Tuna Nicoise Salad with Goose Eggs

Today, I made a French salad recipe called nicoise salad. I filled the salad with a combination of salad greens, capers, tuna and goose eggs. I was testing the recipe because school is about to start, and I'm not a big fan of the ready-made all-inclusive food trays. They don't contain much except a few crackers and small pieces of cheese and cold meat that are usually packed with salt, sugar and fat.

The salad received two thumbs up from my little munchkin. She loves hard-cooked eggs, which makes folding in the other ingredients much easier. As an added bonus, hard-boiled eggs are easy to pack. If you're planning on making this for your kids, the nicoise salad dressing can be packed separately so the salad is still crunchy and fresh when lunch time finally arrives.

A Pham Fatale reader named Karen left a wonderfully insightful comment last week where she described the challenges of preparing lunches for her kids. While my little munchkin hasn't experienced the teasing from her classmates (yet) even though her lunch box is different from her friends, I understand the issue. It has inspired me to come up with back-to-school recipes that covertly sneak nutritious ingredients into dishes that are familiar to kids. What could be more femme fatale worthy than that?

Olive Tapenade Chicken Rolls

Olive tapenade is extremely versatile and can be used as a spread or filling in many different dishes. You can also use it in place of more traditional party dips such as hummus, guacamole, salsa or roasted bell pepper spread. In this recipe, I added goat cheese to the tapenade and used the mixture as a filling for chicken rolls. I served the dish with a mildly sweet carrot purée that makes an excellent foil to the savory flavor of the tapenade.

If it's not part of your culinary repertoire yet, you should definitely learn to prepare tapenade. It will open up a whole new world of easy to prepare, delectable dishes.

Salsify in Butter with Capers

Salsify in butter is a very simple yet tasty dish. I blanch the salsify and then sauté them in butter. A little lemon and some capers balance out the flavor. I garnish the dish with curly parsley for color and voilà, a delicious 5-minute side dish is ready.

This dish reminds me of the lunch meals from the cafeteria of my elementary school in France. It was usually served au gratin, but that's another recipe. Before you start thinking that my school served incredibly gourmet food, you should know that while salsify may not be very familiar to many in the US, in France it's down right common. The flavor and texture is similar to leeks or white asparagus, but less fibrous. It's one of my favorite vegetables, and if you give it a try, you'll fall in love with it as well. Given that this it takes about 5 minutes to prepare this recipe, you have no excuse!

Edamame and Celery Salad with Roasted Peppers

I'm getting ready for our anniversary trip, so I haven't had a lot of time to cook. My aunt from Vietnam just came for a visit.  She happens to be a vegetarian as well. I met her seven years ago when she came to visit my family in Paris. I remembered that she loves edamame, or baby soybeans boiled in salt water.

I decided to make a nice salad for her that incorporated edamame. I added roasted red bell pepper, perlini mozzarella and celery, along with Beluga lentils for color. I made a dressing with garlic, sherry vinegar, Dijon mustard and walnut oil.

The salad has a really nice contrast of flavors, colors and textures. If you've never tried edamame before, this is a great way to get acquainted with this tasty ingredient.

Mediterranean Mini Pizza with Cannellini Beans and Roasted Red Bell Pepper Hummus

I made a hummus pizza a few days ago and I felt like recreating a sandwich version of the dish with a bunch of Mediterranean ingredients. The problem was that I only had pita bread at home. I could have created a pocket in the bread and stuffed it, but I decided to place the ingredients on top of the pita bread to create a meal that resembled a pizza.

Following the Mediterranean theme, I made a cannellini bean and roasted red bell pepper hummus-like spread and topped it with Greek feta cheese, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, arugula, pickled shallot, black olives and marinated artichoke hearts. For the meat lovers out there, I would add some cubes of lamb kebabs.

I'm sure you've heard of 30-minute meals, but this took me 10 minutes, tops. Try this recipe the next time you're in a hurry. Beat that, Rachael Ray!