Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 1 peach, halved


• cooking spray


• 2 cups greens (kale, swiss chard, lettuce, etc.)


• 2 T white wine vinegar


• 1 T olive oil


• 1/2 t honey


• 1/2 avocado


• pinch each sea salt & cayenne pepper

Coat a grill pan with cooking spray and place peach halves face down over medium- high heat. Once the peaches have started to soften and grill marks appear (about 10 minutes), flip and cook an additional 5 minutes or so. Remove from heat. Take your greens and tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Drizzle with white wine vinegar, olive oil, and honey. Toss to coat evenly. Dice avocado and arrange over greens with peaches. Sprinkle with sea salt and cayenne. Enjoy!

• 6 cups (approx.) cucumber cut into small bite sized spears
• 1/2 cup vinegar (I mixed apple cider vinegar and red wine vinegar)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more or less - depending on how spicy you want it)
• Salt (about 1 teaspoon - more or less to taste)

Instructions:

Cut cucumber into small bite sized pieces. Thinner is better so the vinegar can soak in. (You can remove the skin or seeds if you wish, but it's not necessary.)

In a separate bowl, combine vinegar, olive oil, red pepper flakes, and salt. Whisk together to combine. Pour the vinegar mixture over the cucumbers and toss.

Let stand (refrigerated) for several hours, or overnight - the flavors of the vinegar and red pepper flakes will soak into the cucumber. Then enjoy!

*You can switch out the red pepper flakes for other herbs like dill or parsley. You can also add other veggies to this salad just before serving - like olives or cherry tomatoes.

• One medium-sized Eggplant
• 4-5 Whole Garlic cloves
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Basil leaves
• White pepper (optional)

Preheat oven at 400 degrees. Peel and cube eggplant. Toss generously with olive oil and about 4-5 garlic cloves. Salt to taste. Roast for about 35-40 mins. Once fully cooked and soft transfer to a food processor adding ~4 basil leaves. Pulse until smooth. I added white pepper at the end for a little kick.

Serve with crudités or crostinis. Yum!

Thanks Eryka!

• 3 Tbsp Peanut Oil
• 1 Yellow Onion (Thinly Sliced)
• 1 Head of Lettuce (Sliced)
• 3-5 slices of Bacon or Pancetta (cubed)
• 1 Tbsp Rosemary
• Salt and Pepper

Heat oil in a wok on low heat and add onion. Cook for 3-5 minutes until softened but not colored. Add bacon and fry until cooked (around 3 to 5 minutes). Throw in lettuce and let steam for 3 minutes. Add rosemary and salt and pepper to taste. Mix together and saute for an additional 3 minutes or until desired consistency.

Enjoy!

Christine says: You can really throw anything in here, I just used what I had. I love this salad because its very crunchy and filling.

Salad:

• 2-3 cups of shredded napa cabbage
• 1/2 thinly sliced up red onion  (or scallion if that's what you have)
• 1-2 roma tomato chopped
• 1 cucumber chopped
• 1 tbs of toasted sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 1/3 cup crispy noodles (I bought them at Trade Fair on 30th avenue)

Dressing:

• 2 tbs rice vinegar
• 2 tbs low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tbs agave nectar
• 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Put the almonds and crispy noodles on the side

Mix up all other salad ingredients. Mix dressing ingredients together, and then add into salad and mix. You can let this sit for a few minutes if you want. When you're ready to eat, add the almonds and crispy noodles for maximum crunchiness.

serves 4

Ingredients:

• 8 oz uncooked macaroni or other pasta, preferably whole wheat or whole wheat blend pasta
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 cup 1% low-fat milk
• 2 oz (about 4 Tbsp) 1/3-less-fat neufchatel cream cheese
• 1 cup freshly grated 50% reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup freshly grated gruyere cheese (can sub in any good melting cheese, such as monterey jack)
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 – 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper, or more depending on heat preference
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1.  Cook pasta according to package directions.
2.  Meanwhile, whisk together and heat pumpkin puree and milk in a medium saucepan over medium    heat until hot.
3.  Reduce stove heat to low. Whisk in cheeses until fully melted.
4.  Stir in nutmeg and cayenne. Season with salt and pepper.
5.  Stir drained pasta into the pumpkin-cheese sauce and mix until thoroughly combined.
6.  At this point, the mac & cheese might appear a bit soupy. If this is the case, let the mixture sit off of the heat for a few minutes. The cheese sauce will firm up as it slightly cools.
7.  Serve with an extra dusting of nutmeg, if desired.

