, bread crumbs, and onion or other vegetable if you choose to. This time we used some corn.





Mix well and form into patties. If you have time refrigerating them for about 30 minutes will make it easier to fry.



She was being lazy and tried to remember the recipe without looking it up today. She also did not measure any ingredients. Because of this our tuna cakes were a lot denser than usual. We recommend to stick to the recipe! 


If you would like, you can roll the cakes in another 3/4 cup of bread crumbs. We skipped this step since we were going to eat the tuna cakes over salad.

Fry in oil over medium or bake on 175 C (350 F) for 20 minutes.





Serve anyway that sounds good to you!

Our cakes were served with a balsamic/olive oil/ herb dressing which we make ourselves and tomato soup.

Leftover Pasta Salad

We apologize for such a long delay in posting! We promise to get back on top of things and keep the recipes coming. Unfortunately, holding jobs and writing a master's thesis at the same time leaves some weeks to be quite chaotic and some things get left in the dust. Don't worry, we did eat the past few days...just nothing very exciting and when it was exciting we forgot about taking pictures :)

The only leftovers we had today

Today we had a short break and needed a quick lunch...the problem was we haven't made it to the store this week so our fridge is looking pretty empty. The solution was to throw together a quick pasta salad with the veggies that we had leftover from making salads and burritos earlier in the week.

Large chunks makes it a bit more interesting

The great thing about pasta salad is that it is extremely flexible. It is a lot like regular leaf salad. Whatever vegetables you have laying around can be added and the same goes for meat. Usually, when we make pasta salad we try to have a wide variety of textures (soft like corn to crunchy like carrot) and colors (bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes). Today, the choices were much more limited. We had plain pasta leftover from making too much for last night's dinner (woo for saving time having to wait for new pasta to cook!), one carrot, a few bell peppers from a friend's garden, and...

some paprika flavored salami (yes, I hear you gagging, no not you, you! But it taste good in the pasta salad!)

We don't really have a recipe today. We always just estimate and every time it comes out a little bit different. It always depends on how much stuff you have to go in it. Just cut up everything (we go for large pieces to make it more interesting) and mix it together.This time we also cooked the salami for a few minutes on the stove to get it nice and crispy and then mixed it in with everything else.



Make a olive oil/ apple vinegar dressing with lots of seasoning (basil, oreagno, pepper, salt, etc. etc). You want to be heavy on the olive oil and light on the vinegar but the best thing to do is experiment and taste it before pouring it over the pasta.

Stir and there you have it. Extremely easy and extremely useful for using up leftover vegetables.

Tuna Cream

A common meal in our house is tuna cream. It is quick to make, good for lunch or dinner, and a cold dish for when we feel like we have been eating too many warm meals.It is also super simple so no matter how tired we are (or grumpy I am when I have not been fed recently enough) it can be made and served in a very short time (15 minutes) and before any true grouchiness can break out (although, I am never actually grouchy so poo! ;) )

Oops. The onion did not make it into this picture!

We love veggies and we add them to almost everything we make. Our tuna cream usually ends up being a little tuna with a lot of other stuff. This time we used onions, bell peppers, tomatoes and a handful of corn. Cut up all the vegetables rather small, mix them with tuna, add a generous amount of mayo, and lots of seasonings such as basil, pepper, salt (we use this stuff when translated is something like tomato spice mix which has a lot of salt plus other stuff in it), a little rosemary, and oregano. Then finally, the secret to it all is a teaspoon of sugar and a tiny squirt of vinegar (such as apple vinegar - but lemon works also). 

We give this a good mix, stuff a bell pepper with it and serve it on a bed of lettuce. Add a little bit of olive oil and balsamic so the lettuce isn't boring and serve it with rolls (preferably not burnt, except for this time the roll maker *cough cough* got a little distracted by his computer and forgot all about them).

Num num num. I can feel the grumps going away just looking at it

Quick and tasty meal, and if you are willing to take a minute to plate it nicely, it looks pretty cute for salad :)



Oh, and for the Americans out there. I would call this tuna salad (it is tuna salad for goodness sakes!) but the German won and we now use the term  tuna cream in our apartment.


This tuna CREME (he reminds me) :) is the American version by the way - my boyfriend does it slightly differently and a bit more unhealthy... (but very mjumy too - he adds): mix salt, pepper, chopped up bell pepper and a lot of mayonnaise. He rounds out the spread or if you wish bread dip with vinegar or lemon juice.

Enjoy!