White bean salad with bacon and rocket

Healthy lunch

It’s been an unsettling week the last week, where you sort of start to wonder if you all of a sudden found yourself in a really bad movie… The week started with the funeral of my brother’s father in law who passed away the week before. I then got a phonecall a day later from my sister that her husband’s brother had died at the age of 57. Then Tom received a phonecall that the father of a close friend died and to top it off, another father of another friend died in that same week as well. If things weren’t already bad enough, on top of that my MIL was admitted to the hospital on thursday. I mean…. seriously; what is going on?? Even though we did not know all the people that died intimately it is always hard to see the people you love suffer due to these things.

We all know that life can be hard at times and we all know that it has an ending at some point, but some of the people above were really not that old and are really not that old. Ofcourse, I know that things can get worse and I will be the first person to rationalize things and to realize that these things just happen. The week before when I was at the gym, I heard that one of the little kids who comes there every week died at the age of three due to a virus that attacks the brain (I honestly don’t know all the english terms for things like this..) Three years old… now that is just unbelievable and make my skin crawl when I think about it. So yes, dying at 57 is certainly not fair and far too young, but dying at 3…. I can only imagine the pain the parents must go through! My heart goes out to them..

So if I am a little absent from your blogs lately and don’t post as often as usual… now you know why… It does make you more aware of your own lifestyle and the things that can be improved in that area. There has been little to no cooking the last week, a week that was emotionally hard, especially for Tom and maybe we consumed a bit more wine than we normally do. So yesterday, I felt that we should snap out of it and at least take care of ourselves through times like these especially. If we don’t take care of our bodies then how can our minds cope with the challenges ahead, right?

So today I figured would be a perfect day for a lovely healthy lunch. The weather – believe it or not – is back to snow again and while doing the grocery shopping I got into some sort of snowblizzard! It’s not staying at the temperature is slightly above zero, but still… weird weather for sure! I browsed a little on the Donna Hay website, always a great source of inspiration and I found this lovely salad. I had to work in the morning so I was a bit late with the shopping, so by the time the salad was finished we were both quite anxious to tug into the plate! See that magazine being turned in the photo on the left? That is Tom patiently going through a magazine while I take a photo. Arguably not the best foodstyling for this styling, but I couldn’t be bothered to make it look prettier as I was a bit hungry too!

The salad is lovely and very quick to put together. If it wasn’t for the bacon that needs to be grilled it would literally be tossed together in a heartbeat!The original recipe is from Donna Hay magazine, issue 37.

To make the honey mustard dressing, place the mustard, honey and water in a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.

Place bacon on a baking tray and cook under a pre-heated hot grill for 5?8 minutes or until golden and crispy. Drain on absorbent paper and break into pieces. Place bacon, tomatoes, beans, parsley, rocket and half the honey mustard dressing in a bowl and toss to combine. Divide between plates and serve with the remaining dressing on the side. Serves 2.

I loved the little crumbly bits of bacon that go through the salad, which gives it that nice crunch and that little bit of saltiness that it needs. Try it out, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I can see this go really well with some feta tossed it to make it vegetarian or smoked chicken, to make it more meaty… It’s lovely!

Patiently waiting untill the photos are taken