This mango black bean salad is a delicious and refreshing side to add to any Southwest or Mexican themed meal. The sweet and juicy mangoes paired with the lime and cilantro add a burst of flavor to the black beans and corn. I also add peppers, red onions, and tomatoes to complete the dish and this is quite filling. Top it off with tortilla strips and enjoy with your favorite fish or chicken, or serve it up along with tacos or fajitas!

Add all the ingredients over a bed of greens. I like to use the spring greens mix. Use whatever you prefer. For the corn, the absolutel BEST way to do it, is to roast the corn on the grill or over a flame. Then slice the kernels off the cob. YUM! I can devour a whole bowl of this salad in one sitting. It is very filling!

The easy dressing of lime, cumin, cayenne pepper and avocado oil couldn’t get any easier. I love eating this salad along side my mahi mahi.

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Bruschetta has lately become one of my favorite appetizers and sides to share for dinner parties or casual gatherings. It is easy, healthy, delicious, and serves beautifully as an hors d’oeuvre (or an appetizer if you want to keep it ‘cas’). I make my bruschetta with three main ingredients: sweet and juicy tomatoes, fresh and fragrant basil, and of course, garlic. I serve my bruschetta atop some freshly toasted slices of baguettes, topped with fresh mozzarella and freshly ground pepper.

My secret ingredient is roasted garlic. I use plenty of garlic in this recipe, and I roast 3-4 cloves in the oven to impart a surprisingly sweet and rustic flavor to this dip. I simply wrap a few large, plump garlic cloves in foil and set them in the oven at 400 degrees (F) for about 10-15 minutes.  I use almost equal amounts of basil as tomatoes, and drizzle on some good balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

I can eat a whole bowl of this as a salad, guilt-free. This dish is so perfect in the summer when I can use my garden fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes and freshly picked basil. Our summer tomatoes that start as measly little stems from the farmer’s market for $3, flourish into jungle-like vines of endless, plump, juicy tomatoes that we don’t know what the heck to do with! Hence, this timely salad. Although not timely with my blog publication in the winter, this recipe is still amazing any time of the year. I promise, this appetizer is equally delicious throughout the winter, and I have been making it more often because of all the holiday and family gatherings. I finely dice the tomatoes into cubes, as I would for tabbouli, or I if using cherry tomatoes, I cut them into quarters. It is important to separate the extra juice and seeds from the tomatoes; this prevents an overly soppy bruschetta. Scooping the juicy seeds to the side and slurping later, works perfectly fine for us!

The tomatoes get marinated with balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt & pepper, onion powder, oregano, and extra virgin olive oil. The basil is not merely a topping, but is an essential partner to mingle with the tomatoes. The fresh flavors are just WOW.

I don’t feel the need to toast bread in oil, but instead set them onto my panini grill and press them for a a couple of minutes until golden and toasted. Any method works fine!

Enjoy!

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This is a delicious citrus cake that is divinely moist, and bursting with tangy cranberries throughout! The recipe is so simple, anybody can whip it up in no time. Orange cake is one of those nostalgic recipes that takes me back to my childhood visits to Egypt. My grandmother and my Tunte Zaineb often made this delicious citrus cake, and we would often eat it on our long drives to Alexandria from Cairo, or in the morning for breakfast with tea or milk. They would cut it into simple little squares and store it in a plastic container that I can still visualize. Spotting that storage container on the kitchen counter was always a welcomed experience. For this recipe, I combined my grandmother’s and aunt’s recipes and some extra pizzaz of juicy cranberries to recreate an orange cranberry muffin, which continues to be a favorite treat of mine at local cafes and bakeries.

The recipe uses fresh orange zest, which is essential for that pure and refreshing orange flavor and scent. Along with some fresh squeezed orange juice, milk, and olive oil, this cake gets very citrusy and moist! Olive oil is one of my preferred modifications in my baking. In many of my cakes I use olive oil, and you would not notice it if you tasted it and your heart will be all the healthier for this simple swap. The cake is still moist and fluffy, and a favorable fresh flavor that pairs well with citrus. You could certainly use butter instead, if you must. Butter always lends a nice buttery taste, but for health reasons and because the cake comes out just as moist, I prefer to bake this with olive oil.  

I also use fresh whole cranberries which are perfect because they are in season in the fall and winter, along with the deliciously juicy oranges. The festive pop of color, along with their tart and juicy flavor, goes so perfectly with this sweet orange cake! I try to buy the cranberries and keep them for a few days to make sure that they ripen and are not so tart in the cake. I found that if I use cranberries right away after I purchase them, they tend to be less sweet, which could definitely make this recipe go sour!

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