Gently Toss Together:
3 cooked beets, cubed
1 Romaine Heart or Endive lettuce, shredded
1 apple, cored, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon chopped red onion

Dressing:
Whisk together and pour over salad:
Juice of 1 lemon
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard
Salt & Pepper

Top With:
4 ounces whole, pitted black olives and crumbled feta cheese

Left-Over Rice Salad will bring out your hidden chef, because you’re creating a new recipe each time you make it. It’s also a good choice for a picnic, because there’s no mayonnaise, which can easily spoil in the heat. Kids love to help. Let them add ingredients and toss the salad.

For Left-Over Rice Salad,
Zach adds some parsley
from his garden on the deck.

Begin by opening up the refrigerator to see what’s there.

1. For the base you’ll need:
4 cups of already cooked brown or wild rice (1 cup per person)
Add: 3 sliced green onions (or ¼ cup other onions, chopped)
½ chopped pepper (green, red, yellow or orange)
½ cup chopped celery

2. Then add any of the following:
1 to 2 cups cup of chopped left-over chicken or turkey
1 small can of sliced black olives (or ¼ cup chopped green olives)
1 small jar of drained artichoke hearts
1 chopped carrot
1 or 2 crumbled hard-boiled eggs
Grated cheese, any kind
Handful of raisins or currents
Handful of chopped nuts

3. Toss with a vinegar and oil dressing.
Serve at once or chill for later.

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In the heat of summer, cool food sounds especially yummy.  Fortunately, the very season that brings on the heat is also responsible for providing us with an abundant supply of fruits and vegetables.

Salads can be prepared, often with little or no cooking, to satisfy the summertime craving for something light and cool. The salads requiring a little cooking can be prepared in the cool of the morning, before it heats up. Another benefit of summertime salad is that you’ve done all the work early, so when you return exhausted from the beach or pool, dinner is ready to serve!

Lentil and 3-Grain Mexican Salad salads are a nice refreshing change from a tossed salad.

If you have a picky eater, be sure to have him/her help you prepare these dishes. Teach older children how to cut veggies. Younger ones can help incorporate ingredients.

Lentil Salad
Ingredients
1 cup green lentils
Salt & pepper
½ onion, chopped
1 rib celery chopped
1 bay leaf
1 small carrot chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
¼ cup chopped parsley
16 ounces vegetable broth
Luke Xavier is having summer fun.

Add in after the salad has cooled:
1 chopped tomato
¼ cup chopped parsley
1 rib celery chopped
Juice from ½ lemon

Method
1. Sauté the onion, carrot, and celery in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the garlic and parsley.
2. Sort and rinse the lentils. Add the lentils and the rest of the vegetable broth to the pot and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook until tender all the way through (Add more water if necessary.), about 45 minutes.
3. Cool the lentil salad. Just before serving, toss the lentils with the lemon juice, salt, and fresh-ground black pepper. Add in chopped tomato, celery and parsley. Stir to combine. If the lentils stick together, add a bit more vegetable broth.

Super-Duper Fast Method for Lentil Salad
Enjoy Lentil Soup One night and Lentil Salad Another

1. Make Lentil Soup. Click Here for the recipe.
2. Scoop out half the lentils with a slotted spoon.
3. Toss the lentils with the lemon juice, salt, and fresh-ground black pepper.
4. Add chopped tomato, celery and parsley. Stir to combine. If the lentils stick together, add a bit more vegetable broth.

3-Grain Mexican Salad
Ingredients
½ cup brown rice
½ cup barley
½ can each red kidney and black beans (or one can of mixed beans), drained
1 cup frozen or canned corn
2½ ounces sliced black olives
1 red or green Bell pepper
½ cup chopped cilantro
½ cup chopped green onions
1 clove finely minced garlic
½ cup red wine vinegar
½ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
½  teaspoon each  salt and pepper
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Optional: 2 ounces diced green chilies for a little heat. Garnish with tomato and avocado wedges.

Method
1. Cook the barley and rice in 2 cups of water for about 40 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed.
2. Rinse and drain the beans (and corn if using canned)
3. In a large bowl combine the cooked barley, rice with the corn and beans, chopped onions and Bell pepper.
4. In a small bowl or glass measuring cup, whisk together the vinegar, olive oil garlic, minced garlic, chili powder, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Pour over salad, toss, and refrigerate.

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¼ red onion thinly sliced
2 tomatoes cut into wedges
1 cucumber halved and sliced
¼ cup (about half of a 6 ounce can) pitted ripe olives drained
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice (about the juice of one lemon)
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
Freshly ground pepper

Method:
Combine all ingredients.
Cover and refrigerate several hours.
Serve with a slotted spoon

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Rainbow Salad:

2 cups each (sliced like coleslaw):
Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and red cabbage
Optional: Raisins and Sunflower seeds
Chopping Hint: If you don’t have a food processor, you can still make slaw easily. Coarsely chop veggies. Place about 2 cups of veggies in a blender at a time. Cover or float the veggies with water. Process on a slow speed, until the veggies are chopped to the constancy you like. Drain.

