Thai Zucchini Salad--Sandra age 10 with Amy

Making the rice. 

Thai inspired zucchini salad. 

Trying to take a self portrait with the food. 

Makes you wish I was wearing a hairnet while I cooked. 

I am so good at self-portraiture. 

I gave up.  Here is the finished product.  With Smith.  In a paper bag. 

Amy's Take:  Sandra was bored this afternoon.  I told her to cook.  She made amazingly tough lemon bars.  The same texture as my shoes.  I was grateful because then I had dessert to use as a bribe to get kids to try dinner.  Sandra started the salad too, but then she had to go to 5th Grade Orientation with Eric.  So, I finished everything.  And this was my favorite use of zucchini EVER.  It is very loosely based on a recipe from the Holy Cow Vegan Blog.  My version is below.   I have to confess--I broke my no grocery store diet and bought a mango.  For the salad.  And while I feel a little guilty, it was totally worth it.   We served it with Thai Basil Chicken--recipe here  and rice.  I am going to make that salad every single day until the 17 zucchini on my counter (plus the 400+) that will be produced in my garden in the coming weeks are all gone. 

Other takes:
Amelia:  Why do you always make food I hate?
Amy:  You don't know that you hate this food.  You've never had it. 
Amelia:  Well, I hate fruit salad.
Amy:  It's not fruit.  It's zucchini.
Amelia:  I hate cooked zucchini.
Amy:  It's not cooked.  It's raw.
Amelia:  I hate cheese in my zucchini salad.
Amy:  It's not cheese--it's mango.
ad nauseum for 25 minutes.  Much longer than it took to eat dinner.   



Thai Inspired Zucchini Salad
3 smallish zucchini, cut in matchsticks
8 baby carrots, cut in matchsticks
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 mango, cut into small chunks
1/4 cup chopped peanuts or sesame seeds
Put all this stuff in bowl and toss.

In a blender, put
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp hot sauce
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
Blend up and add some water until it is pouring consistency. 
Pour the dressing over the salad and mix.  You can add 10-12 chopped up basil leaves if you want.  I didn't since I was already serving basil chicken.