My Buddy Joe

One of my all-time favorite stores is Trader Joe's.

I used to shop there when I lived on Long Island. We had a store open sometime in the late 90's in Commack. When I moved to the Boston area, we had even more Trader Joe's to choose from. When we settled in Connecticut, I had to wait a while before one opened nearby in Danbury...but as soon as it did I was back in the zone!

TJ's has something for everyone, all of it a veritable bargain. We buy all of our coffee there, most of the lunches that my husband takes to work, my beloved salsa that is irreplaceable, countless vegetarian items, oatmeal, the best cornbread mix ever, and so much more.

It works when you want to eat clean and be super-healthy, and there's also plenty for when you just want to be a sloppy mess. I got blindsided this holiday season by something called Jingle Jangle.

Chocolate-covered Joe-Joe (Oreos) pieces, dark and milk chocolate covered pretzels, dark and milk chocolate covered caramel corn, dark and milk chocolate mini peanut butter cups and some crappy fake m&m-type things.

I fell face-first into this can and didn't come up for air until New Year's Day.

Yikes!

Anyway, now that I am back on the wagon I am sticking to the clean-eating options at TJ's...which brings me to cookbook #16 of 99.

I must be really getting old, because here is another book that I can't recall the details of. I think that I had read about it online. There is a website about TJ's that reviews their new products and discusses what has been discontinued there...and yes I realize I sound like a nut when I admit to following such nonsense. What can I say? I've got issues.

So, book was purchased and a few dishes were made. The premise was that all recipes included items that could be purchased at TJ's. I don't recall anything memorable, but I do know that some pretty nasty peanut noodles were consumed and Cooking With All Things Trader Joe's went to live downstairs on the shelf.

Now that my eating habits have changed significantly, I found some more options that appealed to me when I re-read the book. Particularly one called Hearts and Snaps.

This was super-easy to make, and while I did purchase the majority of the ingredients at TJ's the only one that HAS to come from there is the Goddess Dressing.

This stuff is SO good!

The rest of the ingredients can be found anywhere...

Hearts and Snaps Salad

1 cup sliced hearts of palm
1 cup chopped cucumbers
1 cup halved or quartered cherry tomatoes
1 cup sugar snap peas, chopped in thirds
1/4 chopped parsely (cilantro may be substituted - I used cilantro and it was YUM!)
1/4 cup crumbled feta (I used TJ's Reduced-Fat Feta)
1/4 cup goddess dressing

Combine it all in a bowl and toss to blend.

Serves 4, and is considered Cycle 3 on the 17DD. We all really loved this salad, and I would make it for company in a heartbeat! It's considerably more "summery" tasting than a cold-weather dish and it would make a great healthy addition to a picnic or bbq!

How many days left until summer?????

Mastering the Mandoline

I've had a mandoline sitting in my kitchen cabinet for well over ten years.

I don't remember buying it, but I know it was from Kmart because it is Martha Stewart brand. Probably purchased in my newly married, childless phase when I thought old Marth was the last word in all things domestic.

It's been packed and moved, but never thrown away or sold at a tag sale.

I think I tried to use it once. I'm not entirely sure.

Last week…I dug into the back of the pots and pans cabinet and pulled out the old Martha mandoline. I was finally going to make that thing work, or throw it away.

Fortunately, I was successful! It was surprisingly easy and I am still in possession of all ten fingers.

So, can you guess what I made with these?

Yep, you got it! Cucumber salad!

As a kid, I hated cucumber salad. Actually…I probably would have liked it if I had tried it but I was such a fussy pain in the ass that I turned my nose up at it and had never eaten it until I was 41. Yes, you  read that right. I just tried it this year, thanks to my new diet and my German friends.

The (mostly) clean eating has changed my palate for the better and certain vegetables that I had no interest in before have now become my best friends. The idea of cucumber salad was totally appealing at this point, so I was excited to try it out at a fabulous dinner that my friends had made. It was authentically German and consisted of Sauerbraten, spaetzle, red cabbage and cucumber salad. Every bit of it was delicious, but I found myself craving the cabbage and cucumber salad long after the dinner.

Unfortunately the cucumber salad was one of those a little of this and a little of that type of recipes and was not written down. There were only a handful of ingredients, so I just made do and tinkered around.

I texted my friend again and asked about peeling the cucumbers. No quick reply, so I just left the skin on. Of course after I sliced them all I got the response….PEEL THEM! Oh, well!

After slicing the 7 cucumbers, I put them in a colander and sprinkled with kosher salt. I let them sit for about 30 minutes and then squeezed out the excess liquid. I added 1/4 cup white vinegar, 2 tablespoons of canola oil and pepper. The salt I added was enough and I didn't need to add more.

Mixed it all up and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.

I am assuming my guesswork was on target. I know this because my 11 year old son…who loves hamburgers and ice cream more than anything else…ate THREE helpings of cucumber salad. Then asked for it again the next day. When the container was empty…he asked me to make more!

So there you have it. Healthy, kid-friendly, perfect for hot weather.