Seasonal Eating Blog

After writing some seasonal eating blogs covering one week some readers expressed an interest in more information about how we eat seasonally. I'm also hoping it will help me remember things I've cooked that worked well. I wonlt record everything here but things I think might be interesting.

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Tuesday 14th Jan

Mushroom and cheese muffins for breakfast

Cabbage and bean soup with a chickpea tart at work

Monday 13th Jan

Yoghurt, stewed apples and roasted nuts for breakfast

Mushroom omelette for lunch

Made some chick pea flour tarts with peas and sweetcorn from the freezer and mushroom and cheese muffins for easy breakfasts and lunches

Courgette soup for dinner with a chickpea tart and seed bread

Sunday 12th jan

A little orange panettone for breakfast that I got for Christmas

Bacon, scrambled eggs and seed bread for lunch

Eric made carbonara with speck for dinner

Saturday 11th Jan

New loaf of seed bread with ground flax and ghee, I also ground some of the sunflower seeds. So much better, really malty and tasty, it's much more like bread. Ate slices with honey.

Had the chick pea stew from Thursday night with baked sweet potatoes, ricotta cheese and some sprouted seeds, a mix of broccoli, pink kale and mustard with roasted pumpkin seeds and preserved lemon aioli. Had this at lunchtime as we are going to a Wassail tonight.

Had cheese and biscuits when we got back.

Friday 10th Jan

Pancakes as yesterday for breakfast.

Seed bread with peanut butter for lunch. It was so thick and claggy I added some damson jam to the top. Made a new loaf today which will hopefully work better.

For dinner we had slices of the roast ham with fried eggs and I made the leftover kale polenta from Wednesday night into chips which I fried in some reserved duck fat. Served with preserved lemon aioli.

Thursday 9th Jan

The gram flour pancakes with apple puree heated up with sultanas, yoghurt and roasted hazelnuts

Korean soup and seed bread for lunch

Made a stew with tinned tomatoes, chick peas, green beans from the freezer and olives. Served with a few potato wedges leftover from Monday night.

Wednesday 8th Jan

Seed bread with honey

Made some gram and einkorn flour pancakes and had one with leftover dal and a fried egg

Slices of ham with kale polenta and ratatouille from the freezer

Tuesday 7th Jan

Seed bread with eggs. This tasted so unpleasant, textures all wrong.

Took a veg soup and rivitas to work plus a homemade mince pie (all gone now), an apple and some brazil nuts.

Dal from the freezer with brown rice, roasted almonds and yoghurt

Monday 6th Jan

Yoghurt with apple puree, nuts and honey for breakfast.

Courgette soup with seed bread for lunch

Twelfth night feast for old Christmas day - Chicken and ham pies (Eric bought them at a food market) plus braised red cabbage and potato wedges.

Sunday 5th Jan

Small chunk of panettone for breakfast.

I made this "life changing bread". It fell apart and some chunks slid into the door hinge of the oven as I flipped it over but it kind of worked. I could taste the coconut oil and it wasn't nice so I'm going to use ghee next time (I got some for Christmas) and I'm going to grind the flax seeds to make the texture nicer (plus the body absorbs them better).

Croque madames with slices of the ham for lunch.

Tomato soup with the life changing bread - known henceforth as seed bread.

Saturday 4th Jan

Made a preserved lemon aioli from this book and Eric made poached eggs on toast with slices of smoked trout.

There was a lot of liquid in the stew I made yesterday so I strained some of this off and added it to some of the leftover rice, carrot and spring onion. Added some more stock then blended it to make a soup.

Mince pies in the afternoon.

Had the rest of the leek gratin with slices of ham and I made some spiced red cabbage

Friday 3rd Jan

Baked eggs with mushrooms, smoked cheese and ham.

We had the above quite late so had some canapes as a starter which was slices of smoked trout on crackers spread with cream cheese and topped with some basil mint I picked at the woodland garden.

I also harvested a load of beetroot and made this in the pressure cooker. Served with brown rice with a grated carrot and sliced salad onions (also harvested today) stirred through.

Thursday 2nd January

Panettone for breakfast

Soup for lunch with fenugreek oil and toasted sunflower seeds

I cooked leeks, celery and carrots in some duck fat we saved from the cassoulet we made a few weeks ago. I added all the scraps I gleaned from the three carcasses and some dried Herbes de Provence. Then added the rest of the ham gravy from yesterday and about 500ml of chicken stock I made. 

We had a portion of this chicken stew with the leek gratin from last night and the leftover cabbage and green lentils. Two portions went in the freezer. Those three carcasses have provided so much food just with the addition of some organic celery, carrots, onions and leeks. 

Wednesday 1st January

Chicken stock veg soup for lunch

I cooked the ham with the glaze mentioned here by Gill Meller and also made the leek gratin and a variation of the sprout dish but with savoy cabbage. I made a gravy with the juices and we had it all with some pickled pears I made a few years ago, still good!

Tuesday 31st December

The gammon came out the smoker after two smokes and went into the pressure cooker (after I'd emptied out and strained the second batch of stock) with veg, cloves and star anise. 

I filled the blender with the veg from the second chicken stock and the veg from cooking the gammon, added some stock from both and blended this up as a soup for the next few days.

I added the trout to the smoker and smoked it with alder wood.

We finally cracked open the Christmas cake and ate it with organic rose chai tea.

Off to a friends house for a NYE party. Goodbye 2024.

Monday 30th December

Put one turkey carcass plus carrots, celery, onions, bay leaves and black peppercorns into the pressure cooker. When cooled down a bit I strained it all off and picked off quite a bit of meat. The veg went into the blender with some strained stock. I had this soup for lunch with fenugreek oil and roasted pumpkin seeds. 

Another two chicken carcasses went into the pressure cooker with the additional veg, etc. My sister doesn't want to deal with them so I always come home from Christmas with at least one carcass, This time I had three plus 4 bags of giblets from her freezer!

We have two two cold smokers, a small one Eric made some years ago and a larger one we got for free off Freecycle. They have both been at the wood for ages so Eric bought the bigger one home and ordered some smoking powders before Christmas. I put in a large gammon, some cheddar cheese, butter and a tiny bottle of tequila (we had smoked tequila cocktails over Christmas). I took a trout I'd defrosted and removed the fillets before adding a 1:1 salt and sugar cure which cured overnight.

For dinner we had beef pies Eric bought from a food fair with wedges, gravy from the freezer and savoy cabbage

Monday 16th December

Eggs and kale omelette for breakfast

Leftover lentils from the cassoulet we had the other day

Courgette soup with pumpkin seeds, toast with miso butter.

Sunday 15th December

Eggs, bacon and sausages for brunch

I had high tea at The Dreaming

Saturday 14th December 

Eggs on toast for breakfast 

Lunch was a leek and cheese tart from a shop in Hay

Eric made pizza 

Friday 13th December 

Granola 

Brown sourdough with our honey and butter for lunch

Dinner at a friend’s house. 

Thursday 12th December 

Kale omelette for breakfast

Buffet spread at my knitting group

Jar of home bottled ratatouille from the pantry from 2021(!) plus some languishing marinated aubergines in a jar from the fridge plus olives with wholemeal pasta and cheese on top. Delicious and very quick

Wednesday 11th December 

Granola for breakfast

Lunch (beef chilli and rice) cooked by Lydia at Artistraw as thanks for cider making, plus brownies, and cider.

