Mon mari needs his carbs at every meal.
Often, with salads, he’ll have bread. Sometimes, though, I add the carbs to the salad, either as a grain (rice, quinoa) grilled potatoes or even pasta.
So this is a Spinach Salad with pasta rather than a pasta salad with spinach.
Adding the pasta while it’s hot wilts the spinach slightly. If you prefer to have the spinach crisper, rinse the pasta in cold water and drain well before adding. You could even toss it with a bit of olive oil.
Spinach Salad with, Ham, Avocado and Pasta
Total time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 8oz (240gr) ham, cooked, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 avocado, cut into cubes
- 1/2 cup (3oz, 90gr) cherry tomatoes, cut in half
- 6oz (180gr) fresh spinach, washed, torn if large leaves
- 1 tbs fresh snipped chives
- 1 tbs fresh marjoram or oregano leaves
- 1/2 cup (2oz, 60gr) shredded cheddar cheese
- 3/4 cup (2.5oz, 75gr) small pasta
- White Balsamic Vinaigrette:
- 1 tbs Dijon-style mustard
- 2 tbs white Balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbs Greek yogurt
- 4 tbs salad olive oil, for salads
Instructions:
- Cook pasta according to package instructions.
- When pasta is done, drain but don’t shake every last bit of water off.
- Make Vinaigrette:
- Place mustard, vinegar and yogurt in a small bowl and whisk to combine.
- Slow add olive oil, whisking constantly, to combine.
- Put spinach into a large bowl.
- Add hot, drained pasta and toss lightly to combine.
- Add half of the vinaigrette and toss to combine.
- Add the ham, avocado, herbs and tomatoes, toss lightly.
- Taste and adjust vinaigrette, adding more if you like.
- Sprinkle with cheese and serve, any remaining vinaigrette on the side
The French, as you may or may not remember, had presidential elections a few weeks ago. It all happens very quickly. It starts out with a dozen or so individuals representing the dozen or so political parties who are running for the office. There is a first round of elections that eliminates all but two. A few weeks later there is a second round that elects one of the remaining two candidates. This Sunday there will be another round of elections to vote for the legislators. The newly-elected president hopes that enough like-minded individuals get elected that they can run the government. After that everyone settles down to business…. Again, we hope.
That’s a very simplified version but you get the idea.
Most of you know how elections in the US work – or, at least, how they are supposed to work.
Tomorrow is the British election.
This one always puzzles me.
First off, they do not vote for the person to be prime minister. they vote for the party that they want to run the government. The party then selects (or votes on, I’m not sure which) the person to be prime minister. Yes, I realized that it effectively means the same thing but it’s not… Or so I’m told.
The other thing that puzzles me is that the current prime minister can call for an election at any time.
Think of Trump, deciding that everyone loves him, calling for his second-term election to be held next month instead of 3 1/2 years from now.
The current British P.M. decided that everyone loved her so she called for a re-election. Because they vote for the party, not the person, the election could, and she expected it to, result in a larger majority of her party in Parliament, allowing her to pass her agenda more easily.
The problem is, apparently, not as many people love her as she thought, It’s doubtful that she will lose but it’s likely, to use an American phrase, that she ended up shooting herself in the foot. She may well end up in a worse position than she started in.
We live in interesting times.
Voting is compulsory in Australia and failure to do so can result in a fine or jail term….I have received fines and threats as i live out of the country despite the electoral office acknowleding they have my paperwork saying exactly this……bureaucracy at its worst !!
Husband and I went to the doc’s last week and while there, had the compulsory blood work done. When the office called a few days later, both of us had elevated fasting sugars. They want to do an A1C soon for us both. After contemplating why we would both show high, I remembered that on Memorial Day (we went the day after) I had made a large raw beet salad with balsamic vinegar dressing. Well, duh! No wonder our sugar was elevated! It will be interesting to see what the A1C levels really are when we have it done.
kate, I think it should be everywhere – but it shouldn’t have to be. When people have a voice they should use it.
nightsmusic, A1C will likely be perfectly normal and that seems rather excessive – why not just do another regular test a week later? And when it’s both of you they should have been suspicious lol