Pasta Salad

What I Have Had On Previous Days
That I Would Have Had Today
Had I Not Had Something Else
(title)



Really cheap (in every sense of the word) beer in my Mason jar.
I did drink out of my Mason jar today, but it was iced coffee, not beer.
And I did drink beer today, just not out of my jar because it was dirty from my coffee.



Pasta salad. Atop a bed of lettuce.
Wanna know the recipe? Here it is:

Pasta Salad a la Missus Mustard

roughly 200 g uncooked whole grain egg noodles
a handful of grape tomatoes
a nice bed of lettuce
2 tbsp olive oil
(vinegar if you want)
1-2 tbsp pesto
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1-2 tsp fresh, chopped basil
salt & pepper
dollop of cottage cheese
sprinkling of parmesan cheese
(mozzarella would work nicely too)

1. Cook pasta in salted water
2. Cut grape tomatoes in half, set aside
3. Drain pasta, put back into the pot (make sure it's not too hot) and add oil (vinegar), pesto and spices. (Add enough oil to coat all pasta quite thoroughly, it should not be at all dry. I suppose you could add a little water too if it's too dry and you don't want to add extra oil.)
(At this point I also stuck a lid on the pot and put it outside to cool down. You don't need to, but Mr M wanted the pasta cold)
4. Plate on top of lettuce with cottage cheese and parmesan.

Mister Mustard put vinegar and sliced black olives on his and he loved it.
I'm sure it would be tasty with a lot of different things thrown in too.

Quinoa ratatouille, tabouleh & oreos.

Ratatouille with Quinoa


Mister Mustard coordinating his outfit to his cooking endeavours.



We make ratatouille a lot in our house. It will absolutely be made again, and next time it will be accompanied by a recipe!
This was both of our first times eating quinoa. It's curly! And sticky. And distinctively very yummy.


Homemade iced tea. New obsession as it gets warmer.

Tabouleh



Mister Mustard's Tabouleh

1 chopped tomato
1/2 English cucumber, chopped
1/2 chopped red pepper
3 green onions, white & light green bits sliced thinly
1 avocado, chopped (optional. it wasn't used in this picture here, but it's really tasty)
raisins (optional)
chopped parsley (optional)
3-4 servings of cooked couscous

dressing:
Mix in a separate small bowl or measuring cup
2:1 ratio of olive oil : lemon juice (about 1/3 - 1/2 C in total? he said he doesn't know)
salt
pepper
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp paprika
2 tsp dill (I love it, but the Mister hates it, so add accordingly)

Mix together in a big bowl and eat it up! Mister Mustard served it with hummous and tortilla chips.

**Really, we just add whatever vegetable we have in the fridge and think would taste good.

Homemade Oreos



Does using raw, organic sugar instead of 'ol white, refined sugar make a difference in baking? It sure seems to for me. I could feel the crystals in these and it put me off, but the taste was amazing! So I will be trying these again. Either with un-hippyfied sugar or some kind of powder like sucrose or Splenda or something fancy and chemical like that.

Something else I would change (back), is the method of forming the cookies. In the recipe I'm linking to here, she forms them individually (which I thought was a waste of time!), so I rolled my dough into a log, threw it in the fridge and then sliced it. Do it her way. I think they will turn out more compact and less full of air holes. Because Oreos don't have air holes.

I've had a bit of trouble but I do urge you to try these! They are very tasty and the filling is much better than the original. So easy as well. Everybody wins.

Recipe from cupcakeproject.com

PS The only things I made in this episode were the iced tea (go me!) and the oreos. So, thank you Mister Mustard for your yummy lunches and dinners!