Courgette soup and toast with a chunk of blue cheese for dinner

Tuesday 10th December

Eggs on toast

Spicy Korean soup and rivitas for lunch at work.

Cassoulet from the freezer for dinner

Monday 9th December

Had brunch at a cafe in Builth - it's Eric's birthday

Cake from the bakery

I made Tournedos Rossini, potatoes baked in goose fat and savoy cabbage.

Sunday 8th December

Museli

Lunch was pizza at the market I was working at

Cheese and crackers and pickles when we got home

Saturday 7th December

Museli

Granary roll with cheese and pickle

Dinner at a Turkish restaurant

Friday 6th December

Museli

Granary roll with cheese and pickle

Fish and chips for dinner at our BnB

Thursday 5th December

Baked pancakes with stewed rhubarb, cooked apple with cinnamon and pumpkin seeds, with maple syrup

Granary roll with cheese and pickle

Half a leftover baked potato with spicy sausages, roasted pumpkin and slaw.

Wednesday 4th December

Eggs for breakfast

Rivitas with cream cheese and slaw for lunch

Baked potatoes with homemade baked beans from the freezer and slices of pumpkin

Tues 3rd December

Cooked kale, eggs and sourdough.

Rivitas, cheddar cheese and winter slaw for lunch at work.

Eric made leek carbonara

Mon 2nd Dec

Cooked rhubarb, apple, yoghurt, nuts and maple syrup

Lunch at the Wild Oak Cafe - quiche and salads

Pumpkin soup with blue cheese and sourdough toast

Sun 1st Dec

Cinnamon bun from the bakery

Homemade seed crackers with cream cheese and winter slaw

Oxtail and prunes stew

Sat 30th Nov

Vanilla custard pastry from the bakery

Ham and cheese panini from the cafe where I'm doing a Christmas Market.

We went to an event at the Hay Winter Fair so had a super easy baked camembert with baguette, deli meats and pickles.

Fri 29th Nov

Bacon sandwiches for brunch

Courgette dal, lentil dal and samosas with date sauce for dinner

Thurs 28th Nov

Kale omelette

Bean and tomato soup for lunch (plus a slice of coffee and walnut cake at my knitting group)

Had friends for dinner. Made some lovely (albeit slightly burnt) seed crackers from the 30 Plants in one week book and made a white bean and goats cheese dip for a starter. Lentil lasagne out of the freezer and I made a winter slaw to go with it. I made two different types of chocolates for pudding. One was melted chocolate with roasted almonds and orange zest from the Advent book and the others were cocoa butter, cocoa powder and honey with cranberries and hazelnuts.

Wednesday 27th Nov

Cooked rhubarb, apple, yoghurt, nuts and maple syrup

Soup for lunch

Can't remember what we had for dinner!

Tuesday 26th November

 

Kale omelette for breakfast

Soup for lunch

leftover cassuolet for dinner.

Monday 25th November

Fruit and yoghurt and seeds

Eggs on toast

Spiced pumpkin soup, again

Sunday 24th November

Granola and yoghurt for breakfast

Bacon and eggs for lunch

Confit duck leg and sausage cheats cassoulet. I've used this recipe since I got this copy of Delicious Magazine in 2021 - I got Eric to make it this time.

Saturday 23rd November

Leftover mushrooms from last night in an omelette.

Spiced pumpkin soup with rivita at work. 

Eric made pizza

Friday 22nd Nov

I'm working all weekend so I did mushrooms, eggs, bacon and sourdough for breakfast.

Leftover orzo for lunch.

I made this Autumnal Mushroom Shawarma with some hen of the woods I had in the freezer and it was incredible.

Thursday 21st Nov

Kale omelette with mushroom powder and cheddar cheese.

Cheese and mushroom toastie from Hay market for lunch.

I got a summer veg stew from the freezer, heated it up and added cider, some veg stock and then some wholemeal orzo. Oh my goodness, so easy, so delicious. I'm thinking that there are a lot of possibilities for this kind of dinner.

Wednesday 20th Nov

Some stewed rhubarb from the freezer warmed up on the log burner and eaten with yoghurt, honey and nuts.

Soup at the wood with sourdough.

I was going to cook a curry for my friend who is visiting but it's going down to minus five tonight so we ate in a restaurant near to where she is staying so we could all be safely off the roads in good time.

Tuesday 19th Nov

Pumpkin soup for dinner with chunky croutons made from stale sourdough bread. Made another big batch of soup as I have a friend coming tomorrow who will meet me at the woodland for lunch.

Mon 18th Nov

Had the remaining pie from Friday night with roasted potatoes.

Sun 17th Nov

Eric made pizza with blue cheese and chorizo.

Sat 16th Nov

Was in Swansea for a market so we had dinner in the pub on the way home.

Fri 15th Nov

Took roast chicken leftovers, three completely different types of gravy and homegrown sweetcorn from the freezer and heated it up in a pan, adding the onion, garlic and roasted pumpkin from last night. Tipped it all into a dish and added some puff pastry scraps from the freezer (leftover from making a tomato tart tatin). Had this pie with roasted new potatoes. Really good!

Thurs 14th Nov

Made these Brixton baked beans in the slow cooker overnight and had them with baked potatoes and pumpkin wedges. Also cooked a tray of onions and garlic for tomorrow night's dinner.

Wednesday 13th Nov

Same meal as last Wednesday, courgette dal, lentil dal and roasted pumpkin. I don't have much headspace for creative cooking at the moment. Luckily the freezer is full of homegrown nutritious food I can fall back on.

Tuesday 12th November

Eric took the sausages leftover from last Tuesday's meal and made a sausage, pumpkin and tomato pasta dish. Served with grated cheese.

Monday 11th November

Monday night is soup night. I'm making exactly the same soup every time these days. Into the pressure cooker from the freezer goes cooked pumpkin, courgette, tomatoes and garlic cloves. I add onions, coriander, cumin and curry powder and some veg stock. Cook at high pressure for 6 minutes. I often do this when I get up in the morning. In the evening I blitz it up and portion it out for the dinner, lunches and the freezer. To this batch I added the leftovers from the meal last Tuesday, everything apart from the sausages.

Sunday 10th November

A couple of small portions of lasagne from the freezer with potato wedges. Carb overload after being at a cold market in a castle all weekend, it was perfect.

Saturday 9th November

Eric made pizza topped with roasted pumpkin and nduja.

Friday 8th November

Fish and chips from the chippy and a bottle of white wine, pure heaven.

Thursday 7th November

Beetroot chilli from the freezer with rice, yoghurt and pickles.

Wednesday 6th November

Okay so I'm two weeks behind because of work being a bit full on. I'm just going to focus on recording evening meals here. I basically have kale omelette for breakfast every day and curried pumpkin soup with two rivita for my lunch every day.

From the freezer, courgette dal with lentil dal and roasted pumpkin. Thought I'd omit the rice for a change and it was really nice. 

Tuesday 5th November

Breakfast: Yoghurt with a tiny pear from our tree, stewed apple with cinnamon cooked and bottled last year, strawberries from the freezer, toasted cashews and our honey. 

Lunch - took courgette soup from the freezer to work with two rivitas and an apple. We had three weeks of being with family in October which basically means eating and drinking too much so I'm on the linseed tea and soup for the foreseeable. 

