Make Your Favorite Summer-Inspired Recipe with Whole Foods! $20 Gift Card Giveaway!!
I just made a terrific summer inspired dinner with ingredients from Whole Foods. I spent $54 dollars for everything you see in the above picture. And, it comfortably feeds four people.
My friends at Whole Foods had this great idea for a gift card giveaway on cavegrrl.com and sent me $40 to buy ingredients and showcase a recipe. Well, I spent a little over $40, but I did get more than a pound of chicken sausage (1.12 pounds), a package of sliced pancetta, a 1/2 pound of hazelnuts, 1/3 pound of mushrooms, 1 1/3 pounds yellow squash, 1 1/3 pounds zucchini squash, 1/3 pound of olives, 1 package of tarragon, 3 shallots, 1 lemon, an entire bag of kale salad (1 pound), 2 baguettes made by Against the Grain Gourmet, AND a bottle of French white wine. 🙂
And what did I prepare with all of the groceries? A brown butter summer squash linguine with chicken sausage, a warm kale salad, garlic buttered baguettes, served with a French blanc de blancs.
For the warm kale salad you will need:
1 pound kale salad
1/3 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 package of pancetta, sliced or diced (if sliced, you will want to chop/cut into finer pieces)
3 shallots, finely diced
1 Tbs olive oil
In a large sauté pan, heat the oil and sauté the shallots until they are translucent. Then add the pancetta and the mushrooms and cook together until the pancetta browns. Add the kale and turn with the ingredients, allowing it to wilt in the pan. Cover the pan with a lid to help wilt the kale. Add all of the salad and steam until the kale is barely tender. Set aside and prepare your summer squash linguine.
For the Brown Butter Squash Linguine, you will need a tool called a julienne slicer. I just bought one this past weekend in order to make the recipe and it has kind of changed my life. I’ll be making squash linguine at least once a month now! 🙂
I snagged the recipe from Fine Cooking.com and you can click here to find it.
1-1/2 lb. young yellow (summer) squash (about 4)
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
2 Tbs. finely chopped almonds or hazelnuts
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. chopped fresh tarragon or parsley
1/2 lemon
You’re basically going to slice 4-6 summer squashes (I used green and yellow) to their core with the julienne slicer. It’ll make fine strips that when cooked are the texture and size of spaghetti noodles (linguine, maybe not so much as the recipe advertises) 😉
You’ll melt the butter and add the hazelnuts cooking until the butter reaches a nutty brown color, about 2 minutes. Then you’ll add the squash and salt. Coat the squash with the butter and hazelnuts, and continue cooking for about a minute. Then you’ll stir in half of the chopped herbs, and squeeze a little of the lemon over the squash and toss. It’s a pretty easy and totally rewarding operation! 🙂
The sausages were easy to prepare. I bought the house special chicken sausage with spinach and feta, exclusively made at Whole Foods. All I did was sear them in a hot pan and finish them off in the oven. Then, I sliced them on a bias to serve. 🙂
The bread was prepared with a little bit of crushed garlic stirred into melted butter and lightly brushed on the baguette slices. I placed them under the broiler until they were toasted to perfection.
And that, my friends… is one wonderful meal at about $13.50 per person including wine. 🙂
My friends at Whole Foods want to give you a $20 gift card. So, enter by commenting below (tell me your favorite summer recipe or meal), and if you have a twitter account, follow me and retweet the link to this blog post for an extra entry (be sure to leave me your twitter handle in your comment!). I will announce the winner this Sunday. Good luck!
You can find Whole Foods Market on Facebook here (Roseville location here) (Sacramento location here) and on twitter here (national) and here (Sacramento) and here (Northern California)! 🙂
cavegrrl.com 
jays-massaged-kale-salad-with-seared-salmon-and-pinot’d potatoes
July 23, 2013 at 9:09 pm
I love salads during the summer. I retweeted this. My name is sassytat2mom.
July 23, 2013 at 9:17 pm
No twitter account but love this recipe and Whole Foods as well..I love good salads, seafood dishes and the heir;oom tomato anything in the summer….however tomorrow will be trying a recipe for bulgogi salmon (with bok choy and shiitake mushrooms)from Epicurious:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Salmon-Bulgogi-with-Bok-Choy-and-Mushrooms-242481
July 23, 2013 at 10:05 pm
If I am doing a bbq, I love preparing a dry rubbed tri-tip, grilled corn on the cob, baked potatoes and watermelon for dessert.
For an Asian inspired treat, I love stir frying baby bok choy, onions, garlic and chicken or beef with a hint of soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder and ginger powder over steamed rice. If I can get them, I will add the Asian yard long green beans and/or snow peas to the stir fry.
I don’t have Twitter.
July 23, 2013 at 10:45 pm
I love using fresh veggies and grilling in the summer.
July 24, 2013 at 5:18 am
Mason Made artichoke pesto pizza at the fair and people were sharing that it is the best pizza they have ever had! That was some serious high praise. For me, I love garden salad – the more fully loaded with summer veggies, the better!
July 24, 2013 at 7:37 am
Tweeted! Make Your Favorite Summer-Inspired Recipe with Whole Foods! $20 Gift Card Giveaway!! http://wp.me/p1vigh-12p via @cavegrrl
July 24, 2013 at 7:38 am
Shared on FB!
July 24, 2013 at 7:39 am
my favorite summer recipe is chilled prawn and mango salad!
July 24, 2013 at 8:06 am
i follow you on twitter and retweeted:
July 24, 2013 at 8:07 am
I love to make a curried quinoa salad with fresh veggies and some dried apricots. Minimal time on the stove (no hot kitchens!) and really refreshing.
July 24, 2013 at 11:24 am
My favorite summer recipe is strawberry lemonade
July 24, 2013 at 2:35 pm
I love a veggie pasta salad in the summer months.
July 24, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Squash summer salad, I love all the fresh fruits & veggies that are available in the summer.
July 25, 2013 at 10:36 am
Summer recipes are all about grilling! Whole Foods carries some great meat-alternatives that are perfect for the BBQ. Paired with crisp watermelon and basil salad topped with goat cheese and accompanied by a light wine makes for a scrumptious summer meal. Eat at sunset outdoors 🙂
July 25, 2013 at 11:00 am
My favorite summer recipe is always bbq cilantro lime chicken & shrimp with cilantro lime rice. You can never have enough cilantro and lime if you ask me. @barrelthief11
July 25, 2013 at 11:19 am
Orecchiette with butternut squash, sage, and sausage!
I’ve followed you and shared link 🙂
@JLYChung
July 25, 2013 at 11:44 am
I love grilled shrimp salad!
July 27, 2013 at 9:54 am
Follow and tweeted – https://twitter.com/usnamom2014/status/361167370942808064
July 27, 2013 at 9:55 am
My fav summer meal is to make grilled pizza! I like to first grill mushrooms, peppers, radichio, etc! Then grill pizza with cheese and add tons of toppings!!! Yum!!!
July 27, 2013 at 11:06 am
I love salads int he summer, spinach with feta, tomatoes, almonds and anything else!
July 27, 2013 at 11:52 am
My favorite summer recipes are stuff that have zucchini in it! Like zucchini loaf or zucchini pasta YUM
July 27, 2013 at 8:04 pm
I love chicken sausage with zucchini and squash in a foil pack
July 28, 2013 at 3:19 am
Congrats Valerie! You won. Please send me your contact info and I can email you the gift card!!
July 29, 2013 at 12:35 pm