I love the spring! I get so depressed during the winter when the skies are gloomy, the weather is cold, and I don’t get to enjoy the outdoors. But when spring comes, it means picnics and hikes and sun! We took our first hike of the year on Monday at Twin Falls, about an hour away from us. It was a low enough elevation that there wasn’t any snow, and we did 6 miles in about 2 hours which is a lot better than I thought I’d be able to do. I had a doctor unofficially diagnose me with exercise induced asthma in Middle School, but my parents decided that it wasn’t very bad and they didn’t want me to use an inhaler or be labeled as an asthmatic. It was never a problem in Hawaii unless I tried to run and even then I’d do okay if I took some breathing breaks.
Another great thing about weather warming up is that it’s heading toward crop season! We are going to be doing our first CSA! It’s a small one; we are friends with a family at church who owns a farm and are trying out doing a CSA for the first time this year, with four families buying in. I’m really excited to be getting fresh, organic, locally grown produce as well as supporting someone we care about. They’ve given us lots of zucchinis and cucumbers before and they were delicious! I stopped by a farm stand near us on Tuesday and was a little disappointed that it seemed like the produce section of a grocery store with produce from all over the place. But the prices were good and I got some fun yellow tomatoes and little tiny red potatoes, so here’s what I made for our vegetarian dinner. By the way, I made the tomato salad with 2 cloves of garlic and loved it, but Eric said it was a little too strong so I just said one in the recipe. For the potatoes use the garlic and parmesan as you like it, since it’s being cooked using 2 cloves wasn’t as strong in it as in the potatoes. I only used 1 TBS of parmesan but you can use 2 if you want it more cheesy!
Tomato and Avocado Saladserves 2
Ingredients
2 yellow tomatoes chopped
1 red tomato chopped
1/2 avocado chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1 TBS lemon juice
2 TBS olive oil
1 TBS fresh chopped basil (or 1 tsp dried)
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Combine tomatoes, avocado, and garlic in a medium sized bowl. In a small bowl whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour over salad and stir to combine. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. Stir again before serving.
Parmesan and Garlic Oven Potatoesserves 2
Ingredients
5 tiny red potatoes
1-2 cloves garlic minced
2 TBS olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 TBS fresh grated parmesan
Instructions
Turn your broiler on. Chop the potatoes into small bite size pieces. In a baking dish, mix potatoes with garlic, oil, salt and pepper. Place potatoes under the broiler for 5 minutes. Stir and test one, if it’s still a little crunchy put them back in another 3-5 minutes. Remove when golden and slightly crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Sprinkle with parmesan and serve.
Take it easy. Good thing in trying to build up your cardiovascular system. You’ll better over time.
I want some of that salad. I love avocados, if I haven’t mentioned it yet. =) With those potatoes, yum!!
my husband just walked in and said wow what’s that looks good!
The tomato avocado salad sounds delicious… and the potatoes look great, too!
Those yellow tomatoes are gorgeous and the salad sounds perfectly refreshing. Love the potatoes too!
Hiking! Lucky you. 🙂 I’m really excited for your CSA experience. One of these days we’ll feel financially secure enough to shell out the initial lump sum. In the meantime, I will cheer on from the side lines!