Recipe for Roasted Asparagus Wrapped in Ham

Roasted asparagus wrapped in slices of lean ham.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  This roasted asparagus wrapped in ham tastes perfect this time of year.)

It's a sure sign of Spring when recipes featuring asparagus start popping up on the food blogs. Both of the markets where I shop regularly are selling low-priced asparagus, so I've been having fun experimenting with it lately. I've seen recipes using asparagus paired with prosciutto or bacon, but to make it more South Beach Diet friendly I thought I'd try asparagus roasted with lean ham. The smoked and slightly browned ham paired wonderfully with the barely roasted asparagus, and this is something that would make a nice addition to a menu for Easter brunch or lunch.

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Recipe for Roasted Salmon and Asparagus Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Quickly roasted salmon and asparagus, served on baby greens with mustard vinaigrette.  The perfect meal for spring!

(Updated April 2012 with step-by-step instructions and better photos)  Usually when I'm updating an old recipe that needs new photos I try hard not to change much about the recipe in case people have it bookmarked, but when I looked at this recipe for a warm salmon and asparagus salad, the original method of marinating the salmon and then grilling it while you roasted the asparagus seemed so labor-intensive compared to how I would make it now.  This time I simply roasted the asparagus a few minutes, added the salmon that I'd rubbed with my favorite Szeged Fish Rub, and the result was a wonderful salmon and asparagus salad like you might get at a fine restaurant.  I'll include both sets of directions in the recipe, but the simple method of roasting both asparagus and salmon gets my vote!

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Vegan Asparagus Salad for Spring with Tomatoes, Hearts of Palm, and Chives

A lovely salad for spring with asparagus, tomatoes, hearts of palm, and chives.

I love to pull things out of the fridge or pantry and experiment to see what I can come up with, and this salad combination started with the Hearts of Palm I was so excited to find back in stock at Costco.  I had fresh asparagus in the fridge and chives growing in the garden, both of which seemed like they would be good with hearts of palm, and then I added a few of the small grape tomatoes I start buying in the spring when I'm craving the flavor of tomatoes.  Mixed with a lemony vinaigrette, this salad was a great side dish for Herb Encrusted Grilled Salmon.  And when I can have an easy meal that includes hearts of palm, asparagus, and grilled salmon, I'm a happy camper.

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Easy and Amazing Recipe for Barely-Cooked Carrots with Tahini, Lemon, Garlic, and Sumac Dressing

Slightly-crisp carrots with a dressing of tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and sumac.  Mind-blowingly good!

Allow me to introduce my new favorite way to eat carrots.  And if you even barely entertained the thought that cooked carrots might be a little boring, dismiss that idea immediately!  The entire time my cooking assistant and nephew Jake and I were tasting this recipe we kept remarking on how neither of us was that crazy about cooked carrots, but these barely cooked carrots with a dressing of tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, a generous amount of minced garlic, and Sumac were positively addictive.  We ate most of them warm, but I had a a few bites left that were refrigerated overnight, and they tasted fantastic cold out of the fridge as well.

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Recipe for Raw Baby Kale Salad with Apples, Sunflower Seeds, and Lemon-Dijon Vinaigrette

Raw Baby Kale Salad with Apples, Sunflower Seeds, and Lemon-Dijon Vinaigrette!

There's no doubt about it, I'm seriously smitten with the Earthbound Farm Baby Kale Mix that suddenly appeared at the Fresh Market store by my house.  I've been buying it every time I see it at the store (and so is everyone else apparently, because about half the time they don't have any.)  Making a salad with the raw baby kale was a snap and I loved this combination with raw baby kale, apples tossed in a lemon-Dijon vinaigrette, and crispy sunflower seeds adding a little crunch.  The dressing for this is slightly sweet, so maybe this would be a good one to try out on family members who are on the fence about raw kale.

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Easy Recipe for Cucumber Salad with Balsamic Dressing

This Easy and Slightly Unusual Cucumber Salad is one of my Favorites!

