the thrifty crafter

With the fast approaching summer season, the home cook should have a nice selection of refreshing salad recipes at his or her disposal  for last minute get-togethers.  I found this one about a year ago while perusing magazines at a doctor’s office.  It is a fabulous blend of flavors and is very refreshing and light, perfect for those warm summer evenings.

Curried Rice Salad

Ingredients:

Salad:

• 1/2 c sliced almonds
• 16 oz cooked brown rice
• 1 c chopped celery
• 1/2 c dried currants
• 2 c seedless red grapes, halved
• 1/2 c scallions, thinly sliced

Dressing:

• 2 TB e.v.oo
• 2 TB lemon juice
• 4 tsp honey
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

Here’s the best part – Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl, dress and serve! How easy is that?

Tip: This flavor combination is also wonderful as a chicken salad for sandwiches, stuffed pitas or  served on crackers.  Simply use cut or shredded rotisserie chicken or canned chicken to replace the rice, and reduced fat mayo (or plain yogurt, if you prefer) instead of the olive oil.  So simple and delicious!

I love to knit, but am still a novice and reading complicated patterns can make my head spin.  When I knit, I typically judge how much length or width I need based on the project.  For this project, I had a  16×16 pillow form and casted on (CO) enough for 16.5 inches on sz  9 needles.  I love the look of seed stitch, but wanted some sort of a border, so I started with three rows of elongated stockinette stitch, then knitted in seed stitch for the majority of the pillow face, and finished the same way I started.  Two separate squares were made, then sewn around the pillow with a yarn needle.  This is a great, easy project for something unique for your home.

Lions Suede Yarn  (By Lions Brand) was a purchased at Big Lots for $2 a skein (deal!) and the 16×16 pillow form was purchased from Michael’s with a 40% off coupon.  Less than $10 for a homemade, cute and super soft decorative pillow! That’s a thrifty craft anyone can afford!