Roasted in the oven: sausages, leeks, carrots, pumpkin, onions, garlic, cider and stock to make a lovely oven baked stew.

Monday

Granola for breakfast

Because I worked all weekend and we had some ham leftover from my sisters stay with us for lunch  I made croque madames EXACTLY like this (I have done many times and always watch this IG video when I do it.

I made the Christmas cake. I always make a large cake from Nigel Slater's Christmas Chronicles. This year I decided to make it in the slow cooker as our caravan gas oven burns things on the bottom, especially cakes that cook for three hours. To cut a long story short, two new cake tins later, neither of which fit in the slow cooker, I cooked it in the oven. I used three layers of parchment paper and turned the oven off for the last hour. It was very much improved from last year but still a bit burnt on the bottom. I think next year I'll cook a smaller cake for one hour in the oven and finish it in the slow cooker. I'll have to write this in my cookbook so I remember.

Dinner was the pumpkin soup I made a few days ago with roasted seeds, blue cheese and seeded sourdough.

Sunday 3rd November

Another omelette, same as yesterday.

Took the soup to work again with some bread and an apple. Just had soup and an apple yesterday and was way too hungry. 

Dinner was the chicken broth Eric made a couple of weeks ago from the freezer with carrot top chimichurri.

Saturday 2nd November

I tried to get as many plants in my breakfast omelette as possible: 5 types of kale, chard, garlic, welsh onion, mushroom powder and leek powder. 

I used the halloween pumpkins my nephews carved and made a soup with a tin of tomatoes, onions, garlic, spices and some cider which I took to work.

Eric made pizza.

Friday 25th October

Garlic, kale and mushroom omelette. I used 5 different types of kale as each one is classed as a separate plant. I found this out recently so will try and gather a bunch of different kales when I harvest to get this diversity into my diet. 

Leftover smokey bean stew from Wednesday night for lunch with yoghurt.

I made a lasagne with the sauce I made on Wednesday night to eat with my sister and family who are arriving today for one week. I'll pause the blog until then. 

Thursday 24th October

Granola with strawberries and rhubarb from the freezer.

The curried pumpkin soup I made on Tuesday night.

Put the contents of the blender (I'd just let it sit there since last night) in a large saucepan, added a tin of coconut milk then some noodles. Poured this over the last of the heated up roasted pumpkin slices from Tuesday night and topped with some roasted cashew nuts.

Wednesday 23rd October

Granola with strawberries from the freezer. Cooked the beans I'd soaked overnight and filled the pressure cooker with more pumpkin - I have a few giant ones that won't keep.

Soup and bread at the wood.

Cooked a big batch of onions and garlic. Divided them into three.

Meal one: I added pretty much all of the peppers I've managed to grow, sliced, the beans from this morning with their cooking liquid, some of the roasted tomatoes and some of the pumpkin from the pressure cooker. Added corriander, smoked paprika and chilli. We had this for dinner with yoghurt and the herby dressing Eric made on Sunday night. It was really good.

Meal two: I made a sauce to make a lasagne with the majority of the roasted tomatoes, some pressure cooked pumpkin, red lentils and stock.

Meal three: In the blender I put one third of the onions and garlic, some tomatoes and a couple of the roasted slices with loads of ginger.

Tuesday 22nd October

Eggs and kale for breakfast

Took soup to work

Had the leftover chicken dish from Sunday night.

Roasted the last of the ripe tomatoes and some big slices of pumpkin and let them sit in the oven. Soaked some dried runner beans grown and harvested last year. Filled the pressure cooker with as much pumpkin as possible, onions, garlic, a cube of frozen wild garlic, veg stock cube, curry powder, ground coriander, ground cumin and a big chunk of butter. Blended into a soup and put some in the fridge, some in the freezer.

Monday 21st October

Granola for breakfast

Had lunch at a neighbours house

Pumpkin soup for dinner. Cooked a batch of pumpkin in the pressure cooker for the freezer.

Sunday 20th October

Granola for breakfast

Had lunch at a market I was at.

Eric cooked one of our cockerels with onions, carrots and potatoes (both from the garden). Served with a herby caper dressing. Really good, recipe from the excellent Sustainable Meat Pipers Farm cookbook.

Saturday 19th October

Back to my kale omelettes for breakfast.

Pumpkin soup for lunch at Oil and Oak.

Eric made pizza, with pumpkin on it.

Friday 18th October

No food in the house so we went to Talgarth Mill and Triggs for a Full Welsh breakfast. I felt so full I could barely move all day.

Made a huge load of spiced pumpkin soup. Had with bread and miso butter.

Thursday 17th October

Toast and jam before leaving mum and dad's.

Had a burger and chips at Carluccio's at manchester Piccadilly waiting for our train home and a sandwich from Pret on the train.

Wednesday 16th October

Fruit with yoghurt and granlola for breakfast

Goats cheese tart with salads for lunch.

Tartiflette for dinner and apple tart tatin for pudding.

Tuesday 15th October 

Croissant with fig and orange jam for breakfast

Goats cheese tart with salads for lunch.

Dad made a sausage pasta dish and we had a huge cheese board afterwards.

Monday 14th October

Croissant with fig and orange jam for breakfast

Mushrooms, slices of ham, scrambled eggs and toast for lunch with mugs of soup.

Went pineau tasting in a local man's cave. Pineau is a speciality drink of the region and he had made everything we drank. Tasted 7 different ones then pear liqueur, mint liqueur, mixed fruit liqueur and cognac. Ate wild boar pate and tuna with cream cheese dip with bread and tomatoes. It was an amazing experience!

Sunday 13th October

Yoghurt with figs and apples for breakfast.

Crepe at the honey market

Soup for lunch

Dad cooked steaks on the BBQ and we ate them with Russian salad and a beetroot and feta salad.

Saturday 12th October

Courgette fritters with fried eggs for breakfast.

Tomato and mozzarella salad with salami, cheeses, ham, bread, etc.

Dinner booked at my favourite local restaurant the Panivol.

We had: Cherry wine with goats cheese vol-au-vents and salmon tarts. Scallops with leeks and cheese for a starter. Osso Bucco with mashed potatoes for the main, three local cheese with bread, Apple tart and coffee.

Friday 11th October

Granola with figs and cooked apple for breakfast

Tomato soup with burrata and corn bread for lunch

Chicken cooked with parmesan cheese and parma ham with roasted pumpkin, herby potatoes and courgettes 

Thursday 10th October

Granola and plums for breakfast

Cheese, ham, coleslaw, pate, salad and bread for lunch.

Dad cooked pork escalopes with ratatouille and herby potatoes.

Bakewell tart for pudding.

Wednesday 9th October FRENCH EDITION

My parents cook and eat seasonally and grow their own food so I thought it would be fun to keep this going while we are away.

Breakfast was a cinnamon roll from Paul at a service station.

Lunch was a bag of pigs in blankets crinkle cut crisps as the car broke down and we were stuck at a French garage with no way of getting food for 5 hours.

Got to my mum and dads at 7 p.m. Had a smoked sausage, ham and bean casserole with cornbread.

Tuesday 8th October

Granola for breakfast

Soup for lunch

Drove to my sisters for dinner before getting the ferry to France!

Monday 7th October

Had eggs, bacon and toast with hawthorn ketchup for brunch.

