Pasta Salad

This pasta salad makes for a very healthy and snappy meal to fix up, for those lazy weekend brunches:) Plus, it doesn't hurt at all that it tastes great too!

We like using penne rigate for our salad - since it has this definite bite to it when its cooled just right or 'al dente'. Also the ridges help in holding the salad dressing. We like changing the recipe to whats available in our fridge that day, and what we both are in the mood for - cheese type, dressing, veggies, and herbs.

This particular salad was prepared last weekend, using finely chopped onions and cucumber, bite-sized pieces of green capsicum and ripe red tomatoes (use the small tomatilloes if you can find them in the supermarket), and steamed corn. Mix all these with the al-dente pasta (ensure that every ingredient is cold), add chopped cheddar (or crumble in some feta cheese), season it with salt, pepper and dried/fresh herbs, and dress it with your dressing-of-the-day. For this particular salad, we used a blue cheese-mint viniagrette straight out of a bottle:)

If your in the mood to prepare your dressing - simply mix extra-virgin olive oil with freshly squeezed lime juice, and add salt, pepper and mixed herbs. Shake well to prepre an emulsion, and drizzle over the salad. Quick, healthy and very tasty - you have to try this to belive my claims:)

Tangy Fruit Salad

I was browsing through the past pictures of our dinner, when I came across this Fruit Salad pic..and felt like sharing this colorful pic with you all:)

Actually this pic is from our V-day dinner that I'd cooked for my hubby dearest. Since we could not go out for our 1st V-day dinner together because of his multiple fractures, he was feeling pretty low and lousy, so had made his favorite pasta dinner for him:) - Penne in Tomato Sauce with Chicken Scallops in Mushroom Mustard Sauce, teamed with a tangy Fruit Salad and some Chocolate Custard.
I just used a few fruits available round the corner in February here, and since Pune is simply run-over with fresh strawberries then, it was the main fruit for the salad. So I simply diced some apples &oranges and added some whole strawberries and cherries, with some ruby red pomegrenate seeds to the salad bowl. For the salad dressing, I mixed some olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper with fresh coarsely hand-broken celery leaves and sticks and poured over the fruits. Done! The Salad Bowl was ready in a jiffy:)