It’s still too hot for any serious culinary endeavors.  Plus who feels like spending hours in the kitchen when you can enjoy beautiful summer weather instead? So I’ve been making fast and light dishes that rely on whatever fresh herbs and vegetables I have on hand. Today’s dish is from an old Donna Hay magazine and features grilled chicken cutlets with a topping made from almonds, mint, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. I added fresh lettuce from my parents’ garden and oven fries as sides. Speaking of which, I’ve been on an oven fry kick lately. They are so fast to make and taste way better than regular french fries. Less grease, too!

Bon appetit!

It’s been too hot for any serious cooking, but luckily, my mom decided otherwise and made this delicious cake. She topped a light and super fluffy sponge cake with Maraschino spiked yogurt mousse and juicy raspberries. It tasted heavenly and was just the right thing to beat the heat. Needless to say, we finished the whole cake in three days… Moms are the best, don’t you think?!

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first humans landing on the moon. While I like to think they snacked on zero gravity Mars bars while shooting through space, the reality of space food is far less appetizing, although NASA makes it sound like 5-star cuisine.

Not only were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first humans to ever set foot on the moon, they were also the first humans to eat on the moon. While romping around in their cute outfits, they enjoyed a lunar picknick of ham-salad sandwiches, fortified fruit strips, and rehydratable beverages

The astronauts’ diet has come a long way from the freeze-dried, dehydrated “foods” that had to be rehydrated with water and sucked from tubes or eaten out of pouches. Today, NASA’s food lab offers 185 dishes, and astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) are each allowed to bring two cases of non-perishable foods, such as M&Ms or chips. Special requests – birthday cakes, or a pizza from Pizza Hut – are sometimes considered as well. Astronauts even get to eat tortillas that are manufactered by Taco Bell’s supplier, although I’m not sure this gives them an edge over their Russian colleagues.

Here’s a look at some of the “food” from past missions astronauts had to put up with while floating around in space. Makes you think twice about wanting to become an astronaut, doesn’t it?!

Beef with Vegetables from the Apollo 11 Lunar Mission/Photo NASA

Early space version of "chicken or beef?"/Photo NASA

Dining a la Star Trek/Photo NASA

Rehydrating freeze-dried space food back in the day/Photo NASA

Lunch to go NASA style/Photo NASA

The well set table/Photo NASA

Astronaut's lunch box, 1980's/Photo NASA

Bon appetit!