Dukan Diet

Memorial Day means the unofficial beginning of summer in the U.S., or as I like to think of it, the beginning of Salad Season!  I love those warm summer days when a big plate of salad seems like the perfect lunch, and I'm always looking for ideas for my next salad creation.  This Barely Blanched Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad with Red Bell Pepper, Radishes Red Onion, and Cashews was inspired by a salad I bookmarked years ago on a blog that's no longer posting.  I changed it quite a bit from the original salad and it took me a couple of tries to get it right, but I love all these ingredients and this final version of the salad is definitely a keeper.

I don't remember my mother cooking black beans when I was a kid, but sometime after I left home she must have started using them, because they became my father's favorite type of bean, and any dish that had black beans was something he would enjoy.  I was thinking about that as I missed him on Father's day, and remembered all the black bean salads I made for him the last few years of his life when he was in an assisted living center where I'd visit twice a week and cook lunch.  My dad could be a picky customer when it came to trying new dishes, and I doubt he ever heard of vegan food, but I'm betting he would have enjoyed these Slow Cooker Vegan Brown Rice Mexican Bowls with Black Beans, Bell Peppers, and Poblano-Avocado Salsa, if only because of the black beans, rice and avocados; three foods he always loved.   Using the slow cooker to cook the rice and then heat together the chopped peppers, green chiles, and black beans kept the house cool, and I thought one of these Mexican bowls made a perfect Slow Cooker Summer Dinner.

Re-discovering a recipe is always fun, and while I was unpacking from the move I found this old favorite rice salad recipe in a set of binders with recipes I clipped from cooking magazines back in the days before the internet.  The salad was called Roman Rice Salad, but unfortunately I didn't write down where I found it, and I couldn't find anything with that name online.  I made this salad many, many times through the years with white rice, dried basil, and chopped bell pepper, but I loved this updated version with brown rice, fresh chopped basil, and rings of pepper from sweet mini-peppers.