Rainbow Salad

Working from home is something that doesn't suit everyone. It tends to suit me because whilst I am a social person, I also find that I get a lot of work done when it is quiet. How people can write and do work in a noisy office with a host of options, people and entertainment not to mention meetings, baffles me now. Not to mention the vitally important task of forwarding through funny things that you might receive from colleagues. Something that I'm still guilty of doing although once I had to ask my friend Ambrose to stop sending me pictures of guys in swimsuits to my work email.

Mr NQN bears the brunt of my lack of interaction with other people. I send him pestering emails asking him if he would like lunch the next day and frequently, I will send him pictures of cats.

Like this:

or this:

And yes I realise that at this point, I perhaps sound like a crazy cat lady... but since you think that already, these are a few other things that I've sent him recently:

Chilling cat

Or Teddy, the bad cat

Usually they're tagged with a request for him to do something. Because as you know, cute cats make everything better. And dogs too.

My favourite human one has to be this older sister giving advice to her almost three year old brother. She needs a talk show or at the very least, an advice column. Mr NQN calls her bossy but I think she's caring and wise beyond her years and I'd love to hang out with her.

Ahem...perhaps I need to get out more...

This is something that I sent him a picture of. It was a rainbow salad that I made for his lunch. As the weather has been heating up (hopefully to stay) we've tried to eat more salads and lighter foods. I love the colourful crunch of this mostly raw salad and I would dare to suggest that the rainbow effect might persuade the little ones to eat it too. The beetroot and carrot make it sweet and the boiled eggs give the salad a richness so that it doesn't feel like you are crunching on just your garden. You can change the vegetables and replace the beetroot with purple cabbage, the cucumber for spinach leaves and the tomato for red capsicum-the one thing I will caution is that if you do use beetroot, it is best to toss it just before you serve it as it turns everything pink.

And I bet that little girl might eat it because she seems a sensible sort.

So tell me Dear Reader,have you seen any of these before? And you forward things that you find interesting on the internet? What was your latest forward? Share your funniest or strangest! :)

Rainbow Salad

Serves 2 as a main lunch or 4 as a side salad

• 4 eggs, boiled

• 1 large carrot, peeled*

• 1 medium sized beetroot, peeled

• 1-2 small tomatoes

• 1 medium sized cucumber

For dressing

• 2 tablespoons good quality mayonnaise

• 2-3 tablespoons skim milk

• 1 teaspoon mustard (less or more to your taste and how strong your mustard is)

• 5-6 thin slices of red onion

Step 1 - Firstly boil the eggs in a saucepan of boiling water. I'm sure you all know how to boil eggs but if you want some tips, use older eggs (the shell will come off easier) and place the eggs in cold water and bring to a boil with an unlit matchstick as this will prevent the whites from going everywhere if there is a crack in the shell. Boil for 5 minutes and then cool and peel.

Step 2 - Using a microplane or box grater or just anyone else but you (I hate grating, can you tell?), grate the carrot and then the beetroot and arrange on plates in rows. Dice the tomatoes and add these to the plate and then slice cucumber into small batons. Add this to the plate too and then chop the eggs.

Step 3 - Combine all the dressing ingredients into a small bowl or cup and whisk together.

*I don't usually peel carrots and usually just wash them but find that they turn brown quickly and this salad is a lot about presentation.