I made a trip to Trader Joe’s today. I absolutely love to buy my food there because there are always so many new foods to try, and they have fresh produce at low prices. Today when I pulled up, I saw that they had beautiful basil plants for only $2.99. I have tried to grow basil in the past without much luck. When I tried to grow it indoors, I pruned it incorrectly then forgot to have someone water it when I left town for a week. When I planted it in my outdoor herb garden, my dog decided he liked the taste of basil and pulled the entire plant out (this happened twice!). Fortunately, I had read up on how to pick basil over on Prudent Baby yesterday, so I decided to give it another try.
Caprese Salad is one of my summer favorites. It is fresh, easy and delicious! You can change it up any way you like, but the basic ingredients are basil, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, olive oil and salt & pepper. Optional ingredients include avocado, balsamic vinegar, and red onion.
Today I am making caprese salad with these ingredients:
-Heirloom cherry tomato mix
-Whole milk fresh mozzerella in water (I like to buy the small balls in a tub of water)
-Avocado
-Fresh basil
-Olive oil
–Anglesey Sea Salt (A gift from my Dad…a delicious finishing salt)
-Fresh ground black pepper
When I make this salad for two, I just make it on our dinner plates. I place a layer of fresh basil leaves on each plate and top them with the heirloom tomatoes halved, the mozzarella balls halved and diced avocado. I finish it off with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt and pepper.
Because it was 85 degrees today, I went ahead and put together one of our favorite summer dinners. Jeff threw some chicken mango sausages on the grill, and I cooked up a pot of harvest grains. The harvest grains include couscous, red quinoa, garbanzo beans and multi-colored orzo pasta. It only takes ten minutes to make, and the kids love it.
yum.. trader joyes has the BEST mango sausage.