Lunchbox ideas - Bottom of The Fridge Pasta Salad

I currently make a packed lunch for the two eldest to take to school about 90% of the time. In a couple of weeks I'm going to have to be packing one for myself and for the wee one to take to nursery as well. Although the boys are, for the most part, quite happy with sandwiches I know full well I'll be sick of them after a week if I have to eat them every day. Elise is quite a good eater and will have a go at most things for her lunch so I'd to make sure her nursery lunches are as varied as the ones she currently enjoys at home with me.

I boiled some eggs last night to make the boys sandwiches with today and ended up with a couple spare sitting in the fridge. I quite fancied some pasta so decided to make a cold pasta salad with whatever we had in the fridge for me and Elise's lunch today (Hence the name) and what I came up with was really very tasty and would be perfect to pop in a tupperware tub and take for a packed lunch. It's also pretty healthy for you and the kids.



Ingredients

* Dried Pasta
* Low fat mayonnaise
* 2 hard-boiled eggs
* Cherry tomatoes
* Cucumber
* Red onion
* Cheddar cheese

Method

* Boil your eggs and allow to cool completely (I made mine the night before and put them in the fridge overnight)
* Cook your pasta until cooked, drain and rinse in cold water. Drain thoroughly (you don't want it too damp)
* Put the drained an cooled pasta in a bowl and add a good 2-3 tablespoons of mayonnaise - enough to coat all the pasta well.
* Chop up your eggs, tomatoes, cucumber and red onion and stir through. Grate some cheese through and mix it all up.
* Season lightly - obviously if you are making this for kids you might want to leave the salt out but it is very nice with a little bit of pepper through it.
* Serve on its own, or with some nice crusty bread and a leafy salad.
* Enjoy!

Really simple and you can add whatever veg you want - whatever you have in the salad drawer! I think it would be nice with some grated carrot through it too. You can really add or take away whatever you want from it. I'd love to hear from anyone who gives this a go.

Courgette & Mozzarella Fritters - Recipe

I've had a bit of a thing for courgettes recently but other than grilling them on the barbeque and adding them to homemade pasta sauce I've been at a bit of a loss as to what to do with them. Somewhere in the back of my head I was certain I'd heard of courgette fritters and a quick google turned up this recipe. I didn't have any parmesan so I subsituted it for mozzarella, which made it much harder to flip them over as it went all melty but was pretty darn tasty anyway.






Courgette & Mozzarella Fritters
(makes 4 generous fritters)

Ingredients
1 courgette, grated
1 125g ball mozzarella, chopped up
2 tbsp's Flour
1 tbsp olive oil

Combine the courgette, mozzarella and flour in a bowl. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium -high heat. Divide the mixture into four, roll into a vague ball shape, flatten slightly then cook for about 4-5 minutes each side, until golden brown.
Serve with Homemade Tomato Ketchup. I will post the recipe up for the ketchup just as soon as I remember everything I put into it.

Also, today my bursary award letter came in - good news! I *think* I'm getting the full amount which is of course going to be very helpful - it's not a huge amount per month but it's more than I earn in my part time job. My first payment is before I start college so that means I can get folders and suchlike in preparation.