My husband and I are part of a co-op. Pre-baby I kept my own garden, but after last years poor yeild, we made the decusion that it would be best to let the experts handle growing while I focused my new role on motherhood, instead.

So far it's been great. All I have to do is put the baby in the stroller and walk a few blocks to pick up our share. For anyone not able to plant their own garden, for whatever reason, this certainly is a great alternative. Plus, you support your local farmers.

One of our shares had fresh Michigan strawberries. Whenever I have an abudance of strawberries I try to find creative ways to use them. I love putting berries in a salad because it's a great way to get your greens and your fruit, not to mention it gives the salad a sweet kick.

This strawberry poppyseed salad goes great with any summer main course. I think I served steak, but you could certainly serve it with fish or chicken or whatever you would like!!

You could always buy a poppyseed dressing but after reading the labels I figured it would be easier (not to mention cheaper) to just make it myself. Be careful, read the labels. Some claim to be 'all natural'....only to contain high fructose corn syrup. How is that 'natural' again?

Strawberry Poppyseed Salad with Chevre and Candied Pecans

8 oz. leafy greens or butter lettuce

1/2 cup- 1 cup strawberries, cut up

4 oz chevre cheese

1/2 cup candied pecans, for the recipe, click here.

Poppy seed dressing

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/3 cup canola oil

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard or 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

salt/pepper

Directions:

Whisk together vinegar, mustard, and sugar. Slowly drizzle in the oil while whisking. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Add poppy seeds and whisk again. You can also put in a small blender- just add all the ingredients together reserving the poppy seeds for after blending.

Mediterranean Salad with Beef Tenderloin and Couscous Cakes

Last week, I found myself with an entire half of beef tenderloin. For some reason, my husband and I thought an entire tenderloin would barely feed 6. What were we thinking?

So there I was trying to rack my brain of all the recipes I could make with the leftovers to free my conscience of wasting food. I came up with a Mediterranean salad with tenderloin slices and couscous cakes.

I happen to love Mediterranean food, but now that I’m home full time, we don’t go out to dinner much. So I have been teaching myself how to make it at home. Had I known how easy it was….I would have started this a long time ago!

The couscous cakes remind me of a falafel. If you don’t know what that is, it’s like a fried chickpea cake (sorry I don’t know the exact ingredients) but these cakes are crispy on the outside and tender and moist on the inside plus full of great proteins from the chickpeas.

This is such a hearty salad with the feta, olives, cucumber, couscous cakes, and tenderloin that I may find myself eating more of this. It comes together quickly and it’s great for a weeknight meal or for a lazy weekend meal---all on the patio of course!

Tip: If you want to dip your couscous cakes in hummus, check out my homemade recipe here!

Mediterranean Mix Green Salad
1 bag mix greens
1 cup arugula
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
½ English cucumber, chopped
½ cup feta cheese
¼ cup kalamata olives
1 filet sliced

Greek Yogurt Dressing
1 tablespoon Greek yogurt (I used 0% Fage)
½ cup olive oil (I used Chef’s Choice Katz and Co.)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (I used Katz and Co.)
2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon chopped mint

Kosher salt/freshly ground black pepper

Directions: In a small bowl wisk all the ingredients together until fully combined

Couscous Cakes
¾ cup couscous
¾ cup water
¾ cup canned chickpeas, drained (garbanzo beans)
¼ cup parsley, fresh, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 eggs
Zest of 1 lemon

Directions:
In a medium saucepan boil water. Add couscous and stir quickly, then cover and remove from heat. Let sit about 4 minutes and then fluff with a fork.

Meanwhile, in a food processor, add chickpeas, parsley and garlic. Give it a rough chop. You don’t want to puree this you want to have some chunks.

In a large bowl combine couscous, chickpea mixture, eggs and zest. Stir until combined.

With a ¼ measuring cup, pack the couscous mixture inside, and invert it to remove the cake. Set aside and continue with the rest of the mixture. You should get about 8 or 9.

In a medium sized skillet, add a few tablespoons of olive oil on medium high heat. Once pan is HOT, then add your couscous cakes and cook on each side until golden brown (about a couple of minutes).

Remove and set on paper towels.

