Details

• 1 theme per week
• The person that picked the theme for the week will pick a winner from all recipes submitted. The winner will pick a theme for the following week. This will be done on a Sunday night and you have until the following Sunday to find a recipe and make. Come and share the recipe, a picture and your thoughts on the recipe.
• You can make the recipe using any ingredients you like e.g. whole foods, some processed foods

Due to all the warm weather going around the first week will be Salad

Let the cooking (and eating) begin

Awesome! I'm in but moving house this week so will pick it up next week

Great! Tomorrow I'm going to make a quinoa salad with parsley, pine nuts, spring onions, tomato, cucumbers, lettuce and a lemony mustard dressing. It will make a great healthy low carb lunch that will last me a few days and will be great on wraps with some shredded chicken leftover from the chicken stock I am going to make.

Fun!

What is Quinoa?

Ouch - you've hit me with the hardest challenge first up! I have a salad-phobic husband....time to get creative and hope for the best.

Quinoa is a grain from south America it is really delicious and has a chewy texture and nutty flavour. It is great for you Because it is low gi and has all of the essential amino acids so it is a complete protein.

hehe i think i've done these challenges a few times before in other years
i'd like to join in though no ideas what at this stage!

Looking forward to this one, we dont eat a lot of salad so it will be great seeing what everyone comes up with

Ever heard of meat in a salad ;-) lol that's what my DP's like and it works every time!

I'm going to be ambitious and make mozzarella from the previously mentioned book, for this salad.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/16821/toma...ozzarella+salad

Ok, off to start searching ........

Always wanted to make my own cheese, let us know how it goes!

Roasted vegetables fetta and spinach Mamabug! He will just think it is a fancy serving style!

Is it too late to join in?? I got some (more) cookbooks for Christmas and would love the inspiration to try and share some new recipes. Although salad is a hard one....

I'm still keen though DS is dairy free so I'll have to omit dairy from my recipes or portion his prior to adding. That's ok though as I'm used to doing it now. With DD I'm playing around with her diet to try to see what I can do to improve her eating and her constipation.

Salads sounds really good as I've been looking for some more to try as I try to eat more vegetables. Can't wait. To see what everyone else comes up with.

Hi, I would like to join in please. I love to cook so am up for any challenge. Can't wait to see what everyone does. It's always great to see pictures of the wonderful dishes people cook

I'm super keen to join as well.

Do i need to share a recipe and photograph what I make?

Off to hunt down some instructions from previous threads I may have missed!

This sounds good. I have a couple of recipes in mind that I would like to do.

Hmm salad .We are not big salad eaters in this household. Wish me luck .Off to go look now for some recipes

Can I make a suggestion.

Instead of one person picking the theme from a list of suggestions, why don't we copy what the Photography Challenge girls do.

That would mean this weeks theme picker would select a 'winner' on Sunday (a dish they love the sound of or something they have been inspired to try out themselves). Then that 'winner' picks the theme for the next week and so on.....

It might be more motivating this way.....

I love that idea Spring Bee

I've found my recipe, I've done my shopping.... and have told DH he can get his own dinner tonight!!!

The ingredients include:

baby spinach
chopped pistachio nuts
cherry tomato
strawberies
char-grilled watermelon
caramelised balsamic


It is a "fusion" of two recipes that seemed so similar I figured I would combine the ingredients into one!!

I'm going to serve it with fish.

Yeah. Well that went well. I loved it.

Can't say the kids were impressed. They love watermelon, strawberries, baby spinach and cherry tomatoes...but whinged and protested the whole time because they saw me 'cook' the melon.

I didn't even put a lot of dressing on. Basically let about four or five drops land on theirs so they could taste it and if they liked it, ask for more. Nope. They carried on like I was asking them to try horse dung.

The 6yo loves pistachio nuts. Was hassling me while I was shelling them. But HATES, shall I repeat...HATES...crushed pistachios...which were sprinled on top.

Sigh. I will wait until I have some people with real taste buds before I dazzle them with this one!

But - OMG...how have I never encountered caramelised balsamic before in my life??? Kitchen was a bit whiffy while it was reducing, but YUMMMMMMMMMM.

Next....surely someone has to have more luck than me

Can I join too please but will start next week

I would love to join too! When does the challenge start or has it already?

For those that want to join I will add your name to the front page.
Details of the challenge are on the front page.

Spring bee I love that suggestion.

Mamabug that salad sounds yummy, sorry to hear your children didn't like it. I can't imagine having to try and get children to eat especially kinda healthy food, it is hard enough to get the children to eat at work.

