Fun in the kitchen

Has cooking become ho-hum for you?

It certainly did for me. Raising three children, eating pretty boring stuff (no HOT curries) , gluten free, dairy free and well kids tend to like the same stuff so I started doing that. Cooking the same stuff. Mind you that style of cooking suits me because most nights I am tired. Especially around cooking time.

But I did reflect today at a time growing up when I used to pour over Women’s Weekly dinner party cook books, making Christmas lunch for 14 and on it went. I used to LOVE it. And I used to do it and my friends loved it too. It was fun.

However in recent years (OK the last 15 since I have had children) the thought of cooking for 14 at Christmas time has felt nothing short of a punishment.

Today though I started to have some fun with cooking again. Quinoa has been my perfect kitchen play mate.

It is fun, easy to work with, easy to cook and opens up endless possibilities and recipes.

This is one such experiment that tastes amazing!

My greatest tips for this play ground of designing your own food and quinoa salad:

1. Use organic or fresh picked produce

2. Use a combination of colours (reds, oranges, greens, yellows)

3. Add a protein source other than the quinoa (almonds, pine nuts, chicken, salmon)

4. Use a fresh herb as a taste tickler (eg corriander, basil, parsley)

5. Use a delicacy or something different (eg sundried tomato, roasted capsicum, haloumi, roast pumpkin)

6. HAVE FUN!

And VOILA there you will have a FUN, exotic salad.

This is mine from this morning:

       DELICIOUS AND HEALTHY