Adding pesto to Caprese salad takes it up a notch. This version features ripe grape tomatoes, sliced in half, buffalo mozzarella balls, sliced in half, fresh basil leaves, all drizzled with olive oil and then topped generously with pesto. The pesto is homemade, using Pecorino Romano cheese, olive oil, basil and garlic. This version has no nuts, but is made bright and tangy with fresh lemon juice.
This salad boasts tons of flavour and has a wow factor for serving to company. It also travels well and is easy to assemble. I highly recommend you add some dollops of pesto to your next Caprese salad.
I made this tuna salad today for a potluck picnic lunch. The weather was beautiful and the salad was perfect. I made it nice and lemony and it was a hit. The lemon and the arugula are such a good contrast to the beans and the tuna.
I mostly followed the recipe; besides adding extra lemon juice (I used the juice of two lemons), I also soaked my chopped onion in cold water to mellow it before draining it and mixing it in, and I added a third can of tuna.
Since I don’t have leftovers from this batch, I think I will have to make it again soon just for me.
I made tacos last weekend, using a boxed kit. It was all very tasty, but those taco shells are so tiny. So confining. I kept breaking them with my overly ambitious and optimistic attempts to fill them. I eventually gave up and just made piles of the filling.
Today, I used up the leftovers in this delicious salad. I had about a cup each of spiced refried beans and cumin spiced beef. I heated them in the microwave, and then dressed the plate, first with beans and then with the meat. I topped all of that with cheese (a mozzarella-cheddar blend). I microwaved that gently to melt the cheese. Then, I placed freshly chopped romaine lettuce around the edge of the plate. I topped the cheese with a generous helping of pickled jalapeno slices and dollops of sour cream. I slathered everything with green tomatillo salsa and then sprinkled chopped green onions over it all. Finally, I sprinkled two broken up taco shells across the top.
This was so delicious. There was lots of crunch from the lettuce and the taco bits. And the temperature contrast between the hot beans, beef and cheese and the cold lettuce and sour cream was great, too.
I think next time, I won’t bother buying taco shells. I’ll just use nacho chips. I used the packaged spice mix, but I can replicate that quite easily too. I also think chopped cilantro would be a fantastic addition on top.
I highly recommend this approach to tacos if you too are finding yourself hemmed in by very tiny hard shells.
This salad looks a little bland (I will have to work on that), but it it is big on flavour. To make it, I use a store-bought coleslaw mix, a store-bought blue cheese salad dressing and leftover, cooked chicken. It is fast to make and really delicious.
This spicy crab coleslaw was one of my favourite brown bag lunches in the past little while. It is fast to throw together and outrageously delicious.
I just used a pre-cut coleslaw mix, which includes carrots and red cabbage. I mixed up a spicy mayo, but you could make your own or use a store-bought variety. My current version includes Miracle Whip, Tabasco-style hot sauce, a bit of seasoned sushi vinegar and a bit of white sugar. I made my mayo in a couple of minutes, tore up some thawed fake crab, and mixed it all together with the cabbage. By the time I was eating it for lunch several hours later, the flavours had had a chance to meld and the crab and spiciness had completely infused everything.
This would make a great company salad or potluck item. Or, if you don’t mind envious stares from co-workers, a perfect lunch for the office.
I have had broccoli salad on the brain lately. My mother had made one, which was delicious, but quite different from the one I’m posting here. Hers was made with feta, raisins and a yogurt dressing. After I ate some, I started thinking about THIS broccoli salad…
A Flour By Any Other Name 