Showing posts with label Pasta Salad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pasta Salad. Show all posts

Jono's Roasted Pepper and Chicken Pasta Salad

We have a guest blogger today ! My boy Jono, who is nine, almost ten (!) cooked dinner for us last night. He got the recipe out of a cookbook he was given for is his birthday, but he made a few small changes.  I asked him this morning if he wanted to write a blog post about it and he was pretty excited to do it ! So ... here you go, in his words ...


hi i am jono and i am going to tell you how to make a roasted pepper and chicken pasta salad

you will need:
2 chicken breasts
1 yellow bell pepper
1 bag of any pasta
1 red bell pepper
a handful of rocket
for the marinade:
2 tbls olive oil
lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt and pepper
for the dressing:
4 tbls olive oil
3 tbls rice wine vinegar
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbls green pesto
a bunch of chives
a handful of chopped parsley


first boil some water then get your two chicken breasts and wrap them in cling film. then bash the chicken with a mallet until flat put the chicken in a container and mix in the olive oil lemon juice garlic salt and pepper put in the fridge for 20 minutes. cut the peppers in half and take out the inside then put them under the grill until skin is black. then soak then in water until ready to pick up then pull off the skin and slice them. cook pasta according to packet heat a frying pan to a medium high heat put chicken in and pour marinade on top. once cooked cool for a couple minutes while cooling chicken put pasta in a bowl with peppers and rocket slice chicken and put into the bowl pour the marinade on and mix and it is done. 

Notes from Mom : I didn't want to change any of how he wrote his instructions so here are a few tips (translations) from me ...

bell peppers = capsicum

rocket = arugula

cling film = glad wrap.  saran wrap.

grill = broiler

We made the pesto for the dressing.  We used sweet and greek basil, just a handful or so.  Then added maybe a tablespoon of pine nuts, maybe the same of freshly grated parmesan, added a blub or two of olive oil.  A bit of salt and pepper.  We used the stick blender on that.  Then we just added the rest of the dressing ingredients to that and blended it some more, again ... with the stick blender.

This was DELICIOUS !!!  It served four of us for dinner, and there were three small portions left over for lunches .... luckily I didn't need a packed lunch today since it's my day off !!  Wooo Hooo !!!

Tuna Mac

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I can't believe I haven't posted this recipe before.
It's one of my favorites.

And so easy ...

1 bag of shell pasta
1 small jar of pimento stuffed green olives, I chop mine in half
1 small red onion, finely diced
1 can of tuna (i like it in spring water but whatever), drained
1 cup mayo (i make mine like this), add a bit at a time, you may not need this much ~ or you may need more ... you just want the pasta nice and coated ! (not like mine looks in the photo !)
a couple squirts of american mustard

Cook the pasta al dente. Drain. Cool a teensy bit so the mayo doesn't go icky. Add all ingredients and mix. And that's that. I love this warm ... and I love this cold and leftover !!


Israeli Cous Cous Salad

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The recipe I used as a guide ... but didn't follow exactly, I found HERE.

I made this as a main. We're trying to eat light. This was maybe a bit too light.
Would be perfect beside a nice piece of fish ...

Here's how I made it ...

one bag (250g) Israeli cous cous (I think you could substitute Orzo/Rissoni if you can't find this)
6 spring onions, sliced
100g feta, crumbled ( I didn't measure ... I just crumbled some in )
24 or so black (I used Kalamata) olives, stoned and chopped
24 or so cherry tomatoes, chopped ( I didn't have cherry, oops ... I bought them but we had munched them away !! ) I just chopped up regular tomato.
50g toasted pine nuts
parsley
half a lemon & some good extra virgin olive oil


Cook the cous cous according to packet instructions. Drain and run under cold water. Combine with the other ingredients and dress with 1 part lemon juice to 3 parts olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.