Let's do lunch.

Lunches are a  very personal thing, and in our family, a very different experience for each family member.  My son has a packed lunch at school, consisting of a ham or turkey sandwich, a yogurt, some fresh fruit, some raisins and a drink of water.  My teenage daughter has an allowance of £12 to spend at school on food for the week, loaded onto their high tech system which enables her to pay with a fingerprint.  I nag her to try and have her five a day and have extra fruit at home but I doubt she does.  My husband has crackers or ryvita with soft cheese or hummous, plus tomatoes and fruit.  I am the chief user-up-of-leftovers. In fact, I often make a bit extra so there are definitely going to be leftovers. If there aren't any leftovers, I see what's in the fridge or cupboards and improvise.  Or treat myself to sushi.  Or chips from the staff canteen!  I don't often have a sandwich, I really do find them boring, but then it does depend on the filling.

A while ago I bought a book on lunches which was really inspiring and was going to try and make loads of interesting soups, salads, bagels and pasta based things but after a while it kind of fizzled out, I do make something interesting when I have time (and when there aren't leftovers) and the highlights have included hot smoked salmon, green bean and red pesto pasta salad; brown rice salad with tomato, cucumber, avocado, mozzarella and sunflower seeds; mozzarella,tomato, basil and anchovy bagels.  I also sometimes do a chickpea, olive, thinly sliced fennel and parsley salad with a simple lemon juice dressing.  And my complete favourite is Vietnamese chicken noodle salad with beansprouts and a lovely fresh tasting dressing using fish sauce. The problem usually is that it's all too much trouble after a day at work to be making fancy salads, especially if you're cooking a meal from scratch too.  I'm not superwoman (though some people may think otherwise!)

My daughter made me an amazing sandwich for lunch this weekend - she invented the recipe and it's basically two pieces of cheese on toast, sandwiched together with layers of ham, pesto, avocado and tomatoes.  I could only manage half and a bit, and was so full for the rest of the day I only had a "mini-meal" for dinner!  She had the rest, and one of her own. Here it is in all it's glory:

In other news, I've recently been diagnosed with lateral epicondylitis (you might know it as tennis elbow, but the medical terminology sounds much more impressive) - unfortunately as it is the right elbow, avoiding using it as much as possible has included me attempting some left handed cooking. Stirring is ok, grating and pushing things through sieves is much slower than usual; and I have to ask for help opening jars. It should get better by itself, but only if I'm careful. No heavy pan lifting for a while then...

More soon, when you will read about my combined girly dinner and photo shoot...

Thanks for reading,

Caroline.