A Big Night In (& an easy Salad Dressing)

MoneySupermarket recently launched a competition for bloggers to show just how much fun you can have staying in with the help of £50. They will also be choosing one random blogger to win £500! Nights out on the town aren’t cheap these days so I leapt at the chance to have my ideal night at home. As this was going to be equivalent to “a night out” at home I wasn’t going to be a slave to my kitchen, oh no. I wanted to have a stress free night and a giggle so I decided to spend nearly half of my budget on Champagne as it always make me laugh and is something I rarely get to drink. Next I wanted some easy not too filling food as I wanted a night of song and dance! Hence I decided on a couple of pizzas and salads (ok I made a dressing)! My husband’s favourite is pepperoni and my favourite is a Pizza Express Veneziana so I jazzed up a shop bough Margherita. To do this you just need to add some pinenuts, sultanas, red onion rings, black olives and I have to have lashings of garlic oil too! For the salads I just did a Green Salad and a Tomato, Onion and Basil Salad with a balsamic dressing (see recipe below). Dessert was a no brainer as English strawberries are in season right now and paired with some Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream what could be better?

So what would the theme of my night be? Well I remember one of the best parties I ever went to (20 years ago) had a 70’s Disco theme and I still had the outfit I’d bought for it in my wardrobe! Then as luck would have it I struck gold at a local car boot sale finding a 70’s Party Box complete with wigs, props and CD which was a bargain at £8 from the original price of £25. On another pitch I came across the Abbamania Karaoke CD which set me back another £4. There’s nothing like a good sing song and if you can’t sing a boogie is just a good!

We had a great night in dancing to old hits like “Le Freak” and “Night Fever”. My disco dancing lessons as a teenager stood me in good stead LOL! Then there was the karaoke and luckily my husband enjoys my singing or maybe that was the champagne just doing it’s magic!

So my tips of a good “night out” in are:

Don’t tire yourself out having to cook for your night in or you won’t have the energy to enjoy it because this is your night in!

If you want to have a theme to your night then car boot sales and charity shops are a great place to find props, music, games etc.

You don’t have to have lots of people round to have a good night in and it also means less washing up.

Don’t expect your kids to stay around longer than for the food (unless they are young of course), who can compete with their computer world!

So here’s a recipe for my salad dressing which won’t exert you too much!

 

What would your perfect night in involve? Do let me know in the comment section below.

NB: Thank you to Moneysupermarket for the £50 to have my perfect night in.