Did a load of cooking today as we are going away. Made a huge amount of courgette and potato soup which we had for dinner with leftover bits of cheese from the fridge.

Made a batch of "the Sauce" from Julius Roberts's book, The Farm Table.

Sunday 6th October

Granola for breakfast

Had the last of the hummus I made with a cucumber from the garden. Took soup but ended up swapping a Wise Woman's Kitchen zine for some delicious Caribbean food.

Eric cooked dorade with nduja again, so good. 

Saturday 5th October

Toast for breakfast.

Trigg salad whilst working at the Autumn Fayre.

My beloved friends, Emma and Stuart came to visit and took us out for dinner. Had pork terrine followed by Miso Aubergine (couldn't taste the miso) then raspberry cheesecake.

Friday 4th October

Eggs and kale for breakfast

Went to Talgarth Mill and the new Trigg's for lunch, Had salt beef sandwiches and chips, excellent. Also ordered a salad to share, didn't eat any of it so I divided it into two for our lunches tomorrow.

Didn't fancy much for dinner so had cheese and tomato on toast.

Thursday 3rd October

Granola with the first pear from our pear tree!

Took lunch to knitting, leftovers from last night.

Had baked potatoes with the tomato and veg stew, hummus and salad.

Wednesday 2nd October

Kale and cheddar omelette.

Some of the tomato and veg stew from last night (there is loads of it left) blended to make a soup for lunch.

I have finally grown carrots, big ones. In the past I've only managed to grow tiny ones so I wanted a meal that celebrated them. I had an idea for roasted carrots sitting on hummus with roasted chick peas. Coincidently, I was reading the latest Delicious magazine and there were recipes for both so I merged them together. The recipe was Floral-butter roast carrots and I made a spice blend with clove, cardamom, coriander, sumac and rose which was roasted, ground and added to toasted hazelnuts. Roasted carrots sat on hummus I made, also from a recipe in the magazine, I roasted chickpeas and over the top of all this went the hazelnuts, some coriander, some feta and the carrot top chimichurri. It was amazing!

Tuesday 1st October

Granola for breakfast with yoghurt, blackberries and frozen strawberries.

Chicken stock and veg soup for lunch with one of those cottage cheese muffins from the freezer, thankfully the last of them, spread with miso butter to vastly improve it. Piece of applesauce cake from the freezer.

We had the tomato and veg stew I made last night with polenta made with homemade mushroom powder made from birch boletes, a carrot top chimichurri that Eric made today, yoghurt and grated cheese. It was so good!

Monday 30th September

Omelette with chanterelles found at the woodland.

Chicken stock and veg soup for lunch.

Courgette and potato soup for dinner with blue cheese, roasted sunflower seeds and sourdough spread with miso butter.

Did some food preserving today. Made Mock Pineapple which is courgette cooked with pineapple juice, lemon juice and sugar and bottled. Also made lots of tomato and veg sauce for pasta and bottled it. To what was left (I ran out of jars and seals) I added more tomatoes, courgettes and four different varieties of beans from the garden, this was at about 10 p.m. at night for tomorrow's dinner and beyond.

Friday 27th September

I made a lovely big cooked breakfast with local meats and bread and our eggs and tomatoes to send my friend off on her way.

We then went to a Permaculture Festival for the next two nights. I took a Tomato Tart Tatin for the first night bring and share which is now my go-to entertaining dish, easy and delicious. The rest of the weekend we were catered for by Three Pools Permaculture whose meat supplies many Michelin starred restaurants, it was excellent. 

Thursday 26th September

Granola again before we packed up the tents.

Lunch at Duggan's in Hay

I made an enormous amount of lasagne. One for us to eat tonight and two more (which serve 4 greedy people each) for the freezer. I used loads of our tomatoes and courgettes harvested today, a huge handful of finely chopped herbs which really made it all so tasty and red lentils. I chucked in lots of random bits of cheese from the fridge into the béchamel and slices of chargrilled courgette. It was really good. Eric recently bought some new glass food storage containers which are 2 litres each. I assembled the two extra lasagnes and froze them uncooked, they can then go straight in the oven. 

Wednesday 25th September

Granola at the wood, we camped, it was cold!

Lunch at the pub, I had fish and chips

Local cheeses with crackers and homemade pickled onions around the fire

Tuesday 24th September

Kale omelette for breakfast

Greek salad at work

My friend is staying for a few days. I made a big vat of courgette and tomato dahl which we had with brown rice, yoghurt and Indian pickles.

Monday 23rd September

Courgette omelette for breakfast

Tomatoes on brown sourdough toast for lunch

Veg soup: I cleared all the unappetising potatoes and carrots from the fridge, added celery from the freezer, onions, about 10 of my frozen garlic cloves, some veg stock (Marigold) and crammed as much courgette as I could in the pressure cooker. Made 11 portions. Had it with a grating of parmesan cheese, toasted sunflower seeds and sourdough.

Sunday 22nd September

Granola for breakfast

Toast cooked on the log burner with deli meats, brie and pickles.

Cooked a mushroom risotto with mushrooms gathered on the course: Millers, porcini, honey fungus and chanterelles. I dehydrated some porcini as well.

Saturday 21st September

Pastries for breakfast.

On a mushroom foraging course. We had for lunch: Vichyssoise soup with cream and truffle oil and homemade bread, Porcini pasta bake with salad, apple and blackberry cake for pudding.

I wasn't sure what to expect at the course and booked a meal in a pub in the evening. Had a pint of Butty Bach and burger and chips. Back to the yurt for a glass of red wine and some chocolate. I love cooking but I also love not cooking.

Friday 20th September

Peanut butter and jam toasted sandwich

Lunch was a pack of 3 digestive biscuits I took from a hotel some time ago (they were stale) with cheddar cheese and pickled onions. I am definitely eating way too much cheese at the moment. I'm feeling very tired and all I want is cheese and carbs.

We are staying in a yurt about 10 minutes up the hill for the weekend (as a thank you for helping put them up). I have packed for tonight our individual raclette grills, with the raclette (more cheese I know) we will have bread, pickles, gherkins, tomatoes and deli meats. Plus wine.

Thursday 19th September

Courgette, cheese and smoked paprika omelette.

Lunch was leftover chilli with yoghurt and grated cheese.

Dinner was a freezer raid, greens bake, ratatouille and dragon sausages.

Wednesday 18th September 

Kale omelette

Lunch - my cousin and husband are visiting. I make a tomato tart tatin and salad.

Dinner was a veal chilli from the freezer with brown rice, yoghurt and grated cheese.

Tuesday 17th September - I have been completely swamped with work and instead of trying to remember what I ate ten days ago I'm going to skip these days. I've been very much eating similar things so imagine it's kale omelette for breakfast, greek salad for lunch and some kind of combination of tomatoes and courgettes for diner most days!

Friday 6th September

The 'provençal' veg cooked with eggs.

Thursday 5th September

Tomatoes on rye bread toast for breakfast

Took a salad with some of the courgette shaved salad and cottage cheese to knitting group.

I blended some of the tomatoes and courgettes from last night to make a sauce and added them to the rest of that buckwheat pasta, not sure I'll buy that again, added grated cheddar and baked in the oven. It was nice and smoky because of the grilled courgettes but could have done with some onion to make it tastier. 

Wednesday 4th September

Courgettes and tomatoes cooked with two fried eggs and a slice of sourdough.

