Vegetarian - What to have for lunch?

 Chosing what to have for lunches is always a dilemma in our house. I tend to do my grocery shopping online ( at Tesco - because i find the quality of the food is really good, and there is none of that 3 unavailable and 10 substitutes business, like one particular popular supermarket.) 

So most times it's a case of what's on offer that week!

Sometimes its the Richmond Meatfree back bacon that is on offer. Great tasting veggie bacon this is - 2 mins either side, shallow fried in a bit of sunflower oil, in the frying pan. Dry off the oil with kitchen roll. Then grab a brown bun or some wholemeal bread, butter it, add a layer of butterhead lettuce or whatever lettuce you have available, thinly slice up some tomatoes and off you go! This bacon is by far the best on the market. You can smell it upstairs when it is cooking so they tell me so you can never just have a sneaky one - be warned... yum!  

Sometimes it's the hummous that is on offer. There are quite a selection of hummous's believe it or not - original, red pepper, sweet chilli, carmelised onion, jalepeno, morrocan inspired to name but a few. Grab the wholemeal bread, thinly spread on your chosen hummous, then, add a slice of lettuce, sliced red onion, sliced tomato, sliced cucumber.  Done. Got to be red onion though, better taste.

Sometimes it's feta salad sandwiches made the same way as above - but, with the feta that was left over from the previous night's spicy pasta so there is no waste. 

Sometimes it's Ploughmans sandwiches made with sandwich pickle. The shop bought ones involve just pickle, lettuce,tomato, slice of cheese and a tiny bit of mayo with the butter. 

Our Ploughman's sandwich involves a thin layer of pickle (usually Branston Small Chunk), spread on the wholemeal bread, then lettuce, cucumber, tomato and red onion as above then some sliced cheese. Usually this is made with Cheddar, but if we have Red Leicester in or Double Gloucester then on it goes instead. Lia my daughter tried the Double Gloucester cheese for the first time the other day - you guessed it - it was on offer - and she said "This is 'banging' it's better than Cheddar." Surely not? but it does certainly give Cheddar a run for it's money! If you have never tried Double Gloucester cheese by the way do put it on your bucket list! Our own crumbly Lancashire cheese is good too, though i always prefer this on toast with halved cherry tomatoes.

We have a large pot of chives growing in the garden, (chives are so easy to grow with no effort involved whatsoever). You can trim a few of them and also add them to a sandwich or salad dish. Feta salad in a cereal bowl makes a nice lunch too, with shredded lettuce, chopped cherry or plum tomatoes, chopped cucumber, chopped red onion, a few olives a few pieces of feta or salad cheese, a little fresh ginger chopped fine, a drizzling of olive oil and perhaps a splash of cider vinegar on top too to finish - well tasty.. Eat this with a slice of wholemeal bread or wholemeal bun, and if you have some radish or watercress or rocket throw that in the dish too.

Chilli cheese on toast is always a lunchtime favourite too. Involving toasting one side of your bread, then adding butter or margarine, then adding cheese, some tiny sliced green chilli bits and some cherry tomatoes and then back under the grill again until golden.

I also like shop bought falafels on wholemeal pitta bread, with shredded lettuce, some cherry or plum tomatoes halved -usually 3 of these, some cucumber cut into small chunks, and a little chopped red onion. Then put the falafels under the grill for 2 mins or so to warm them, the pitta bread goes under grill too (but only for a minute or two to warm them otherwise they go hard). Then add a little smear of  Tzatziki dip on the top. These are really good. The best pitta bread was the wholemeal warburtons I thought but the basic wholemeal ones are ok too.

Then there is always toasties - remember the Breville where the hot tomato pieces burnt your lip if you weren't careful! We found a microwave toastie online and tried it out. We were pleasantly suprised. Easy clean with a cloth in the sink too as the 4 pieces of it come apart. Microwave 2 mins one side, turn it over,  then just one minute on the other side - Done! 

There is also Quorn and Richmond varieties of chicken/ham/turkey etc style slices that you can make a sandwich with as above. Primula, and other in a tube spreads, like Tartex mushroom, herb, original or spicy are also available for sandwiches too.

Then there is always the cupboard staples like beans on toast, spaghetti on toast, jacket potato. Chip teacake with salt, vinegar and a squirt of tomato ketchup (classic student lunch this - and always a treat for a change!)

