MADE IT: Pret A Manger Alfresco Chicken Salad

When it comes to eating out food on the mood can be the ultimate godsend. From its humble beginnings as a simple array of bland sandwich fillings came salads, soups and sushi to tantalise even the most monotonous of office desks.

I, for one do not work in an office, but I will quite frankly have nothing stand in the way of me getting a morish lunch. When a string of late shifts at my part-time work as a shop sales advisor came up, I needed something delicious to get me through a 3pm til 10pm shift. Why people need to buy clothes and general merchandise until 10pm is a factor even after five and half years working in a shop I will never understand; however my mission for a tasty break time treat beckoned.

I found this little number in a £3 bargain find by Pret a Manger - Food on the Move.

So I'm not going to lie this salad took a bit of effort. To make the renouned Pret seasoning, used on all their signature salads and sarnies, various spices had to be fried, cooled and stored for shaking over your salady creations. Another set back? The mildly spiced yoghurt dressing for the chicken. Slightly longwinded and not really adding a huge deal to the salad, but a welcome little hint of warmth nonetheless.

Still all in all a hearty and filling salad, ticking all the right boxes with my favourite ingredients. A fitting make at home tribute to a shop bought favourite.

MADE IT: Jamie Oliver's Crunchy Salad - Jamie Does...

There is something about Jamie Oliver's cooking which makes me physically want to devour every cookbook before I've even attempted cooking anything from them. The food is simple, it's modern and is achievable! Hoorah a realistic cooking companion!

I was very lucky to celebrate mine and my boyfriend's anniversary this month, and being the fabulous individual he is, he treated me to Jamie's new release 'Jamie Does..' and believe you me this book DOES NOT (pun...yet again I am sorry) disappoint!

This new release from everyone's favourite Essex boy, sees Jamie journey around some of Europe's favourite destinations, stopping off to create some culinary delights on the way. For a flover, (food lover, new lingo, get in the know ;o) this book pretty much delivers on every level.

You've got the variation of the more adventurous recipes such as Confit Duck or Beetroot Gravadlax (drool) to the more easy simple snacks of topped bruschettas to speedy salads like this little number I tried out, Jamie's Simple Crunchy Salad!

 Jamie's salad came up trumps and was probably one of the easiest and quickest tasty salads that I've done for some time. Ok, so my fridge was pretty bare to say the least when I assembled this salad, but that's the beauty of Jamie's cooking; it's so easy even a cooking novice could create some of these dishes, and like me adapt to what you want in them. Definite winner!