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Our two-year-old couldn’t keep his hands off of the Penne with creamy brie and tomatoes. Or should I say Rotini with creamy brie and tomatoes recipe? I had a hard time snapping a photo before serving it because he kept asking, “Mommy, can I have some?”, while I was trying to ease the bowl away from his reach. I suppose I could have tried harder to get him not to stand on the furniture and stick his hands into our dinner but he’s never really done it before and I thought it was cute.

Add this recipe, the Mediterranean tomato and bean salad, to your list of simple, impressive, protein-filled, vegan-friendly salads that will wow your guests. And, as a bonus, you can even make it ahead and refrigerate it for up to three days. Mind you, our leftovers won’t last for three days. Perhaps if you triple the recipe?

Extremely tasty, fast to make and easy enough to spice it to your liking: a hit in our family—or, at least, with my husband, our toddler and me. Our 19-year-old housemate/student/my sister-in-law was a little less enthusiastic as she has issues looking at shrimp on her plate. If shrimp are submerged in soup, mind you, she can easily gobble them up and ask for another helping (like with the Restaurant-style ginger-scented shrimp and mushroom soup), but there is something about seeing shrimp curled up on her plate that turns her off. For the record, she doesn’t do well with having a whole fish, head and all, on her plate, either.

Spice up dinner with one of these recipes from a far-off place