Recipe for Grilled Eggplant, Grape Tomato, and Feta Salad with Amazing Basil, Parsley, and Caper Sauce

Even if you don't make this salad, don't miss the Donna Hay-inspired Basil, Parsley, and Caper Sauce!

For anyone who saw the title of this recipe and said "I don't like eggplant," I need to remind you of my discovery that grilled eggplant is really one of the best things about summer.  I was never an eggplant fan until I started growing the thin Japanese Eggplants in my garden, and cooking them on the grill.  If you've never had grilled eggplant, you've never really had eggplant!  However, if I can't possibly talk you into eggplant, then you still should try the Amazing Basil, Parsley, and Caper sauce that we used as a dressing in this recipe.  The sauce recipe and the inspiration to combine it with grilled eggplant came from Donna Hay's New Food Fast, and this is another one of those summer herb sauces that would be good on nearly anything.

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Chinese Cucumber Salad Recipe

An unusual and delicious salad to make with garden cucumbers.

(Updated with better photos and instructions, July 2012.)  When I run across people who are somewhat indifferent to cucumbers, I always wonder if they've ever had fresh-from-the-garden cukes, which I think are one of the most delicious things about summer.  When cucumbers first start to appear, I just wash them, slice in half, and eat with a little salt.  Later in the summer when they start to be abundant I might make a cucumber salad like this one.  The recipe came from a cookbook I've for years, called Too Many Tomatoes, Squash, Beans, and Other Good Things.  It's a book with some unusual and interesting ideas for using up garden veggies, and this cucumber salad was definitely a winner.

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Recipe for Meat, Tomato, and Mozzarella Stuffed Zucchini Cups

"Cups" made from giant zucchini slices and filled with a meat, tomato, and mozzarella mixture.

 
(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  It's monster zucchini season here and last Friday I spotlighted Monster Zucchini and Basil Strata.   This recipe for zucchini Meat, Tomato, and Mozzarella Stuffed Zucchini Cups uses "cups" created from slices of overly-large zucchini, and this is another of my very favorite things to make when the zucchini gets out of control.  Enjoy!)

Despite the rather messy plating job, I'm excited about this new way of making stuffed zucchini by slicing an overly-large zucchini into two-inch slices, then hollowing out the slices to make zucchini "cups." Normally I'm a fan of round 8-ball squash for Stuffed Zucchini, but this year my 8-Ball squash hardly produced anything. Meanwhile, my regular zucchini plant kept producing zucchinis that were too big, causing me to get creative. Don't you think hollowing out a zucchini cup like this and filling it with meat and cheese sounds like a delicious way to use zucchini? Zucchini is definitely on surplus status around here, so there may be some other zucchini recipes coming up this week as well.

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Recipe for Grilled Lemon-Cumin Chicken with Charmoula Sauce

Chicken seasoned from a lemon-cumin marinade, grilled, and served with flavorful Charmoula Sauce

Every summer, my post about How to Make Juicy Grilled Chicken Breasts turns into one of the most popular posts on the blog, and chicken breasts are something I cook far more during grilling season than I do at other times of the year.  I'm always looking for ways to make grilled chicken into something special, and when I was flipping through an old cookbook and saw a recipe for Chicken with Charmoula Sauce, I remembered how I loved that sauce on Steamed Green Beans and Carrots.   I experimented with a marinade that I thought might bring out some of the lemon and cumin flavors in the Charmoula, and the result was this recipe that several people gobbled up when I tested it.

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Slow Cooker Recipe for Spicy Vegetarian Pinto Bean and Chard Burritos

Pinto beans and swiss chard cook in the slow cooker to make a delicious filling for vegetarian burritos.

I think it was a recipe I came across for swiss chard sauteed with cumin (plus an abundance of swiss chard in the garden) that inspired me to create this slow cooker recipe for a spicy vegetarian mixture of pinto beans, swiss chard, spices, and salsa that's stuffed into burritos.  This is definitely one of those recipes that produces a very unphotogenic mixture when it comes out of the slow cooker, but if you like swiss chard and pinto beans, please don't let that keep you from making this.  I loved the combination of flavors with the pintos and swiss chard, and other than chopping the swiss chard a little smaller next time, this was a lucky recipe experiment where I wouldn't change a thing!

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Recipe for Kalyn's Tabbouleh with Almonds

My favorite version of Tabbouleh Salad, with parsley, mint, and lots of slivered almonds.

(Updated with new photos and step-by-step instructions, July 2012.)  Tabbouleh (also spelled Tabbouli and Tabouli) is something I've loved from the first time I tasted it and I've been making this for years, especially in the summer when I have plenty of fresh parsley and mint from my garden. Some people may turn their nose up at the fact that I use a pre-seasoned tabbouleh mix for the bulgur mixture, but years ago I had a woman from Lebanon come to a party at my house, and she went crazy over my version of Tabbouleh. With fresh lots of fresh parsley and mint, and a generous amount of slivered almonds, I think the taste of this Tabbouleh can't be beat. 

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Monster Zucchini and Basil Strata Recipe

This is a tasty casserole or side dish made with those inevitable monster zucchinis!