(This favorite cucumber recipe was first posted in 2006 and updated with step-by-step instructions and better photos in May 2012.  I'm still on vacation but luckily I have my cucumbers planted at home so it won't be long before I can make this salad with fresh garden cucumbers.)

I think people who haven't had a garden where the amount of produce suddenly spins out of control can't fully appreciate what a dilemma it is to search for new ways to use up tomatoes, squash, and of course, cucumbers. It seems like every summer I add at least one or two new recipes to my collection for these garden veggies. Recently I came upon this recipe for cucumbers on a site called RecipeZaar. It looks similar to some other recipes for cucumbers that I've posted, but the flavor is very different.

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Spicy Grilled Eggplant Recipe with Red Pepper, Parsley, and Mint

This spicy grilled eggplant is a favorite of my brother Rand, who does the fun headers for Kalyn's Kitchen

 
(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  I'm on the road driving home from Los Angeles, where I've been visiting my brother Rand and attending Camp Blogaway.  This Spicy Grilled Eggplant is Rand's very favorite recipe on Kalyn's Kitchen, and I'm glad I have my eggplant planted this year so I can make it later in the summer.  Meanwhile, if you have eggplant from the supermarket or Farmer's Market, I highly recommend this recipe.)

If you saw my last garden update, then you know I'm growing eggplant this year, and my first one was ready to harvest recently. I've grilled eggplant before, but I'm certainly not what you'd call an expert at cooking it, so I consulted a couple of cookbooks and settled on a recipe from Williams Sonoma Complete Grilling Cookbook, one of my favorite cookbooks, which I return to every summer for more grilling recipes. I followed their recommendation for salting the eggplant to remove some of the water before grilling. I sliced my eggplant about 1/2 inch thick, but next time I might slice it even thicker.

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Easy Thai-Flavored Raw Broccoli Salad Recipe with Red Onion, Mint, and Peanuts

This Thai-Flavored Raw Broccoli Salad was an experiment that was a happy success!

When I made Thai-Style Spicy Cabbage Slaw with my nephew Jake, we were both absolutely captivated by the spicy Thai flavors in the dressing.  I started thinking about what else might taste good with that combination of lime, fish sauce, sweetener, and red pepper flakes, and next time Jake showed up to cook I proposed trying it on a broccoli salad.  For our first try we blanched the broccoli, which was definitely not a good idea.  But we persevered and ended up with this amazing raw broccoli salad with red onion, mint, and peanuts and the spicy Thai dressing.  If you're wondering about mint and broccoli together, so did we, but the whole combination really worked.  If you like Thai flavors and raw broccoli you must try this salad. 

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Recipe for Heart of Palm Salad with Tomato, Avocado, and Lime (with or without Cilantro)

I've been infatuated with this Heart of Palm Salad with Tomato, Avocado, Cilantro, and Lime.

I love combining beloved ingredients in slightly different ways, and this Heart of Palm Salad with Tomato, Avocado, Cilantro, and Lime was the happy result when I arranged a marriage between my favorite Vegan Heart of Palm and Avocado Salad and Colorful Tomato Salad with Hearts of Palm.  This offspring salad had all the good qualities of the parents, plus some new qualities of its own!

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Grilled Chicken Recipe with Tarragon-Mustard Marinade

Chicken breasts are marinated in a flavorful mustard-tarragon marinade and then grilled.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  Right now the tarragon in my garden is in overdrive, and this favorite grilled chicken from 2007 sounds great for dinner!)

Recently I realized it had been a while since I've had a new grilled chicken recipe. It was one of those thoughts that just flitted through my mind, not seeming to lead anywhere, and then a few days later I thought of grilling and tarragon in the same moment and this recipe was born.  If you haven't tried the distinctive flavor of tarragon, give this a try!

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Recipe for World's Easiest Grilled Vegetables (How to Cook Vegetables on the Grill)

These easy grilled vegetables are something I make all during grilling season!

