Salad Days…..

In a desperate attempt to be a little healthier, (upon discovery that my ‘active’ holidays have caused me to gain 7lbs!), we have been eating more wisely and I’m feeling loads better for it.  Think I will also be hotfooting back to my local WeightWatchers meeting – a wonderful crutch in times like these. Jon suggested the first one… a California style salad – great for Abbie as she could pick the bits that she wanted and leave those she is not keen on, which happens at the moment to be avocado. The second is a deconstructed type of Nicoise salad… great for picking at in front of ‘Total Wipeout’, which is indeed when it was served! Abbie’s eating has been turned upside-down since turning 4… don’t know whether anyone else has this experience. She is still happy to try anything, but has become more fussy in general… chicken is back on the menu after a long dislike, avocado and cabbage are now shunned. Flat and shell pasta is also a no-no – my Mum cut her lasagne into ribbons and said ‘there, now you have tagliatelle!’… it was eaten with no fuss. I guess this is all just part of her striving to be more independent.

Anyway, back to those lovely salads..

Abbie contemplates which parts of the salad to eat first

California Salad – serves 3, would serve 2 adults & 2 children

2 chicken breasts (poached for 10mins in chicken stock), 2 large ripe tomatoes, 1 ripe avocado (skin and stone removed), 1 Granny Smith apple (cored), 1 orange (take of rind and pith), grapes

• Slice chicken breast on the diagonal and arrange in a line across a platter
• Thinly slice tomatoes, avocado, apple; arrange in lines under the chicken
• Cut orange into segments and grapes into halves – again arrange in lines
• Serve like this; everybody helping themselves
• Dressing for this salad is made from; 1/4 cup orange juice, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1/4 tsp salt, grinds of pepper

I have to admit I was not looking forward to this, but it was truly delicious and you feel absolutely virtuous afterwards!!

Deconstructed Nicoise

Deconstructed Nicoise Salad

So easy to make – watercress with a little balsamic vinegar over the top, tuna steak from a tin, cooked green beans, boiled new potatoes and a few olives.  We ate this with some doughballs and garlic butter – currently on a great 10 pound offer at the supermarket giant we all love/hate! Great TV dinner… shame we were watching Total Wipeout!!

Roast salmon salad – another way with new potatoes

This salad came about from one of those days where I popped to the supermarket after work and picking Abs up from school. I asked her what she fancied and she said ‘salmon’. We found a new product… honey roasted salmon, so I decided we would make a salad with it, using up some of the copious potatoes hiding under the earth in our garden. All the items came together as I walked around two aisles (veg and dairy) and needed little prep at home; essential for me on a Tuesday night!

A quick pick-up from the supermarket

Honey-roast salmon salad – serves 2 adults, 1 child
1 pack honey-roast salmon (hot smoked salmon would work here too)
Pack watercress
a little oil and vinegar
2 spring onions
200g new potatoes
Greek yoghurt and chopped dill to top

• Cook new potatoes (half if large) in boiling salted water for 15-20 mins – check by sticking in a fork to see if they’re cooked – drain and leave to cool slightly
• Remove the large stems from the watercress and place in 3 pasta bowls or on 3 plates – drizzle with a little oil and vinegar and toss gently
• Break the salmon up into flakes and add to each plate
• Share out the potatoes between plates
• Thinly slice the spring onions and sprinkle over the salad
• Top with a dollop of greek yoghurt and a small sprinkle of finely chopped dill

An easy mid-week meal

As you can see we also had a side dish of fresh peas… I would add peas to this salad another time, for a bit of added sweetness.

.... and a happy diner!

Abbie’s patch – all change in the garden!!

OK, I admit it… I was wrong (this does not happen often!) When Abbie said she wanted to plant a pink fur apple potato in her 4 inches of soil, I scoffed at the idea. And then we dig it up (upon her insistance as the flowers had died)… around the base of the plant were 15 beautiful and large salad potatoes. Then to add insult to injury, I think that my plants might be ready so we dig one up – these potatoes are about the size of my thumbnail. Abbie says… ‘Does this mean I win, Mummy?’ Had to admit that yes, yes it did!

Abbie bragging about the size of her potatoes

Once the potato plant was out and we had picked the last of the pea pods, it was time to rejuvinate the patch. So in have gone, 2 climbing French bean plants up the third leg of the wigwam, 4 bok choi and 4 kale plants. These were ravaged by slugs on day 1 (after the photo) so now I have put slug pellets down. I have previously avoided doing this as Abbie tends to pick and eat, but now we have talked about washing everything first. I have used beer traps in previous years and these are great, but had no cheap beer to hand and was desperate to protect what the slugs had left.

Book choi at front, kale and French beans on left

Now to the peas – I cooked the last of our peas and a few small broad beans for 1 min in salted water and added them to garden salad leaves. A quick balsamic/olive oil/chopped mint dressing and we had a great salad to celebrate the end of a fabulous crop! If anyone has any ideas about how/if I can grow another crop now, please let me know!

Summer minted pea salad

What am I going to do with all these potatoes???

We are a potato loving family, but I am now beginning to doubt whether I have enough potato recipes up my sleeve to last us out the summer!  I planted 25 earlies (Rocket variety) which are now ready to eat in 2 week staggered stages and I have also planted about 16 Pink Fur Apple salad potatoes, which will probably be ready in about 3-4 weeks.  That’s a lot of potatoes for a family of 3 and so I need to think about how I can vary how I cook them.

Food Revolution currently have a theme going on, on Twitter, which is to find a great way to cook potatoes…… to steer chip lovers away from their fat laden snack!

So excited about our new pots!

So…. I did something really fantastic yesterday which I have to share with you and it was dead easy.  Boil some water and pop in your new pots with a few cloves of garlic to parboil for about 5 mins – as you do preheat your oven to 200C. When the pots and garlic have had 5 mins, drain them, toss in oil (I use cold pressed rapeseed – high smoke point!), a little Maldon salt and ground pepper, chuck them in a pan with some rosemary over the top (pref fresh) and roast for 20 mins.  A much better alternative to chips to accompany the fantastic ribeye steaks that Jon got from our local butcher!

How’s that for fast, easy food!

Rib-eye steak, garlic roasted new potatoes and salad from the garden