Summer Side Dishes

My friend Shannon is awesome! Not only is she one of the sweetest, prettiest and funniest people I know, she is an amazing graphic designer - she designed our wedding invitations!

And she's tough! She She picked up and moved herself from San Diego to Tuscon a few years ago - all by herself! And just when I thought she couldn't get any cooler - she surprised me by making one of my recipes!!

A Sandwich Even I Could Love

After a long day at work, I wasn't feeling like a very creative cook ... until I looked in the fridge and remembered the big bag of yellow squash from my CSA box!

We also had a bag of wheat hamburger buns. So I decided to grill the squash and make a sandwich. It may not sound that exciting, but I can't get over how good it turned out! And I'm not usually a big fan of sandwiches.

Fresh and Delicious MarinaRAW

It's been a few weeks since I've tried any new raw recipes, or even tried to eat raw. I just kind of lost interest with all the effort.

But tonight was the perfect night for a raw meal. It was still pretty warm when I got home and I'm trying to eat lighter after an over-indulgent weekend.

I had a bunch of roma tomatoes and some seaweed noodles so I decided to try and make a raw marinara. There are two different recipes in my raw book, so I made up my own based on the ingredients I had and what sounded good.

I've tried to make cooked marinara with fresh tomatoes in the past and failed. But I think the secret is the addition of sun-dried tomatoes. It adds the depth of flavor you'd get from canned tomato paste - without the BPAs (the resin in the cans that gets broken down by the acidity of the tomatoes).

So, here's how I did it: