Day Forty-two--Mexican Quinoa Salad

So, remember yesterday I was saying how hot it was. Compared to today, yesterday was as cool as a cucumber. What happened to spring? Crazy. Dinner tonight was an easy one again. It did involve the stove but only for 15 minutes or so.

Mexican Quinoa Salad

First, let me just say that I also made this:

Fresh salsa with organic tortilla chips

And after my day, I was glad to have a cold beer to go with the whole shebang.

The salad. I'm not sure what I was thinking with this one. I guess I saw Mexican and that was enough for me. I did have my doubts about the quinoa. I'm not a big fan of quinoa. I've tried to like it, really I have. I knew I was in trouble when I was mixing the spices into the quinoa to cook. The recipe called for cinnamon and nutmeg with cayenne. It smelled horrid. The other things that went into the salad were good. Tomatoes, an avocado, black beans, corn and feta cheese. I should have just left it with that and not added the quinoa. Ick. It was gross. The kids both took a big "no thank you" bite, and both shuddered. I can't blame them. I took a couple of bites and gagged.

Thankfully, I had also made a huge batch of fresh salsa. I'm going to be eating salsa for the next couple of days with the amount I made. It was delicious. It was spicy and I think I might have used a little too much cilantro but it was good. Connor, Tim and I enjoyed the salsa. It was too spicy for Aidan.

So, to sum up. This salad was awful. I will NOT be making it again. I'll spare you the recipe. Trust me, it wasn't good. Tomorrow will be another salad. It should be interesting though because we have to leave at 6 to go see a live TV show being taped at our PBS station. I guess we are going to try to eat before hand. It will be rushed. I just hope it will be better than this one was. Until tomorrow, happy cooking!

Day Twenty-three--Greek Salad

Sorry that I'm posting a day late. I was beat after dinner last night. Actually, I was in bed most of the day yesterday because I felt pretty darn crappy. I'm pleased that I was still able to get out of bed and make dinner. I have Tim to thank for help though. He went out and got a loaf of ciabatta bread and toasted it up for croûtons.


Greek salad

This dinner was tasty! I wasn't sure how it was going to taste as I was putting it together. This recipe (do you really need a recipe for a salad?!) was from my Jamie Oliver 20Minute Meal app. It was several stages and I kept asking Tim "But when does the lettuce come into play?" The dressing was olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and oregano. He also says to slice a red onion and pour a splash of red wine vinegar over the slices for a little bit. This made the onions taste fantastic. The only thing I didn't like, and will leave out next time, are the avocados. It called for 2 avocados and I only used one and I didn't feel like it went well with the salad. The lettuce and onions and everything were crisp and crunchy and then I would get a bite of avocado and nearly gag. I've made another salad of his with avocado in and loved it...just not this one.

The kids didn't really like this recipe. Connor and Aidan ate the croûtons, and a couple of bites of the lettuce but they really didn't like it. Tim and I really enjoyed it. It was nice to have something really light for a change. Tim was also joking that we had Mexican on Cinco de Mayo and that we were having Greek salad to commemorate the collapse of the Greek financial status. He's a riot, no?

Well, I hope I'm able to get more accomplished today. I am going to go start a loaf of bread and I need to start pizza dough this afternoon for tonight's dinner. I'll try and post tonight. Until then, happy cooking!