Lunch salads

The cottage pie was delicious, putting bbq sauce in it as I'd got it out of the freezer thinking it was homemade tomato sauce made such a difference to the taste.  We had the pie 2 days running.  

We've settled into a routine of having some sort of salad for lunch every day....although the last couple of days it's been more like hot soup weather.  I refuse to make soup at this time of year though - I mean, it'll be midsummer's day soon!

Yesterday we had avocado, egg and ham salad.  Husband's not keen on avocado as is, although he does quite like it mashed with a blob of mayo and some smoked paprika, he especially likes it with an egg poached or boiled.  I love avocado any which way.  So I mashed it with a couple of smashed hardboiled eggs, mayo, a splash of lemon juice and the paprika.  Served on a slice of baked ham with a mixed salad on the side.  Yum.

For dinner I softened some sliced spring onions, courgettes, a small chopped aubergine and mushrooms in olive oil, with a roasted garlic clove (I roast a whole head of garlic in foil, so the cloves turn into a milder-tasting puree) - again, husband doesn't really like the taste of 'raw' garlic, he finds it too harsh.  When softened, I added a can of rinsed butterbeans, a pack of smoked salmon pieces and lots of black pepper.  Finally, I stirred through a large spoonful of Philly type cheese (Lidl's own version) to make a creamy sauce.  Delicious.

Today's lunch salad is homemade coleslaw (Savoy cabbage, which I much prefer to ordinary white, carrot, spring onion and half an orange pepper, all chopped up in the processor) with cubed Halloumi cheese.  A dressing made of half mayo, half Greek yogurt with a spoonful of Dijon mustard.  We'll have it with a couple of oatcakes.

Dinner tonight is spaghetti bolognaise, with a sprinkle of grated mature Cheddar and broccoli on the side.

On the subject of grated cheese....last week we bought a new grater, I'd had my old one for years and thought it was a bit blunt.  Well, it definitely was - the new one is super sharp and I grate my knuckles on it every single time I use it!

And more on salads - we love roasted Mediterranean veggies cold for lunch, with a blob of lemon mayo or a balsamic dressing.  Especially nice with some shredded leftover chicken.  Whenever I do roasted veggies for dinner, I always do enough to have for lunch the next day as well.  We really like roasted butternut squash, sweet potato, aubergine, courgette, mushrooms, red onion and red pepper.