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  When my neighbor Mike showed me a monster zucchini hidden among the zucchini leaves in his garden, I knew it was time to feature this really delicious way to use those huge zucchini.  

People who haven't grown zucchini themselves may see the title Monster Zucchini and Basil Strata and wonder if monster zucchini is a new zucchini variety, but anyone who's had a garden knows about those monster zucchini that hide under the leaves.  You don't discover them until they're so big that it seems like the only thing to do with them is make Zucchini Bread or Zucchini Muffins.  I'm not a fan of monster zucchini, so I try to watch my plants and not let them get too big, but when the garden is winding down I always have a few that get out of control.  When I discovered an enormous zucchini recently I decided to update this recipe that I first made in 2005 with a monster zucchini that greeted me when I got home from a trip.  This recipe does have a few eggs to hold it together, but I'd consider it a casserole or side dish and it's one dish made with monster zucchini that really is very good.

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Recipe for Low-Sugar Fat-Free Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

Strawberry frozen yogurt that's so delicious you'll never dream it's fat-free and has no added sugar.

A couple of weeks ago I was at Costco and they had a special on the Cuisinart 1-1/2-Quart Ice Cream Maker, and before you could say Low-Sugar Fat Free Strawberry Frozen Yogurt, one of the ice cream makers was in my cart.  I'm not a big ice cream eater, but for a few years now I've been thinking it might be fun to experiment with sugar-free or low-sugar frozen yogurt.  My first experiment with the new ice cream maker was not a keeper, but this time the frozen yogurt was so good that even my young nephews who were visiting gobbled it up.  Ethan (age 11) told me quite seriously, "You can even say on your blog that it's kid approved, and kids don't usually like ice cream that doesn't have sugar."

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Recipe for Cauliflower-Crust Vegetarian Pizza with Mushrooms and Olives (Low-carb, Gluten-free)

This low-carb and gluten-free Cauliflower-Crust Vegetarian Pizza can be cooked on the grill or in the oven.

Last year I started noticing cauliflower-crust pizza showing up on healthy cooking blogs, but I didn't pay much attention to the idea until a few readers wrote and said they were sure I would love it.   One person sent me a link to this recipe from Eat. Drink. Smile. and that's the one my nephew Jake and I used as our starting point when we decided to experiment with a cauliflower crust.  It took us three different tries and the addition of both almond meal and grated Parmesan cheese to get a crust that we thought was about as crispy and bread-like as you could get when the main ingredient was cauliflower, and we both loved how the final pizza turned out.  I'm not sure this will ever replace regular pizza for some people, but if you'd like to try a pizza crust that's low-carb, gluten-free, and more nutritious than regular crust made with flour, I think you'll be pleased with this version.

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Slow Cooker Recipe for Black Beans with Cilantro

Creamy Black Beans with Cilantro make a great side dish any time of year.

(This easy side dish made in the slow cooker was first posted in 2006 and updated July 2012 with step-by-step photos and better instructions.)  I can't remember where I first saw this recipe, but I jotted it down in a little notebook I carry around to write down ideas for the blog.  Then when I decided to use cilantro in every recipe for a month I remembered this recipe and tried it.  I loved these flavorful black beans that were so easy to cook in the slow cooker without heating up the house.  The dried cilantro that seasons the beans while they cook isn't in any way a substitute for fresh cilantro, but in something like this that's cooked for a long time, it adds a lot of flavor. I get my dried cilantro from Penzeys, but if you don't have dried cilantro, I'd suggest oregano as a substitute.

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Ripe Tomatoes and a Few More Garden Vegetables! (2012 Garden Update #6)

Ripe tomatoes are appearing regularly in the garden.

In my last garden update,  I was excited about the early vegetables and herbs I'd been using from the garden.  Now even more vegetables are showing up, and some precious ripe tomatoes have been making an appearance.  This seems like it's going to be one of my best garden years ever, and I'm guessing it was the rich compost my brother-in-law Clayton tilled into my garden beds plus a very warm spring in Utah that's created all this good garden karma!

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Julienned Zucchini Mock Spaghetti with Quick Sausage, Tomato, and Basil Sauce

Don't think of Zucchini "Spaghetti" as a replacement for pasta, think of it as a delicious zucchini dish!

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  I made this julienned zucchini "spaghetti" over and over after I tried it last summer.)

Have you ever used a Julienne Cutter or a Mandoline Slicer to cut zucchini into thin "spaghetti-like" strands and then served it like pasta?  I have both those handy cooking tools and I certainly have an abundance of zucchini every summer, but I just tried doing that for the first time this week.  I ate my zucchini "spaghetti" with a very tasty quick sauce made from spicy hot Italian sausage, tomatoes, and lots of chopped basil, parsley, and oregano, and completely enjoyed it for a quick dinner.  

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Slow Cooker Recipe for Sriracha-Pineapple Barbecued Chicken Sandwiches with Easy Guacamole

Use the Sriracha-Pineapple Barbecued Chicken on a sandwich, inside a pita pocket, or on a salad.

