Gizzi Erskine’s inspiring lunchtime recipes

Reclaim your right to a lunch break with these fabulously simple lunch time recipes from Gizzi Erskine.

Jamie Oliver’s school dinners campaign has never quite left the media’s eye since it began, and ever since then the importance of healthy eating at lunch time has been a high profile topic. Chef and food journalist Gizzi Erskine is now on her own midday meal mission, but rather than targeting the poor quality meals school children are being cooked, Ms Erskine is tackling the sub-standard lunches we working adults are cooking ourselves, and is on a mission to Bring Back Bratain's Lunch Hour.

Since the recession began, everyone has been working far too hard, far too long, and not getting enough of a break. Too many working Britons are opening up their pre-packed sandwiches at their desks and chowing down in front of a spread sheet, making lunch more of an inconvenience than a break. While, sadly, the term ‘lunch hour’ is becoming more a figure of speech than a reference to said amount of time, Gizzi Erskine is determined that *everyone *should be entitled to enjoy their lunch, even if you do have to read emails as you munch.

Like Jamie, Gizzi is taking a hands-on approach to tackling the problem of Britain’s missing lunch hour. Gizzi has teamed up with job search site Monster to come up with ideas for working lunches that are tasty, easy to make, and will liven up your midday blues. Gizzi has come up with five lip-smacking recipes (see below), that are so simple and yummy that they will give you the distraction you crave when the clock strikes 1pm.

According to Monster, having a break at lunch time and focussing on something different makes you more productive. And having a healthy meal during your lunch break will help you to be productive as well as just making you feel better.

According to Gizzi, the key to bringing back your lunch hour is just to be a bit more organised, and make your lunch the night before. The last thing you want in the morning is to race about the kitchen, grabbing together some mismatched combination of foodstuffs to sustain you through the afternoon, when you haven’t even digested your morning coffee. So, to stop this pre-rush-hour rush, have a box ready in the fridge with one of Gizzi’s fabulous lunchtime meals in, and you’ll be hot to trot.

Gizzi has created 5 recipes, with something different and delicious for every day of the week:

• Tuna, and caponata salad
• Pancetta, faro and bean soup
• Courgette, goat’s cheese and toasted pinenut tart
• Smoked salmon, avocado, and brie on rye bread
• Rare roast beef with crushed potato salad

The recipes all use fresh and healthy ingredients, and show you how to bring back your lunch hour in style, but they are also all easy to make, and very down to earth. Rare roast beef might seem like a bit of an effort to go to just for lunch, but Gizzi’s beef only takes two minutes to cook, and you can even use left over beef from a Sunday roast. Why waste your lunch time freedom queuing in the shop round the corner for a sandwich with all the other hungry suit-clad desk-junkies when you can kick your feet up, and tuck into something like this?

Whilst you could follow the plan of 5 recipes and make one for every day of the week, Gizzi also suggests making a batch to last you the week with some of the more long-lasting dishes such as the soup and the tart. If you know perfectly well you’ve got 5 killer days ahead, spend a little time on Sunday evening cooking up a week's worth of lunch time feasts as you watch Come Dine With Me on Channel 4.

Gizzi speaks sense. It's so easy to prepare yourself a fabulous lunch, and to avoid eating the same cling film-wrapped ham sandwiches, or shop bought meal deals. Visit the Bring Back Britain’s Lunch Hour website for more details on the campaign.

**Written by:** Emily Boyd