Sunday potluck

There weren't very many people at church this morning - around 45. Probably because it was a long weekend and a lot of people were at camp. However I invited the entire congregation home for lunch. We had around 30 who came. It was an easy lunch though - we barbequed, and had the salads we made yesterday as well as a green salad. It's nice to be hospitable, especially when it's simple to do.

I now have 21 different salad recipes, which means that we can do five different ones a week and have a four-week rotation. I've done up a spreadsheet with the rotation on it; trying to have a nice variety of salads that are mainly vegetables, pulse-based salads (ones with beans, peas or lentils in them), grain-based salads; ones that are super easy along with ones that take a fair bit more chopping and preparation.

The Current Quinoa is one of my particular favourites.

Currant and Quinoa Salad Yield: 12 cups
1 1/3 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained
3 cups water
¼ tsp salt
Boil water and salt. Stir in quinoa. Reduce heat & simmer, covered for about 20 minutes, without stirring, until quinoa is tender and liquid is absorbed. Transfer to large bowl. Cool. Add:
2 cups lentils, rinsed and drained
1 cup diced red pepper
1 cup currants
½ cup parmesan cheese
½ cup slivered almonds
¼ cup thinly sliced green onion
Dressing
6 Tbsp canola oil
5 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp raspberry jam
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 ½ tsp sugar (or substitute)
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp pepper
1 garlic clove, minced

Lentil and Brown Rice Salad
1 c. dry lentils
1 c. dry brown rice
2 c. peas
1 c. chopped onions
1/2 c.chopped celery
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. soya sauce
3 tbsp. vinegar
1/2 c. oil
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 to 2 handfuls chow mein noodles

Cook lentils, rice and peas. Let cool.
Combine lentils, rice, peas, onions and celery in a large bowl.

Combine salt, soya sauce, vinegar, oil, curry powder and sugar in a pot. Bring just to a boil then pour over lentil mixture. Let sit overnight. Just before serving, add chow mein noodles.

Saturday - new salads

We experimented with two new salads today; and tried some variations on some of our tried and true ones. One of our favourites is the Sweet Potato Black Bean - however, I wanted to try it today with a change in the vinaigrette. So we tried it, and it's definitely a keeper. We changed the 1/4 cup lime juice to 1/4 cup concentrated orange juice, and omited the sugar. Mmm good!

The two new salads we tried were a parsnip salad and a buckwheat salad. Company's Coming has a parsnip salad in their salads book, and we tried it before and didn't really like it, so we made up our own. Because we had already opened a can of frozen orange juice we used it in the vinaigrette, but we wanted it to be a lighter colour to complement the parsnips, so we used rice wine vinegar.

Parsnip Salad – makes 8 cups

6 parsnips, grated

½ turnip grated

½ cup grated carrot

3-4 chopped green onions

½ cup chopped celery

¼ cup chopped parsley

½ chopped red pepper

½ cup raisins

Vinaigrette

½ cup oil

¼ cup lemon juice

½ cup concentrated orange juice

2 tsp chopped garlic

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

1 tsp salt

We also tried a buckwheat salad, that had possibilities but we decided that the buckwheat is too strong for a salad. If we make it again we're going to try it with millet instead. So here it is:

Millet Rice Salad – makes 4 cups

1 cup brown rice

¼ cup wild rice

1 cup millet

Cook grains. Cool. Add

¼ cup dried cranberries

¼ cup raw pecans

1 small bunch fresh parsley, chopped

3 radishes, thinly sliced

2 green onions, chopped

Vinaigrette

2 TLB oil

1 TLB lemon juice

1 TLB soya sauce

2 TLB concentrated orange juice

They had a lot of tomatoes half price at the store today, so we ended up making a Greek Salad with chopped tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes. Cleaning out the fridge I discovered several cucumbers and a big bag of sugar snap peas so we also made a Marinated Asian Vegetable. We added the cucumbers to it even though the recipe didn't call for it, and used sugar snap peas instead of edamame. They look so pretty that even though I never put pictures on my blog, I have to today.

Friday

I went into work for a little bit this morning. Had a mouse greet me there - twice. I don't really care for that type of greeting; however would rather meet a mouse at work than at home. Frankly, I'd much prefer anyone else greet it than me though.

This next salad is really huge - because it's a layered salad, it's best made in an attractive bowl; it's a good one for potlucks. However it also tastes really good in a pita.

Layered Moroccan Salad Yield: 16 cups

1 ½ cups prepared chicken broth

1 ½ cups couscous (roasted garlic & olive oil)

Boil broth, add couscous and stir. Remove from heat. Let stand, covered, for about 5 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Fluff with fork. Transfer to extra-large glass bowl. Chill, uncovered, for about 30 minutes until cold. Combine the next 9 ingredients in medium bowl:

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup plain yogurt

¼ cup each chopped fresh mint & parsley

2 Tbsp liquid honey

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Add ½ mayonnaise mixture plus 540 ml can of lentils (rinsed and drained) to couscous. Stir and layer the next 5 ingredients in the order given and top with the remaining mayo mixture.

