Childhood memories always included a version of this Zesty Cucumber Tomato Salad on the dinner table during summer months.  Nothing beats picking your own cucumbers and tomatoes fresh from the garden and slicing them up for this easy side dish.  I love this version that is full of great flavor!

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If you have an abundance of cucumber on hand, you may also want to test out this Asian Cucumber Salad this summer!  It’s a super easy and fun spin on the classic cucumber salad with a bit of a different flavor profile.

Zesty Cucumber Tomato Salad 

The secret to this simple salad comes in the combination of vinegar and fresh dill.  Yes, you can use dried dill weed, but fresh really makes this perfect! If you don’t have cherry tomatoes on hand, you can use any great vine-ripened tomato.  I’ve even made this with heirloom tomatoes for delicious flavor but different colors.

One often overlooked, but necessary part of this recipe comes in the sugar added to the vinegar dressing.  You have to cut the acid someway, and in this case, the mixture of vinegar and sugar along with the perfect blend of seasonings makes this a salad you will make on a regular basis.

What Type of Cucumbers Should I Use?

While I love all cucumbers, some are better for pickling than others.  In this case, it’s all about slicing for a salad, so you want a sturdy cucumber with mild flavor.  Below are my top choices for cucumbers to use for this salad recipe.

• Hothouse English Cucumbers
• Armenian Snake Cucumbers
• Kyrui Japanese Cucumbers

Tools Needed for Making this Cucumber Salad

You don’t need much to make this salad turns out great.  In fact, no matter how you slice the cucumber and tomato, it will taste great.  However, I love making sure my recipes look pretty because we all know you eat with your eyes. So, below, you will find a few of my favorite kitchen gadgets that help make this easy to prepare.

• A kitchen mandolin slicer
• Large mixing bowl with lid (I love saving work for myself by using bowls I can mix and store in.)
• Herb scissors for cutting fresh herbs fast and easily
• Saucepan and spoon (for cooking down the sugar/vinegar dressing combination)

How Long Can I Store This Salad?

If you are like me, making large batches in advance is preferred.  Especially during busy summer months, I prefer to have meals prepped ahead of time if I can.  This cucumber salad with tomatoes and onions is a great option to make early in the week and keep for up to one week in the refrigerator.  As long as it is stored in an airtight container it can last safely up to 7 days. The only concern is if the vegetables get soggy early.

I prefer it between 1-5 days, but know it can be safe for longer.  Follow safety guidelines and your preferences when storing this recipe.

More Summer Salad Recipes

I love making salads in the summer using fresh vegetables.  Not only does it add some health to our diets, but it is a great way to save money on groceries.  

• The Mexican Bean Salad is a great combination of both fresh and canned foods.  It serves well with almost any grilled meat and can be a meal in itself with so much protein packed into the beans.
• My Black Bean and Corn Salsa is another great dish that combines fresh vegetables and tons of flavor. I love this on tacos or with fresh tortilla chips. 
• My favorite though is this deliciously easy BBQ Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad that combines tons of fresh vegetables with classic flavors we all love!
• This Vegan Mediterranean Cucumber Salad is full of yummy goodness!
• Cucumber Tomato Salad (with a Mexican Twist) – a great way to change up the flavor of a traditional dish.

Yield: 16 servings

Zesty Cucumber Tomato Salad

Print

Childhood memories always included a version of this Zesty Cucumber Tomato Salad on the dinner table during summer months.  Nothing beats picking your own cucumbers and tomatoes fresh from the garden and slicing them up for this easy side dish.  I love this version that is full of great flavor!

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Ingredients

• 6 cups Cucumbers – sliced thinly – 2 English Cucumbers or 3-4 regular Cucumbers
• 2 cups Cherry Tomatoes – cut in half – or regular tomatoes diced
• 1 ½ cups Red Onion – sliced thinly
• 1 tablespoon Celery Seed
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 tablespoon Fresh Dill – chopped finely
• 1 cup Vinegar, white distilled
• ½ cup Water
• ¾ cup Sugar, white granulated

Instructions

1. Slice vegetables and place in large bowl.
2. Sprinkle celery seed, salt, and dill over the top.
3. In a small saucepan add vinegar, water and sugar. Stirring continuously, bring to boil and cook until sugar is completely dissolved, about 1-2 minutes.
4. Pour vinegar mixture over vegetables and stir until well combined.
5. Place salad in a large airtight container, cover and seal.
6. Place in refrigerator. Chill at least 4-6 hours before serving – the longer the better.
7. Serve cold.