• 1 lb fava, shelled and boiled until soft, (about 20 minutes)
• 1/2 C farrow, boiled with salt, until soft (about 20 minutes - could use any grain of choice, rice, quinoa, bulgur, etc)
• Red wine vinegar (approximately 3 tablespoons)
• Good olive oil
• Very thinly sliced red onion (although if I had had scallion that would have been my first choice)
• Medium tomato cut into small pieces
• Small jar artichoke hearts (optional)
• Generous amount of black pepper
• Feta Cheese, crumbled on top
• Lettuce torn into small pieces

Drain the cooked farrow and fava and add oil & vinegar, and toss. I also cut the fava beans in half at this point, in part for aesthetics, and because the skins are tough. Cut up the tomato and add to the mixture, along with vinegar (if using).  Add the pepper and toss again. Add artichoke hearts at this point, or you could also try capers, cut up pickles, roasted red peppers of what you have ...

Put your lettuce on a plate and heap salad on top, then top with feta.

• 2 medium squash
• jalapeno
• kalamata olives (large handful)
• 2 potatoes (sweet recommended)
• 1 small onion; 3 garlic scapes
• 1 large kohlrabi
• dandelion greens (.25 lbs)
• 1/4 cup pepper jack cheese
• 1/2 cup low-fat mozzarella cheese
• olive oil

Directions:
- Cook 2 medium sized potatoes (I typically used the microwave setting as it is a lot faster)
- Put dandelion greens in boiling water for 10 minutes; run under cold water to stop from cooking
- Dice squash, onion; scapes; kohlrabi
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Heat saute pan to medium heat; add olive oil and cook squash, onion, scapes, and kohlrabi for about 10 minutes
- Add dandelion greens and skinned and chopped potatoes to mixture and cook another 5 minutes
- Dice jalapeno (de-seeded) and olives
- Cut up pepper jack into small slices and shred mozzarella
- Lightly spray a caserole pan and add saute mixture; top with jalapenos and olives; top with cheeses
- Bake for 10 minutes (or longer if you like cheese well done)
- Enjoy!

• 1 whole wheat pizza dough*
• 1 large kohlrabi
• 1 red onion
• 1 large squash
• sundried tomatoes
• gorgonzola cheese
• part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 2 garlic scapes
• extra virgin olive oil
• good balsamic

*I purchased whole wheat pizza dough from a random pizza place in Manhattan.  It was $6 for the dough and it worked great. 

Directions:

- Heat oven to 450 degrees
- Coat pizza pan (or baking sheet) with either flour or corn starch to avoid sticking
- Peel the kohlrabi and cut into dime-sized pieces
- Cut onion and squash into small pieces
- Dice garlic scapes
- Place the cut veggies into a pre-heated saute pan with a little olive oil and stir-fry for about 10-12 minutes on medium heat
- Roll dough or get 'ol school pizza-guy and twirl through the air
- Place dough on floured pizza pan
- Spread veggies on pizza pan and add sundried tomatoes, a little gorgonzola, and mozzarella (which is great for holding everything in place)
- Depending on your oven, bake for 12-15 minutes
- Take out, let cool for a few minutes, cut into desired slice size, and sprinkle with some good balsamic vinegar

• Fresh mint leaves
• Sliced cucumber
• White sugar
• Tonic water
• Gin (Kristen recommends Bombay or Hendricks)
• Ice cubes

In an air-tight container place sliced cucumber and whole mint leaves. Sprinkle with white sugar and shake gently. Cover cucumber and mint with gin. Let mixture soak in refrigerator for 2+ hours (best if it sits overnight). Serve with equal parts tonic water and ice. Garnish with fresh cucumber and mint sprig!

Kristen McCarty