Heinz Chilli & Lime Salad Dressing Spray (Waitrose) By @Cinabar

I eat more salad in summer than I do in winter, I’d say this season is healthier but I also eat more ice cream when the weather is warm so it balances out. I was having a look at salad dressings and I saw this spray-on dressing and it is low calorie too. My first thought was I had never worried about the calories in a salad dressing before, I mean you only put a splash on and the rest is literally lettuce. Do people loose sleep over calories in salad dressing? Anyway, it is low calorie, it is also in the form of a spray which seems quite innovative.
Opening the pack wasn’t fun, the plastic seal was quite thick and difficult to rip into on the ‘tear’ here strip. It broke, I fought with it, I won but it made me unhappy. I put some lettuce in the bowl and sprayed a few times, and then tossed the salad. I needed a few more sprays than I had anticipated but at 2 calories a spray I guess it doesn’t matter. The dressing was tasty though, the chilli was just a little warm but the zesty lime was fresh and tasty. It does work on a summer salad. I couldn’t decide if I liked the spray element but I’ll happily use up the rest of the dressing on summer salads.

Avocado and Tofu Salad @yakinoriuk (@NLi10)

Following restaurants on social media is a dangerous business because sometimes they post things that are just too good to pass up! Although this one can't match the carefully posed picture they used, right?

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Yes - that's a salad. Granted it's a high fat and oil content salad, but it's highly nutritious and so worth a special trip into town to grab the final servings from Yakinori Grand Central before disappearing off to other places.

And this is what it looks like for real

A little less of a tower, but a much mightier portion! What we essentially have is a  whole avocado, with half a block of Tofu, and then leafy greens and seeds and garnish 

. And a whole lot of flavour!

I ate half as served, and half with a little Kikoman soy sauce and I enjoyed both variations 

It was certainly filling, and not a chore to finish staying crispy and fresh to the end. Maybe I'd swap half of the avocado for some of their katsu chicken on the side, but then that's just me.

Something I'll be trying again for sure.

Rainbow Vegetable Salad with couscous & edamame soybeans(by @NLi10) @marksandspencer

Marks and Spencer really have upped their game recently. Opposite the traditional lunches in the a Grand Central Station Birmingham store they have this lovely collection of green things.

This particular occasion I chose this Rainbow Vegetable Salad with couscous & edamame soybeans with Honey and Lime dressing. Worth typing out in full as it shows the variety of nutrition on offer. As ever it's two for £4 so I always take advantage and get two so I can have one for lunch and a snack later.

Look at how amazing that is. I want to eat these for lunch every day. M&S is too far and I'm too poorly organised for that to happen on a regular basis but that would be the ideal.

I accidentally took this picture of my drink but it was very arty so I figured I'd share - hashtag juices of Instagram - we already know these are good.

The textures and sauce of the salad were both fantastic and while I'd probably go for the nut one on some days, on other days this would be first choice. Similar to the cosmonauts lunch from the science museum this has an amazing variety and M&S should be commended.

Aldi Deli Salads - Chicken & Mango, Chargrilled Chicken [by @NLi10]

Instead of making up my own lunch bowls using Tesco ready cut salads and nuts, while in Aldi I picked up a few ready made ones to check out.

It is a round bowl - I slid the package open just so you can see the variety.  There is lots going on in here.  As you can see there is a little tub of goo too. In this case it's a tangy mango sauce to go with the spicy chicken. The salad was all great, fresh and crispy. A bit of a cheaper selection than the Waitrose salad with your more typical peppers and lettuce, but very welcome at lunch time. The dissapointment in this one was the chicken, it just wasn't that exciting.  The spice wasn't that noticeable, and it lacked flavour. Overall though, with the sauce it worked well enough to have again.

Here we have the second version with tomatoes instead of peppers, and a little more variety in the greens. The star here is the thick balsamic dressing sauce, which sticks to everything and really brings it to life.

Even though this one had been in my fridge a day longer somehow the chicken in the sauce was much tastier. I usually pick the cucumber out of things, but I used the sauce to make even that edible. A lovely lunch and my favourite of the two - and at about half the price of the Waitrose salad I'd certainly eat either of these again. They were less impressively filling than that one though,

Waitrose Ham Hock, Egg & Potato Salad [by @NLi10]

The train journey to London is often cheaper if you go a little later in the morning and it's a nice place to sit and have lunch (as long as you buy before boarding). Snow Hill station in Birmingham has a lovely Waitrose right outside so not only is there an actual choice of foods, but it's a reasonably healthy selection too.

I picked up this bottle for a drink - not spotting that it's essentially just water. I'd have rather just had a larger plain water in hindsight. Oh well.

The main is a lot more exciting - a ham hock egg and potato salad, and the salad is a mix of fruit and veg too. It was all crispy and flavoursome, although me tipping all of the mustard dressing on it probably doubled the calories and masked the subtlety of the flavours. A whole egg was a nice touch, and the combination of quality ham and fresh peas was not something I'd have gone for normally but I just couldn't resist all that green! My only downer on the experience was I had to eat it with a spoon as they'd run out of knives and forks! 

I'd chose this again happily, but there are lots of similar salads in Waitrose to try. Possibly a little more expensive than many would like but certainly worth it for the convenience and tastiness of having a mixed salad as you hurtle towards the capital.