Insalata Caprese

Insalata Caprese.

This lunch time I had this bunch of ingredients to work with:

An heirloom tomato, fresh mozzarella, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, basil and a roma tomato.

So, of course, I made a caprese salad!

This salad is so easy, you just chop the tomatoes, slice the mozzarella, arrange the basil and drizzle with the olive oil and the balsamic.

The tomatoes were incredibly sweet. 

And they must have smelled wonderful because Connor was standing beside me and drooling the entire time I was assembling this salad.

It is one of the greatest salads to enjoy on a hot summer day.

Connor is one of those strange dogs that LOVES tomatoes. I made sure he got to enjoy all the of slices that didn't look perfect :-)

Oh, and how is the green bean recipe coming? It is still a work in progress. But you can take a peak at what the second attempt looked like.

Sauteed green beans with ground pork and sriracha sauce.

Now I am off to tackle the vegan scalloped potatoes. Wish me luck!

Strawberry fields

My ideas for breakfast started out with strawberries. Plump, sweet, giant strawberries.

I decided I also wanted to use this:

I mixed 2 Tbsp. of the mozzarella with one Tbsp. of Tofutti cream cheese and added one sprinkle of nutmeg and two sprinkles of cinnamon.

I spread this over a corn tortilla.

Then a layer of strawberries.

I topped it with another tortilla and put it in a pan on medium until the cheese melted. But the question of the morning is - Does non-dairy cheese really melt?

It does, kinda, sorta. 

Yes, it did melt but not in the glossy gooey way dairy cheese does. The non-dairy cheese melted to a certain point and then just stayed that way. Like it was frozen in time with matte makeup.


But the flavor was pretty tasty. The Daiya cheese did have a wonderful, slightly smoky flavor that paired really well with the sweetness of strawberries.

So it was not a true quesadilla experience but definitely a doable option if you are going non-dairy.

Oh, and I had a big mug of coffee. 

I was up (off and on) last night with nightmares. Anyone else feel like they are dragging the next day after having more than one nightmare in a night???