When in the summer French beans are on the market stands and the price isn't too high, this vegetable is often on our plates. After the initial period of fascination, when we eat everything to the last bean, there comes a time when we are fed up with them. Then it's time for salads.

Salads are an excellent way to use up leftovers. Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a salad with yellow French beans. The fresh cucumber, chili pepper, nectarine and smoked trout tasted great and looked beautiful on our plates with the French beans. I prepared a honey-lemon dip and ... after a while there wasn't any sign of the French beans.

Ingredients
cooked French beans
lettuce leaves
150g of smoked trout
1 nectarine
2 small fresh cucumbers
half a chilli pepper
a fistful of cashew nuts
dip
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of water
1 tablespoon of honey
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Holidays usually involve travelling. It doesn't matter if we travel by car, train or plane, our children have to stay in one place for a long time. For many children and their parents it is a very difficult time. I remember when a few years ago I had to sing to my one-year-old daughter for almost 11 hours of traveling on our summer holiday. To this day I don't know why she only stopped crying then and how my husband managed to endure my singing. I'm happy these hardcore journeys are over. Because of travel sickness my children can't read or watch movies in the car. Therefore, we usually listen to audiobooks. If we find something for everybody, we listen together; if not, our children have their own headphones and we enjoy the silence.

Before our last trip I wanted to prepare some audiobooks for my seven-year-old son. We couldn't find anything interesting for him. My daughter found a forgotten and dusty audiobook called "Cat stories" by Tomasz Trojanowski. The recommendation of his older sister was sufficient, and my son had almost 10 hours of meeting with nice characters to look forward to. The audiobook was read with bravura by Jarosław Boberek.

Zofia, Herman and Gienek are cats who live in Big Man's House. Big Man is a nice cool customer who with boundless patience tolerates the creative and crazy ideas of his cats. The book describes the adventures of the cats, who sometimes seem more similar to small, impish children. They are extremely perceptive and curious about the world – they play with unfettered imagination, they hide, watch TV, take part in competitions and parties and play ball games. Just like lot of parents the Big Man has to listen to endless questions and monologues. Fortunately, the cats answer many of the questions on their own. Above all the cats talk to each other, to friends and to Big Man. They talk about important subjects, but they are also interested in more mundane things. They are interested in the weather, the smelly contents of the fridge, the best way to celebrate birthdays, but also appropriate behaviour in the forest, the value of friendship, tolerance and family relationships.

It somehow occurred recently that on Friday at the end of a difficult week my children asked me for crepes for dinner/supper. Usually, I prepare traditional crepes with cottage cheese, natural yoghurt and chocolate icing. Fortunately, my children love fruit, so I can add it to crepes without a problem. This time I prepared a new special edition of the crepes. The chocolate crepes with vanilla cottage cheese and a hint of raspberry were excellent and looked beautiful. Fortunately, the raspberry season has just begun.

Ingredients:
dough:
300g of wheatmeal
300ml of milk
300ml of water
100ml of oil
1 egg
3 tablespoons of dark cocoa
a pinch of salt
stuffing
200g of raspberries
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
2 teaspoons of orange juice
200g of cottage cheese
100g of natural yoghurt
2 teaspoons of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

Before Easter I bought some ground almonds. I did something I never do, i.e. shopping without any purpose. The almonds lay and waited for an idea. It came to me when I was cleaning my pantry. I decided to give them a chance. I mixed the ground almonds with flour and prepared a very fast and easy cake with strawberries and almond crumble topping.

I used my old recipe, but I replaced some of the flour with some ground almonds. I had never done it, but this idea was quite interesting. The dough was a bit heavier but equally fluffy and yummy like an original cake. The crunchy almond crumble topping was also excellent. You can use cherries or raspberries instead of strawberries. You have to sprinkle the dough with some breadcrumbs or semolina to avoid the fruit sinking in the dough.

Ingredients (25cm cake tin)
dough
150g of butter
125g of flour
100g of ground almonds
125g of brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
crumble topping
100g of ground almonds
50g of butter
50g of caster sugar

We don't need to tell anybody about the healthy properties of rolled oats. The majority of children don't want even want to look at them. I'm a mum of two children, and I know that convincing children to eat porridge is not so easy.

My daughter likes porridge with tomatoes, avocado, pepper, chives and roasted sunflower seeds, whereas my son likes oat omelettes. Today I found another oat dish which my children accepted: oat budino with home-cooked strawberry confiture and almonds. The one thing I don't like about this dish is the colour of the budino. However, the taste and healthy properties make up for this tiny defect.

Ingredients
500ml of milk (you can use vegetable milk)
5-6 of tablespoons of rolled oats
1 tablespoon of sugar
half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
confiture
250g of strawberries
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
the peel and juice of half an orange
a piece of cinnamon
a small twig of rosemary