Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Summer Eats...

One thing I miss about my summer vacation is that I had a desire to cook/plan out meals. When school starts, dinner becomes a quick/ what do we have/ what do we feel like/ how fast can it be made.

This summer's ingredients of choice were:
-tomatoes
-fresh mozzarella
-fresh basil

I just like how light they are. Perfect for the heat. So I made chicken sandwiches with the mozzarella, basil and tomatoes with balsamic vinegar drizzled on. I got the concept from "Real Simple." I thought it turned out nicely.


When my family was here in February, my mom, Camille, and I went to this little restaurant that we just seriously stumbled upon. I got this pasta dish that had none other than mozzarella, tomatoes and basil. It was amazing! I, sadly, have not gone back to get some more but one summer evening I thought I would have a go at recreating this dish that I have placed on a pedestal.

Here's my take....
Michael said there were too many tomatoes. (Waaah) But I left my plate on the coffee table to get a glass of water and came back to our puppy devouring my food. So, since she liked it so much, I let her finish off my plate and I got a new plate and fork. If she likes it, that's a compliment, right?


...Even if she does eat grass sometimes.

So now, help a girl out. I need some school year worthy/basic meals. Any tips?

8 comments:

  1. Hey, that looks wonderful!

    I love the blog "Our Best Bites." The cookbook that they have is amazing too! There are so many ideas in there and we have loved everything that we have tried.

    Hope life is great!
    Shaunna

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  2. I won't lie, I think everything we eat fits in that quick/easy-to-make category. Costco is a huge help! They have some of the best frozen dinners, like the garlic chicken mixes. Or just hamburgers :) Have your husband talk to Marcus.

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  3. That puppy sure eats good!:) Most dogs just get dog food!

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  4. I recently tried this on our crock-pot: pork roast, claude's sauce and onion dry soup. I just threw them in there in the morning and when i came back the smell and flavor was delish.
    I've also done chicken with just bbq sauce and onions and it came out really good.

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  5. That pasta looks delicious! But I'm with Michael... a few too many tomatoes. I have no ideas for quick easy meals, because I'm always struggling with what to cook. I do like the crock-pot or using the grill. Or there is always take-out!

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  6. We love doing chicken wraps sometimes for a quick, light, easy meal. We marinate the chicken in Brianna's Caesar salad dressing or Brianna's Chipotle Cheddar dressing and then grill it. We use whole wheat tortillas, spinach or lettuce, Parmesan cheese with the Caesar chicken or cheddar cheese with the chipotle dressing, croutons, and top it off with the same dressing you marinated it with. Mmmm...LOVE IT!

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  7. mmm... tomatoes+basil+mozzarella is my FAVORITE combination.

    There's a cookbook called 15 minute meals with 5 ingredients or less that changed my life for a period of time. Quick, easy, not a lot of crap to prepare.

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  8. I LOVE the Real Simple recipes... i totally wanted to try that tomato and basil sandwhich!

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