Making tacos part 2: Guacamole

Some of you have probably made guacamole before, but for those of you who haven't, here's a nice and quick recipe:

Thick Guacamole

- 1 large avocado
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 1/2 red onion, chopped
- 1 tsp. garlic, crushed
- the juice of 1 lemon
- salt and pepper to taste

Chop the avocado and mix it with all of the other ingredients. Serve within the next 2 hours, otherwise the avocado will start turning brown.

Rice Salad with salmon, sweet chili-lemon sauce & peas

This is an ideal lunch for daytrips. I like to prepare it in the morning, put it in a Tupperware bowl and take it with me, but you could also prepare it the day before and put it in the fridge.

Rice salad with salmon, sweet chili lemon sauce & peas

Serves 4

• 4 fillets of salmon
• 125 ml Thai sweet chili sauce
• 60 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cup of boiled rice (preferably still hot)
• 1 cup of boiled peas (or more, and/or sugarsnap peas)

 - Put the salmon in an ovendish and season with pepper and/or salt to taste. Mix the sweet chilisauce with the lemon juice and pour it over the salmon fillet.

- Pre-heat the oven to 250°C or 220°C for a fan-assisted oven and leave the salmon in it for 5 to 6 minutes. Mix the fish and the chilisauce with the peas and/or sugarsnaps and chill for a couple of hours.

The salmon is also very nice as a hot dish, served with rice and spinach (and then you could replace the lemon juice with lime juice, as well).

(Dutch recipe available on demand)

Lunch at the Zoo: Tabouleh

Often when we are going on a day trip or a picnic, I'll prepare some kind of tabouleh. A cold 'salad' with couscous or bulghur. One day we were going to the Antwerp Zoo and I thought I'd try to make tabouleh with entire wheat kernels instead. It loved it and the children finished the entire bowl, so I think they agreed ;-).

Lunch @ the Zoo: Tabouleh with cooked entire wheat kernels, lemon juice, chopped celery, spring onions, black olives, raisins and capers (served with hardboiled eggs & sliced cucumber)

Tabouleh with entire wheat kernels

• 1 cup of entire wheat kernels (In Belgium: Ebly)
• 1 bouillon cube
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 white celery stalks, finely chopped
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• a handful of black olives, finely chopped
• a handful of raisins
• 1 tbsp capers
• (salt)
• (black pepper)

- Cook the wheat with the bouilon cube according to the instructions on the packaging (should take about 10 mins). Pour it in a sieve and let cool.

- Once it has cooled down, mix it with the lemon juice, pieces of celery, spring onions and black olives and the raisins and capers and season to taste.

I served this with hardboiled eggs and slices of cucumber, but you could obviously serve it with meat/fish/tofu and/or other fresh vegetables, too.

(Dutch recipe available on demand)

Ice, Ice, Baby (Making Ice Rubies)

Summer is nearly over in Western Europe, but today the weather forecast here in Belgium says it should be 22°C. Ideal weather for a cold but healthy treat! My Australian friends can look forward to making this in a couple of months, when the rest of us are freezing ;-).

Sugar-free Ice Rubies made with fresh strawberries, lemon juice & organic blackcurrant juice concentrate.

Ice Rubies

• 100 g strawberries
• juice of 1 lemon
• approx. 2 tbsp organic cherry, raspberry or blackcurrant juice concentrate
• ice cube trays (with nice shapes)

- Put the strawberries in the blender and blend them.
- Add the lemon juice and juice concentrate and mix well.
- Pour the strawberry lemon mixture into ice cube trays, preferably trays with nice shapes. If you want to, you can put a wooden or plastic stick into each ice ruby.
- Put them in the freezer for at least 2 hours

You can use fruit and juice concentrate with different colours to make Ice Citrine (yellow = mango and apple juice concentrate), Ice Emerald (green = kiwi and apple juice concentrate),  ...

I found the original recipe in the book: "Mijn kind eet gezond... maar weet het niet" by Lien Willaert. She suggests putting elastic bands in the ice cubes, so children can wear the gemstones on their fingers.

So far, I haven't used elastic bands or sticks, the children just pop the ice gemstones into their mouths. Obviously, they do end up with sticky fingers and faces ;-). Before I forget, I bought my Ice Cube Trays at Ikea: flowers, stars, hearts and little fish...

(Once again, if you would like the recipe in Dutch, leave a comment or send me a message)