Notes

• Store leftovers in refrigerator.
• Recipe is better if made ahead and served 2-3 days after making
• Stir 2-3 times per day to redistribute liquid

Recommended Products

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

16

Serving Size:

1/2 cup
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 71 Total Fat: 0g Saturated Fat: 0g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 0g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 138mg Carbohydrates: 17g Fiber: 1g Sugar: 13g Protein: 1g

The post Zesty Cucumber Tomato Salad appeared first on Love Bakes Good Cakes.

Moist homemade Guinness chocolate cupcakes, topped off with creamy Baileys brown sugar cream cheese frosting. These cupcakes are a fun and festive addition to St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

This coming week is a big one here. Not only is St. Patrick’s day less than a week away. But, tomorrow is our dog Lucy’s birthday and later this week is my birthday! And of course activities and adult responsibilities…voting and renewing my license. Speaking of which, I’m already fearing how long this dmv trip might be. I’m always seeing horror stories of people sitting and waiting at their own local dmv’s for hours at a time. Granted, they may have been packed or having issues those days. But what if they’re all just as slow as the sloth in Zootopia? I’m not sure I can handle that kind of slow this week. I’ll be happily surprised if it’s a speedy and painless process. The only reason I’m even going in person, when I could renew online, is to upgrade to the newer Real ID. Kind of a pain, but I figured I’d get it over with now, while I’m already up for renewal.

Every year I fully plan on making a pie of some kind (dessert pie, pizza pie, shepherd’s pie…) for my birthday, since it’s Pi day. Kind of funny since I super duper love pie. But I always forget. My brain always goes straight to St. Patrick’s day. I’m sure more people celebrate that than Pi day anyway so it’s still hopefully a win. And lemme tell you… these cupcakes are absolutely a huge win.

I’d been dreaming up so many Guinness recipes for this year and this is the one that finally made it to my must make right this very second list. Practically quite literally even since I worked on these one morning before school. I was in the mood to bake and bake I did! You need to add these to the top of your list as well. There will be zero regrets!

Moist homemade Guinness chocolate cupcakes topped off with Baileys brown sugar cream cheese frosting! What more could you ask for? Ridiculously good and packed full of festive seasonal flavors. You need these in your life… for St. Patrick’s day or just because.

Continue Reading Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Baileys Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

It’s Crunchtime!

Ein ganzes Jahr haben die Basketball-Fans in Deutschland diesem Moment entgegengefiebert und endlich ist es soweit. Die Final-Serie der BBL steht an. (Spielplan der BBL-Finals)

Die zwei besten Teams Deutschlands stehen sich in der ultimativen “Best-of-Five”-Serie um die Deutsche Meisterschaft gegenüber. Wie schon im Vorjahr kommt es wieder zum Aufeinandertreffen des FC Bayern Münchens und ALBA Berlins. Letztes Jahr hatten die Münchner in einer dramatischen Serie mit 3:2 das bessere Ende für sich und holten sich ihre insgesamt vierte Deutsche Meisterschaft.

Dazu machten sie mit dem Pokalgewinn auch noch das Double perfekt. Gegner war erneut ALBA Berlin.

ALBA hofft auf Titel Nr. 9

Diese doppelte Finalpleite gegen die Bayern im letzten Jahr dürfte mehr als Ansporn genug sein, um den Spieß diesmal umzudrehen. Zumal die Hauptstädter in diesem Jahr schon wieder denkbar unglücklich im Pokalfinale gescheitert sind. Nochmal will man sich in Berlin bestimmt nicht mit zwei Finalniederlagen in die Sommerpause verabschieden.

Zumal die Berliner nun schon seit 2008 auf ihren neunten Meistertitel warten. Für das Selbstverständnis des Hauptstadtvereins eine viel zu lange Zeit, in der man immer anderen Vereinen zum Titel gratulieren musste.

DAZN gratis testen und Sport-Highlights live & auf Abruf erleben | ANZEIGE

Es spricht also alles für eine spannende Serie. Das sieht auch ALBA-Center Johannes Tiemann so: “Ich erwarte eine harte Serie gegen die Bayern, in der wir nochmal eine Schippe drauflegen müssen.”

SPORT1 fasst alle wichtigen Informationen zum BBL-Finale zusammen.

Wie ist der Modus im Finale?

Wie schon in den BBL-Playoffs wird auch die Final-Serie im Modus “Best-of-Five” ausgetragen, das heißt, wer zuerst drei Partien für sich entschieden hat, gewinnt die Serie und damit den Titel.

