For the Love of Food

Ingredients:
2 ripe Avocados, do not use Hass Avocados, they are too small and too fiberous
1/4 Cup Sour Cream
1/2 teaspoon Salt
juice of 1 Lemon
1/2 teaspoon Cumin
1/2 teaspoon Chili Powder

Spoon out the avocado into the blender, discard seed and peel. Add all other ingredients. Purée until smooth and creamy, or blend on a lower intensity for a rougher texture. Add more salt and/or lemon juice if necessary.

*This recipe comes out different every time. The quality of the avocado, the avocado’s origin, and the season will make each avocado different. Therefore your guacamole will turn out slightly different each time. The difference will be very minute, but that is why you may need to adjust salt and lemon juice amount. You may also need or want to add more sour cream.

This Sauce is meant to be a pizza sauce or a dipping sauce for mozzarella sticks

Ingredients:
400g can of Chopped Tomatos (only other ingredient than the tomatos should be salt)
200g Tomato Paste
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon Marjoram, dry
2 teaspoons Basil, dry
2 teaspoons Oregano, dry
1/2 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/2 teaspoon Thyme, dry
1/4 teaspoon Rosemary Powder
1/4 teaspoon Paprika
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground White Pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground Sea Salt

In a blender purée the canned chopped tomatos (with it’s juice) and the tomato paste until mixed completely. Add mixture to a small pot and cook on the stove on low heat. Immediatly add all other ingredients and mix well. Cook for about 3 minutes making sure it does not burn. Because the sauce isso thick, when it bubbles up to boil the bubbles are much larger and pop out. So, makesure to cover the pot.

For a Marinara/dipping sauce for mozzarella sticks, it wouldbe best to substitute the onion powder for a freshly chopped1/4 peice of onion and thegarlic powder for 1 small clove of fresh garlic, crushed. Sautée the onion in 1 Tablespoon of olive oil until soft, then add all other ingredients (including the fresh garlic). I would also recomend cooking it about 10 minutes with the fresh ingredients. I believe this recipe would also be simple to make in the microwave, just please remember to use glass containers. The tomato sauce will stain any plastic.

This is a salad that I made up trying to make a very quick dinner.

Ingredients:
3 leaves of Bib Lettuce, cut up
1 handful of Mangold leaves (other names: Chard, Leaf Beet, Spinach Beet, and Swiss Chard)
10 Rocket leaves (other names: Ruccola, Arugula, and Roquette)
1 hand ful of Field Greens
1/2 a small head of Raddicio, shredded (Raddicio looks like a small, purple, ice berg lettuce)
1/4 cup of Slices and Pickled Red Bell Peppers
a few small green Spanish Olives
1/8 Cup of Almond slivers
1 chicken breast
Your favorit dressing (mine is Cucumber Ranch)
Sea Salt, freshly ground

Directions:
Wash all fresh greens/vegetables, dry, and arange on a plate. In the mean while, in a grill-pan*, grill 1 chicken breast seasoning only with freshly ground sea salt. Cook the chicken breast until done, turning occasionally. Remove from heat when done and let cool. In a small skillet, roast the almond slivers until they get a little toasty brown, but don’t burn. Continue making the salad, adding all other ingredients to the top of the greens. Cut the chicken breat into strips once it has cooled and add to the top of the salad. Then, top off with the toasted almond slivers. Top off with your favorit salad dressing.

*A grill-pan in a pan that has ribs in it so that one can grill indoors on the stove top. I got mine at IKEA for about €12 and it works very well.