salad days ...

the part i love most about our staycation summer holidays is the food.  whenever we have time planned at home, mr b (the house chef) digs out the cookery books and plans out a ton of lovely food for us to enjoy.

last week we enjoyed some amazing meals courtesy of the brilliant jamie oliver's 30 minute meals book.  whilst the recipes can rarely be completed in 30 minutes (and the clear up usually takes the best part of an hour), the recipes are delicious.  summer vegetable lasagne, swedish fishcakes, homemade pizza, spinach and feta filo pie are just a few of the treats we've tucked into.  all of them amazing.

but the best part of all? almost every recipe has a fabulous side salad.  and these side salads are the absolute stars of the show.  tuscan salad, avocado and cracker salad, cucumber salad, tomato salad.  they're so good it's worth buying the book just to get your hands on the recipes for these gorgeous summer sides.

simply perfect summer food (with or without the mains).

although the first of our summer staycation weeks are over (and so we're back to jacket potatoes, left overs and beans on toast) tonight the little ones are having a sleepover at nanny's so i'm being treated to a mid-week thai green curry, jasmine rice and cucumber salad.

happy happy days.