Brussels Sprouts Salad with Dried Cranberries, Almonds and Parmesan

Brussels Sprouts is something we never had growing up.  From the TV programs we watched, it sounded like they were horrible.  After getting married, I started trying all sorts of new foods that we didn't have as kids.  Brussels Sprouts is one of those and we have enjoyed them ever since!  Typically I would roast them with some olive oil, salt and pepper.  When I came across this recipe it sounded interesting as it uses raw shredded Brussels Sprouts.

Simple Vinaigrette

I had some spinach sitting in the fridge and wanted to make a salad.  I found this recipe and I had all the ingredients on hand.  It's very simple to make and goes well with mild greens.  We had it with baby spinach.

Sundried Tomato Pasta Salad

Recently we had a small gathering catered by Simply Halal.  The food was amazing.  The pasta in particular was so good.  We ate it for the following 2 days and I didn't get bored of it.  I realized how I suck at making pasta.  For years I've been making my mom's pasta sauce and I've gotten bored of it.  Lately I have been looking at The Pioneer Woman blog.  I've already tried a few recipes with great success.  So I started to take a look at her pasta recipes.  Why does she use so much cream and butter?????  I'm not trying to put on 20 pounds.  If I used that much fat my cooking would improve no doubt...but I have modified her recipes to reduce the fat with good results so I have hope for her pasta dishes too.  This recipe had no cream or butter!! Yeah!!! But it had a ton of parmesan cheese which I significantly reduced. It also used 1 cup of extra-virgin olive oil. There was no way I could use 1 cup of oil!!!  I don't think I use 1 cup of oil to make a huge pot of haleem..how could I use that much oil for a pasta salad!!  So I reduced it by half and was so glad I did.  I think it would have been way to greasy if I hadn't.  Also I don't like olives so I left those out and after making this recipe I realized I don't like cherry tomatoes either so next time I'm gonna leave those out too.  My 4 year old son loved this pasta and for him I added a bunch of olives..I like to say he is eating olives with a little bit of pasta because he likes A LOT of olives.

This recipe also has red wine vinegar.  I looked up on SunniPath if it was permissable to use vinegars that are alcohol based and it was okay.  I had bought the red wine vinegar but I was still feeling nervous about using something that had the word 'wine' in it.  So I looked it up again to ease my conscious.

This recipe was good hot or cold and I'm definitely going to make it again.  I used my immersion blender to blend all the ingredients which wasn't a very good idea because there wasn't a lot of space.  A blender would be a better way to go but I hate using the blender.  It's too noisy and would wake a napping 1 year old baby so I avoid using it.

Sameena's Chickpea Mango Salad

A while ago my cousin sent me a recipe for this salad.  I wanted to try it because of the mix of sweet and savory but I never had all the ingredients around.  I recently went to my parents and when mangoes are in season they give me a big bag of them.  I had some peppers and I just needed to go buy some jalapenos to make this salad.  I had to make some changes because Sameena is American and in America you get 15 oz cans of chickpeas..here in Canada we get 19 oz cans.  So my change was simply to double the dressing and I also added salt.  We really liked this salad.  I loved the sweetness of the mango. 

I know my son would have loved it but he was being a stubborn 4 year old at the time and didn't want to try it.  Next time I would add some more mango and jalapeno. I couldn't really taste the jalapeno.

Spicy Tuna Salad

This is my mom's tuna salad and it's the best tuna salad I've ever had.  I find all the ones you get outside are just too bland.

Tuna Salad

Printer Friendly

1 tin of tuna, well drained (I like Clover Leaf Skip Jack Flaked Tuna in water)
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp onion, minced
1 tbsp coriander, minced
1 green chilli, seeded and minced (if the chilli is really small I don't bother to seed it)
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Mix all above ingredients together.

Now make a sandwich!