Easy Meal

There's not much that I really feel like doing when I'm on vacation and not traveling. Usually, I just end up cooking, or watching endless T.V. (thank goodness for reruns and marathons). So I usually experiment with whatever is in the house, coupled with the thought out meals, sometimes some happy coupling occur.

As was the case today with my meatloaf and salad:

So I had all the trappings for a super simple meatloaf, beef, crackers, a can of diced tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, pepper and garlic powder. I decided to throw in an extra ingredient with some mushrooms. Didn't really do anything to change the flavor, but it's just nice to know I got a veggie in there somehow. But it's a warm day and I didn't think the meatloaf was the "cooling" food that I needed. So in came the cucumber and carrot, the latter of which was going to be roasted, but like I said, I'm sweating, a plate of steaming roasted veggies would not help my temperature.

So look up carrots and cucumbers on foodnetwork.com and there's a nice cucumber and carrot salad recipe, which I couldn't make mostly because I didn't have the requisite lemon juice.

So rather than toss the whole idea together, I went for it, sans lemons:

I think it's rather pretty don't you?

Cucumber Carrot Salad
Ingredients
1 carrot - shaved with a veggie peeler
1 cucumber - shaved with a veggie peeler, toss the core once you reach it

Dressing
2 sliced shallots
1 tsp. chopped capers
2 tsp. Dijon or Stoneground mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Pepper to taste
3 Tbsp. Olive oil

1. Mix all dressing ingredients except for olive oil, whisk together and slowly pour in olive oil until well incorporated
2. Mix in cucumber and carrot until both are covered in dressing
3. Put in fridge until cool

Oddly enough, the salad tastes like coleslaw, except without the gross mayonnaise. I just haven't felt the same about mayo since I had that elote many months ago. *Shudder*