AFM - I found a yummy mango chicken Thai salad in women's day magazine. I can't wait to go shopping for the ingredients.

the salad I want to make, is:

lettuce (usually use iceberg or cos)
red onion
diced bacon
pineapple
beetroot
grated carrot
capsicum (red is my favourite but any will do)
celery
cherry/grape tomatoes (don't eat but others do)
cucumber (don't eat but others do)
S&P

Sometimes bbq chicken if we have it.

Creamy dressing - caesar/honey mustard/ranch etc

Chopped/diced small so its easy for me/the kids to eat.

I like it by itself, but serve with meat/garlic bread etc if desired.

It just so happened that I had planned to try a new salad for dinner tonight. So here it is:-
Fattosh Salad

I served it with Lamb Cutlets and homemade Baba Ganoush.

The recipe is Neil Perry's http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/270/fatoush

Mamabug - sorry the kids didn't like the salad. I love pistachio nuts & wouldn't be able to resist them in a salad.
Vitadolce - your salad sounds wonderful. I've never tried Quinoa before but have been meaning to give it ago but not gotten around to it yet.

Can't wait to see what everyone else does

Add me please

These are a couple of salads that I like to make when we are having a BBQ.

Moroccan Spiced Carrot Salad

4 carrots, peeled, trimmed and halved on the diagonal
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons ground cumin
½ cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved lengthways
¼ cup flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoon harissa
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and blanch the carrots for 3 minutes, or until they just begin to soften. Drain, pat dry with paper towels, and then toss them with the 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and 1 teaspoon of the cumin. Cook the carrots on a hotplate for 25 minutes turning them once so they are cooked through and golden all over.

While the carrots are still warm, cut them into thin diagonal slices and toss them with the olives and parsley. Mix the harissa with 1 tablespoon of water, add the 1/3 cup olive oil, red wine vinegar and remaining cumin and whisk together. Pour the dressing over the salad and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cucumber Salad

1 telegraph (long) cucumber
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 red Asian shallot, finely sliced
1/3 cup coriander leaves
1 small red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped
75g snow pea shoots

Peel the cucumber, cut it in half lengthways, remove the seeds and cut into ¼ inch slices. Put the sugar, and lime juice in a large bowl, and stir them together until the sugar has dissolved, then add the fish sauce. Toss the cucumber, shallot, coriander and chilli through the dressing, cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Just before serving, cut the snow pea shoots in half and stir them through the salad.

I am thinking about making this recipe http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/7105/taco+...+cream+dressing

Something different and not too healthy for DF

Hopefully it goes down well.

I'd love to see how the homemade mozzarella turns out. I make basic cheese and have wanted to try my hand at mozzarella for a while now but haven't spied any rennet anywhere.

Here's mine, dodgy camera = not very good pic....but it's just a mixed salad with prawns dressed with a homemade garlic, lime, and chilli aioli. Simple but delicious.

Prawn Salad

Well the Qunioa salad was yummy. I wanted to take a pic but DH ate it all before I had a chance.

1 1/2 cups of quinoa steamed (I used a mixture of red and white so it would look prettier
1 tomato chopped fairly small
1/2 a red capsicum
1 Lebanese cucumber
5 baby cos leaves sliced
1 small carrot
1/2 bunch of parsley
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
Lemon juice

Very yummy next time I'd add some nuts.

Bloody double posts.

I'd like to say thank you to lisacat for taking on organising this.

I had plans but then I had a really unwell kid instead of my plans and my salads were just my normal lettuce, tomato, spring onion with a balsamic, EVOO, mustard vinaigrette. Last night a long capsicum which was labelled as mild was ripe in the garden and I cut it, tasted the end and thought it was as advertised and added it to my boring salad.

OM*G OWOWOWOWOWOWOW. I swear I have a blister in my mouth today. The picture of the salad would have been boring, the picture of me screaming and swearing when the slow burn caught up with me would have not been.

Fancy & Epic - oh noooo, don't you hate it when the heat catches you buy surprise. Hope the mouth recovers soon.

Some nice salads and pictures too. Loving the prawn one MISS_E

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73761537@N05/6652141999/

Barbecued lamb and zucchini salad. (for 2 people)

6 lamb cutlets
8 baby zucchini, cut in half lengthways
1 cup of picked mint leaves
1 can butter beans
1 red chilli
4 spring onions, thinly sliced
200g fetta (i use soft persian.)

evoo and lime juice to taste.

oil up the cutlets and zucchini, and chargrill.
mix everything else and serve.

I added a couple of tablespoons of mixed evoo and lime juice.