Toss with Ranch Dressing:
Place all dressing ingredients in a blender and process until smooth:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup whole milk and a tablespoon of lemon juice)
1 tablespoon dried parsley (or chopped fresh parsley)
1 large clove garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
¼ teaspoon onion powder
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Chill and Serve

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3 to 4 medium peeled apples (any kind) chopped in small ½ inch pieces
1 tablespoon lemon juice
5 good sized carrots grated
1 cup raisins
½ cup mayonnaise (Mayonnaise spoils easily, a ¼ cup lemon juice and a tablespoon of honey may be substituted when making this salad for lunch bags or picnics.)

Directions
1) In a medium sized bowl mix tablespoon of lemon juice with the chopped apples. Stir to prevent browning.
2) Mix in the grated carrots, raisins, and mayonnaise or balance of lemon juice and honey.
3) Stir well. Serve chilled.

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This Five Cup Fruit Mold is not only yummy, but good for you, too!

Five Cup Fruit Mold

You’ll need:

2 11-ounce mandarin orange segments, rinsed and drained
1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained (reserve juice)
1/2 cup water
2 cups pealed and sliced bananas
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin (or 2 tablespoons of Great Lakes Gelatin –beef unflavored)
2 cups plain yogurt
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup honey or agave
1 cup chopped walnuts

Pictured: Fruit Mold with chopped cherries.

Optional: 1/2 cup chopped pitted cherries. If you want a pink fruit mold, put the cherries and the reserved pineapple juice in a blender and process. Then add and mix in the bowl with the other ingredients.

1) Combine drained orange and pineapple segments and bananas.

2) Stir gelatin, water, and juices reserved from the pineapples in a small pan. Heat until the gelatin dissolves. Add the honey and stir.

3) Blend in yogurt and mayonnaise with wire whip, until smooth. Add gelatin mixture to fruits and yogurt and stir in walnuts.

4) Pour into a 5-cup mold or bowl. Chill until set (2 to 4 hours)

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Don’t know what kind of sandwich to make without nitrate-filled luncheon meats?

You can make delicious sandwiches for a school lunch or for a picnic. Be sure to pack with an ice pack. Not only are these sandwiches nitrate-free, but they’re less expensive than processed meats!

This recipe makes 4 sandwiches and works equally well for egg or chicken or tuna salad sandwiches.

These sandwiches are made using the same method:

1½ cups of either chicken (you may use canned chicken), 12 ounces chunk light tuna, or 4 hardboiled eggs. Finely chop the eggs, chicken, or tuna. In a mixing bowl, add ¼ cup each chopped celery and ¼ cup green onion or onion, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, ½ cup mayonnaise, 2 teaspoons mustard, ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper

Spread the mixture on four slices of toasted whole-grain bread. Top with sliced tomatoes; place a second piece of bread on top.

Mmmm. Tasty and nutritious

One hardboiled egg yields 2 boats.

Begin with 1 hardboiled egg. Have your child help peel it. Talk about the shell, how hard it is and how the shell comes off the egg. How does the white outside of the egg feel? Cut the egg in half lengthwise. The center yolk is a pretty yellow. Remove the yolk together with a spoon and place it in a small bowl.

Then mix in: 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon mustard, add a dash of salt and pepper.

Have your child wash a cucumber, discussing how it feels bumpy and the deep green color. Cut two thin round slices of cucumber; then cut the round slices of cucumbers into triangles. You’ll be using the cucumber slices for sails. Remember to reinforce how yummy cucumbers are.

Then cut two thin julienne slices of a carrot. Carrots are orange and make a great mast as they are firm enough to hold up the cucumber sail. Thread the carrot through the cucumber triangles to attach the sail.

With your child, replace yolk mixture in the hardboiled egg center and place a sail in each boat.

Encourage your child like Betty Baby Bites, the little character who loves to give words of support to others in my book, Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater. She often says, “Bravo!”

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup each of cooked barley, brown rice, and defrosted corn.

1 15 oz can rinsed and drained black beans, ½ cup chopped green onions (about 6), 1 red bell pepper, and ¼ cup chopped cilantro. Add 2½ ounces drained sliced black olives.

In a small bowl or glass measuring cup, whisk together ½ cup extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar, ½ teaspoon each salt and black pepper and 1 clove finely minced garlic. Add ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes and 1 teaspoon chili powder for a little heat. Toss with the grains and refrigerate.

Boun appetito! Fill your kids with love; give them a hug before they go off to school.

(This recipe is also found in Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater.)