Omega 3 and Protein Power Salad!!!

Also know as chickpea salad with feta and (optional) smoked salmon...

it's preeetty... <3

... this inspiration for this salad I picked up from work. The only real requirements (according to me) are chickpeas and feta... that's your "protein power" add salmon and avocado for Omega 3... or just avo if you're vegetarian... or omit both salmon and feta for a vega option (you'll need to play around with the "dressing" a little too... but it can be done!)

Here, we have a can of chickpeas, drained... 50 (ish) grams of feta half chopped, half crumbled, half an avocado and some olives, red capsicum and spring onion that I took to with a knife, somewhat haphazardly - but, hey! that's part of the fun... :)

This dressing is about 2 tsp of mayonnaise thinned down with lemon juice... and re-thickened with that crumbled feta...

A little mint stirred through and some salmon and basil on top and you've got yourself a gourmet little lunch right there!

A more "student friendly" version doesn't involve salmon... and change the dressing to olive oil, lemon and cumin (salt and pepper to taste)...

So this is maybe not a real recipe per se... but it sure does taste good! And is providing a corner stone in my current diet... YUM!

Coconut Fruit Salad

Hello... I haven't forgotten about you, Blog... in fact I've been taking photos, receiving recipes cooking galore! I just haven't made or taken time to write about them...

This is a quick shot of my breakfast from the other morning... on the bathroom floor... because I liked the colours! It's Daddy's take on my muesli, natural yoghurt (something I've gotten used to in the last year because it's cheaper that fruity/Greek yoghurt...) and a fruity salad.

The salad being the purpose of today's post. It's inspired by my Ginger, Lime and Pineapple fruit salad dressing, but tweaked a little... for example, instead of grating the ginger, I cut it up reeeal small which meant that when you got a bite of ginger, it wasn't overpowering, but it still nibbled back! I've added a little citrus juice, and coconut for fun too!

Sesame Orange Salad

To round off my Nigella Feast... of Chicken Nuggets and Baked, Stuffed Potatoes I now present the accompanying Orange Sesame Salad...

Mesclun  salad leaves with an orange, sesame dressing.

Now this one, is based, very very loosely on Nigella's Garlicky Spinach Tomato Salad, in that I borrowed the idea of using the tomato, or in this case, orange as part of the dressing rather than as part of the salad... beyond that the flavouring, although not an original combination are all mine!

See, when in comes to fruit, I am a fussy bugger, and will only ever really eat it just as it comes into ripeness... drives my mother, and the occasional flatmate, up the wall! As such, I had these oranges that my loving mother had sent me, but I had yet to get around to eating them... when... DUN DUN DUN!!! They became far to ripe for human (read: Kat-line) consumption... but I didn't want to just throw them away - that would be rude! So I decided to take a leaf out of Nigella's... DVD collection?... and use it them to make a salad dressing. But rather than using just the juice - I wanted to use the whole of the flesh - as Nigella did with her tomatoes... mixed with some sesame seeds and oil, and just a hint of fresh grated ginger (*ahem* fromatube) to create a rather tasty salad dressing, though I do say so myself.

RWW: A Nigella Meal!

(Wednesday, Sunday... same diff, right?)

So... It was coming up to tea-time and I was watching my Nigella DVDs. More specifically, I was watching my 'Nigella Feasts' DVD - Fun Food where she discusses making awesome food for children and then naming said food items "Blood and Guts Potatoes" or "Slime Soup" - how's a girl to resist, I ask you?!

Being that I had no specific plans for tea yet (woops...) I allowed Nigella to guide me - and I created a delicious (though I do say so myself...) Nigella inspired meal. There were three components to this meal, and I'm rather proud of them - so I'm going to post the recipes separately but for now here's an image:

Clockwise from top: Blood and Guts Potato, Oatmealy Chicken Nuggets and Sesame Orange Salad...