yummehhhhhh
So I don’t know how it is for those people living in the northern hemisphere, but down here in Australia, summer finally decided to join us. The last few days have been hot hot hot! Here on the Gold Coast, the temp last night was 28 degrees celsius, and today it was 31. I have had all the fans cranked on high, the blinds drawn, the windows and doors open, and still sweating. I have A/C but don’t want to use it all the time, I hate being in the house with all the doors and windows closed up. I would much rather go for a swim down at the creek or jump in the pool, but the heat has been so intense I didn’t want to take the boys out into the sun. Plus, the creek gets packed out on days like this. Instead, I filled a tub with cold water and K splashed about for a bit outside. I looked away for 1 second and looked back… and the water was all yellow and chunky. all up today we have had 3 ‘splosions’, as M calls them. Charming.
One of my New Years resolutions was to try and cook some new dishes. Sometimes I notice I get stuck cooking the same old things, week in week out. I rack my brains and try to think ‘I’m sure I used to cook other stuff! What else can I cook??’. But it always ends up being the same meals, whether it is out of convenience, allowing for the kids tastes, or just getting stuck in the same old shopping list items. So I decided to try and cook at least 1 new meal a month. I will post the results, good or bad… Here’s hoping to mostly good!
My first new recipe was an easy one. M and I wanted something light and cool, since it has been so hot, but still satisfying and filling. After 2 bites, M turned to me and said ‘Mum, this one’s a keeper.’ Haha. So cute. And K munched his down, too.
Ingredients:
1 packet of spiral pasta
1 T olive oil
1 can of 4-bean mix, drained and rinsed
1 medium tomato, sliced into wedges
1 avocado, cubed
1/2 a medium red capsicum, julienned
1/3 cup of cubed cucumber
1 & 1/2 cups of baby spinach
1 cup of slaw mix
Balsamic vinaigrette
Method:
Cook the pasta according to directions on the packet, drain, and rinse thoroughly under cold water. Place in a serving bowl and mix in the olive oil. If you feel that the pasta is still a bit warm, pop it in the fridge for a half hour. I rinsed mine for several minutes, so it was fine.
Throw in all the other veggies, the balsamic dressing, and toss to combine.
Put back in the fridge for at least an hour, to allow the flavours to do their thing.
Eat, yo!
We had this for dinner tonight on it’s own, but this would also be an awesome dish to take along to a bbq. You could even add pretty much whatever you like to it.
I made about 3L worth of pasta salad.. I filled a 2L and a 1L tub after tossing it together.. And M even had 3rds!
Oh and yay, now that Survivor: South Pacific is over (shut up, I will watch whatever reality trash I want to after 9pm), I get to watch American Horror Story! The ads have been killing me (har har), it looks awesome, but I couldn’t bear to not finish watching the Survivor season.
Zooper Doopers and American Horror Story, hells yeah!
domesticdreamer 