The Conversation: Okra could use a little re-branding. No more okra! Bring on the fries and popcorn! The Recipe: One of my very favorite light summer meals, just lightly sautéed fish with a simple tomato-fennel salad and roasted okra: oops, I mean, "garden fries". The whole meal cooks in 30 minutes and comes in under 200 calories. This isn't "diet food" – it's a summer feast! For good measure? There's fried okra too: oops, that would be "garden popcorn". This recipe is so quick and easy that I'm adding it to a special collection of easy summer recipes published every summer since 2009. Watch for new "summer easy" recipes all summer long. With a free e-mail subscription , you'll never miss a one! It’s no surprise when kids beg for gummi bears. But at the farmers market last year, a girl pleaded with her mom. “Please, Mom, please-please-please," she begged. "Let’s get some okra!” Her mom and I lo

Isn't summer glorious? The fruit, especially, seems especially jewel-like this year. And oh my, if fruity jewels don't glisten in this beautiful triple-berry pie. It's an all-berry mix of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries ... although, surprise, if you look carefully, some times I throw in some cherries too. Real Food, Sweet & Seasonal. A Pie with Beautiful Color! A Summer Classic & A Long-Time Family Favorite. Potluck & Party Friendly. Vegetarian.

Do you love the lightness of shrimp salad during the summer? Me too! It tastes fresh and healthy but is still packed with protein. This is my "master" recipe for shrimp salad, a concept recipe, begging for your own adaptations and substitutions, with three different sauces. So easy, so versatile! First published in 2008, updated & republished in 2012 REVIEWS "... just finished the most amazing shrimp salad." ~ Heidi Stuck in a shrimp rut, that's where I've been for a few weeks. It started when small cooked shrimp were on sale at the grocery, begging to be turned into shrimp salad for supper that night. The salad was good enough, but lacked a certain oomph. But by the next day, whoah, it was ever-so-good: it just needed a few hours for the flavors to meld! So I set off to create a shrimp salad tasting just as good on-the-spot as some-time-later. So sorry, no luck in that department. But there's an upside, something perhaps even

Apricot Bars aren't your everyday snacking cake, right? But oh, these easy, seasonal bars belong on your make-asap list. The "bar" itself is akin to a rich, shortbread-style cake, then it's topped with halves or slivers of fresh apricot (canned apricots work too) that turn all sweet and jammy in the oven. I've been making these bars for, um ... a few decades! There's just something remarkable about the soft, barely-cooked tang of apricots against the almond-scented buttery bars. Simple & Seasonal. A Sweet Treat for Summer. These Keep for a Week!

Such a simple summer treat, one best reserved for the sweetest, plumpest fresh blackberries. Just five ingredients for both the yogurt and the blackberry sauce! This combination of frozen yogurt with blackberry sauce is so simple, so summery and refreshing. Just Five Ingredients! Fast & Summery. Light & Refreshing. High Protein. Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. ~ Skip Straight to the Recipes ~ ~ Homemade Frozen Yogurt ~ ~ Homemade Blackberry Sauce ~ Happy National Ice Cream Day! Huh, what? National Ice Cream Day? Just who designates these fun "holidays", who knows, but the good news is, making frozen yogurt at home is so easy, so tasty, no holiday or special occasion is required to churn up a fast batch. It takes all of two ingredients – Greek yogurt and sugar – plus a little vanilla for anyone who's inspired that way but there's a special tang to yogurt that deserves its day (a holiday?!) in the sunshine. The recipe for b