Thursday, August 28, 2014

Lemony inspiration

I'm sorry I'm not a daily or even weekly blogger anymore. I really do enjoy what I do at work, but working every evening in addition to all day AND continuing to work out or run everyday doesn't leave a lot of extra time. And did I mention I've got a pretty active 9-year-old to chauffer around as well? This year we're trying swimming twice a week and eventually if she enjoys it, that will progress to four days a week. sigh.

But this weekend is Labor Day and I'm taking a four-day weekend...so minimal work. But I have a family cookout on Sunday so I have to come up with dishes. Lemons are inspiring me right now. We had a pretty mild summer here in Indiana and just recently in the past two weeks it's finally gotten hot and humid so I want that light taste of lemon. My plan is lemon sugar cookies (gluten-free, of course and possibly vegan - I haven't decided if I'm going to get all crazy and include *gasp* butter in them - sometimes I'll eat a little dairy and cross my fingers) and a rice salad.

For the lemon sugar cookies, I plan one of two recipes I've found online - one uses a gluten free baking mix + sugar and lemon juice and zest. The other uses gluten-free cake mix with lemon. Not sure which I'll go with. It might depend on whether or not any of the GF cake mixes are on sale!

For the rice salad, it's just a concept right now. I have the wild rice salad recipe that I like. I want something similar to that. Also, I've had lemon rice at my favorite Indian restaurant (which unfortunately is located in California) and I want to something that will taste similar. The ingredients so far are black rice, jasmine rice, lemon juice and zest, spinach, green onions and walnuts. I'll probably cook the rice in some lemon juice and add the zest to a dressing I'll make with olive oil and a little rice vinegar. We'll see how it goes. I'll be back to update, assuming it all works out, later this weekend!