Third times the charm

The last few weeks I have been setting time aside on a Sunday to do food prep for the week ahead. Although I have still been eating out a lot and had a few work lunches and family dinners etc. it’s helped a lot to keep me eating healthier lunches and snacks when I can. It’s saving me money to by not always buying lunch out.

The past few weeks I was making meals like stir fry and brown rice with garlic prawns, which were both really tasty but tended to be a little heavy for lunch. I tried to make a big batch of salad but by the time I got the salad to work and had it at about 1pm for lunch it was always wilted and a bit soggy, even if I hadn’t added the dressing.

I recently saw on Pinterest a lot of pins about salad jars so I thought why not give it a shot. If it’s going to keep the salad a bit fresher and I can make a few on the Sunday that would be great.

The secret to a perfect Mason jar salad is all in the order.

You always put your dressing first. This is the only way to guarantee your salad won’t get soggy and it helps that you can put it at the bottom of the jar instead of having to bring a whole other container just for the dressing, which just means more cleaning.

Next add salad ingredients that won’t soak up the dressing, such as carrots, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, chickpeas, cucumber, celery etc.

Then go anything else big and chunky as this protects your more delicate ingredients from getting wet or squished. Try and pack they layers tightly as the less air between the layers the fresher it will stay.

Lastly add you cheese, nuts and greens, basically the ingredients you want to stay dry until just before you eat the,. They also create a moisture barrier that prevents the entire salad from getting soggy.

It’s important to choose a good combo of ingredient. You want to mix textures and flavours while still having your healthy 5 a day and a protein to fill you up.

I looked at loads of recipes but in the end I just went with things I like. Check out how my salad jars came along.

So you can probably tell from the pictures I over estimated how much would fit in the jar so I had to put the salad leaves in bags and the protein sections (one smoked salmon, one chilli prawns and one chicken tikka) in little boxes. In the jars its dressing, cucumber, celery, egg, avocado, grilled mushroom, broccoli, beetroot, artichoke and feta cheese

I just had one for lunch and it was pretty good. Still fresh and super tasty. Success.

 

That tiny little jar made a hell of a lot of salad!  

 

I also made a batch of guacamole, cut up a bag of carrots and packed up fruit for the week.
The fridge is full up of healthy lunchs and snacks

 

Its going to be a good week :)

 

Chiswick pub eats Part 3

The Pilot is our next stop on my ‘eat my way around the Chiswick pubs’ tour *cheeky smiles*

The Pilot is about a five minute walk from Gunnersbury station and is another great pub in the area. The staff are really friendly and again they serve seasonal food and have great cask ales and continental lagers.

The menu is similar to the JB or the Bollo, being pub favourites and also a few more adventurous options. Another cool thing about the pilot is that they have your tradition English bar snacks: pork scratching’s, scotch eggs etc. which a fair few of the pubs claiming to be old English pubs don’t.

I went to the Pilot recently for one of my friends birthday lunches but I have been there a fair few times before, including two work Christmas parties. They have a great private hire area called the garden room at the end of the beer garden that gives total privacy but still makes you feel like you’re getting the pub/party atmosphere. The food at both parties, one a sit down dinner and one a buffet style was really good quality and very tasty.

At the recent trip for Andy’s birthday, most people ordered of the al e cart menu or got the BBQ. That is another cool thing the pilot does in summer. They have a BBQ menu which is three piece of meat from the BBQ (which the cook in the beef garden) and as much salad as you can eat for £11. That’s a pretty good deal for the Chiswick area!

I wasn’t particularly in the mood for BBQ the day of Andy’s birthday so instead I opted for a goat’s cheese pesto pasta with baby spinach.

You could tell the pasta had been freshly made and although it looks like a bit of a small serving it was very filling and really tasty (if you like goats cheese of course). The pesto had a really nice distinct taste as well. All round a great meal where all the different ingredients worked so well together.

A good friend of mine also opted for a veggie option and got the grilled halloumi, asparagus, pumpkin and olive salad which I got to try a bit of and was also really tasty.

Just goes to show you don’t always need meat to make a tasty filling meal!
I can hear the guys from my work whole heartedly disagreeing with this statement *smiles* and I will admit I have also tried the pie of the week and the homemade fish goujon bap in the past and they were also both really tasty.

Like the Bollo, it’s again the scratch made and fresh seasonal components that make these pub meals a step above your normal pub eats.

For another great pub meal go and check it out

The Pilot
56 Wellesley Rd
Chiswick
London
W4 4BZ

Chiswick pub eats Part 2

Time for the second or is it the third instalment of Chiswick pub eats.
First review was of The Old Packhorse
Second was The Bollo
and the third is

The Gunnersbury
590 Chiswick High Rd
London
W4 5RP

The Gunnersbury, known to the boys at work as the JB as it used to be called The John Bull, is a Chiswick institution. It is handily located directly opposite Gunnersbury underground station. The food there is traditional good quality pub eats with a few quirky speciality burgers and dishes to offer something new to the table.

Like most Chiswick pubs they also offer a wide range of cask ales with London Pride being the favourite. There are normally a minimum of two local ales as well and they change their selection regularly so you get to enjoy a variety of brews.

As always though for me, it is all about the food and when we went recently I decided to try one of the boys favourites…no not the chilli dog which at least 2-3 of them order every time  we go *smiles* but one of the specialty burgers.

Goats cheese and chutney

I have never had goats cheese on a burger and it was a pleasant surprise. The burger patty was really, really good and the mix of the melty goats cheese and the burger was delicious. The wedges were really scrumy to.

I've also had a few of there salads, the baby leaf salad with warm grilled chicken breast, feta cheese, avocado & bacon and the baby leaf salad with avocado, tomato, boiled egg & mozzarella cheese which were really good. It was pretty different to what I got from the Bollo so I can't really compare them, they were both really good.

If you're in the area go and check them out and let me know which one you guys prefer *smiles*