Green - or how to cleverly hide a broccoli in a delicious meal.

Summer is as its fullest, days are long and sunny, sky is blue, windows stay open until it's dark out, meals are simple and quick. My computer is not being as used as much as in the colder times - who wants to stay indoors when summer is calling?

But all blissfulness has to finish sooner or later, mine got slightly crushed by my doctor's news, which said 'too low levels of iron'. Well, I thought, not the worst thing in the universe, simply have to add more greens, dried apricots, seeds of all kinds and grains (no-meat eater). Quick sandwiches have to be replaced with more thought through options - spinach salads, beans, quinoa and broccoli....

Broccoli is one of those vegetables, similar to spinach, that even the sound of it makes some shiver. Thankfully not me, but my other half - yes indeed. And rarely, very rarely but still (here comes my dirty secret) - I try to smuggle it anyway. Hidden in sauce or a soup, mixed with other tastes and textures it gets eaten.

Today I'll show you one of my favorite smuggling successes, which is also one of my favorite green dishes.

Broccoli pesto quinoa
prep time 20min, serves 4ppl

1 cup quinoa
2 broccoli florets
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup sunflower seeds, lightly roasted on a dry frying pan
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
4 tbl spoons of olive oil
salt to taste

1. Prepare quinoa as instructed on the package.
2. Meantime steam cook broccoli. When soft and ready to consume set one aside and put the other one in a blender with garlic, sunflower seeds (leave a spoonful for decoration), cheese and olive oil. Mix until well blended.
3. Add pesto mix to cooked quinoa, cut the remaining broccoli florets and serve on the plate next to the quinoa/pesto (if your companions are not frightened by it. Otherwise blend both florets in the blender).
4. Sprinkle with cheese and remaining sunflower seeds.

I've discovered this recipe in one of my favorite blogs and the dish immediately stole my heart. The taste of broccoli (for those who can stand it) is very well hidden in the sunflower pesto, leaving a tangy and spicy buzz on the tip of your tongue.
Packed with iron and all kinds of other good stuff. Green and summery!

First real summer meal

The first days of July always bring back memories of the days of first days of summer vacations. School was out at the end of June and suddenly two full months of summer laziness would begin. Waking up in a summer cottage and having a full day of tranquility ahead of me. The only must was a trip to the bakery to get a couple of loaves of warm, crusty bread - of which one would disappear before we made it back to the cottage. Swims in the lake, sunbathing on an old wooden lounge chair, afternoons with a book, and definitely picking a few jars of fresh blueberries. That was called a real summer vacation!

(a long long time ago - blueberry picking)

 Berries are definitely my favorite type of fruit, that can serve as breakfast, lunch, quick snack or dinner. The dishes are usually not too complicated - simply add some berries to rice, cottage cheese, oatmeal and there you have it - full of valuable nutritious juicyness, that has summer written all over it.

So it's really no wonder that I also like blueberry pierogi, a very Polish dish, although a bit more time consuming, but definitely worth every minute. As a child, I usually just helped and watched, but this time, for the first time in my life I've decided to try to experiment with it myself.
Here are the results:

Blueberry Pierogi
prep time: 20min + 5min boiling, makes abt 40 pieces

3 cups flour
1 cup of warm water
1 egg
pinch of salt
tbl spoon of oil

+ 2 cups of fresh blueberries sprinkled with 2 spoons of sugar

sugar and/or sour cream for serving

1. Prepare dough: mix all ingredients (except blueberries) until soft and smooth (if too sticky add more flour).
2. Sprinkle flour on a pastry board to avoid the dough sticking to it. Roll up the dough on the table or pastry board, to a thickness of about 3 millimeters.
3. Cut circles in dough using glass rim. In the middle of each circle arrange a (table) spoon of blueberries, then fold the filled circles into half moons, sealing the edges and pressing shut with your finger.
4. Bring a large shallow saute pan of water to a boil, add a spoon of oil (to prevent them from sticking together) and gently boil the pierogi in batches for 5-6 minutes (a couple of mins after they rise to the top of the surface), then remove carefully using a wooden spoon.
Serve warm, sprinkle with some sugar and/or sour cream.

I haven't found too many variations of the actual dough recipe, but maybe next time I'll experiment a bit adding some vanilla sugar to make it a bit more dessert-like. The batch of pierogi disappeared very quickly, I enjoyed it for dinner, a friend at work had it as a snack and there are some left for tomorrow's lunch. Definitely summer like!