Something New

In a perfect world, I would have arrived at work today with a packed lunch – but as I did not, rather than just grab anything for lunch, I resolved to find something tasty and healthy. I was in Boots and spotted Jamie Oliver’s new range of sandwiches and salads, and was drawn to Hard to Beet – ‘Beautiful beet salad with roast butternut, feta, and a balsamic dressing’. For me that struck a happy medium – the best option, a pre-planned home-made lunch wasn’t available, so I looked for the second best option. The salad delivered 383 calories, 22g of sugar (25% - how?!), 21g of fat (30%) and I recognised all the ingredients – roast butternut, roast beetroot, bulgar wheat dressed in olive oil, salt and pepper, balsamic dressing, feta cheese, spinach, red chard and rocket, and roasted pumpkin seeds, roasted sunflower seeds, roasted fennel seeds, linseed and parsley. The thing I am really pleased about is that I have always thought I HATED beetroot – and they worked really, really well in this salad. I will definitely be trying them again! Also, I have always shied away from red chard, but I really liked that too. A good lesson in portion control – it was enough to feel like I had eaten something but not so much I felt stuffed. The small amount of really sharp feta worked too.