2 cups thinly sliced carrots

2 cups sliced English cucumber (with peel)

2 cups cherry tomatoes

Scatter with ½ cup each of dried apricot, dried cranberries & seeds or nuts. Serve with lettuce if desired.

This next one is a variation on your basic marinated vegetable salad, because it uses Asian vegetables and an Asian-type marinade as well. The original recipe called for edamame however it's not recommended for people with thyroid problems, as Ruth has, so we've substituted chickpeas, which we get for free anyway.

Marinated Asian Vegetable Salad

Yield: 9 cups

2 - 3 cups chick peas or edamame, cooked

398 ml can cut baby corn, drained

350 g package of firm tofu, cut into ½ inch cubes

1 cup baby carrots, halved lengthwise

1 cup celery, sliced diagonally

1 cup diced red pepper

1 cup grape tomatoes

1 cup snow peas, trimmed & halved

Dressing

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup canola oil

4 tsp fish sauce

1 Tbsp finely grated ginger root

1 Tbsp sugar (or substitute)

2 tsp chili paste

Marin

Thursday

Rachel had a good day yesterday; mostly sitting around - as there's a lot of that involved in being an extra for a TV show. Emmet and I enjoyed the morning together; we went to the farmer's market and the library and then his Friesen grandparents had him for the afternoon. It feels strange to have nothing in particular on my plate for today -but I'm sure I can handle it.

Here's the next two salads:

Marinated Vegetable Salad

1 bag mixed vegetables OR

1 small cauliflower cut

3 cups chopped broccoli

2 cups cherry tomatoes

2 cups celery cut in sticks

3 carrots cut in sticks OR 2 cups mini carrots

1 can mushrooms (the canned mushrooms work better because they don't blacken over time)

1 green pepper cut in strips or rings

Vinaigrette

½ cup oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp chopped garlic

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

2 tbsp lime juice

The Greek salad is one of Ruth's favourites - mind you, I don't think you can ever go wrong with feta cheese and garlic. Feel free to add more feta; it kind of depends on how much cucumber you put in.

Greek Salad

1 pint grape tomatoes

1 or 2 diced English cucumbers

½ red onion cut in rings

½ cup diced feta cheese

1 can pitted black olives

1 diced red onion

Vinaigrette

½ cup oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp chopped garlic

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

2 tbsp lime juice

Recipes for Wednesday

Bean Salad

1 can mixed beans

1 can green beans

1 can yellow beans

1 can baby corn (cut)

½ red onion chopped OR 1 jar marinated onions

1 chopped green pepper or red pepper

Drain all the cans, rinse the mixed beans.

Vinaigrette

½ cup oil

¼ cup cider vinegar

1 tsp chopped garlic

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

¼ cup sugar or sugar replacement

We used to purchase a large (commercial size) container of low cal Italian dressing and used it on all of our salads for the vinaigrette, but we've found that we prefer to make our own salad dressings; they taste better and give each salad its own distinctive taste. We do purchase the 10 lb sack of red onions though, because we go through a lot of red onion.

Lentil and Black Bean Salad

1 can black beans

1 ½ cups cooked lentils

¾ cup corn

½ cup chopped red onions

½ cup green pepper

¼ cup parsley

Vinaigrette

½ cup oil

¼ cup cider vinegar

1 ½ tsp Dijon mustard

1 ½ tsp cumin

1 garlic clove

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

Babysitting

Rachel is going to be an extra in a movie today - they need pregnant women for a scene. So I'm babysitting Emmet for the day. We'll see how this goes. It may be a long day; on the other hand, it may go perfectly fine.

The next two recipes

Vegetable Pecan Salad

2 cups broccoli florets

1 cup cauliflower florets

½ cup snow peas, trimmed

1 large red pepper, thinly sliced

3 green onions, sliced

Vinaigrette

½ cup canola oil

2 TLB red wine vinegar

2 TLB balsamic vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp ground coriander (optional)

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 cup pecan halves

This next salad is one of my personal favourites; we always make really big salads because we're splitting them at least three ways, plus serving them for potluck Sunday dinner, however this one can be easily halved:

Sweet Potato Black Bean Salad

Yield 12 cups

6 – 8 cups sweet potato, cooked and cubed

2 cups red pepper, chopped

2 x 540 ml can black beans, rinsed and drained

½ cup thinly sliced red onion

¼ cup parsley, chopped

Dressing

½ cup canola oil

¼ cup lime juice

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tsp sugar (or substitute)

1 tsp salt

2 small garlic cloves, minced or ¼ tsp powder