Israeli Chopped Salad

Summer is young and I can already tell it's going to be a hot one. I'm all skirts and tank tops during the week, and headed to the mountains for cooler air on the weekend. You know that saying "cool as a cucumber?" I think I know why they say that: when it's blazing hot outside, cucumbers are the best thing for cooling you down. 

Actually all of the flavors in this salad will cool you down: heirloom cherry tomatoes, freshly squeezed lemon juice, parsley, and crunchy radishes. 

Chopped Israeli Salad

Paleo, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free,    |   Caitlin Sherwood    

Fresh, cooling — just the salad you need this summer.

Serves: 8   |    Total Time: 20 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1 cucumber
• 1 pint of heirloom cherry tomatoes (regular cherry tomatoes will work as well)
• 1/4 cup parsley (Change it up: minced parsley or basil also work well)
• 5 radishes
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Wash the vegetables and dice into 1-centimeter pieces. Toss in a large salad bowl. Mince parsley.
2. Drizzle with olive oil, balsamic, lemon juice. Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Toss to combine again. Serve.

Tuna Power Salad

Long lunch tables were puzzle-pieced together in the the Mesa Elementary cafeteria just so. They were the kind with benches attached to them, and each measured at least 14 feet long. Three of them together must’ve held something like 70 children, with ease. 

A long line would form where food was served, single-file, except for when a kid dodged to the side, trying to get a sneak peak at what was getting served that day. It was a line I barely knew—lunch was packed, just about every day, by my mom or my dad. 

The menu of the day almost always included leftovers, for me. Leftover pasta salad, leftover chicken, leftover sushi. Some people dislike eating leftovers but I never did, aside from the slight embarrassment I felt when kids asked what I was eating. Looking back they were probably just genuinely curious, but when you’re 7, explaining yourself can feel like the most painful thing in the world. Um… it’s called pomegranate. The other kids: It looks like a brain. 

Despite my fancy sack lunches, my palate could never get over the taste of canned tuna. Gross! I’d opt for salmon salad over tuna and steer far away from anyone that tried to turn it into a sandwich. Crackers were my vehicle of choice. I supposed I set myself up for being asked why my tuna salad was pink.  

I eventually learned to like tuna salad, the way everyone else learned what a pomegranate was. 

Tuna Power Salad

Paleo, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free,    |   Caitlin Sherwood    

A little sweet and a little savory! Cranberries, apples and walnuts make this tuna salad a star.

Serves: 2   |    Total Time: 20 minutes

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Ingredients:

For the tuna:

• 2 cans of tuna
• 2 tablespoons paleo mayo or, for primal version, yogurt
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons minced onion
• 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
• Salt & Pepper to taste

For the salad:

• 4 leafs red lettuce
• 1 cup cabbage, sliced thin
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1/2 cup diced cucumber
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1 apple, diced
• Optional: squeeze of lemon juice and drizzle of olive oil
• 1 apple, diced

Directions:

1. Drain water from cans of tuna and place fish in a bowl. Mash with mayo/yogurt, mustard, onion, and poppy seeds. Add salt & pepper to taste.
2. Arrange lettuce on 2 plates. Pile a scoop of tuna salad over lettuce on each plate. Arrange remaining salad ingredients around tuna salad.
3. I like to mix everything together when I eat this, which means I don’t really need a salad dressing, but if you want one, or you prefer to not mix everything together on your plate, drizzle the vegetables with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Double Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix Recipe

Utah captured my heart this Spring. Spring in Utah is a funny thing-- not really spring, March in the desert is more like half winter and half summer.  

When the morning wakes you, you’ll find your sleeping bag pulled as high around your head as it can go, covering your cheeks and leaving just enough space so to breath. Eventually, motivated by the thought of coffee, or tea, or anything warm, you'll peek out, and see the snow, still coming down in oversized flakes that fall impossibly slow. Lighting that two-burner camping stove will never sound so good.  

Outside, there is a different view in every direction, but all of them will make you feel small — just a tiny human, standing on a slice of something far too large to imagine. Cliffs, a deep crimson color, tower above. They sit gallantly on piles of sand, like the earth's version of sandcastles, displaying layer on layer of dirt. Each layer seems to expose something about the world, every band of sand marking an era of the past. At their feet grow short and twisted juniper trees, struggling to grow.  

When the water boils, and you pull it from the stove, the pot will spout a tower of steam into the air above, melting the snow as it falls. When you turn around, you’ll see a mountain range all Coloradans know well, crisp and white, capped with ice. They look bigger from Utah, surrounded by flat plains, deep rifts, and the occasional rock spire. You’ll know what I mean when you see it for yourself: it’s as if those mountains scrape the clouds off of the sky, catching them on their peaks and hanging on.  

The snow will eventually stop (it’s spring, after all), and the unshielded sun will melt every white patch away. The desert sand will suck up any moisture that remains, and by 10 the ground will be dry again, as if nothing happened. That's when you’ll sit back in a folding chair, a rich mug of homemade hot chocolate in hand.  

There is nothing to feel other than awe. Belittled by the jagged, barren canyons and cliffs on one side, humbled by the majestic peaks to the other. Small-- small and awestruck. 

Here is a beverage to drink on those chilly mornings at camp, or around the campfire in the evening — Double chocolate Hot Cocoa. It’s made with bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder (that’s the “double” part). Dehydrated milk adds creaminess, so even when you’re out exploring you don’t have to remember the milk! Though, if you are are really prepared, top your mug with a dollop of whipped  cream or marshmallows, and consider a splash of whiskey. Sitting around the campfire has never been so sweet!

Double Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix Recipe

Published March 27, 2016 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 8   |    Active Time: 20 minutes

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Ingredients:

1-3 tablespoons coconut sugar (depending on how sweet you would like your cocoa — 1 for not very sweet, 3 for more sweet)

Pinch salt

1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup dehydrated non-fat milk powder

To make cocoa: 8 ounces of water; and whipped cream or marshmallows for serving

Directions:

1. Place coconut sugar, salt, and chocolate in blender or food processor and pulse until a fine powder is formed.
2. Add cocoa powder and milk powder, and pulse blender again, just until everything is incorporated.
3. Store cocoa mix in a air-tight jar.
4. To make cocoa: Bring 8 ounces of water to a boil. Whisk 2 heaping tablespoons of cocoa mix with the water until dissolved. (To get the froth shown in the images, use a hand-held milk aerator). Pour cocoa into mug, and top with whipped cream or marshmallows as desired.