Rainbow's Recipes

Rainbow Dragon Do you have any recipes for energy balls or power bars or similar, that require no cooking, that an older child can make (and a parent enjoy)? We are fortunate in that, not only are we omnivores, but we have no allergies.

TopNotch I don't. But 'rin has a yummy recipe for chocolate peanut butter protein cups, and there are a few items in the DAREBEE recipe book which fit the bill: No-Bake Breakfast Bars, No-Bake Protein Bars, and Energy Bites.

Salad Soup

When you've tossed a large salad for a group of friends, and then all your friends fill up on cheesecake and leave the salad behind, what do you do? I don't like to throw out the leftover salad, but lettuce that's been marinating in dressing overnight isn't all that appealing as a salad ingredient--unless one finds a way to own that sogginess factor. Hence the creation of Salad Soup.

1. Mix the soup and the salad together.
2. Heat, and serve.

Rainbow Dragon Thanks. Got those ones.

Chocolate Peanut Butter

I've had a pretty easy time eliminating store-bought desserts from my diet because pretty much every factory-made and bakery-made dessert is far too sweet for my tastes, and I don't feel good after eating them in any case. Cutting down on the amount of sugar I add to my own cooking has been a bigger challenge. Dark chocolate chips are an especial weakness of mine. It's far too easy to throw a handful into my pancake batter, or onto my toast. I love chocolate. I love peanut butter. I don't like to think about how many peanut butter cups I ate in my youth. While I haven't eaten Reese's in several years at this point due to the aforementioned far-too-sweet factor, I was still craving toast spread with PB, then sprinkled with dark chocolate chips, then put under the grill to melt the chocolate into the peanut butter, and then topped with sliced banana. Yum! But still too high in sugar for my new healthy eating lifestyle. So I tried this:

1. Mix 2 parts peanut butter with 1 part cocoa until smooth.
2. Spread onto whole wheat toast, or directly onto a banana, or onto anything else you want to smother in chocolate-peanut goodness.

The result was delicious and totally satisfied my flavour craving without all the sugar inherent in using chocolate chips.

Orange Sesame Dressing



1. zest and juice the orange
2. peel and mince the ginger
3. combine orange zest, juice and pulp with the minced ginger, oil, vinegar, and seeds; mix everything together well
4. drizzle over or toss with salad ingredients as desired

Pear, Pecan, & Stilton Salad



1. core and dice pear
2. slice mushrooms
3. shell pecans
4. crumble cheese
5. toss arugula, pear, mushrooms, and pecans together with the dressing
6. sprinkle cheese over top

Portabella Pizzas



1. thaw the spinach, then press into a fine mesh sieve to remove most of the water
2. peel and dice the onion, stir fry in olive oil until soft
3. grate the cheeses
3. slice the tomatoes
4. arrange mushroom caps gill side up on a cookie sheet
5. mix together the spinach, onion, and half the grated cheese
6. spread a nice thick layer of the spinach mixture on top of the mushroom caps
7. layer tomato slices on top of the spinach
8. sprinkle the remaining grated cheese on top
9. bake at 350°F for 15 minutes, then broil for ~ 5 minutes to brown the cheese
10. enjoy immediately

Coleslaw

This recipe is still a work-in-progress. I had a lot of cabbage in my refrigerator I needed to use up, but not all of the spices I wanted to try in a coleslaw dressing. So I just made a very basic coleslaw for now. At some point I will revisit this recipe and improve upon it. But for a simple start, it tasted not bad.



1. slice cabbages thinly
2. grate carrots coarsely
3. toss vegetables together in a large bowl
4. combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl (I think I used 2 Tablespoons mayo, 2 Tablespoons vinegar, and 1 teaspoon mustard powder) and mix until smooth
5. pour dressing over the vegetables and toss to combine

Love this thread!!!!

That's it - just nothing but love

Thank you Brunsonja

Chickpea & Tomato Caesar Salad



1. slice or tear lettuce into bite-sized pieces
2. slice tomatoes in half
3. drain and rinse chickpeas
4. toss all ingredients together
5. enjoy immediately

Shrimp Curry

I may never make a curry exactly like this one again, simply because this curry turned into a pot for using up all sorts of different leftovers that I'm not likely to have on hand in the same combination again in the future. But it turned out great. So I'm recording the ingredients here for posterity.



1. peel and slice onion
2. peel and mince ginger
3. peel and mince garlic
4. trim pokey ends off peas, slice pods on the diagonal
5. core the peppers, chop into bite-sized pieces
6. peel, pit, and dice mango
7. chop corn into bite-sized pieces
8. stir fry onion, garlic, ginger, and spices in oil until onions are soft
9. add carrots, peas, and peppers, continue to stir fry until vegetables start to soften
10. add coconut milk, mango, pineapple, corn, and cauliflower
11. bring curry to a boil, then simmer, uncovered, until the sauce thickens and all the flavours are nicely blended
12. add the shrimp and continue cooking for a further 5-10 minutes (until shrimp are cooked)
13. serve over a bed of rice

Tzatziki

I decided to try my hand at making my own tzatziki for a Tzatziki Chicken Salad. I like my tzatziki to have a strong garlic flavour. Trouble was, my mother (extremely picky eater) had agreed to try some of the salad, and I was afraid she would not like it if I included raw garlic in the dressing, and I would never hear the end of it. (My mother cannot simply say, "That was not suited to my tastes," when I feed her something she does not like. No. She feels the need to go on and on and on and on about it.) So I tried to create a tzatziki with Oven Roasted Garlic. I really did. Alas! It was not nearly garlicky enough. So I ended up putting an oven roasted garlic and a raw garlic in this recipe. Sorry, Mum! I fed my mother chicken salad without the tzatziki--which she still complained about. Some days I just cannot win--but a day on which I create a yummy, super-garlicky, tzatziki recipe like this one is not such a day.



1. scrape seeds from the cucumber and discard seeds, grate the flesh finely
2. place the grated cucumber in a sieve and press with a spoon to strain out some of the water
3. remove oven-roasted garlic flesh from the skins, discard the skins, but reserve the oil the garlic was cooked in
4. peel and mince the raw garlic
5. remove fine dill leaves from the coarser stems, discard the stems
6. combine yogourt, oven-roasted garlic + roasting oil, fresh garlic, grated cucumber, lemon juice, and dill leaves; mix together well
7. enjoy as a salad dressing or dip

Greek Salad

I did not add any oil or vinegar to this salad. The juice from the tomatoes serves as the acid, and also provided enough liquid content, I felt. I don't like my salads to be too oily, so I skipped the olive oil.



1. dice the cucumber, tomatoes, and green pepper
2. thinly slice the shallot
3. crumble the feta
4. toss all ingredients together