Determined to cook and eat at the wood today. 0% chance of rain but of course it bucketed down. Lunch was tomatoes, a shaved courgette salad, cucumbers and feta cheese. I put a lamb shoulder in it's cage and roasted it over the fire for about 4 hours while we harvested some honey!

Also cooked as many tomatoes and courgettes as I could fit in a large cast iron pot with garlic and loads of herbs on the fire.

Dinner was the lamb which tasted incredible, some of the, what I'm calling, provençal vegetables, and some potatoes cubed, par boiled and roasted with butter and herbs. I char-grilled some extra courgettes on the grill over the fire and chopped them up and added them to the tomatoes and courgettes, taking the dish home. Apart from the lemon and the butter (which was pretty local) everything was grown either on site or in the case of the lamb, within 5 miles.

Tuesday 3rd September

Another tomato and egg mess for breakfast.

Before I went to work I filled the pressure cooker with three chicken carcasses from the freezer, 6 carrots, two onions, one head of celery (that i grew, hooray! Not much of a head left after removing all the slug damage), bay leaves and peppercorns.

Took a cottage cheese salad to lunch with a slice of apple cake.

Dealt with the stock when I got home, all the veg went into the blender with a few ladles of stock to make an instant soup for the freezer and I got another three portions of really good stock.

Eric made carbonara with courgettes, it was really good.

Monday 2nd September

Tomato omelette, or rather scrambled. The tomatoes have so much liquid an omelette just falls apart.

Cottage cheese salad for lunch

Made an apple cake with a jar of applesauce, I have about 20 jars from last year in the pantry, I won't bother bottling any this year (I bet I do, I can't help myself). I know it sounds mad but this was the most I have ever altered a cake recipe. I'm scared of getting them wrong so I never do but I messed around with flours, the sugar, swapped the oil for butter, added stuff and it turned out beautifully, very pleased.

When the cake came out I put in two trays of tomatoes to roast for the freezer. Tomatoes are abundant at the moment.

Roasted veg soup from the freezer with toasted sunflower seeds, yoghurt and sourdough. Tiny slice of warm apple cake.

Woke up in the night really hungry, didn't eat enough today.

Sunday 1st September

Museli for breakfast

Day two of the course and sauerkraut soup with lovely home baked bread, smoked cheese, smoked trout and I took some wild garlic kimchi and homemade blackberry wine. This course was incredible, I highly recommend it if it happens again next year.

Eric made this piccata with nduja dish for dinner but with dorade from the market in hay, really good (cheaper than sea bass and more apparently sustainable).

Saturday 31st August

Slice of toast for breakfast

I'm doing a course!  Had an amazing rye flour (!!) soup and fermented mushrooms and meats. A blackberry and apple cake with a yoghurt containing miso, cep powder, lemon and honey with it's comb, it was incredible.

Eric made a lovely pizza with courgettes and blue cheese.

Friday 30th August

Courgettes cooked with garlic and two fried eggs.

Cottage cheese salad, basically a greek salad but with cottage cheese instead of feta.

Page 86 from Gelf's book. Creamy summer veg roast. This was great. Roasted veg from the garden - potatoes, courgettes, peas, sugarsnaps, tomatoes, lettuce, garlic (plus onions which I didn't grow) - when cooked pour over a glass of cider, double cream, yoghurt and I added some leftover cottage cheese, basil on the top with a hunk of sourdough and a glass of cider. Perfection.

Thursday 29th August

Tomato omelette for breakfast

Took lunch to my knitting group which was a slice of the tomato tart tatin.

Tonight is page 85 from Gelf's book, Pasta, courgettes and blue cheese. Last night as I mentioned I roasted a tray of courgettes, tomatoes and garlic. Today I put them all in the blender to make a sauce, this is genius, minimum effort. Cooked some buckwheat pasta which tasted disgusting when I tried a bit not quite cooked but it was okay in the end, sauce stirred in, blue cheese on top, finished in the oven. I love this idea of roasting a try of veg in the oven after one meal, ready for the next day.

Wednesday 28th August

Courgette, tomato and kale omelette.

Leftover soup for lunch. If you've been reading for a while you may remember some terrible cottage cheese muffins I made a while ago. I defrosted a couple and added some tomato and cheese slices and baked in the oven to have with the soup.

Tonight's dinner from Gelf is Courgettes with chickpeas, tomatoes, harissa and goats cheese and I put a tray of courgettes and tomatoes in at the same time for tomorrow nights dinner. 

Tuesday 27th August

Fruit pie and yoghurt for breakfast.

Made the tomato tart tatin with the tomatoes I cooked last night for lunch, really good. Some saved for lunches, some went in the freezer.

Dinner was this courgette and potato soup as recommended by my friend Kate. It was really good and I made double so loads for the freezer and lots of courgettes used and well as potatoes I dug out of the garden today so good all round. I added some grated cheese when serving to save on the amount of cheese used. Had it with a slice of wholemeal sourdough.

Monday 26th August

Courgette scarpaccia with a fried egg for breakfast and with a salad for lunch. It's so good, maybe my favourite thing this year to do with courgettes.

Can't stop thinking about pies. Listened to this podcast and made notes which were useful but that recipe made very little dough for the pie dish I had. Realised that I had a bit of fruit in the freezer from last year and loads of jars of bottled apple compote so I mixed one jar of apple with a bag of damsons (stones removed) and a bag of blackberries. Tasted the mixture and added sugar. Baked the pie while we ate dinner.

This week I am mostly going to be using Great Roasts by Gelf Alderson, a book I got for Christmas but haven't used much. I'll be using four recipes which use loads of courgettes and tomatoes and other garden stuff (as discussed on Saturday). Tonight was Courgettes, lentils, tomatoes, bacon and goats cheese. I had some lentils cooked in a french style (with herbs, diced carrots, etc) in the freezer so that went in and mozzarella instead of goats cheese. It was lovely, half went in the freezer. Put a tray of tomatoes in the oven after the pie came out for a tomato tart tatin recipe from Anna Jones' book, The Modern Cook's Year.

The pie was great! Pastry incredibly thin, I would have preferred more!

Sunday 25th August

Another cooked breakfast.

A pint and some scampi fries in the pub.

Greens lasagne with tomato and cucumber and the dressing from Wednesday which is so delicious. Really big batches of salad dressing are the way forward.

Saturday 24th August

Cooked breakfast: Bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs and sourdough

Magnum in the afternoon

I've spent all day faffing about thinking about how to preserve the tomatoes and courgettes I have. I want to make Mock Pineapple and thought I had all the ingredients but I don't. I watched loads of YouTube videos on different ways to preserve, bottle and ferment tomatoes. I went through my jars and canning lids, I got my plug-in pasteuriser out. I feel so tired and completely overwhelmed by it all. I've decided that I'll worry about preserving later in the season when (hopefully) I'm more prepared and have more energy. I'm going to spend the next few weeks cooking as many tomatoes and courgettes as possible to eat right now in the easiest and most straight forward ways possible. Isn't that what summer is about?? I've gone through a couple of recipe books and feel prepared and excited to enjoy these beautiful harvests and spend less time in the kitchen.

Eric made pizza.

Friday 23rd August

Museli with banana and stewed apples

Delicious lunch at a pub

Hot chocolate and Butterscotch Green and Blacks later

Thursday 22nd Aug

Peanut butter on toast

Lunch was a packed lunch taken to knitting and last night's leftovers.

