Haloumi.

During the hot weather we tend to have lots of salads and cold meat, cheeses etc and not use the stove. Also as power and gas bills are high I decided to make an extra effort to embrace beautiful fresh salads and also on nice nights use the BBQ outside. And it worked our quarterly gas bill was down by one third! I was so pleased with this. Other nights I will cook something super quick so the stove is not on, just the gas top for a few minutes only.

One really quick thing we cook is haloumi. If you don't use it and you like cheese give it a go! It cooks under the grill or fry pan in two or three minutes, it browns and becomes chewy and beautiful while holding it's shape. Then added to a salad it makes the meal filling and delicious. Chloe goes mad over this, so I cook it almost every time she comes for dinner!

The garden is full of fresh herbs and the basil is lovely right now. It smells so good! Basil happens to go with tomato, onion and haloumi like a match made in heaven. So this is a meal made in a minute and so nice on a hot day. 

Watching Jamie Oliver has helped me use my herbs much more. He seems to use so many with almost every meal he makes. I have been guilty of growing them and using them a bit but not as much as I could. So this meal is a real meal mostly from the produce in the garden and perfect for in  a heat wave!

I'm going to share some recipes for something I consider rare and yet so handy... salads that last a few days in the fridge. They are so good as once done you have several days taken care of as far as your salad/sides are concerned. And they travel well ie to work, picnics etc. But that is another post, I need some pictures!