This recipe is very easy to make, and you can easily adapt it to include other delicious ingredients- mushrooms, red onion, or sun dried tomatoes would all be great add ins. Make this for a light meal or serve it as a delicious summer appetizer.

Grilled Veggie Tart

• 15oz puff pastry, thawed ( I used Tenderflake, which is vegan, but any kind will do!)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 lb asparagus, chopped into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup red pepper, chopped
• 1/4 cup kalamata olives, chopped
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped
• 1 tsp dried basil
• sea salt and pepper
• 2 oz mozzarella
• 2 oz feta
• 2 oz parmesan

I’m a huge fan of quinoa, and this quinoa dish is no exception. It is easy to make, requiring only two saucepans and makes a perfect side dish or light meal. Use a good quality parmesan cheese and make this for dinner!!

Mushroom Broccoli Quisotto (slightly adapted from Quinoa 365)

• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 cups asparagus, chopped
• 2 cups white button mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 cup diced white onion
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Saute the asparagus, mushrooms, onion and garlic until tender, about ten minutes, stirring frequently.

Combine the quinoa, stock and nutmeg in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until quinoa is tender and liquid absorbed, about 10-15 minutes. Leave covered saucepan on burner for a few more minutes and then fluff quinoa up with a fork.

Add the cooked quinoa to the vegetable mixture. Stir in parsley, parmesan, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Enjoy!

I love eating salad….what could be better than a big pile of vegetables in a delicious dressing. A few weeks ago I made a roasted beet salad and it was absolutely divine. The roasted beets are matched up with aspargus and blue cheese and amazing candied walnuts, all tied together in a super citrus-y orange vinaigrette. This is one of the best salads I’ve had in a long time…I definitely went back for seconds! This would be great to make for company, instead of a boring ceasar salad or green salad with the all-too-typical (yet tasty, don’t get me wrong!) balsamic vinaigrette.

Roasted Beet Salad (adapted from KCTS Cooks Salads)

• 4 medium beets, tops trimmed
• 1tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 8 cups mixed baby greens (these can be left out in order to just make a side dish with aspargus/beets/walnuts/etc)
• 1 apple (I used Graventstein from my apple tree)
• 1/2 cups walnuts
• 3 tbsp sugar ( I used organic unrefined cane sugar)
• 6-8 asparagus spears
• 1/4 cup blue cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss beets with olive oil, salt, pepper. Place in shallow baking dish and bake for 40-60 minutes (until tender). Cool beets slightly and then remove skins and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

Wash and drain greens and cut apple into small chunks. Place sugar in a frying pan and heat until melted. Add walnuts and stir to coat. Turn nuts onto a lightly oiled dish to cool, then coarsely chop.

Wash and trim asparagus, then cut into pieces and blanch 1-2 minutes and then plunge into cold water. Drain.

Combine all elements together, drizzle with orange vinaigrette and sprinkle with blue cheese.

Orange Vinaigrette

• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/2 tsp orange zest
• 1 shallot, peeled and minced
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients and whisk in oil.

On another note…I start my full-time cooking school experience on Monday!!!!! (Before I was only taking one class). Now I really get to step into the kitchen and learn and I couldn’t be more excited….and slightly nervous! You may have noticed a new tab at the top of my blog, entitled ‘culinary’. By clicking this tab, you will be located to posts purely about my cooking school experience. I will continue to blog about food + recipes (of course!!!) but I hope you also will enjoy reading about the mayhem I will create for myself in cooking school bahahah. They don’t know what they’ve gotten themselves into!!

Yes…that is me as a young’n with who knows what on my face (let’s just hope it’s face paint). For some reason I always closed one eye in pictures when I was a kid….