Gotta hate the sneaky hot chilli F&E. I've had similar happen before.

When does the week end for the challenge?
I thought I was going to do my 'fancy' salad for last nights dinner. However, things are hectic in our house at the moment and DH ended up making some super yummy chicken kebabs with a great creamed corn and hummus dip. DS loved the creamed corn and ate heaps of it. We tried to convince DD that the hummus and creamed corn were sauces but she didn't fall for it so she had a few bites of chicken instead.

Sorry for being slack.

Lois Griffin - would love the creamed corn dip recipe.

I can't seem to work out how to post a pic, any advice?

Anyway, my recipe is for a layered salad. Take the following ingredients and layer them on a big plate...

Spinach leaves
Roasted sweet potato or pumpkin
Diced avocado
Sliced mushroom
Red onion
Crispy diced bacon
croutons (I lightly fry bread in olive oil, then wipe over with halved garlic before cutting into squares)
Toasted pine nuts
Shaved parmesan
Ranch dressing

Billabong5 - your salad sounds just like something I would love (except without the mushrooms). The best way to post pics is through a link to Flickr or Photobucket. I found trying to post pics on here difficult because my photos are always too large.

Suline - beautiful job I love persian fetta cheese. Wish I had put some in my salad

Lois Griffin - I thought the challenge ended tonight and a new one then starts for next week. It's bound to be a small group until we get into the swing of things.

Hi ladies,

Here is my salad, it is my version of one that was in this week womans day



Thai mango chicken salad
Serves 1

Iceberg Lettuce
1 Tomato cut in to segments
1/8 yellow capsicum sliced thinly
2 slices of red onion ringed
1/4 lebanese cucumber sliced
2 chicken tenderloins, grilled and sliced
2 mango cheeks, cut in to chunks

Dressing
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sweet chilli sauce
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp macadamia oil (recipe said sesame oil but I didn't have any)

I had this for lunch today.It was really yummy and very filling. I think I might cut down to maybe half a tomato in future.
For those watching their weight it came to 300 calories.
I will be eating this salad for lunch again this summer, I love the flavour of mango and chicken.

There has been some nice salads so far. I will come back later tonight to judge.

will have to sit out of this weeks, as i have been so busy i forgot to buy the ingredients i would need!

I've only just seen this thread, I'll play next week we are having pasta tonight and don't have anything on hand to make a salad tonight.

Bummer only just seen this thread. But I would of made chicken caesar salad, so yummy!

I totally forgot to make a salad this week! But I am keen to join in next week.

Thinking about joining...

Just wondering... Are you ment to post photos?

It would make things more appealing.. to see it. As they say..you eat with your eyes first. And then it challenges you..to plate things up nicely.. Etc.

I think photos are supposed to be part of it, they were mentioned originally.

I am wondering if a bit more structure would be a good idea? Like don't post about what you plan to make but just put up a post with the recipe and the photo?

Lisacat - thanks for organising this and sending me a PM.


I think that might work better too.

Ok, here's my salad. It's supposed to be a three pea and potato warm salad I saw in a magazine, but DD kindly ripped it up when I left it on the floor. So I just did my own take on it.



Warm Pea and Potato Salad

Baby potatoes (I think the original recipe used Kifler potatoes)
Snow peas
Sugar snap peas
Spring onions
(Not sure the exact amounts of these, maybe 500 grams potatoes, a small handful of snow peas and sugar snaps and I used two spring onions)

Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 cup white vinegar
1/8 cup lemon juice
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
Chopped mixed herbs (I used mint, parsley and basil because that's what I had)
Salt and pepper

Cut potatoes in half and boil until slightly tender. Add sliced snow peas and sugar snap peas for the last minute, then drain everything. Combine dressing ingredients in a sealed container and shake well. Add to salad with spring onions and serve.

I will probably make this again - nice change from a mayo based warm potato salad. But basil is too overpowering in it - I will stick with parsley and chives next time.

I should have come in here earlier, we had a gathering yesterday and made quite a few salads, alas I have no idea on how to upload photos, not that I took any, but there is some inspiration to be had in this thread. Yummo

Damn. I made a great salad today but no photos - it was pretty much inhaled.

Pearl sized couscous with red and white quinoa. I mixed through halved cherry tomatos (from my garden), finely sliced red capsicum and marinated mushrooms (used the oil they came in to dress the salad). I added some grilled haloumi cheese and topped the lot with shredded cos lettuce (from my garden) and fresh basil (from my garden). Squeezed lemon juice (from my garden) over the top, added some ground black pepper and we dug in!