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  These easy grilled vegetables are something I make at least once a week during grilling season!)

I regularly get comments from people who tell me they are learning to cook from my blog.  Feedback like that is partly what's motivating me to share this simple not-really-even-a-recipe way that I cook grilled vegetables all during the grilling season.  Whenever I'm cooking grilled chicken, meat, or fish, there will usually be one of these grill pans full of vegetables cooking alongside it.  Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of grilling season for many people in the U.S. so I'm sure there will be vegetables on the grill at my house over the weekend!

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Recipe for Stir Fried Turkey (or chicken) with Sugar Snap Peas and Peppers (and Tips for Chinese Cooking)

Stir-Fried Turkey (or chicken) with Sugar Snap Peas and Peppers, or use any veggies you'd like!

(Updated with photos and better instructions June 2012.)  I don't know why it's taken me so long to get to this recipe in my quest to update my older recipes with better photos, but I first made this recipe  in September 2005.  Maybe it's because the original version was made with celery instead of peppers, which certainly made the dish a lot less colorful.  When I decided to update this I switched the celery for a mixture of red and yellow peppers, and also changed the cooking sauce a little so this could be a phase one recipe.  I couldn't resist adding a tiny bit of Sriracha to the sauce as well, but that's totally optional.  Actually you could switch out any of the vegetables here for something else and come up with a dish that's pretty good as long as you cut the pieces the same size and shape and pick veggies that cook quickly.  Enjoy!

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Recipe for Asian Spinach Salad with Chicken, Mushrooms, Peppers, and Almonds

A main-dish spinach salad with chicken, mushrooms, peppers, and almonds.

(Updated with step-by-step photos and an improved recipe, June 2012.)  There are a lot of good reasons to eat spinach, whether or not you're trying to lose weight.  But when I am trying to eat mostly protein and vegetables, a big spinach salad like this is one of my favorite things to have for dinners.  I made this on a day when I had some mushrooms in the fridge begging to be used, but they're definitely optional.  You could also make the salad with some other type of greens, but spinach is such a nutritional powerhouse, and it's delicious with the Asian-flavored dressing in this salad.

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Recipe for Asian Flavored Wild Salmon Patties with Ginger, Scallions, and Sesame-Lime Mayonnaise

These Salmon Patties start with chopped raw salmon that's seasoned with Asian flavors.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  Since I am in Seattle enjoying the seafood and attending BlogHerFood, it seemed like a perfect time to feature this wonderful recipe with wild salmon.  Enjoy!)

Last year my brother Dave and his four sons went to Alaska and fished for salmon and halibut.  I've been the grateful recipient of some of the frozen wild salmon and halibut they had shipped back to Utah, so lately I've been looking for some new ideas for cooking both these types of fish.  If you enter "salmon recipes" into the search bar on the blog, you'll see quite a few recipes for salmon, including Salmon Patties made with canned salmon, but this type of salmon patties are a completely new way to cook salmon for me.  They're made with chopped raw salmon, flash frozen so they keep their shape, and then pan-fried in a small amount of olive oil.  The salmon patties are seasoned with Sriracha and plenty of ginger and scallions and served with a delightful sesame-lime mayonnaise that goes perfectly with the salmon.

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How to Grill Zucchini - Perfect Every Time!

Perfect Grilled Zucchini, something I make as a side dish all summer long!

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  This easy recipe for Grilled Zucchini is something I make several times a week all summer long!)

For most of my life I was kind of lukewarm about zucchini. When I was a kid, my mom would dip it in egg and fry it, something I liked ok, but didn't love. It wasn't until I discovered how great grilled zucchini can taste (and my mom started making "creamed" zucchini") that I really started appreciating the zucchini that sprout up overnight in the garden.

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Recipe for Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad (Version 2.0)

This is a salad I've been making for years, but cutting the broccoli in smaller pieces is a big improvement!

