Alina's Colorful Beet Hummus "Pizza"

I'm not a huge fan of beets, but I'm a sucker for color. When I saw this beet hummus recipe, I couldn't resist whipping some up because it looked so pretty! I wanted it to be substantial enough for a meal, so I concocted a "pizza" of sorts.
As it turns out, the hummus flavor mellows out the beet flavor for a delicious and satisfying way to ingest such a super healthy (and beautiful) vegetable.

The beet hummus recipe comes from Simply Recipes and the inspiration for the hummus pizza comes from the Sabra website.

Mom's Cucumber Soup

My Mom makes a delicious cucumber soup that is as healthy as it is adorable. If you have extra cucumbers (exhibit A)...

Exhibit A

consider whipping up some of this simple soup (exhibit B):

Exhibit B

And if you really have an excess of cucumbers, you can use the extra to create some super refreshing cucumber water (exhibit C).

Exhibit C

Alina's Egg Topped Squash and Lentil Pizza

I love the movie Ratatouille. It has one simple message: "Anyone can cook."

And why not? As the main character Remy said, the right combo of flavors is "like music you can taste, color you can smell."

The trick is finding the right combo of flavors.

That's why I'm really proud of this recipe. Usually when I create a recipe I spend a lot of time brainstorming and planning and finagling, but this recipe just... happened.

I used only items I already had in my cupboard. Almond flour? Lentils? Eggs? Squash? Why not! 

This was one of my favorite creations to date. It had taste and color. There is no question about it. I'll make this dish again.

Alina's Cucumber, Tomato and Avocado Salad

It's been a hot, dry summer, which is perfect for cucumbers. My parents have been sharing cucumbers from their garden, so I've been looking for creative ways to use them. I tweaked this simple recipe on Kalyn's Kitchen.

This salad is fresh and light, marrying juicy cucumbers with avocados and fresh-from-the-vine tomatoes. To me, it's the epitome of fresh summer cuisine.

Alina's Spice Infused Edamame

I've been eating a lot of edamame lately. What's not to love? It's tasty and fun to eat. It's simple to whip up some well-seasoned edamame and it makes a great side for salmon, sushi or stir fry.

Alina's Pineapple Overload Stir Fry

In college I ate at Miami's stir fry bar twice a week. I had my choice of about 30 toppings and so I tried all kinds of different combinations. Eventually I realized that my perfect stir fry always has pineapple in it. It's just consistently mouthwateringly delicious.

My meal this week takes it one step further and uses the pineapple juice as the base for the stir fry sauce. The result is succulent, sweet, and secretly healthy.

Alina's Grilled Salmon with Nectarine-Red Onion Relish

On the 4th of July I perused our local market, Brennan's, for foodie inspiration. It's a form of tabula rasa grocery shopping, if you will. There are recipe cards everywhere, so I pick those up, eat gobs of samples, and try to come with an open mind and a sensitive palate.

This time the nectarines were chin-dripping decadent, so I decided to make Brennan's suggested nectarine-red onion relish. The salmon was the perfect thing to integrate into our 4th of July cookout and the result was... pure fireworks.