Light Meals and Weekend Treats from an English Woman in Berlin
Something terrible has happened this last month. Our favourite Thai restaurant has temporarily closed down! OK, so the staff have simply just gone back to Thailand for their holidays and the restaurant will be open up again soon. I guess I should be grateful that it isn’t another story of a restaurant closing down because the food is either too spicy for the sensitive German palate or too expensive for the rather frugal average German….
In the past I have found lunch the most trickiest of meals to plan for. While I have mentioned in my previous blog post the all too often temptation to eat out in the evening after a long day in the office, I actually find the eating out at lunchtime far more tempting. The first issue has always been that I have mostly worked in central Berlin. I am often surrounded by plenty of restaurants and cafes to go out for lunch and my colleagues have always felt the same, resulting in me wanting to go out not just for the delicious food on offer but also to socialise and not be left in the office alone…
This salad is one of my favourite dishes. It is full of healthy fats and protein and is a real go to lunch of mine as it gives me plenty of energy while keeping me going until dinner time. I have recently cut down on my avocado consumption. Last year I got a little swept up with the whole clean eating craze that I was adding avocado’s to everything and getting through them like there was no tomorrow. In actual fact, no one needs that many avocado’s in their life! But I love them and especially how versatile they are….
One of my favourite ways to use up leftovers is to combine them all to make a delicious salad. I am a firm believer that salad’s should not be seen as boring and always feel frustrated at the negativity towards eating a salad. So often people get asked if they are on a diet should they happen to be eating a salad for lunch that day. Or even worse, many will scrunch their noses up as if a salad is something that couldn’t possibly make for a good lunch or meal. Personally I think it comes down to the fact that so many salad’s out there are in fact soggy…
It is so easy to think of a potato salad as a pile of stodgy potatoes that are smothered in an acidic mayonnaise. In fact, a potato salad is pretty much a staple at any BBQ or picnic that we all have a slight fondness towards! At the first rays of sunshine us Brits (and Germans..) head out to the parks or into the garden armed with sausage rolls, meat, sandwiches, quiches and basically anything else that can either be thrown onto a grill or packs up nicely into a box and is easy to eat while all squashed up on a tiny bit of the picnic blanket …
I am a big fan of a salad and it is something that I eat quite often. The humble salad often gets a bit of negative press, mainly due to the stereotype of it being a bit of limp lettuce with some soggy tomatoes, a bit of cucumber and a rather acidic dressing. But for me a salad is a great way to use up any leftovers in the fridge and bring together an array of different ingredients. They are quick and easy to make and are the perfect light dinner, while also packing up nicely for lunch the next day…
Armed with a tin of chickpeas you can be assured that a healthy and delicious meal is on it’s way! I love chickpeas. They are packed full of protein and high in fibre, iron and zinc. They are also incredibly filling and easy to prepare, making them a perfect lunch or midweek dinner. I find that chickpeas are really versatile. They work well in stews such as a Chickpea and Chorizo Stew, can be made into burgers or turned into delicious hummus. A tin of chickpeas is certainly a store cupboard staple!…
I have long been a supporter of the fact that salads do not have to be boring! So why then do so many of us see a salad for lunch or dinner as some kind of bland diet food or as a punishment for eating that burger the previous night? Perhaps it is to do with the fact that a lot of salads are unsatisfying bowls of soggy lettuce with a bit of cucumber and tomato and topped with some kind of over vinegary sauce because people believe that this is the safe option in order to be healthy. …
