Thank goodness you chose the rainbow challenge for this week’s cooking adventure! (I couldn’t face those frozen bananas for a second week in a row, especially when paired with pretzels, shrimp and a surprise ingredient!) Besides, summer’s produce is filled with colorful choices for a rainbow meal! We all know that eating a variety of vibrant foods is a great way to up our nutrient game, but we think the best fruits and veggies don’t need much cooking at all.
Red – tomatoes, raspberries, potatoes, and steak (the most important red food of all!)
Orange – carrots and an orange
Yellow – corn
Green – parsley, carrot tops, lettuce
Blue – blueberries
Purple – blackberries
We started with chilled carrot soup that we had made the day before.
Our Crazy Caprese Salad speaks for itself. Sprinkle those corn kernels, cut fresh from the cob, like confetti.
Our main course started with a bed of lightly dressed lettuce. We added steak, smashed red potato cakes, corn, and a chimichurri that we made from parsley and carrot tops. I wanted to do purple potatoes, but couldn’t find them at Wegmans. The salad was delicious! I know it is a stretch to call anything with that much meat and potatoes a salad, but we won’t tell if you don’t.
For dessert, we had a triple berry medley over a little vanilla ice cream. In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that Ben did not have dessert. What?!?! Allow me to explain. We ask Ben to have no more than one serving of ice cream a day. (Such cruelty!) Ben is very aware of this and went out for ice cream with friends in the afternoon. If you see the ice cream bowl half full, you will say that he’s a sweet, responsible boy! He chose to sociably eat with friends. All you ice cream bowl half empty people know that if Ben’s food calculations were chess, he’d be a grand master. He knew that the dessert plan at home was for a small scoop of plain vanilla ice cream to be sullied with berries. He liked his Dairy Queen chances much better and happily indulged earlier in the day, skipping dessert with us.