Den Heimvorteil hat dabei das in der Hauptrunde besser platzierte Team. In diesem Fall ist das der FC Bayern München, der die Hauptrunde als Tabellenerster abgeschlossen hatte. ALBA Berlin beendete die Hauptrunde hinter den EWE Baskets Oldenburg auf dem dritten Rang.

Ein Spiel wird unterteilt in vier Viertel à zehn Minuten. Steht es nach Ablauf der regulären Spielzeit Unentschieden, wird eine Verlängerung von fünf Minuten gespielt. Dies wird so lange fortgesetzt, bis eine Mannschaft das Spiel für sich entschieden hat.

So können Sie das BBL-Finale LIVE verfolgen

Auch in dieser Saison zeigt SPORT1 wieder ausgewählte Spiele der Final-Serie LIVE im Free-TV und im Livestream. Daneben können alle Spiele auch im kostenlosen LIVETICKER auf SPORT1.de und in der SPORT1 App verfolgt werden.

Jetzt aktuelle Basketball-Fanartikel kaufen – hier geht’s zum Shop | ANZEIGE

Die Viertel- und Halbfinale

Viertelfinale (18. – 30. Mai)

FC Bayern München (1.) – Basketball Löwen Braunschweig (8.) – Endstand: 3:0
EWE Baskets Oldenburg (2.) – Telekom Baskets Bonn (7.) – Endstand: 3:0
ALBA Berlin (3.) – ratiopharm Ulm (6.) – Endstand: 3:0
Rasta Vechta (4.) – Brose Bamberg (5.) – Endstand: 3:1

Halbfinale (2. – 9. Juni)

EWE Baskets Oldenburg – ALBA Berlin – Endstand: 0:3
FC Bayern München – Rasta Vechta – Endstand: 3:0

Die Final-Serie

FC Bayern München – ALBA Berlin – Stand 0:0

16. Juni, Spiel 1: FC Bayern München – ALBA Berlin
19. Juni, Spiel 2: ALBA Berlin – FC Bayern München
23. Juni, Spiel 3: FC Bayern München – ALBA Berlin
25. Juni, Spiel 4: ALBA Berlin – FC Bayern München (falls nötig)
28. Juni, Spiel 5: FC Bayern München – ALBA Berlin (falls nötig)

My sister got married last month. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push([‘_setAccount’, ‘UA-31059083-1’]); _gaq.push([‘_trackPageview’]); (function() { var ga = document.createElement(‘script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true; ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

It was beautiful.  And perfect.  And I made the sweets 🙂

Wedding Cake.  I’ve done wedding cakes before but this is the largest I’ve ever done.  Let me tell you, this was an experience lol!!

The New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers have interest in signing Kemba Walker in free agency.

Walker will be a free agent for the first time in his career and his future with the Charlotte Hornets remains uncertain. Walker qualified for the supermax by making an All-NBA team.

The Knicks, Mavericks and Hornets can offer Walker a four-year, $140.6 million deal compared to a five-year deal with the Hornets worth up to $221.3 million.

Strawberry season has started here in Germany. Yay! Are you one of those persons that cannot say “no” to those little red fellas? Every time I go shopping somehow one of those little trays/baskets with strawberries ends up in my shopping cart. I do not even notice it until I am out of the supermarket […]

On Thursday, Book Richardson was sentenced to three months in federal prison. It was a history-making decision by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos. Matt Norlander was in the courtroom, as he has been throughout both trials, and brings perspective and details from Thursday and beyond. He and Gary Parrish spend the first 40 minutes of the podcast discussing Richardson’s sentence, Arizona’s next steps, the NCAA’s unfolding investigation and why Richardson said he didn’t believe Sean Miller paid for players. After that, the guys touch on the new NCAA rules for 2019-2020 (48:30), most notably the extended 3-point line. They wrap by hitting on the 10-15 teams with the best odds to win the 2020 national title (58:30). 

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Moist homemade carrot cake cupcakes, sweetened with a touch of applesauce and topped off with silky cream cheese frosting. A classic springtime dessert, perfect for any occasion!

