a colorful mix

There's always room on our table for a colorful mix of food and it really doesn't matter what the season is. I like how the fresh and vibrant colors of vegetables and fruits brighten up our everyday meals. Oftentimes if I have them chilled and ready in the fridge on a serving bowl or platter, I find it much easier to decide what to do with them later on. The combination of textures and colors always inspires me to make something with them.

This assortment of Asian vegetables (above) was served as a salad. Leftovers went well with some noodles for an easy but filling lunchtime treat the next day (shown below).

Finely shredded carrots, strips of red bell pepper, cucumbers and radish were used with cooked chicken and flavored with a sweet and sour chili dressing for some Vietnamese-style salad wraps. They may be prepared a day ahead and assembled right before dinnertime.

this mixture of cooked barley, green peas, corn kernels, carrots and chickpeas made a tasty side dish to a Mediterranean-inspired meal...the chewy grains of barley were a great substitute to pasta

having a variety of chili peppers growing in pots proved to be so handy for tossing into salads and soups

from salad dressings to marinades, there are so many uses for these calamansi or calamondin lemons

grapefruit for an anytime of the day snack