I roasted some beetroots, onions, carrots, courgettes and garlic in Indian spices. Served them on top of a mixture of cooked red lentils and tahini with feta and salad dressing on top, really good. 

Wednesday 21st Aug

Courgette omelette

Courgette scarpaccia with salad for lunch

Dinner was a farro salad with sugarsnap peas, mange tout, lettuce, nasturtiums, griddled courgettes and halloumi. Made a big batch of salad dressing. For some reason it took about three hours!? Preparing and cooking food you've grown is unbelievably time consuming... maybe it doesn't need to be but I keep getting distracted and excited about new recipes. This one was inspired by a recipe in Taproot, issue 28: Grain, if you happen to have it??

Tuesday 20th August

Kale omelette

Was at a friends house and she gave me some lunch.

Courgette dahl I've made many times. I used the prematurely harvested spaghetti squash and they were fine. Served with yoghurt and brown rice.

Monday 19th August

Courgette, tomato and parmesan omelette.

Greek salad for lunch, I am being supremely unimaginative with my lunches but for interest this one had pea shoots and roasted pumpkin seeds.

Chocolate seed bar, they are so small I should call them "bites".

So, I went through that cabbage slaw that I really need to just throw away and removed the slimy cucumber pieces and cooked what was left in some butter. Added the leftover cabbage and red pepper dish from Friday night and the roasted courgettes from quite a few days ago now. Added some vegetable stock and some cos lettuce, some peas and blended it all to make soup for dinner. I'm really making the two people who read this blog never want to come to dinner!

I was so cold that instead of drawing all afternoon I made the above soup at about 3.30 and then made a big batch of courgette scarpaccia and slow cooked some chick peas for a batch of courgette dahl I'm planning.

Sunday 18th August

The cabbage slaw I made some time ago looked and smelt a bit past it's best. Rather than compost it like a normal person I put it in an omelette. Mushy old cucumbers and omelettes don't mix well, in case you needed to know that.

Greek salad for lunch - again - and a chocolate seed bar.

Had a picnic watching some open air Shakespeare. Had little time or energy to do it properly so had some focaccia I bought from Pobl for the occasion with cherry tomatoes, sticks of cucumber and chunks of cheddar cheese. Had a magnum when we got home.

Saturday 17th August

Went to Pobl bakery for breakfast, I got a chocolate almond croissant which was so big and rich I had it for breakfast and lunch then felt sick (due to lack of proper food I'm imagining) at about 5 and had some rosemary crackers with butter.

Eric made pizza for dinner.

Friday 16th August

Courgette, tomato and cheese omelette for breakfast.

Greek salad for lunch

Made a variation of these Pistachio and Pumpkin seed bars but used almonds instead of pistachios and peanut butter instead of almond butter. 

Made a cabbage and red pepper dish from Nistisima by Georgina Hayden. Roasted lamb chops with rose, spices and herbs from Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour and some of the leftover bashed and roasted courgettes.

Thursday 15th August

Kale, garlic and parmesan omelette.

Greek salad for lunch

Roasted a squash for dinner and stuffed it with a lamb and lentil stew from the freezer, topped with breadcrumbs and grated cheese. Upon eating it I realised that it was a spaghetti squash which I'd harvested way too early. The problem with the slugmageddon was that a lot things were planted out to fill gaps and I lost track of what was where. I have another 5 of these harvested, I thought it was a french type of courgette and I'd lost the packet! Not sure what to do with them now. 

Wednesday 14th August

I cooked a diced courgette in butter with garlic and fried two eggs in the pan.

Courgette scarpaccia with salad leaves and tomatoes.

I bashed and roasted more courgettes with a freshly made herb butter and added them to the potatoes and courgettes I cooked yesterday, loads of leftovers. Made some tzatziki, cooked dragon sausages and sliced beefsteak tomatoes to go with it.

Tuesday 13th August

Wholemeal toast with homegrown beefsteak tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and well seasoned.

Lunch - salad leaves, tomatoes, cottage cheese, cucumber, olives and the last of the potato salad.

Inspired by a video I saw on Instagram I bashed some courgettes and cooked new potatoes with a rolling pin and baked in the oven with some herb butter in the fridge that needed using up. Had with salad leaves tomatoes, scarpaccia and cabbage slaw.

Monday 12th August

Homemade wholemeal sourdough with peanut butter

Lunch - salad leaves, tomatoes, cottage cheese, cucumber and olives. 

Made a courgette scarpaccia with polenta, gram flour and some plain flour. It was delicious. Had it with salad and sauerkraut and potato salad.

Sunday 11th August

Breakfast - sausage, bacon, tomatoes, eggs and toast.

Lunch at the pub for my friends birthday.

Hafod cheese with crackers and homemade pickled onions.

Saturday 10th August

Baked a wholemeal sourdough loaf

Brunch - dragon sausages, bacon, eggs, mushroom, tomatoes and toast

Went to a fundraiser for Talgarth Mill, had pizza then ice cream.

Friday 9th August

I diced the remaining squash from Wednesday night and cooked it in butter with some garlic. Fried two eggs and added some grated parmesan. 

Same salad as yesterday taken to work in the shop.

Courgette dahl (last year's), brown rice, yoghurt and pickles.

Thursday 8th August

Courgettes, garlic and kale cooked in a little butter with one fried egg and a slice of rye bread.

Salad to take to my knitting group - lettuce, tomato, cucumber, cabbage slaw, olives and feta cheese.

Dinner was the two salads I made yesterday with some cabbage galette from the freezer.

Wednesday 7th August

Leftover shakshuka from the weekend with one egg, our hens aren't laying much at the moment. 

Lunch was one of the most delicious salads I've had in a long time. Gorgeous buttery lettuces harvested this morning, the first of the giant Lulu's Best Ever tomatoes which is an heirloom beefsteak tomato from the Wales Seed Hub. Oh my word, delicious and we have tonnes coming in the polytunnel. One tomato was plenty for two large salads. One of our cucumbers, nasturtiums, olives and feta cheese with mustard dressing. It was pure summer heaven on a plate.

Spent a few hours making some big batches of salads from Nistisima by Georgina Hayden which is a great book if you grow your own food or like to eat seasonally. I made Salatet Malfouf which is a cabbage slaw with cucumber, lemon and herbs and a sauerkraut and potato herb salad. I griddled some slices of a fat courgette style squash I'm growing (I can't find the seed packet and can't remember the name, they're seeds I got in France) and sat a quinoa burger from the freezer on top with a slice of black bomber cheese to finish it off. Served with some pickles. 

Tuesday 6th August

Rye bread with peanut butter

Salad - lettuce, sugarsnap peas, peas, cucumber, tomatoes, feta cheese and mustard dressing

Freezer raid. Had a gigantic bean stew I made from our beans last year, this year I don't we will get any which makes me so sad (f**king slugs). Half a harissa roasted cauliflower and a chard bake. I just chucked them all in a tray in the oven, so easy.

Monday 5th August

Mushroom omelette

Cottage cheese salad with cucumber, tomatoes, olives and pickles

Korean gochujang soup with wholemeal bread croutons and yoghurt

Sunday 4th August

Mushrooms, bacon, tomatoes, rye bread and eggs for brunch

Slice of homemade banana cake

Moroccan shepherds pie from the freezer with green salad

Saturday 3rd August

Garden Shakshuka as last weekend

Cheese and crackers and tomatoes for lunch.

