Pasta salads are a great summer meal or side dish. I made one this past weekend to carry in our lunch bags each day to our 3 day convention. I used GF pasta because one of my kids has a life threatening allergy to wheat. Kept it really simple: cooked pasta, poached chicken breasts diced, grape tomatoes, peeled and seeded cucumber diced, and semi-homemade Italian dressing. It kept well for 3 days in the very cold fridge. (PS: cute rooster embroidery is a Stitcher's Revolution pattern from Colonial Patterns, I blogged about it here.)
Another simple lunch or dinner is cod fish "stew" with root vegetables/tubers , a tropical dish ;-). You could practically use any other "meaty" fish. This was one of our staple dishes growing up. The tubers were peeled, roughly chopped and then boiled in salty water (with a bit of butter if desire) until thoroughly cook. I usually steam the cod sprinkled with some of our favorite seasonings and olive oil. Once most of its own juice/liquid evaporates, I add a bit of tomato sauce, then the sliced/diced/chopped: red bell pepper, green pepper, yellow onion, and cabbage, a bit more seasoning to taste. Serve over white rice or root vegetables. Voila! Time to eat!
Do you like infused water? I do! From the skin of the cucumber, mixed with couple lemon slices, we had infused water.... very refreshing!
Since my day was already being spent in the kitchen, I preset the oven and whip up bananas muffins. Sometimes I bake it in the loaf pan, but mostly in baking cups, much easier to handle for my little ones hands, plus she can serve herself.
I'm such a messy baker... LOL.
A bit lazy too... I do not pre-measure ingredients. I measure, pour, and mix as I go. Do you pre-measure ingredients?
On a side note, Jenny of Elefantz is an Australian stitchery designer (remember the pincushion I stitched from one of her designs here?) well, she recently started to share weekly recipes accompanied with easy stitcheries free on her blog. I started to collect them and will start trying them out this Fall! How kind, a nice treat indeed!
We are starting to have a few nice days here and there... with that autumnal feel that I love! The sunlight is already changing and that only signals Fall is in the air. As a mom with small kids, living with a chronic illness, we are not able to do as much as other families are able to do with their kids during summer break,... but I'm thankful for what I can still do with them. Still able to go out and about on good days and enjoy their laughter and squeals of joy. In turn they are very empathetic and understanding when mommy is not able to do as much. There have been a few outings: playgrounds, faith strengthening meetings, a couple of trips to the pool, shopping to replace outgrown clothing items, volunteer work, to the market, and more recently to our 3 day convention. All time well spent!
Now after all the activity my body is on strike, but hopefully not for long. So now, perhaps I can have some force down time and stitch a bit. Hmmm... what will be my next project?
