Red Quinoa, Brown Rice & Chicken Salad- April 6, 2010

Whole Foods was handing out a little spring magazine which is where I found this recipe. Quinoa is yummy and very good for you, as is brown rice. I don't usually make brown rice because it takes so long to cook, but I discovered Whole Foods carries it frozen. You just microwave it for two minutes and its done! This recipe was vegetarian but I added some rotisserie chicken. Basically you had the rice, quinoa, chicken, some asparagus, canned artichoke hearts, feta cheese and then you added a light vinaigrette to that. It was very yummy as a side or a main.

Orecchiette with Vegetable Pesto & Watercress Salad with Peppered Salami & Parmesean- April 4, 2010

Happy Easter! We usually celebrate more traditionally with ham, lamb and some family, but being in the middle of a move we kept it simple. I had planned a pasta dish but realized that half of the ingredients I needed had already been moved, so this is my husband's improvisation. This is where he far trumps me in the kitchen. I can follow just about any recipe, but I'm not great at winging it. He roasted some veggies (ramps- which are like a scallion/leek, yellow pepper and some other veggies we had) and pureed them with some roasted pine nuts, olive oil, salt & pepper. He tossed the orecchiette with the pesto and added a few reserved roasted veggies. I like using orecchiette for this kind of sauce as it kind of grabs it and tucks it in its little pockets. I had purchased some watercress just basically because it looked so good, and I made a side salad with a light champagne vinaigrette.

Pear & Blue Cheese Salad- March 23, 2010

We kept it light tonight with a somewhat wintery salad. I used ripe anjou pears, blue cheese & toasted walnuts. I found a "pear infused" white balsamic vinegar that I made a light vinaigrette with. Simple and quick!

Horne's Mixed Green Salad Du Jour- February 21, 2010

We often make "meal" salads. Basically, we use a meat (usually chicken or some cut of beef- tenderloin, flank) some mixed greens (spring, baby, mache), grilled veggies (peppers, squash, onion), cheese (goat, blue, Parmesan), nuts (walnuts, pepitas, almonds) and of course some grilled ciabatta bread brushed with goat butter. We always make our own dressing- some sort of vinaigrette.
Tonight we did grilled chicken with a light rub, grilled poblano pepper, grilled onions, a little blue cheese & walnuts. My husband made a blood orange vinaigrette, and we had a pinot noir. Yummy!