roast squash, chilli and spinach salad with peanut and ginger dressing

What is going on? At least he slept a bit in our bed after waking up at TWO AM!!! Technically this is better than Monday night, but it is still double-bastard bad, and only a large amount of M&S biscuits this afternoon got me through the day.

I'm back home in time for bath, stories and bed (him, not us) which is useful as Ana has to go to our first parent's evening. However by the time he finally falls asleep it's half eight, which effectively rules out Rick Stein's Shepherd's Pie and the meatballs on the basis we don't want to be eating at midnight.

By this process of elimination we're left with experimental Levi Roots Caribbean pumpkin salad for tea:


Whilst the pumpkin was roasting I got quite excited by the prospect of eating not only stem ginger, but using the syrup as part of the salad dressing. Not quite enough to distract me from the mighty Arsenal's thumping of Braga, but excited enough for the final dish to be *slightly* disappointing.

It was nice, and we will have it again but as Ana pointed out, it's probably better as a Saturday brunch rather than a dinner. Certainly compared to say Donna Hay's classic toasted pine nut and sweet potato salad, it does seem to miss something from the ingredients. I was just disappointed it was really gingery.

Food of the Milos
A hale and hearty breakfast of cheerios, raisins and apricots at Julia's before his second day at Nursery, which he didn't want to leave. Chocolate croissant on the way back to Julia's, followed by bolognese sauce with rice and cake for pudding. For dinner he ate pasta and tomato sauce, and half a mango for dessert. Fingers-crossed he sleeps tonight, me and McCarthy are the closest we've been to zombies for ages...

sources
roast squash, chilli and spinach salad with peanut and ginger dressing - Levi Roots, Food for Friends c/o Delicious, September 2010, p39