Zucchini salad

I found this recipe on another blog quite a while ago and I would add a link to that blog but now I really can't remember where I found it... I know zucchini salad sounds a bit strange and that is the reason why I took so long to try it but don't be scared, this tastes amazing! I just made it and wanted to eat it straight away after having a small taste, but the rest of the dinner is still in the oven so I have to wait.

For the two of us I grated only one big zucchini, the zucchini here are seriously big so you'll have to grate and see how much your zucchini gives you. Then add some lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil and grated parmesan cheese and mix well. Sorry, no measurements, you'll have to taste! I liked the taste of the parmesan so added quite a bit.

Salmon & Avo salad

When my mom came to visit a few weekends ago she brought me some smoked salmon and also an Afrikaans magazine from South Africa, rooi rose. This recipe is from this magazine. I was again too hungry to think of taking a picture of my delicious salad but here is the picture from the magazine:

And here's what you need for this salad:

Avocado

Smoked salmon

1 tin Mandarin slices, drained. (I couldn't find this, then found it last week but I've finished the salmon..)

1 tin grapefruit slices, drained. (I used a fresh grapefruit.)

Chopped pistachio nuts

Fresh watercress

Arrange on serving plate.

For the dressing, mix:

20 ml (4t) orange juice

60 ml (1/4 c) olive oil

5 ml (1t) Dijon mustard

2.5 ml (1/2t) ground ginger

Grated rind of one orange

5 ml (1t) fresh thyme

Warm Chicken Salad

For the past two weeks I've been eating a lot of salad. And I've been trying to be creative with it to keep it interesting. Most days by lunch time I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture of each salad before eating it, but I remembered this one time!

You need some Thai red curry paste for this one. The recipe says to mix the chicken pieces and curry paste and refrigerate overnight. If you plan ahead and can do this, great, but I've made it many times by just mixing the paste and cooking the chicken straight away. This time though I did plan ahead! I planned so well, I planned for us to have chicken for dinner the night before so I could keep some of the chicken separate for my salad. But then had a change of plan the next day and had a salmon salad instead. So this time the chicken was WELL marinated for two days!

I didn't have lemon grass so just left that out. Same with the red onion and the mint. Also sadly didn't have the fish sauce this time so just made a little dressing with oil and lemon juice. But do try the fish sauce, it's delicious.

Oh and I don't heat the tomato and mint. So I cook the chicken and then just add it over a normal salad with whatever you like in it.

Try it!

WARM CHICKEN SALAD

500 g chicken breast

2 t Thai red curry paste

1 t chopped chilli

garlic

1 stem fresh lemon grass, white part only

1 red onion, chopped

2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

1/2 c chopped fresh mint

1/4 c chopped fresh coriander

400 g mixed salad leaves

Dressing:

1 1/2 T soft brown sugar

2 T fish sauce

2 T lime juice

2 t oil

1. Cut chicken. Mix with curry paste, chilli, garlic and lemon grass. Refrigerate overnight.
2. Spray pan. Cook chicken. Remove form pan. Cook onion. Return chicken and any juices and tomato, mint and coriander. Stir until heated and set aside.
3. Dressing: Mix all ingredients.
4. Toss all together.

Chicken salad

It was too hot tonight for anything else besides salad so I made a quick chicken salad.

I made up a marinade using about two tablespoons apricot jam (or jelly for the Americans - in SA jelly = jello - not something you'd put on your bread.) Anyway this is the apricot spread you put on bread. Ok, moving on. Add about a teaspoon of mustard, a little bit of vegetable stock or chicken stock with a little bit of hot water to mix it all up. I like veg stock, it gives good flavour. I did not measure anything, just add as you wish.

Pour the sauce into a pan and add the chicken pieces. Here you can see how much sauce I had compared to chicken. You don't need too much.

I cooked it on medium heat. Then got impatient and turned the heat right up! The chicken went golden brown and the sauce cooks away to form a slightly sticky sweet sauce. Mmmm... I like sweet...

Let the chicken cool and add to your salad. We love the bread and cheese here so had some of that with our salad.

I actually started running today, because I've been enjoying the cheese and chocolates too much! Now let's just hope I can keep up the exercise!