Muffaletta Roll-Up

I was glued to Martha Stewart this week because she was featuring “Lunch Week”. Now that I have been home full time, I’ve been caught in a rut of making quesadilla’s everyday (my favorite). So Martha, the resourceful woman she is, featured different restaurateurs on her show to share some of their favorite sandwiches etc from their menus. When I saw Sean Rembold of Brooklyn's Marlow and Sons put together his muffaletta Panini with olive salad….I was totally hooked.

First of all, I love Italian food. Second, I love Italian subs. Strangely though, in spite of all that, the furthest I have gone at home to making an Italian sandwich was to throw salami on a piece of bread with some cheese. I know, despicable really.

So looking at this recipe I was quite amused because it was all lunch meats I have never even heard of. Ordinarily, I may have looked at something like this and been scared off, but the fact that it was paired with the olive salad (I’m absolutely mad about olives) made me run out to the store that afternoon to gather all the ingredients.

I altered the olive salad recipe, just because that is what I do. I didn’t make it into a Panini because I was taking the sandwich with me while I was on the go so I put it in a spinach lavash. It’s the perfect little sandwich….and certainly better than my boring old salami sandwiches and quesadillas!

Muffaletta Panini
Recipe from Sean Rembold of Brooklyn's Marlow and Sons

Olive Salad (Recipe to follow)
2 lavash pitas
4 ounces sliced mortadella
2 1/2 ounces sliced hot sopressata
2 ounces sliced finocchiona salami
2 ounces sliced coppa
4 ounces sliced provolone or fontina cheese
1/4 pound arugula, preferably wild
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt

Directions:
Spread olive salad over cut sides of bread.
Layer the sandwhich with desired amount of meat and cheese, top with arugula and olive salad. Drizzle with olive oil. Roll up in a lavash pita or put on desired kind of bread.


OLIVE SALAD

Ingredients:
¼ cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
3/4 pound green olives, chopped
3 tablespoons chopped pickled red peppers
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
3 tablespoon sliced fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, sliced
1 tablespoon picked fresh thyme
Hot sauce, such as Tabasco
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:
In a medium-size bowl, mix together both olives, anchovies, red pepper, and lemon juice. In a small bowl, whisk together oil and vinegar. Pour over olive mixture and add oregano, thyme, and parsley; toss to combine. Season with Tabasco, salt, and pepper. Cover and transfer to refrigerator; chill overnight before using.

Chicken Napoleons and Girls Night In

Whenever my husband is out of town, some of my favorite things to do is to rent movies he will never watch with me, polish my nails, and eat whatever I want (sometimes this means eating popcorn for dinner).

While I was watching my movie on my 'Girls night in', my big bowl of popcorn just wasn't cutting it, so I wandered into the kitchen in search of something better. (This usually means standing in front of the refrigerator with the door open waiting for the food to talk to me. Yes...food talks to me.) Then I remembered Giada on the Food Network making chicken napoleons earlier that week, and I quickly realized I had everything I needed right in front of me.

Don't you love it when that happens?

I don't know about you, but anything with avocado has my name on it...paired with puff pastry and cayenne pepper? Um....okay?!

Chicken Napoleons

Recipe courtesy of: Giada De Laurentiis, Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:

1 puff pastry sheet, defrosted

2 oz. thinly sliced cooked chicken (I used a left over rotisserie chicken)

1/2 avocado, thinly sliced

1 cup fresh spinach leaves

3 tablespoons reduced fat mayonnaise (or use smart balance or the olive oil mayo)

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut puff pastry into 6 rectangles. Place pastry on the prepared baking sheets and poke with a fork all over. Place another sheet of parchment paper on top of the puff pastry and put another baking sheet in top. (You want the baking sheet to sort of smash the puff pastry down so that it doesn't puff up.) Bake for 25 minutes and cool completely before assembling.

Meanwhile, mix the mayo and cayenne pepper together. Slice the avocado and chicken into pieces.

To assemble the sandwich, start with one piece of pastry, spread the mayo and cayenne mixture on, top with spinach leaves, chicken, and avocado slices. Then, top with another piece of pastry, and repeat layering process ending with another piece of pastry. (There will be a total of 3 pieces of pastry per sandwich.

Enjoy!!