Roasted Chicken Sausage Pasta with Pomegranate Garden Salad

The July sun's scorching up the East Coast, not to mention, late sunsets and long, humid days. The kids love it, however. I mean, who won't like to stay out playing till nine in the night, carelessly chasing fire flies and never wanting to accept that it's almost beyond dinnertime!

The hardest thing for me is to have my little boy stocked up with energy for his summer evening playtime. Summer vacation in a new neighborhood brought with it new friends for him and new challenges for me to keep him up and running. I would have to ensure he's eaten a healthy lunch before he steps out.

I always stash up on boxes of pasta and tons of veggies to make this easy lunch for him. He loves pasta. Yes, most kids do! But, more often than not we all end up cooking pasta along with store-bought sauces. In my case however, my son is not fond of ready sauces, which certainly increases my efforts, but gives me more opportunity to explore new flavors that enhance pasta. So, most often I end up making pasta in other ways.

So, here's a dish that can perk up your protein and satiate your taste buds!

Chunky Mango Salsa

There is almost nothing as seductive as the aroma of mangoes ripening on your kitchen counter-top. So inviting, that I could never complete my cooking without my arms involuntarily reaching out to one, to gorge it down as I worked. This year since my little one ate it for the first time, and took a liking for it (tell me one person on earth who does not like mangoes, anyway!) we ended buying them more often than before. And, with temperatures soaring sky high, we almost never have a meal without something to cool us down - a salad, raita or just a simple fruit at the end of a hot day. Now, who would think of any other fruit when you have mangoes on hand, eh? But, how about mangoes and cucumbers? One sweet, one cool and crunchy...And, how about some onions in the mix? And a couple of spices may be? My imagination was running wild and my salivary glads were working over-time just at the thought of it all. Call it a salad, salsa or a dip this chunky fella is going to stay on your summer to-do lists for a long time!

I know this is probably the worst click I've ever shot (not like my others are too good or anything!), but this what what was left-over after the entire dish was devoured by my family. So, churn this one up real quick and save some up for yourself in a place where no one else would ever find it!

Ingredients
1 Mango - Washed and diced
1/2 Cucumber - Washed and diced (Peel them if you do not like the skin. We like ours with it on.)
1/2 Medium Red Onion - Chopped
1/2 Green Bell Pepper/Capsicum - Washed and Diced (Feel free to add any other colour peppers too, like what Pallavi has suggested [see comments])
1/2 tsp Red chillie powder (Add more if you desire!)
1 tbsp Lemon juice
And, of course, some salt to taste! (Dont add too much here)

Method
- In a large bowl, mix together the lemon juice, red chillie powder and salt
- Add the cucumber, mango and red onion and stir
- Serve chilled

If you want to make it ahead of time, save adding the salt and chillie powder for the last minute.

SERVES 3

Rotini Garden Vegetable Salad

Summer is well on its way, and with it comes the thoughts of flaunting yourself. Unfortunately, winter comes packed with loads of festivity and good food which makes our minds and tongues happy, but our waist-lines, well...sad! So, before you head all out to show off that new skirt, but end up getting comments on your bulging love-handles, try gorging down salads through Spring to gear yourself up for a sizzling summer.

This fresh salad combines rotini pasta and garden vegetables, leaving you feeling both satisfied and light. And, adding whole grain pasta only goes further to make it completely guilt-free. Stick to your portion size of one cup of prepared salad (along-side garlic bread if you wish...although I can assure this itself is very filling), and you have conquered your 'What-do-I-have-for-lunch' moment! So, I will stop my jabber and share with you, this crisp, refreshing recipe.

 

Ingredients
1/2 Cup Whole Grain Rotini Pasta, Cooked
1/2 Cup Brocolli crowns, steamed (or boiled)
1/2 Cup Carrots, chopped into half inch cubes, steamed (or boiled)
1/4 Cup Red Onions, julienned
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Lemon juice
1/2 tsp Ground pepper
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning (This is optional. You could substitute with Oregano)
And, of course, some salt to taste!

Method
- Combine together pasta and veggies in a large bowl
- In a separate bowl, stir together olive oil, lemon juice, ground pepper, italian seasoning and salt to make the salad dressing
- Pour dressing over pasta and veggies and toss
- Refrigerate for about an hour

SERVES 2

Noteworthy Notes
1. You could add salt when you steam/boil your veggies. Feel free to add more colourful, fresh veggies if you have them on hand
2. You can serve this salad as a hot salad, too. Just skip the refrigeration part.

This salad is off to chill at Madhuri's 'Serve Me Some...Salads' event.

Gurl...what can I say? Devour!

Bread Salad in Mustard Dressing

There comes a point in every kitchen where you have just about all sorts of vegetables stocked up in your fridge, leaving you wondering what to make...you want to eat something beyond the regular stir fry or vegetable curry, but cannot seem to figure out what! Well, I woke up on one such situation one morning and I called my close buddy, Sathya, who is always full of ideas when it comes to cooking with what you have. She was a saviour through my pregnancy craving for Chinese food! Do you remember Sathya?? Anyway. let me not digress and go straight to the recipe of this wholesome salad... oh, and yes, you must have some bread stashed somewhere behind all those veggies, don't ya?

Ingredients
Bread - 2 Slices, cut into 1 inch squares (I have used brown bread to keep things healthy)
Choice of fresh or frozen vegetables - Chopped (I have used iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli florets, green peas, corn kernels, sun-dried tomatoes and red onions)
2 tbsp Mustard (sauce form)
5tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Lemon juice
A pinch of red chilly powder (You can opt to use pepper)
And, of course, some salt to taste!!

Method
- Preheat oven to 250F. Place the bread pieces on an oven-safe tray/dish and drizzle a little olive oil (about 1 tbsp). Sprinkle salt and pepper and place in oven to toast the bread.
- Steam your veggies (other than the cucumber and lettuce if you are using them) until crisp/tender (based on how well-cooked you like it) with some salt.
- In a bowl prepare the mustard dressing by mixing together the mustard sauce, remaining olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper/chilly powder.
- Once the bread is toasty and the veggies are perfectly steamed, toss them together in your salad bowl and pour the mustard dressing over it.
- Stir gently and serve fresh

SERVES 1

NOTEWORTHY NOTES
1. You could try to rub a clove of chopped garlic on to the bread before you toast it to give the entire salad an exotic taste
2. You can use a regular bread toaster if you do not have an oven (although the oven makes it a lot more tastier!)but make sure you have evenly toasted bread pieces.

Pineapple Salad

This one is no big shakes. In fact, all it takes is a stir! And, if you are a health nut, this will not only please your waiste-line but also your taste buds.

Ingredients

8 slices of Pineapple

1/2th Onion - Julienned

1/4th Green Pepper - Julienned

1/4th Iceberg Lettuce - Randomly chopped

8 Cherry Tomatoes - Quartered

1/4th tsp - Lemon Juice

1/4 tsp - Red chillie powder (paprika/cayenne powder)

And, of course, salt to taste!!

Method

- Mix the lemon juice, salt and chillie powder in a large bowl.

- Add the remaining ingredients and stir gently.

- Set aside for about half an hour (You can opt to keep it in the refrigerator if you want to eat it cold)

SERVES 2

This fresh salad is off to Madhuri's 'Serve me Some...Salads' event.

Madhuri, I do hope you like this one!