Hoping we have given you some great ideas.

Here is our video trying out the Microwave toastie maker for ourselves, if you haven't seen it . Enjoy your lunch...! And if you want to try the microwave toastie maker yourself you can get it from  Amazon here  

Spinach and Edam Mornay

  This recipe was one that I tested out from a book. I then added more spinach, messed about with the ingredients and got a much nicer taste. I usually put them in small separate dishes, and if you use the full 7 slices of Edam instead of 6 and a half you will end up with a little creamier bakes. We sometimes have this with just a salad, or you can have it with new potatoes and veg of your choice, or even potato wedges and veg, or chips! This dish is normally cooked in my wok - but the handle fell off and I am currently sourcing a new one, so for now, I did this in a large frying pan instead. 

Here is the recipe.

How to make simple Crusty bread rolls.

 Having never made bread before I decided to try out a few recipes. Some recipes had olive oil in - that was a disaster! So I decided to just stick to the basics of white strong bread flour, water, yeast and salt. The water has to be lukewarm here, as too hot will kill the yeast, and too cold won't activate it.... I divided the dough up equally so that the rolls all cook evenly and then set them off in the oven. The secret to knowing when these are cooked is to tap them on the bottom of the roll and if they sound hollow it is cooked all the way through. If it doesn't sound hollow then put them back in for another 5 minutes or so and repeat!! You can then check one by tearing into it. These are really good - so good that my daughter, when she was setting off for school, went into the bag of them and took one out each morning and ate it on the way to school!! Simple recipe...

Here is the Recipe 

How to make a Greek style feta salad sandwich and a Greek style feta salad and black olive wrap.

 This is a great way to use up any left over Feta cheese from the Spicy pasta recipe as well. This cheese goes so well with the red onion, cherry tomato, butterhead lettuce and sliced cucumber. It has got to be red onion here. Then you could also make the wrap with lettuce, sliced cucumber, chopped cherry tomatoes, red onion, black olives and the Feta cheese. Because wraps are dry, unlike the sandwich which contains butter, you could add a dash of olive oil here too, or, add some yogurt and cucumber dressing like Raita to it which tastes delicious too. How healthy is that! You can also put this in wholemeal pitta bread in the same way....

Here is the Recipe

How to make a Simple Greek Salad - Just drizzle on the Olive oil or make the dressing featured!

 Who doesn't enjoy a Greek salad in Summer. It has got to contain Feta or Greek salad cheese, red onion and black olives though! Also in this recipe we have added mixed salad leaf, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and crusty bread rolls to serve. Drizzle on the olive oil and voila! You can serve it has a main, or as a side salad in a large clear bowl with a big spoon, for guests to take as much as they want. There is always someone who will take more than their fare share of the black olives though!! Feta cheese is not as processed I don't think because it is made with sheep, or sheep and goat's milk instead of cow's milk. With all the mixed salad ingredients in this, coupled with the crusty, ideally wholemeal bread rolls, this makes for a very healthy yet very tasty meal! 

Here is the Recipe

How to make Real Dairy Chocolate Ice Cream

 Having never made ice cream before we though we give it a try. This is made with just milk, whipping cream, dark brown soft sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and a dark chocolate bar which has to be at least 70% cocoa content, or more.( Dark chocolate of this type is very good for you on it's own and can help reduce blood pressure by the way.) You also need an egg separator to easily separate the egg yolk from the white. If you want one you can get one here This is a three stage process, where you chill it twice for an hour after adding various ingredients, and then the third time it goes into the freezer, is the last time until it is ready to eat. This really was delicious and well worth the effort! 

Here is the Recipe

How to make Easy Courgette Fritters

This is one of the simplest recipes you can make. Just egg, courgette, onion, and plain flour, and teamed with a sweet chilli dip these are delicious. I am not a courgette fan but made like this these are really tasty. You can make fritters out of anything, but you need a dip to go with them. You could try potato and onion, or apple and onion. Courgettes can grow up to a metre in length but are harvested while young. Packed with vitamin A and C and many other nutrients, although courgette is classed as a vegetable botanically it is a fruit, and this vegetable is also known as Zucchini, in other parts of the world. 

Here is the recipe