Steak with herb butter, courgettes and potatoes from the garden.

Friday 2nd August

Mushroom omelette

Salad leaves with cottage cheese, cucumber, tomatoes, celery, pickles and sauerkraut.

Beetroot chilli and baked potato with cheese and yoghurt.

Thursday 1st August

Museli with banana

I took some kale egg muffins from the freezer with me to my knitting group.

Bashed chicken breast marinated in herbs with aubergine parmigiana and salad leaves for dinner which was delicious.

Wednesday 31st July

Kale omelette

Lunch at a yoga retreat

Dinner at a pub with Eric's brother.

Tuesday 30th July

Tomato and cheese omelette

Sourdough crackers and cheese with tomatoes for lunch. This is a lunch I used to have often but now never have, it was good. 

Beetroot and lentil chilli with brown rice, yoghurt and cheese (mmm, it's a cheese day). Recipe from Cook As You Are by Ruby Tandoh which I've got out of the library.

Monday 29th July

Picked kale and cooked an omelette at the wood

Salad with fennel salad, cottage cheese and cucumber.

Tomato soup from the freezer

Sunday 28th July

Shakshuka for breakfast. I fried a red onion and added garlic, then from the garden I added sugar snap peas, kale, lettuce, Chinese cabbage and peas, then a tin of tomatoes, made some holes and broke the eggs in, finished it in the oven and added some za'atar and grated cheese.

Camped at the wood. Cooked a trout a friend caught stuffed with lemon and loads of herbs. Cooked potatoes and garlic in a dish over the fire and added some sugar snap peas at the end. 

Saturday 27th July

Amazing breakfast of dragon sausages and bacon from the butcher, griddled tomatoes, eggs and toast.

Eric made pizza.

Friday 26th July

Museli for breakfast with banana

Leftovers from last night for lunch.

Moroccan shepherd's pie and savoy cabbage for dinner.

Thursday 25th July

Camping at the wood, had museli and banana.

Lunch: Green salad, cucumber, nasturtiums and peas, all from the garden with sauerkraut, tomatoes and feta cheese.

Made the summer veg bulgar wheat thing I made on 18th July, really good. Camped again.

Wednesday 24th July

Kale omelette for breakfast

Salad - carrot, sauerkraut, fennel and feta cheese.

Lentil and lamb stew with brown rice and yoghurt.

Tuesday 23rd July

Eggs on rye bread

Was working at the Royal Show all day so had beef tacos for lunch then some chips and a pint later on.

Monday 22nd July

Museli with stewed rhubarb

Lettuce with cottage cheese, tomatoes, carrot salad and lemon aioli

Made a korean spicy gochujang soup with the "tofu" I unsuccessfully made a while ago and used lettuce instead of spinach. Really good.

Sunday 21st July 

Mushroom omelette for breakfast, added cheese as I'm working, I have on-going issues regarding self medicating with food.

Lunch was marinated fennel salad, carrot salad, coleslaw and feta cheese.

Dinner was a green lasagne from the freezer, green salad and coleslaw.

Saturday 20th July

Mushroom omelette for breakfast.

Salad - cottage cheese, carrot salad, tomatoes, lettuce and lemon aioli dressing.

Chicken legs roasted with lemon, onions, potatoes from the garden and served with homemade coleslaw.

Friday 19th July

Kale omelette for breakfast.

Leftovers from last night.

Made a chilli with Holden Farm veal in the pressure cooker. It was good but I always err on the side of caution and add loads of liquid after the dreaded "burn" notifications I've had in the past and it was more like a soup. Added loads of cornflour (I normally add flour and butter, not sure why I didn't) and felt like I made it taste a bit weird. Served with brown rice, yoghurt and cheese. 

Thursday 18th July

Mushroom omelette for breakfast.

Frittata from the freezer with green salad and carrot salad.

Something else from the new "How to Eat 30 Plants a week" book. Roasted summer veg with bulgar wheat and preserved lemon aioli. Really good.

Wednesday 17th July

Chelsea bun from my favourite bakery in Cumbria for breakfast.

Lettuce from the garden, sauerkraut, tomatoes, olives and cottage cheese.

Greens bake from the freezer, carrot salad, sauerkraut and green salad.

Wednesday 10th July 

Museli for breakfast then drove to Cumbria for work, there until 16th July.

Tuesday 9th July

Mushroom omelette for breakfast.

Salad as yesterday plus a marinated fennel salad

Felt so depressed about the garden I came home and ate some Tony's chocolate.

Black bean and quinoa chilli with brown rice, yoghurt, grated cheese and homemade salsa with a tiny cucumber from our polytunnel!

Monday 8th July

Mushroom omelette for breakfast.

Cottage cheese, sauerkraut, pickles, carrot salad, cauliflower salad and lettuce for lunch.

Squash and kale soup for dinner with wholemeal sourdough.

Sunday 7th July

Made baked dutch pancake for breakfast and served with stewed rhubarb, blackberries from the freezer and fresh strawberries. Been buying strawberries locally, I think all of ours have been eaten.

Had cottage cheese, sauerkraut, celery and tomato salad for lunch.

Eric made pizza for dinner.

Saturday 6th July

Up early for a market in Montgomery, museil with strawberries for breakfast

A sausage and mustard roll from a fellow stallholder for lunch and we shared some chips in the afternoon.

Called into Arvon Ales in Llandrindod on the way home before having tartiflette from the freezer with sauerkraut, it tasted amazing. A carb-overload day!

Friday 5th July

Last night was election night and throughout the night I ate crisps and Tony's chocolate, drank wine and went to sleep at 7 a.m. for a few hours. Woke up at about 10.30 and made a cooked breakfast with mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs and toast which we ate at about 12.

Dinner was Welsh dragon sausages and polenta cooked with kale, lemon and cottage cheese and a jar of ratatouille from the larder.

Thursday 4th July

Toast with peanut butter for breakfast. Cooked an elderflower cordial drizzle cake for knitting as it's my turn on the cake rota.

Took a salad to my knitting group: cottage cheese, cauliflower rice, olives, pickles, sauerkraut, tomatoes and herby dressing. Followed by the drizzle cake. 

Spring greens galette from the freezer (the one I wrote for the Coed Net blog featured here) served with roasted new potatoes with garlic and lettuce leaves ( all from the garden).

 Wednesday 3rd July

Cooked bread.

Museli and banana for breakfast.

Met some family who are visiting at the wonderful International Rarebit Centre for lunch.

We were at the wood and after having a paddle in the river we walked up to the new camp at the top and had the soup I made yesterday cooked on our new Kadai firebowl with the bread, followed by some malt loaf.

Tuesday 2nd July

Homemade museli and banana

Salad leaves from the garden with cottage cheese, celery, tomatoes, pickles and olives

Did some cooking and prep for the coming week. Made two malt loaves and prepared some bread. Finished the Beech Leaf Noyau by making the syrup and adding it to the steeped gin. Made a soup for tomorrow in the pressure cooker, using the recipe I have for buttery tomato soup from Modern Pressure Cooking by Catherine Phipps and adding a large tub of cooked pumpkin and one of cooked courgette from the freezer.

