Summer salads

Summer's officially here, and since I'm still without a/c, I need to find meal options that don't involve turning on the oven.

Salads are a natural choice, and I decided to take advantage of the strawberries in season for this first one.

There's no recipe per se, but first I washed and dried a handful of spinach leaves and piled them on a plate. Next I cut up a cucumber and some strawberries, while I quickly toasted some pecans on the stove. I crumbed some goat cheese over, and drizzled olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the whole thing. Tasty!

This quinoa recipe was adapted from an LCBO flyer I got in the paper a couple of weeks ago. I adapted it slightly from the original version, throwing in some asparagus and leftover tomoatoes (I didn't have a full pint), and didn't bother to toast the sunflower seeds -- but they're a great, crunchy addition anyway. I at this as is, without the spinach leaves. It makes a great lunch seved cold.

Quintissential Quinoa Salad

Prepare quinoa first

1 1/2 c uncooked quinoa (I had only one cup)
2 1/2 c salted boiling water

Bring water to boil, then add in quinoa. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes until all water is absorbed. Set aside to cool.

Salad ingredients

1, 398ml can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 oz Feta cheese, crumbled
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 small red onion, finely diced
1/2 yellow pepper, diced
1/2 orange pepper diced
6 cups baby spinach leaves
1 c toasted sunflower seeds

Dressing (I halved the amount)

2 big cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 balsamic or red wine vinegar
1 c extra virgin olive oil
pinch salt
crackled black pepper

Combine all ingredients, except oil, in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake vigorously, then add oil in two batches, shaking between each addition.

Combine all ingredients in large bowl, and drizzle with dressing to taste.

Power up

Ever heard of the key power foods you're supposed to eat for maximum health? Well I managed to combine several of them into one meal this week. Bammo! Take that power foods.

So here's what I did: I boosted up regular old salmon cakes with two super health additions -- kale and quinoa. I had both cooked in advance, and added the chopped kale (probably 1/2 cup or so) to just about a cup of quinoa. Then, in went a tin of salmon, mashed a fork, some dried dill, two beaten eggs and lots of pepper and salt.

Here's how they looked in a pan with just about a teaspoon of olive oil. They were fairly wet, but still held together well.

I had them with an orange and fennel salad. Healthy and powerful!