I know some people think of the slow cooker as only being for cold-weather foods like soup and stew, but truthfully I love my slow cooker just as much in the summer for the way it lets me cook without heating up the house.  This recipe for Sriracha-Pineapple Barbecued Chicken only takes a few hours in the slow cooker, and it's something that would be perfect you're having guests and you'd like an easy main dish that can be eaten outdoors.  The Easy Guacamole is optional, but for me it was the perfect topping for the sandwich.  This would also taste great stuffed inside a pita, or served over greens for a salad.

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Recipe for Kalyn's Power Salad Mix (and the quest to eat more vegetables)

This Power Salad Mix is something I eat regularly for a meatless meal!

For a few months I've been having regular talks with myself about maintaining my weight.  You might remember that when 2012 started, I confessed I had gained some weight, and I'm happy to report that I lost about 12 pounds in the new year when we did that Month of Phase One Recipes.  But for the last few months my weight has been doing that up/down thing again, and lately I'm being honest with myself and admitting that at least half the time I weight about ten pounds more than I really want to.  In addition to losing those ten pounds and keeping them off, I'm also working on a goal of more meatless meals, and I've decided that eating more vegetables, including a big nutrient-rich salad every day, will be a strategy that could be the key to both those goals. 

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Cooking Tips for Gardeners: Cooking with Fresh Parsley

Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad with Parsley and Mint

Even though I grew up with a mom who would nibble the garnish of parsley from her plate when we ate in restaurants, I was well into adulthood before I developed a real appreciation of this grassy-flavored herb.  Now I can't get enough of it, and grow both curly parsley and flat leaf parsley in my garden.  Some cooks adore the flat-leaf Italian parsley and ignore the curly type, but I like both, and actually prefer curly parsley in some salads where it adds an interesting texture.

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Recipe for Grilled Halibut with Cumin and Lime

If you have leftovers of this Grilled Halibut with Cumin and Lime, use it to make fish tacos!

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  This delicious recipe for grilled halibut is something I made regularly back in the days I was organizing houseboat trips, and it's still one of my favorite marinades for grilled fish.)

Imagine you're sitting on the top deck of a houseboat looking out at the beautiful scenery of Utah's gorgeous Lake Powell while you're eating a wonderful dinner featuring this Grilled Halibut with Cumin and Lime.   That's the memory I had when I sat on my deck eating this a few days ago.  The marinade is perfect for halibut, but you can use any kind of mild white fish that's firm enough to stay together on the grill.  And the leftover fish is perfect for making fish tacos (if you have any leftovers!)

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Recipe for Raw Summer Squash Salad with Arugula, Feta, and Herbs

(This recipe is dedicated to the memory of Barbara Harris, who died June 30, 2012)

(On June 30 the food blogging world lost our beloved and courageous Barbara from Winos and Foodies.  Barbara was a beautiful person who touched many lives through her blog and her thoughtful comments and e-mails.  She started blogging in 2005 as a way to stay connected to the world while undergoing chemotherapy, and since that time she has been engaged in a valiant fight against the cancer that finally took her life.  Through all her trials Barbara never complained; in fact she was a constant support for others and brought a little cheer into every life she touched.  Barbara organized yearly events around the theme of yellow foods to raise money for cancer research, and when I posted this recipe for A Taste of Yellow in 2009 her cancer was in remission and we were hoping she had beaten it.  Now with the sad news of her death, I am dedicating this recipe to her memory.  Rest in peace Barbara; your lovely spirit will be greatly missed.)

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Ten Easy Ideas from Kalyn for Vegetables on the Grill

It's grilling season, and here are some healthy options for vegetables on the grill!

It's no secret that I love grilling, but I'm especially a fan of vegetables on the grill.  Partly it's the combination of fresh garden vegetables coupled with a lack of desire to turn on the stove this time of year, but I also think grilling also adds a little extra flavor to most any kind of vegetable.  This week there's a big grilling holiday coming up in the U.S., so for this week's Meatless Monday post I thought it would be fun to share some of my personal favorites for vegetables cooked on the grill.  (All these recipes are things I like so much I might even make them indoors on a stove-top grill pan if it wasn't grilling weather!)

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South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes Round-up for June 2012 (Low-Glycemic Recipes)

Out of all the Phase One Favorites this month, I picked Spicy Cabbage Slaw with Chicken and Cilantro.

The calendar has changed from June to July, and we're officially in the time of year for "summer food."   For me that means veggies from the garden, easy main dish salads, and grilled foods, and that kind of lighter eating makes life a bit easier for anyone who's focusing on Phase One.  Of course, summer also means traveling, which can lead to indulging in foods you'd probably be able to resist at home, so maybe what's needed in the summer is a balance between the fresh seasonal foods that are so diet-friendly and the indulgences when you're traveling.  This round-up of the South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes that I've posted on Kalyn's Kitchen or found on other blogs during June can help you with the light seasonal eating, but you're on your own when it comes to resisting the more indulgent summer foods!

(You can use the label Low-Glycemic Recipe Round-Ups to see all the posts like this one.)

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