Parsley and Garlic Prawn Salad

This is such a quick, easy and yummy dinner.  And perfectly compliant if you are doing AIP.

I fill a bowl with chopped iceberg lettuce, chopped cucumber, and chopped avocado.
I sprinkle that with garlic powder.  (You could dress it if you want to.)

Once that is ready, I cook up the prawns.

My fish shop has these amazing prawns that are already peeled and have garlic and parsley added.
I use those but you can use anything you like.

So, I cook up the prawns and then pop them on the top of the salad.

Done.

Simple Cucumber Salad

My sister made this the other night. I loved it.

I tried my hand at it the other night. A different other night. I loved it, again.

Here's the 'recipe' ...

cucumber

sesame seeds

rice wine vinegar

sesame oil

  

I peeled strips off the whole cucumber to get the striped effect you see in the photo.  You can do that or peel the whole thing or don't peel it at all.  Slice cucumber.  Sprinkle with rice wine vinegar and a few drops of sesame oil.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

That's it. 

Easy. 

Delicious.

Moroccan Quinoa in Cucumber Boats

Preparing for a Moroccan Tapas Night that we hosted at church, I googled something like Moroccan finger food and this recipe immediately caught my eye.   I'm glad it did ... it was delicious!  There are no real measurements on her page so I imagine it's a pretty forgiving recipe.  I did mine pretty much like hers but I couldn't find the Sambhar curry powder she calls for so I made substitutions.  Here's what I did.  You can adjust each element to taste.  I'm not kidding, I tasted after each ingredient I added! Also, I cooked this for 100 people to have one each.  When I make it again, I'll probably 1/2 the amount of filling and just eat whatever is leftover.  This amount filled four long continental cucumbers.

I used ...

4 big continental cucumbers
1 cup quinoa (I used a tri-colored one)
3 cups water
2 preserved lemons
4 or 5 sun dried tomatoes
2 spring onions
1 small jalapeno that I picked out of my garden
a small handful of fresh mint
1/4 of a bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro)
handful of pine nuts
olive oil
sea salt
moroccan seasoning
cumin, ground

What I did ...

Cook quinoa.  I did it according to the package instructions which said one part quinoa to three parts water.  Bring to the boil, cover and cook until water is gone.  It took about 20 minutes.

In the meantime ... finely dice the preserved lemons and sun dried tomatoes.  Chop the spring onions small.  Get rid of the seeds and membrane in the jalapeno and finely dice it.  Chop herbs.

After quinoa is finished and has cooled a little bit,  add all of the above that you've just chopped/diced to it.  Drizzle with olive oil and then season with sea salt, moroccan seasoning and cumin.  (or the Sambhar curry powder if you can get it.  I'd love to try that as it is cinnamon based and I think it would really change the flavor .... ) Season to taste ....

For the cucumber boats ... peel down the outside of the cucumber (as you see in photo above) in long strips.  Cut into 3/4 inch 'slices'.  Scoop out the centre with a melon baller and then fill the hole with quinoa mixture.

Bonnie Salad

One of my go to, throw together salads that I love ...

iceburg lettuce, i love it's crunch !
chopped tomato
chopped cucumber
chopped avocado
crumbled feta cheese
pine nuts
usually there would be sliced red onion but i don't see any in the photo

topped with a vinaigrette or italian dressing
or like this one ... just a sprinkling of your favorite vinegar, olive oil and rock salt

easy peasy
yummy yummy

Salad Sandwiches

A great Aussie sandwich ... not something I'd eaten many of before moving here.
(a sandwich with only salad fixins ... I've had plenty of other sorts of sandwiches!)

This one had leftover Artichoke and Cumin Dip, Tomato,
Cucumber, Sliced Beets, Sliced Mushrooms, Pine Nuts and Fresh Spinach !

It was delish !

And here's Alia whipping up her Salad Sandwich ...
she and Jono both opted out of mushrooms, and beets !
But they both had pine nuts which was a pleasant surprise !!

Asian Chop Salad

This could more accurately be called "stuff I had in my fridge salad." But it sure was good!

To make:
chop up some cucumber
a nice ripe tomato
throw in a couple green onions
and some faux-crab

give the sesame seed jar a good shooka-shooka
drizzle some olive oil
a splash of rice vinegar
add a touch of sesame oil
and a sprinkle of cilantro

stir

enjoy!

I'd imagine that it would be even better if it sat for a while, but it was so yummy I couldn't wait!

A new series ...

Does anyone else get tired of putting the same old things in their kid's lunch boxes ?? I'm so on the lookout for new things to give the kids ... homemade things that travel/keep well !!

I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to post a series of lunch box ideas ... would you like to join me ?? Go ahead, grab the "what's for lunch...?" above, post to your blog and then link back here, or post right here if you are an author ! I'd love to see what you put in your kid's lunch boxes ! Or your husband's lunch box .... or your own lunch box ... or your neighbor's lunch box ... I'm not really picky about who the lunch box is for ... I just want to see what is in it !!

Here's a different sandwich idea that my kids love. I don't often keep cream cheese in the house, but when I do have it, they love this simple, refreshing sandwich. Cream cheese and sliced cucumber. Try it, you'll like it !!

Ps ... how do you like the lunch box drawing ?? Yep ... it was me ! Hidden talents, I tell ya !!