Vitamin buster needed?

Hi, everyone! How are you all feeling? Starting to suffer from "spring tiredness sindrome" or whatever it's called?
I think some heavy winter eats are still having their effect, not only the part visible to everyone's eyes, but that mental heaviness, being lazy because "the weather's bad so I can't go for a walk", "it rained/snowed for three days in a row, so we can't go play at the park", "geez, all those clothes I have to put on (and the kids) makes me forget I actually want to go out and take some fresh air (fresh?!?, yeah, right, the air in this town is so polluted I'm wondering when are we going to have birds dropping dead like it happend a while ago in Mexico City)".
I'm exaggareting a bit, because I do go out for a walk every day, twice a day, because I must. I have a dog, a sweet little, biting, nervous Pechingese (wish the luck to the poor thing, he'll be undergoing a surgery tomorrow morning), so a morning walk is inevitable, in the burning sun, pouring rain or blinding snow. And Sara (my almost 3-year-old daughter) is learning to take some responsibility - she wants to hold his leash, even while she's sitting in her stroller (yeah, she, too, "feels tired some days").
And then, in the afternoon I walk to my older daughter's kindergarten to pick her up after school. And that's when the kids just won't go home. I'm trying to understand them: my daughter spends 7 hours with her friends during her stay at kindergarten, about 1-1,5 hours after that at the school park, with the same friends, and then there's some general whining when at 5 pm we (mothers) want to finally go home and start preparing dinner, because "(Francesca): I want to go to Sara's house!, (Sara): I wanto to go to Matteo's house! (Matteo): I want to go to Francesca's house!" "Ok, can't you at least make a unanimous decision? Why don't we just all hit the road towards our own homes?"
And then you finally reach your home, hoping to throw them into their beds early and get some well deserved rest, but while the dinner's in the oven they both fall asleep on the couch. Shake them, make noise, turn the music on, nothing works, they only wake up two hours later, and all your plans for quiet peaceful evening are gone, "puff!".
One, but not only consolation, are the wonderful green, spring vegetables starting to show in abundance now.
I like to prepare this kind of salads for lunch. They're flavourful, rich and go perfectly with a sandwich, or just some cheese and bread. But nothing prevents you from serving it with meat, lamb for example, or whatever you like.

Fava Beans Salad with Walnut Pesto

(4 servings)
250 g of fresh or frozen fava beans (cleaned)
120 g corn salad
50 g walnuts
1/2 clove of garlic
a small piece of peperoncino
2 TBspoons EVOO
Juice from 1/2 orange
Salt

Put the walnuts, the garlic, a pinch of salt, the peperoncino and the extra virgin olive oil into a tall glass and blend with an immersion blender to get a grainy salsa. Add the freshly squeezed orange juice and mix well.
Cook the fava beans in boiling, salty water for 10-15 minutes, drain them and then remove the hard skin.
Place the corn salad in a salad bowl (I had a mix corn salad and red radicchio), put the warm fava beans on top and season with the walnut pesto.

I'm sharing this dish with Reeni, so check her blog if you want to participate in her Side Dish Showdown






(con una piccola modifica, ricetta presa dalla Cucina Moderna, numero di aprile 2010)

Insalata di fave con pesto di noci

(per 4 persone)
250 g di fave fresche o surgelate (già sgusciate)
120 g di songino
50 g gherigli di noce
1/2 spicchio d’aglio
Un pezzettino di peperoncino
2 cucchiai di olio EVO
Succo di 1/2 arancia
sale

Mettete i gherigli di noce con l’aglio, un pizzico di sale, il peperoncino e l’olio extravergine d’oliva nel contenitore del frullatore a immersione e frullate fino a ottenere una salsina di consistenza granulosa. Diluitela con il succo d’arancia.
Lessate le fave in una pentola d’acqua bollente salata per 10-15 minuti. Scolatele e privatele della pellicina.
Disponete il songino in una ciottola (io avevo un misto di songino e radicchio rosso), sistemate sopra le fave tiepide. Condite con la salsina di noci e servite.




Salata od boba s pestom od oraha

250 g očišćenog svježeg ili smrznutog boba
120 g matovilca
50 g oraha
1/2 češnja češnjaka
komadić peperoncina
2 žlice maslinovog ulja
sok 1/2 naranče
sol

Stavite orahe, češnjak, peperoncino i ulje u posudicu i izmiksajte sve skupa štapnim mikserom da dobijete zrnastu smjesu. Razrijedite smjesu sokom od naranče (regulirajte gustoću po vlastitom ukusu) i sve dobro izmiješajte.
Skuhajte bob u ključaloj, malo posoljenoj vodi 10-15 minuta i odstranite mu tvrdu opnu.
Stavite matovilac u zdjelu za salatu (ja sam imala pomiješano matovilac i crveni radič), preko njega stavite bob i začinite pestom od oraha.