A few weeks back, I had a pretty nice supply of fresh spinach. I started looking for some recipes, and this one was quite out of my comfort zone, but I chose it because it could be made ahead and served at room temperature. This is a great recipe to help you fool your husband. It looks like you slaved away all day, but your kitchen is perfectly clean when he gets home because the food was made earlier in the day. I served it with a sandwich and hardly had any dishes to clean after dinner.

I made this for a lunch with friends last week, and since one of them called for the recipe yesterday, I thought I'd better make up the recipe and show the picture. The beauty of salads sometimes is that you can through anything into it and make it work. Moreover, it's very forgiving provided you have a great dressing. Also, I've loved having banana peppers on my patio because I can just cut the hot ones and add them to the salad instead of using crushed red pepper, which feels so "coarse" in what is mostly a soft and simple salad.

Did you see the Super Moon this weekend? Love our neighbors. We had a block party at 8 o'clock at night!

Last night before the Full Plate Diet lecture, we went to Dandelion CommuniTea Cafe. After we talked it up so much, Garrett had our favorite, The Giddyup. Graycen had the enourmous hommus, cucunber, tomato sandwich. It's definitely big enough to feed an adult, too.

I write this post with my humblest and sincerest apologies to cookbook author, Mary Sheehan. Paul won a copy of her cookbook quite some time ago, and there was always something keeping me from investigating it and cooking some of her recipes. Well, I dug out the book when I was rearranging the kitchen. (I've read you should create a door in your kitchen with unbreakables so a child can play without restriction. I'm getting ready!) And I came across a recipe to use quinoa.

I really had a hard time finding a simple and appealing recipe for tabouleh. I finally found an excellent one. I served this as a series of "dips" for a buffet meal to a group of 20. People asked for the recipe when it was over and I overheard one educated individual say "That green stuff is good, too." Tabouleh and a hommus side went well with warm un-pocketed pita bread. I noticed a good number of people making sandwiches out of it.

This was a fabulously colored vegan dinner focused on vegetables easily accessible in our local stores. I really enjoyed it, but Paul said that the frozen lime juice I had defrosted to mix with the sugar snap peas. I do caution cooks to follow the recipe closely because the peas did not hold their bright green color.

The recipe for the peas came from foodnetwork.tv called Mint Sugar Snap Peas. I did use frozen peas and would be happier trying the recipe with fresh peas in the future. I used the roasted sweet potato recipe with olive oil, seasoned salt, and fresh rosemary for the red potatoes; and I sliced some very ripe tomatoes.