Chilled Cucumber Avocado Soup

Soooo, you know those days where you are either A) too hot to cook, or B) too lazy to cook?  I have those days.  All the time.  And sometimes, you just want to throw a bunch of s#!t in a blender and call it dinner.

So I did.

And it was amazing.  And easy.  No heat required.

Ingredients (serves 2 larger portions): 

2 cucumbers (from my CSA), peeled and seeded

2 avocados, peeled

1 C lite cocount milk

1 tbsp thai green curry paste

2 scallions, diced for garnish

I know.  Its so easy.  You're welcome.

First, prep all the ingredients.  

The cucumber:

Then the avocados:

I love avocados.... hello gorgeous....  yeah, you know who you are.... stop playing coy....

 Mmmmmm....

Moving on.

Throw these beauties in a food processor and whiz around until pureed.

Move the puree to a bowl, add the coconut milk and green curry paste and mix.  Top with scallions and serve.

 Try it.  It was fresh, light, healthy, refreshing, surprisingly filling, AND EASY.  So, so easy.  Seriously, if this takes you longer than 10 minutes, I think we need to have a talk.

Thai Beef Salad

The weather in New England has been just amazing this year.  First, we didn't' get any snow even while the South Eastern states were getting pummeled which meant crappy skiing.  Now, its been record highs all summer and let me tell you, there aren't many people in this part of the country with A/C units.  So again, I was forced to come up with a relatively "no-cook" dinner.  I think I would literally die if I had to stand over the stove for longer than 20min in this heat.

Thai Beef Salad
2 servings; 20min

1/2 lb Shaved Beef (or you can get fancy and use skirt steak, I'm just cheap)
1 orange, sectioned (peel and pith removed)

a large handful of snap peas (from my CSA)
1 carrot, peeled and shaved
1 small cucumber, peeled and julienned (from CSA)
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 C canola oil (or any light oil)
2-3 scallions,cut into 1/4" pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
2 diced Thai chilies (depends on your preferred heat level)
1/2 C large white beans, rinsed
bagged salad mix
1 lime, quartered, for garnish
a handful of cilantro and mint, for garnish
peanuts or cashews, chopped, for garnish

1) Make the dressing by whisking together the fish sauce, sugar, lime juice and oil.

Creepy label, no? Makes me laugh every time I pull it out of the cupboard!

2) Prepare the salad ingredients

3) Cook the shaved beef quickly over high heat in a lightly oiled skillet.  When done, remove and put to the side.
4) Add the snap peas to the hot pan along with the Thai chilies, scallions, and garlic, 2-3 min.  Add the beans, beef, and fish-sauce dressing to heat through, 2 min.  Remove from heat.

5) Toss the salad greens and some torn cilantro and mint.  Gently mix in the remaining ingredients (carrots, cucumber, snap peas, beans, beef, oranges, etc) and plate.  Garnish with lime wedges and peanuts or cashews if you have them.

We enjoyed this with some cold beverages and a fan blowing in our faces.  Hellloooo summer!