Tomato, cucumber, and basil salad

It's finally tomato season in Michigan...last week at dinner, Sami brought a tomato salad (tomatoes, basil, and cucumbers from his garden with some fresh mozzarella in a balsamic vinegar dressing) and my sister made the same thing last night (except her version had marinated mozzarella....hmmm good stuff, wish I could get it out here).  This has always been a favorite of mine, so I decided to make my version for dinner with some additional lettuce...it's similar to the cucumber, tomato and avocado salad.

Ingredients:

• 1 large tomato, diced
  
• 10 basil leaves, cut into slices
  
• 1/2 a cucumber, diced
  
• 2 lettuce leaves, cut into slices
  
• 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
  
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  
• salt, black pepper, thyme
  
• 1/4 cup of almonds
  
• 1/3 cup of diced mozzarella
  

I mixed up the olive and vinegar with a little salt, thyme, and black pepper and then tossed with the rest of the ingredients.  It's nice when something that tastes so good only takes like 2 minutes to make.

Grilled tomato and chicken

Over the weekend, two people mentioned grilled tomatoes, which got me wanting to make a grilled tomato sauce.  I grilled up tomatoes and chicken and had them over whole wheat spaghetti (Full Circle Organics whole wheat spaghetti tastes almost like normal pasta, I'm a big fan).  The following recipe makes enough for about 2 servings.  This was really easy.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound chicken breast
  
• 1 large tomato
  
• 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  
• olive oil
  
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
  
• 1/4 cup Burgundy wine (or a sweet, red wine)
  
• grated parmesan/romano cheese
  
• basil, oregano, thyme, salt, black pepper
  

I marinated the chicken in some olive oil, 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, basil, oregano, salt, black pepper, and thyme.  I sliced the tomato into 1/4 inch slices.  I put a little salt and black pepper on the slices.  

I grilled the chicken and when it was mostly done, added the tomatoes to the grill. I grilled the tomato for about 3 minute a side, until they were just about to fall apart. I diced the tomato up, put it in a pan with oil and garlic and sauteed.  I added about 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, basil, oregano, and thyme.  I then added the wine and about 1/4 cup grated cheese.  I then sliced up the chicken and added it to the pan and adjusted the salt.  I topped with some more cheese on top of the pasta.  

Avocado Hummus

Last time I visited Nicole, we had gotten some avocado cilantro hummus from the hummus guy at the farmers market.  It was awesome.  I decided to make my own version of it...it came out great.

I followed my basic hummus recipe and added some lime juice and cilantro and went a little lighter on the garlic.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of chick peas
  
• 1 ripe avocado
  
• 2 tablespoons of tahini paste
  
• Juice of 1 lime
  
• 1/4 cup of lemon juice
  
• 2 tablespoons of cilantro, chopped
  
• sea salt
  
• 1 clove of garlic
• cayenne 
  
• hot paprika
  
• 1/4 cup of water

I put everything into the food processor and blended. I ate it on some tortilla chips with grape tomatoes. Mmmm.