Lions and tigers and bears… oh my! Only not in the movies, but in our backyard. Yikes! Growing up in southern New England, I barely saw wildlife. Birds, sure. That’s a given. The most exciting animals we ever saw as kids were giant toads or frogs. Maybe an occasional bunny. That’s it. Living in New Hampshire, we’ve had our share of wildlife in our neighborhood and our backyard… from deer to fox, hawks and owls, turtles and bunnies and so much more… but not to be forgotten, our neighborhood turkey family. We once had 24 turkeys roaming our yard. It was a sight! Our most recent visitor… a bear! Massive, sleepy and yet also super cute. It made an appearance a few nights in a row and then continued on it’s journey.

In other bear news…. my kids have always enjoyed watching Bear Grylls. So when the new Netflix special came out, we clearly had to watch it. You get to choose which food, tool or path to take. The first few episodes were near and then they went downhill fast. Every episode worse than the last. Mentions of really old ropes that appeared brand new and modern with no sign of wear. I get that they wanted to try something new and fun, and it was at first, but my kids were even annoyed at how fake it was. Oh well!

Growing up, spice cake was my absolute favorite. The only competitor was marble cake because how can you go wrong with vanilla and chocolate in the same cake? You can’t. But spice cake… so amazingly delicious, topped off with cream cheese frosting and it’s taken to another level. Now, one of my absolute favorite cake flavors is carrot cake. Anytime of the year, carrot cake is at the top of my list. I’m positive this love for carrot cake is due to my spice cake love. They’re super similar, with the only main difference being the obvious… carrots. Besides that, moist delicious spiced cake.

If you’ve only ever had spice cake. Carrot cake is definitely your next step and a guaranteed new favorite.

If you’re already a carrot cake fan, you’re in the right place because these are hands down the absolute best carrot cake cupcakes you’ll ever try and the only recipe you’ll ever need. Super moist, perfectly spiced and 100% delicious. These easy homemade carrot cake cupcakes are topped off with silky classic cream cheese frosting.

Nothing says spring and Easter more than carrot cake! Be sure to add these delicious bites of happiness (aka carrot cake cupcakes!) to the top of your spring baking plans and Easter menu! They’re a guaranteed family favorite!

Continue Reading Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Available for free download on InTheRaw.com, Half Your Cake and Eat It Too is a collection of recipes that replace half of the sugar with zero calorie sweetener, Stevia In The Raw® Bakers Bag, perfect for the health-minded baker!

Developed in partnership with internationally recognized registered dietitian nutritionist, Patricia Bannan, Half Your Cake and Eat It Too is a collection of recipes to inspire health-minded bakers to prepare and enjoy the sweet treats they love but with less sugar and calories. The sweet delicious taste of Stevia In The Raw® measures cup for cup, just like sugar. So go on, bake a pie, whip up a sauce. Cut the calories in all your favorite recipes.

My favorite recipe from this eCookbook is featured below and I can’t wait to serve it this Christmas Eve! It’s rich and super-chocolatey, but with half the guilt!

Disclosure: The product, information, and gift card have been provided by the makers of In The Raw® so that I could try the product and share my thoughts and information about Stevia In The Raw® Bakers Bag. The opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not reflect the opinions of the makers of In The Raw® sweeteners.

These healthy muffins for kids get all their sweetness from bananas and sweet potato. Perfect for little ones! They’re also paleo, vegan, gluten-free and nut-free.

I’ve made my son a few date-sweetened muffins so far but he doesn’t seem to really like them. These are the first muffins that he really went for! And I really like them, too.

They’re not the most beautiful muffins ever, but you know… they’re banana-sweetened. And made with sweet potatoes, tapioca flour / starch, coconut flour and coconut oil.

With ingredients like that, I don’t really care what they look like. My son has never had a regular muffin like these paleo chocolate banana muffins or paleo blueberry muffins so he also didn’t care. 🙂

I’ve made these as mini muffins, regular muffins and in cake form. It’s easiest for my son to handle them as mini muffins and figure it may be the same for other kids, so that’s what you’re seeing today.

If making them as regular muffins, it takes a loooong time. Like 40 minutes. Same with cake. I actually only made a 2″x2″ (I use such a small pan to test fourth batches of brownies, like my favorite gluten-free brownies!)

I’ve also tried these muffins with pumpkin instead of sweet potato, thinking that obviously it would work, but nope. It’s still hard for me to believe that it didn’t work but the possibility that I just screwed up the measurements is a possibility (and very easy to do when making an eighth of the recipe!).

The texture is different than your regular wheat-based muffin but still really good! If you refrigerate them, make sure to microwave them a little first or let them come to room temperature. They’re super dense when cold.

I love the ingredients in these. I’ve only made them with tapioca flour / starch but I’m pretty sure arrowroot would work. I’m doubtful anything else would.