(Updated June 2012 with better photos and a new way of chopping the broccoli that I think is a big improvement!)  This recipe for broccoli salad with red onion, bacon, cheese and a sweet and sour mayo-based dressing is something I've been making for years.  I've experimented with Splenda, Granulated Stevia, and Agave nectar in the dressing, used more or less bacon and cheese (depending on how diet-friendly I wanted to make it), and switched out the traditional raisins for chopped pecans, and no matter how I changed it up, the salad has always been a hit.  But recently I attended a baby christening party for my nephew Aaron and wife Amee's darling new baby girl and Amee's Aunt Lynette had a new twist on the salad that really wowed me.  Presenting Sweet and Sour Broccoli Salad Version 2.0, with the broccoli chopped into much smaller pieces!

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Recipe for Grilled Halibut with Cumin and Lime

If you have leftovers of this Grilled Halibut with Cumin and Lime, use it to make fish tacos!

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  This delicious recipe for grilled halibut is something I made regularly back in the days I was organizing houseboat trips, and it's still one of my favorite marinades for grilled fish.)

Imagine you're sitting on the top deck of a houseboat looking out at the beautiful scenery of Utah's gorgeous Lake Powell while you're eating a wonderful dinner featuring this Grilled Halibut with Cumin and Lime.   That's the memory I had when I sat on my deck eating this a few days ago.  The marinade is perfect for halibut, but you can use any kind of mild white fish that's firm enough to stay together on the grill.  And the leftover fish is perfect for making fish tacos (if you have any leftovers!)

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Recipe for Kalyn's Power Salad Mix (and the quest to eat more vegetables)

This Power Salad Mix is something I eat regularly for a meatless meal!

For a few months I've been having regular talks with myself about maintaining my weight.  You might remember that when 2012 started, I confessed I had gained some weight, and I'm happy to report that I lost about 12 pounds in the new year when we did that Month of Phase One Recipes.  But for the last few months my weight has been doing that up/down thing again, and lately I'm being honest with myself and admitting that at least half the time I weight about ten pounds more than I really want to.  In addition to losing those ten pounds and keeping them off, I'm also working on a goal of more meatless meals, and I've decided that eating more vegetables, including a big nutrient-rich salad every day, will be a strategy that could be the key to both those goals. 

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Recipe for Grilled Lemon-Cumin Chicken with Charmoula Sauce

Chicken seasoned from a lemon-cumin marinade, grilled, and served with flavorful Charmoula Sauce

Every summer, my post about How to Make Juicy Grilled Chicken Breasts turns into one of the most popular posts on the blog, and chicken breasts are something I cook far more during grilling season than I do at other times of the year.  I'm always looking for ways to make grilled chicken into something special, and when I was flipping through an old cookbook and saw a recipe for Chicken with Charmoula Sauce, I remembered how I loved that sauce on Steamed Green Beans and Carrots.   I experimented with a marinade that I thought might bring out some of the lemon and cumin flavors in the Charmoula, and the result was this recipe that several people gobbled up when I tested it.

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Recipe for Grilled Eggplant, Grape Tomato, and Feta Salad with Amazing Basil, Parsley, and Caper Sauce

Even if you don't make this salad, don't miss the Donna Hay-inspired Basil, Parsley, and Caper Sauce!

For anyone who saw the title of this recipe and said "I don't like eggplant," I need to remind you of my discovery that grilled eggplant is really one of the best things about summer.  I was never an eggplant fan until I started growing the thin Japanese Eggplants in my garden, and cooking them on the grill.  If you've never had grilled eggplant, you've never really had eggplant!  However, if I can't possibly talk you into eggplant, then you still should try the Amazing Basil, Parsley, and Caper sauce that we used as a dressing in this recipe.  The sauce recipe and the inspiration to combine it with grilled eggplant came from Donna Hay's New Food Fast, and this is another one of those summer herb sauces that would be good on nearly anything.

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