All posts in Salad dressing

Fruity Spinach Salad & Happy News!

 

It’s been a buuuuuuusy week around the Kramer household. I’ve been putting in some major overtime trying to get this cookbook wrapped up. Sleeping has been replaced with early morning recipe testing and late night writing, my refrigerator is jam-packed with WAY too much food for a family of three and a half to deal with, and there are regularly just enough dirty dishes in my sink to keep me from filling my coffee pot with water so I can function throughout the day. :\

But, despite the busyness, I am loving life right now. The weather outside has been a blissful 90 degrees (yeah, I’m a heat junkie), and my garden is in full bloom even though I haven’t been able to tend to it this year. I guess it wanted to grow so badly that it just took care of itself. Pretty rad! We have kale, scallions, chamomile, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, mint, oregano, sage, berries, roses, and even purslane! So, it’s really a great time to be cooking up a storm. Ah, yes… life is good.

And, you guys… I have good news! Well, great news! I’ve been sitting on this exciting announcement for a while until it became “official”. And now it is. I’m super happy to say that my cookbook is getting published by Fair Winds Press… one of my all time favorite publishers of beautiful reads! So with that, comes an emphatic thank you to all of you. There’s no way in heck I would have ever had this opportunity if it wasn’t for you glorious readers out there, subscribing to my culinary rants, making my recipes, and keeping me motivated. You guys are the best.

The book’ll be hitting shelves Spring of 2012, and the [tentative] title is Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats. Keep an eye out for it! Unless of course you’re a regular follower of my blog, in which case I’ll be sure to remind you. :)

My testers have been hard at work too! Check out what a few of them have been up to:

The Vegan Chickpea

Forest Raven

Tiffany’s (of Bread Without Butter) flickr photostream Check out her blog too!

And, last but not least, Tofu’s Mobile Me Gallery

They’ve been busy helping me out, and I couldn’t be more appreciative of all their hard work.

With a schedule like I have these days, one thing that’s keeping me fueled up is salads. Yep… I’ve been thriving on simple, colorful, nutritious bowls of yum. They always include some of my garden bounty in ‘em, which makes me especially proud to be noshing them. They’re good for your mind and body, and they are super easy to prepare. Oh, and they require very little cleanup!

This recipe is one of my faves. It’s filling enough to count as a full meal, yet simple enough to whip up last minute before heading out the door for some summertime fun (if you happen to have some cooked brown rice on hand, which is a frequent occurrence in my refrigerator). Feel free to adjust all seasonings and ingredients to your taste! This is, after all, a salad… mix it up!

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Mint & Apple Chickpea Salad

chickpea-apple-tomato-salad6

The ingredients for this salad came together based on what I had on hand, including the first two crops ready for harvest in our garden: mint and green onions. Yay for homegrown food!

We had also picked up some “real” tomatoes from the farmers market earlier this week, so I threw them in there too. All the flavors mingled together very nicely.

Tossed with pureed avocado (my favorite base for a salad dressing), this little concoction was surprisingly good!

It’s like a minty, beany, pasta salad!

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Fruity Kale Salad with Coconut Lime Dressing

Fruity Kale Salad with Coconut Lime Dressing

I know this is the second time (in a very short while) that I have posted a kale salad.  But here’s the deal, I love kale.  It is one of the few things I look forward to every single day.  I seriously believe I could survive off of raw kale and red wine for the rest of my life.  Add avocados and dark chocolate, and I know I could survive and be very very happy.

Anyways, since I eat raw kale salads all of the time, occasionally I find myself doing new and exciting things with them… like adding bananas and strawberries.  And occasionally it turns out to be an absolutely terrific idea.  This is one of those times.

I know the combo of everything sounds a little weird, but trust me- it’s terribly delicious.  It is much closer to a fruit salad than a traditional salad, but adding kale makes it the best of both worlds.

If you try it out, let me know what you think.  I know I will be adding kale to all of my fruit salads from now on.  Yum!

And for those of you who celebrate, have a very Happy Easter!!!

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Vegan Thousand Island Dressing