Maybe cornstarch? I try to avoid corn (except in this gluten-free cornbread which I must make for Thanksgiving!) so I haven’t tried it.

I also like that they have quite a bit of healthy fat in them. This is pretty much the only good on-the-go snack that my son enjoys with some good calories and fat in it.

He usually just eats vegetables, fruit and cheese. I think I’ll make him my gluten-free cheese crackers soon but they’re soooo absurdly addictive. Any other healthy snack ideas without added sugar?

I was really surprised after trying the first muffins. Banana-sweetened baked goods so often taste cardboardy! Hot from the oven, they’re kind of creamy / mousse-y but once they’ve cooled, they’re more like normal muffins.

It’s hard to describe what they taste like, though. They don’t taste very much like sweet potatoes, bananas or cinnamon. Just a nice blend of everything, I guess!

Make sure to use really ripe bananas (riper than what you see in the video). I’ve made them with just ripe bananas and they weren’t nearly as tasty.

The only downside to these muffins is that they stick badly to regular paper muffins. They slid right out of the silicone liners and the waxed paper ones were fine but just regular paper ones were problematic.

If they stick, let them sit for several hours and then try to remove the wrappers. It should be much easier!

I also made them without any liners and without greasing the pan, which was a non-stick pan, and they came out pretty okay. If you’re patient enough, you could grease all 24 muffin molds but I was too lazy for that.

You can make these muffins with either raw or cooked sweet potato. If using raw, you need to use a food processor or high-speed blender to process together the coconut oil, sweet potato and banana until it’s a puree and then add the rest of the ingredients.

When I made them with cooked sweet potato, I cut them into 1.5″ chunks and cooked in a pressure cooker at high for about 10 minutes. There are lots of ways to cook sweet potatoes and you can use whatever method you normally use.

Questions about these healthy muffins for kids?

• Can you taste the coconut?
  Nope!

• Can I reduce the oil?
  You could use a little less.

• Can I use something other than coconut oil?
  Any type of butter or oil should work!

• What can I use instead of bananas?
  I don’t recommend experimenting with this. They’re needed for the sweetness, flavor and for bulk.

• Can I use something other than sweet potato?
  I tried pumpkin and failed. I’m not sure what else could work. Anyone have some ideas?

• Can I use something other than tapioca flour / starch?
  Arrowroot flour / starch probably works but I haven’t tried it. I don’t think anything else would work (perhaps cornstarch but I’m not positive!)

• Can I use something other than coconut flour?
  There’s no sub for coconut flour, unfortunately. It absorbs so much more liquid than any other type of flour.

• Do I have to use a food processor / high-speed blender?
  If you use raw sweet potato, you do. This recipe also works with cooked sweet potato. If using that, you can just mash the sweet potatoes and bananas together in a bowl.

Healthy Muffins for Kids (vegan, paleo, gluten-free)

• Prep Time: 15 min
• Cook Time: 30 min
• Ready in: 45 min
• Yield: 24 mini muffins

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (113 grams) coconut oil, melted or at least very soft (not hard and solid)
• 170 grams (without the peel) very ripe banana (this is 3/4 cup puree or about 1 1/2 medium bananas but please weigh it!)
• 1 1/2 cups (210 grams) raw chopped sweet potato or cooked sweet potato
• 1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar, white vinegar or lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 6 tablespoons (45 grams) tapioca flour / starch
• 6 tablespoons (48 grams) coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoons salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175°C) and line a mini muffin tin with 24 muffin liners. Silicone or waxed work best. See post for more details.
2. If using cooked sweet potato, skip Step #3. In a large bowl, mash the bananas and sweet potato together until pureed. I like to use the bottom of a glass to mash it. Then stir in the coconut oil. Go to Step #4.
3. If using raw sweet potato: In a small food processor or a small jar of a high-speed blender (like the one used for making nut butter), process coconut oil, banana and sweet potato (added in that order) at high speed until totally pureed and smooth.
4. Pour into a large bowl and stir in the vinegar and vanilla.
5. In a medium bowl, stir together the remaining ingredients. Add this to the wet mix and stir just until combined.
6. Fill the liners full and bake for 30 minutes or until they’re no longer squishy and seem firm.
7. Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Place in an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 4 days or refrigerate for about a week. They also freeze well. Reheat in the microwave before serving the chilled muffins.

Permalink: https://www.texanerin.com/healthy-muffins-for-kids/

Recipe by Texanerin Baking | www.texanerin.com