Cath's Meal Plan 13th - 19th September

Today has been a beautiful spring day, warm enough to have the windows and doors open for a little while. So warm I even let the fire go out!

I posted my recipe for Fish Cakes on our Facebook page yesterday, so I thought I'd talk about salad today. It helps that I'm thinking about salad because it's on the meal plan for tonight, but by this time of year I am really craving a lovely fresh salad.

When we have salad, either on it's own or with a savoury/meat dish, I try to make it interesting, to the eye and to the taste buds. There's nothing worse than limp lettuce, dried up cheese, soggy beetroot and soft tomato, especially when it's called salad.

I start with a green, not always lettuce. But it is always finely shredded. Sometimes it is spinach or silverbeet or even finely shredded cabbage.

Then I add some colour: grated carrot, cucumber slices (leave the skin on), pineapple slices, quartered tomato, diced beetroot.

Next I add something for texture. It might be coleslaw, or noodle salad or potato salad or rice salad. Sometimes it is just a small scoop of two or three of these salads, sometimes just one of them.

I top it off with cheese- cubes, triangles, slices and, if there are enough, a hard boiled egg.

It looks colourful on the plate, and on a very hot evening is cooling to look at and eat. But at this time of year, when winter is over and we are all heartily fed-up with casseroles, soups, pasta dishes and hot veggies a nice salad is a gastronomic delight :)

This week we will be eating:

Sunday: Roast Chicken

Monday: Meatloaf, mash, greens, gravy

Tuesday:Spaghetti, salad

Wednesday: Curried chicken & rice

Thursday: MOO Pizza

Friday: Hamburgers

Saturday: Toasted Sandwiches