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Overnight Refrigerator Steel Cut Oats with Chia and Strawberries

If you’re looking for an easy, healthy, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, grab and go breakfast that will keep you full for hours, then you have to try these overnight refrigerator steel cut oats with chia and strawberries. This is my go-to travel and weekend  breakfast. I make these oats all the time to take to Tahoe, so I have an easy breakfast to eat in the car on the way to the slopes.

Heirloom tomato gazpacho

Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho

It’s summer, and what soup says summer better than gazpacho, right? Gazpacho is seriously the perfect summer soup for many reasons. First off, it’s a cold soup, so it’s the perfect soup to sip on a hot summer day or night. Secondly, it doesn’t require you to heat up a stove or oven, which is bonus when it’s 90 plus degrees out. I call it the lazy mans soup because when your tired and famished all you have to do is pull out a batch from the fridge, pour it in a bowl and eat away. It’s also a great weekday soup because it takes under 30 minutes to make, just chop up the fresh ingredients and toss them in a blender! Make a batch in the morning while the kids are eating breakfast, or before you rush off to work, and when you come home all tired from a long day, you dinner will be ready! How nice does that sound?

Quinoa with tomatoes and cucumber and parsley and mint

Quinoa with Tomatoes, Cucumber, Parsley and Mint

This is the perfect healthy summer salad! It’s chock-full of fresh herbs, cucumbers and tomatoes, which are at their ripest in the summer months. I used heirloom tomatoes for this recipe, and let me tell you, this salad was BURSTING FULL OF FLAVOR! I might even say that it was a bit better the next day when all of the flavors had a chance to meld together!

Popovers with rosemary and sea salt

Popovers with Rosemary and Sea Salt

We’re a total popover loving family. We love the traditional popovers, sugar-crusted popovers and now these rosemary and sea salt popovers. Popovers are my carb of choice because they’re SO easy to make up and require a few simple pantry ingredients. They may look all fancy and formal with their big puffy tops and seem difficult to make, but let me tell you, they’re one of the easiest recipes to make. They even have an exact cooking time which makes them even easier to make up.

israeli couscous salad in a bowl

Israeli Couscous Salad

I love it when I find new salads or summer side dishes that can be made ahead to marinate all day or made on the fly to eat up right then and there. This salad is one of those salads that tastes great either way. This is the perfect salad to bring to a potluck, picnic or to serve up in your own backyard. It’s full of summer flavor from the fresh mint, parsley and cherry tomatoes. We love pairing this salad with chicken drumsticks and one of my kale salads for a family backyard dinner. You can really make this a year round salad by adding seasonal ingredients to the mixture, like asparagus in the spring, cauliflower or broccoli in the winter.

minty limeade in a glass with straw and limes

Minty Limeade

Move over Bootleg, Mint Julep and Mojito, here come’s Marin Mama’s minty limeade, a perfect drink for the whole family on a hot summer day. Lately the kids and I have been enjoying limeades. Whenever we go to Sol Food, we all have to split their enormous limeade. We call it their virgin Mojito, it’s just so tasty and has a bit of a kick to it. When my hubby tried it, it reminded him of a drink he grew up in Minnesota, called a Bootleg.

grilled bruschetta with heirloom tomatoes

Grilled Bruschetta with Heirloom Tomatoes

I’m sure you’ve all seen the cover for the July/August edition of Martha Stewart Living in either a book store or your grocery store. If you’ve seen it, then you know why I just had to run out and make up this bread. I opened up my mailbox last week and saw the cover showcasing this beautiful assortment of heirloom tomatoes on top of this toasted bread. I immediately went to the grocery store, bought me some heirlooms and made this up for lunch. I have to say that I was in food heaven. This bread is crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside from the juicy heirlooms and olive oil. The crunchy sea salt and fresh basil just give it another punch of flavor and texture. John and I split half a loaf up for lunch one day and paired it with my lacinato kale salad and drumsticks another night for dinner. I also brought this to a friend’s house and served it up as an appetizer. Let’s just say it was a hit with everyone. It’s truly the perfect summer bruschetta!

Chicken enchiladas

Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Salsa

I’m so excited to share these enchiladas with you. I made these up last week and my family LOVED them.  I mean John kept exclaiming to me how good they were. These are truly the perfect spring or summer enchilada, because they’re filled with chicken and fresh vegetables and topped with a light tomatillo salsa. The tomatillo salsa is a light and refreshing change from the normal heavy enchilada sauce that you think of when you hear the word enchiladas. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good enchilada sauce, especially the pumpkin sauce I use on our pumpkin enchiladas, but this is a nice change and flavor for spring.  These enchiladias are so light and refreshing that we each ate two!  Yes, we were piggies, but we didn’t feel bad at all. Sometimes you just have to savor the moment and savor the food.

Thai style chicken burger

Thai Style Chicken Burgers

Burgers are a staple in our house come spring and summer. To me, burgers say spring is here, and summer is around the corner. They make such an easy weeknight meal because all you have to do is pair them up with a side salad or vegetable, and voila, dinner is served. We love all types of burgers from turkey, chicken, to buffalo and veggie. I’m always on the hunt for a new burger recipe to add to our recipe box. I’m currently in the process of testing some new veggie burgers, so for you vegetarians, stay tuned.

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