Category Archives: Salad

Quinoa Salad with Oranges, Avocado, and Almonds

DSC_0065

Are you sick of quinoa yet?  No?  Not quite?  ME NEITHER!  I love this stuff. I love the flavor, texture, and how it makes anything you add it to into a filling meal in itself.  Now, some of you may think I need to move on from quinoa, and you might be right, seeing as this is my 4th quinoa recipe in a year.  (See: Little Quinoa Patties, Tabouleh Salad, and Quinoa with Corn, Scallions and Mint)  But, they’re all so different!  Which, I think, just goes to show how versatile of an ingredient it is, no? Continue reading

Leave a Comment

Filed under Salad, Side Dish

Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad

I don’t know about where you live, but around Chicago it’s been a pretty freakishly hot summer.  I’ve been effectively using the baby as an excuse not to leave the air-conditioning pretty much since June, and I’m sorry to say that my poor garden has gone completely neglected.  The tomatoes were left cage-less (hmmm… cage-free tomatoes, maybe there’s a marketing spin there…) , there was not a chip of mulch to be found until last week, and everything is looking fairly sad and withered-looking.  Except of course, the mint and parsley, which I’m convinced could grow out of the cracks in our sidewalk.  As sad as I am about the lack of beautiful homegrown tomatoes, which I’ve been looking forward to since we finished the last of the tomatoes last year, there is a bright side.  And the bright side is this quinoa tabbouleh.

Tabbouleh is a middle-eastern herb salad typically made with bulgur.  I’ve always really liked tabbouleh, ever since my mom would buy it at the fancy-pants grocery store, Treasure Island, when I was a kid.  This was back in the early nineties, and things like tabbouleh weren’t exactly available in the usual chain grocery stores, so it was a treat.  And I kind of felt pretty grown up eating it.  Something about the fresh herb flavor with a hint of garlic and lots of big lemony tang still brings back memories of the stuff mom used to buy at Treasure Island.  However, I’m sure this is so much better than that stuff ever was. Continue reading

3 Comments

Filed under Gluten Free, Salad, Side Dish, Snacks

Cold Peanut Sesame Noodles

I heard somewhere that Memorial Day rates the highest of all days of the year for American meat consumption.  And judging from my family alone, I can’t say I’m surprised.  Last weekend, in a span of 3 short days, we had burgers, steaks, pork chops, smoked pork shoulder, beef brisket and grilled chicken.  Now, I love me some meat, and meat hot off the grill most of all, but it left us all feeling a bit, well… heavier, than when we started out.  I actually found myself craving tofu and lettuce when we got home.

Ok, that’s a lie.  But it was almost that serious.  Anyway, let’s just say that a vegetarian meal definitely wouldn’t do us any harm. Continue reading

Leave a Comment

Filed under Pasta, Salad

Green Bean Salad with Fried Almonds

Where to begin… where to begin… there are so many great things about this salad, I don’t know where to start.

First, it as fennel in it. Raw fennel. And some of you may recall that I was pretty sure I hated fennel until I made this, when I decided that maybe I only hated raw fennel, because fennel baked in cream was probably one of the best things I’ve ever had. But now I’ve made this salad, and it turns out I don’t hate raw fennel either. So if I don’t hate cooked fennel and I don’t hate raw fennel… hey, I don’t hate fennel! I actually like it. If I can like fennel, that means you can, too! For some reason, this feels like a huge milestone for me.

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under Gluten Free, Salad, Side Dish, Vegetables

Cheeseburger Salad

Yesterday, I panicked.  After I posted about the toffee, I decided to take a few minutes and see what was happening in the wonderful world of food on the internet- read a few of my favorite blogs, check out what was new on epicurious, etc.  As I was bookmarking sites and saving recipes to try to later, and they were piling up, as they inevitably do, the panic began to set in.  Here I am, overdue with my first baby, and I realized that I NEED MORE TIME!  When I saw a recipe for a lovely lemon layer cake on one of my favorite blogs, I realized I still haven’t found my ultimate birthday cake recipe.  And despite my best efforts, I still can’t get into the habit of baking my own bread every week, much less finding extra time to give this lovely little number a whirl.

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Meat, Salad