Rhubarb-Spinach Chicken Salad with Rhubarb dressing

As we head into August and the days (and nights) are hitting their peak hottness, I find myself preparing lots of cooling meals. Nothing that requires an oven for certain; even better if you can make it ahead of time and serve it cold. And so, various traditional summer fare, including salads, are heavy in our meal rotation.

When rhubarb was coming into season, I decided that there must be something to do with rhubarb, aside from bake it into a pie. As it turns out, I was right. This rhubarb-spinach chicken salad is a light, yet filling, summer dinner.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lg bunch of spinach
• several rhubarb stalks - amount will vary depending on length and thickness - approximately 1 lb
• 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• 6 Tbsp safflower oil
• salt & pepper
• Roasted chicken
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut rhubarb into small chunks. Put into a saucepan and cover with about an inch of water.
   
2. Add honey or maple syrup
   
3. Bring to a boil and boil for one or two minutes.
   
4. Strain rhubarb - set aside & return liquid to pot.
5. Add vinegar, salt & pepper.
6. Simmer until liquid volume is roughly reduced by half
7. Remove from heat.
8. Whisk in oil.
   

Serve with rhubarb spooned over chopped spinach leaves. Add chopped roasted chicken. Pour dressing over top. Enjoy! We usually serve some cut up raw veggies on the side. Veggies + "dip" (i.e. dressing) = children will eat plenty. I've recently made some homemade dill pickle slices that would go fabulously as well.

Yield: Serves four. There will be plenty of dressing left over. We use it as a regular salad dressing or as a veggie dip.

ALTERNATIVES:

• (vegetarian & vegan): replace chicken with brown rice. Sprinkle nutritional yeast over top.
• Add minced raw red onion either to dressing or over salad
• Replace chicken with bacon.
• Add fresh herbs to salad - dill, mint, parsley, etc
• Substitute in-season berries for rhubarb - strawberry, cherry, raspberry...

Tuna Pasta Salad with cooked egg "mayo"

It's summer and we've been longing for those easy & cool summer meals. Pre-allergy elimination diet, we were a big fan of tuna pasta salad - tuna from a can; hard boiled eggs; frozen green peas; elbow (wheat) noodles; mayo; salt & paprika. Delish. Since we were egg-free for so long, I didn't even attempt it. Now that we're doing cooked eggs (no raw yet - thus no true mayonnaise yet), I thought I'd give it go. Allergy-friendly style, of course.

INGREDIENTS:

• 12oz (dry) brown rice noodles
• 4 hard-boiled eggs
• two green onion stalks
• 6oz can of safe tuna (check labels - most tuna packed in "water" is actuall packed in a vegetable broth containing soy)
• safflower oil
• paprika
• salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. Prepare noodles according to package directions, rinse in cold water & set aside
2. Cut boiled eggs in half and separate hard yolks from whites. Chop egg whites however you like.
3. In a separate bowl, mush up egg yolks. Add some salt, paprika & safflower oil and make a mushy paste. Gradually stir in more oil until you have a dressing/sauce of sorts.
   
4. Finely slice green onions.
   
5. Mix everything (including drained & rinsed tuna) together in a (really) big bowl. Add more salt or oil as necessary.

We served ours with raw carrot sticks on the side. Easy, cool and yummy. And for the first time in a long time, I felt like we were eating a "normal" meal.

Serves 4-6 (The four of us ate it all, eating probably more than we needed to feel full because it was so good and so different than what we've been eating.)

ALTERNATIVES:

• use fresh chopped up chicken or fish or seafood instead of canned tuna
  
• use actual (homemade or otherwise) mayo if you can tolerate raw eggs
• chop up raw veggies and mix in - onions, garlic, broccoli, kale, cabbage, etc
• serve as "real" salad over a bed of greens
• Omit chopped egg whites and use an italian-style dressing (olive oil, basalmic or apple cider vinegar plus spices) instead of yolk sauce.