Recent Eats: Give Me All The Summer Tomatoes

Lots of good food for you in this post, mostly thanks to the abundance of fresh summer produce. It brings me so much joy to cook with food that I’ve just bought from a local farmer, baker or artisan. The summer colors are so vibrant the the flavors so fresh!

Let’s get right to it, shall we?

BREAKFAST

Breakfasts have been rather unremarkable lately. I either drink a smoothie or have toast, fruit and eggs.

Toasted multigrain sunflower bread (homemade by a friend’s mom and definitely going to be making this recipe ASAP!) with salted Kerrygold. A boiled egg and fruit to round it out. Yay for Rainier cherries!

Half of a bagel with butter and cream cheese, boiled egg and a peach.

LUNCH

Tomato toast on repeat! Toasted homemade sourdough. I deeply, deeply cherish the short window during the summer when tomatoes are at their peak. I’ve been adding them to all of my salads and enjoying them as the main event on tomato sandwiches or tomato toast with lots of Duke’s mayo, fresh basil and sea salt.

Again. Whyyyyyyy can’t we have tomatoes like this year-round? I mean, I know I wouldn’t appreciate them like I do if we did but ugh.

BLT on the multigrain sunflower bread I mentioned above.

Snack plate with multigrain crackers, cheese, boiled eggs and apple slices.

When I’m not eating tomato sandwiches, I’m eating giant salad bowls. They have been such a refreshing lunch option for hot summer days.

Chopped romaine, spinach and arugula topped with tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, hearts of palm, queso fresco, avocado and a soft boiled egg. Dressing is a mix of poppy seed and sesame and you’ll see this combo a lot in the salads to come.

Chopped romaine, arugula and spinach topped with tomatoes, cucumbers, rotisseries chicken, hearts of palm, chickpeas, avocado, queso fresco, roasted salted pepitas, dried cranberries, fresh basil, fresh mint and the blend of the two dressings.

Lacinto kale massaged in lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt and topped with a Trader Joe’s harvest grain blend, beets, avocado, cucumbers, carrots, pepitas and dried cranberries. Dressed with poppyseed dressing.

Chopped romaine, rotisserie chicken, thinly sliced raw fennel, avocado, cherry tomatoes, queso fresco, cucumbers, pepitas, dried cranberries and the two dressing blend.

DINNER

This dinner was so fresh and so delicious!!! Sautéed rainbow chard with lemon and garlic, roasted potatoes tossed with fresh herbs and salmon baked with pesto. The chard, potatoes and pesto were all from the farmers market. The pesto was from Mano Bella and it was their weekly chef’s special. It was made with trepan onions, almonds and basil and just so flavorful and delicious.

Leftover salmon but this time served with a mix of sautéed farmers market veggies – eggplant, squash and cherry tomatoes.

A big bowl of homemade spaghetti. One can never go wrong with a spaghetti dinner. 🙂 Here’s my favorite sauce recipe.

Another pasta dinner! Herbed goat cheese ravioli from Mano Bella tossed with the same pesto that was on the salmon. Drool-worthy. Sautéed mushroom chicken sausage, squash and eggplant on the side.

Switching from pasta to quesadillas…how do you like my state of the art quesadilla pressing method? I use my small heavy Le Creuset all the time or things like this.

Inside of the quesadilla is shredded rotisserie chicken, bacon, a Mexican shredded cheese blend and queso fresco. I cooked the quesadilla in a little salted butter and served it with a ranch sour cream sauce and Trader Joe’s pepita salsa. This quesadilla combo came from the leftovers from my chicken bacon ranch tacos.

Southwestern chopped salad kit mixed with extra cheese, carrots and tomatoes and topped with avocado, air fried Trader Joe’s gluten-free chicken nuggets and a drizzle of Trader Joe’s cilantro dressing.

Chopped romaine, carrots, avocado, tomatoes, queso fresco and air fried Trader Joe’s gluten-free chicken nuggets tossed with buffalo sauce. Ranch on top of it all. This was such a delicious salad combo. I’m 99% sure I’m recreating this again for tonight’s dinner.

You’ve seen a lot of queso fresco in this post. It’s because I ordered a salad at a restaurant recently that came with queso fresco and it inspired me to swap it out for my usual feta or goat on my recent grocery shopping trip. It’s been a yummy change and will definitely be making it into the regular cheese rotation around here. I also need to recreate that restaurant salad and post the recipe!

Lastly, a rice bowl with a chopped up chicken feta burger, sautéed squash, hummus and tzatziki.

And that’s all! I’m currently trying to eat everything in my fridge. I set a goal not to grocery shop this week since I’m leaving Wednesday for my dad’s surgery. I’ll be out of my kitchen for a week or so but looking forward to getting back to the market soon.

QUESTIONS 

What have you been putting on your salads lately? 

What cheeses do you always keep stocked? 

Do you shop at the farmers market seasonally (like during the summer), year round or not at all? My parents don’t have access to a market like I do and are always so jealous of what I find.