I swear Christina and I are going to start to update this more regularly. (CC: You can blame me. The only things I have been doing are working, staining my blazers with avocado from my breakfast sandwiches, and letting Laura feed me. And also camping out in front of the Supreme Court.)
Today, you can learn about a salad that changed Christina’s life and taught her never to doubt me, and what to do if you have leftover mushrooms from your cookout. (CC: Clearly, each blog post will have an instructional purpose for me.)
Christina generally gets pretty (extremely) psyched about the food I make for her. But one time, I told her I was making a salad, and she did not seem excited. Not disappointed, either, but not excited. But I turned that frown upside down with this recipe. It’s super delicious and has some protein, which is good because people always seem really baffled about how vegetarians get protein.
Chickpea salad with an avocado dressing:
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- Several handfuls of baby spinach (if you wanna throw some arugula in there too, I would respect that lifestyle choice)
- Half a red onion, diced
- 3-4 radishes, thinly sliced and quartered
- 1. Throw that ish together in a big serving bowl and mix.
1. For the dressing, I adapted this recipe for creamy avocado pesto from Oh She Glows.
- 1 avocado (cut it in half, then slice and dice it and squeeze it out)
- A handful of chopped fresh cilantro
- A pinch of cumin
- A splash of olive oil
- A splash of water
- A smaller splash of lemon juice
- Salt
- Pepper
2. Smash up the avocado with a fork (it will be even easier if you do it after you add the liquids) and mix it all together. Then toss it with your salad.
Marinated mushroom breakfast sandwich:
Suppose you marinated a bunch of Portobello mushrooms for your cookout, but then some fools didn’t show up to your cookout. Save those tasty morsels! They make for a hearty and super delicious breakfast. This is also super easy.
- Two pieces of the bread/roll of your preference
- 1 marinated mushroom (in the marinade from the last post)
- Half an avocado
- 1 egg
- Reheat the mushroom in a skillet on the stove on medium heat. When it’s good and hot, toss it on one of your bread slices.
- Slice up the avocado and squeeze it out onto the mushroom.
- Crack an egg in your skillet and fry it up (or scramble, if you prefer.) To cook it more quickly, cover it with a lid or a piece of aluminum foil.
- Put the fried egg over the mushroom and avocado, top with your second piece of bread, and enjoy.
Christina’s Corner:
I recommend these refreshing meals with a side of some more summer music. Five years ago, your go-to summer jam would have been “Paper Planes” by M.I.A.
This summer, check out “Collard Greens” by ScHoolBoy Q featuring Kendrick Lamar. We saw Kendrick Lamar this year at Sweet Life (my favorite mini music festival) and, to be honest, I wasn’t really impressed — especially considering how many festivals booked him for the summer music season. But there’s something a little different with this single, and more collaborations like this will have me leaning in and turning the volume up.
Nosh and Noise 