Lamb koftas from the freezer, cauliflower rice, carrot salad, sauerkraut, raita and feta cheese

Monday 1st July

Homemade museli and banana

Eggs with kale and cheddar cheese

Squash and lentil soup with rye bread croutons and pumpkin seeds

Sunday 30th June

Egg and bacon sandwich

Lunch was lamb, chickpea, tomato and feta cheese salad

We camped in the woodland and cooked a huge leg of pork in the cage over the fire. Had it with potatoes cooked with fennel and red onions. loads left for the freezer. This is a great way of cooking large pieces of meat rather than using the gas oven in the caravan.

Saturday 29th June

Brunch of eggs, tomatoes, bacon and mushrooms with toast

Smoothie with milk, strawberries that were looking a bit sad, frozen banana and frozen blackberries.

Eric made pizza for dinner

Friday 28th June

Mushroom omelette for breakfast

Same cottage cheese salad as yesterday for lunch

Worked at the wood till really late and ended up going to the pub and having a takeaway.

Thursday 27th June

Eggs with kale, ham and garlic for breakfast

Lunch was cottage cheese with celery, tomatoes, kimchi, olives, pickles and salad dressing, I was pleasantly surprised, it was really good. 

Tomato soup with polenta bread and toasted pumpkin seeds for dinner.

Away visiting friends and with work 21st - 26th June

Friday 21st June

Pastries from Hay for breakfast - we camped last night so needed something easy. I really must stop eating so much pastry though.

Lunch was leftover new potatoes, red onion and fennel from last night with some salad leaves

Went away in the evening.

Thursday 20th June

Eggs with kale and cheese for breakfast

Eric went to Hay and came back with tarts from Duggan's for lunch

Eric cooked trout over the fire with new potatoes, red onion and fennel.

Wednesday 19th June

Rye bread and eggs

Lunch is same salad as yesterday

Dinner is kale with polenta and sausage and bean stew from the freezer

Tuesday 18th June

Finished making some elderflower cordial, the elder at our wood is much later than other places it seems. 

Egg muffins with mushrooms, tomatoes and cheese for breakfast

Lunch was a salad - carrot salad, salad leaves, potatoes, broad bean humous. 

Leftover lamb from Sunday night coated in cornflour and ras el hanout and quickly fried with salad leaves, roasted chickpeas, tomatoes, marinated red onions and feta cheese

Monday 17th June

Camping down at the wood, toast and honey

Made some egg muffins with mushrooms, tomatoes and cheese

Tomato soup made in the pressure cooker.

Sunday 16th June

Had an almond croissant from Pobl bakery, probably the best almond croissant I've ever had. I'm still mainly sticking to my low carb high protein diet but allowing myself to slide off sometimes. Everything Pobl bakery does is amazing. Got some brown sourdough and rye bread as well. I have not perfected my wholemeal sourdough yet, probably because I've only tried once.

My wonderful friend and cheese eating enabler, Malcolm, sent me this link and we had barbecue baked homemade paneer with oregano, chilli and honey cooked over the fire with tomatoes and a slice of bread.

Cooked a leg of lamb (gifted in return for helping put up our friends' yurts) in a metal roasting cage over the fire. It was excellent. Had it with broad beans and potato salad.

Saturday 15th June

Went to Talgarth mill and had a cooked breakfast.

Bottled kombuca and made a new batch of 4.5 litres with green tea. Made a syrup for some bergamot gin I started over three years ago. Strained and bottled some damson gin. 

Smoothie for lunch - frozen banana, whole milk, roasted rhubarb and frozen blackberries.

Eric made pizza.

Friday 14th June

Mushroom omelette

Had a beetroot, walnut and camembert tart from a local cafe for lunch.

Veg gratin from the freezer and welsh dragon sausages (so called for their spiciness.)

Thursday 13th June

Eggs, toast and asparagus. 

Frittata, carrot salad, field bean humous and salad leaves.

From the freezer - brown rice leftovers, dahl and chicken penang curry.

Wednesday 12th June

Wholemeal toast with peanut butter, mashed banana and jam, like I'm 12.

More frittata and salad for lunch.

Had galette and chard bake from the freezer. Made a grated carrot salad (with dressing, toasted pumpkin seeds and sultanas), a field bean humous and salad leaves. 

Tuesday 11th June

Baked the bread. Had museli with the roasted rhubarb.

Lunch was salad leaves from the garden, frittata and the other half of the avocado.

Cooked onion and garlic, added chopped sausage. Added oregano, smoked paprika and ground cumin. Then a tin of chopped tomatoes, some cooked chick peas from the freezer and some wholewheat pasta. Served with some grated cheese. Two portions went in the freezer.

Monday 10th June

Eggs, kale, chard and cheese, something in-between an omelette and scrambled eggs.

Cooked some diced onions and carrots then added them to the slow cooker with some pumpkin and chicken stock from the freezer, a tin of tomatoes, a cup of red lentils and a dollop of wild garlic kimchi (the lethal stuff).

Lunch at the wood was fennel salad, avocado, tomato, halloumi and salad leaves.

Did some cooking for the week. Roasted some rhubarb I picked at the wood, made a oven baked frittata with leftover potatoes, sautéed baby field beans, cooked red onion, cooked kale and chard (leftover from the veg gratin on Thursday) and some suspect bits of cheddar cheese I found in the fridge. Prepared a wholemeal loaf.

Blended the soup and served it with some herby yoghurt and roasted rye bread croutons and pumpkin seeds.

Sunday 9th June

Baked dutch pancake with strawberries, baked rhubarb and frozen blackberries with honey.

Lunch at the shop - salad leaves, bacon, tomato, fennel salad, halloumi cheese.

Eric cooking the sea bass piccata we had last weekend. 

Saturday 8th June

Eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon and rye bread.

Strawberry and banana smoothie.

Eric made pizza

Friday 7th June

Some strawberries first thing then a mushroom omelette.

Lunch, chicken and halloumi from yesterday with a marinated fennel salad and tomatoes.

Yesterday I cooked a veg gratin inspired by a recipe in a book I got for my birthday - How to Eat 30 Plants a Week by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, we easily eat 30 plants a week but this book is full of really great ideas and inspiration. Cooked leek scapes, leeks, half a red onion languishing in the fridge, wet garlic, some tough chive stalks, baby field beans and chard stems, all from the garden apart from the red onion. Made a sauce with soaked cashew nuts, hot veg stock and mustard and poured it over the cooked veg. Steamed kale and chard leaves. Layered these two with leftover potatoes. Made a crunchy topping with seeds, nuts, buckwheat groats and rosemary. It made 8 portions.

Served the above with some spiced chicken breasts from the butcher.

Thursday 6th June

Leek scapes, wendesleydale and egg omelette

For lunch I bashed a chicken breast until thin and marinated it with lemon and herbs before cooking in a griddle pan with some cubes of halloumi. Served with salad leaves picked in the morning and tomatoes.

Out for dinner, birthday celebrations continued.

Wednesday 5th June

Smoothie with milk, frozen banana and blackberries and stewed rhubarb.

Eggs with kale for lunch

Dinner was the greens lasagne I made a couple of weeks ago with salad leaves picked from the garden.

Tuesday 4th June

Almond croissants and coffee for breakfast

Eggs with kale for lunch

Borlotti bean soup for dinner

Monday 3rd June

My birthday! Had some savoury tarts and a bottle of fizz for lunch. Camped down by the river in the woodland and Eric cooked steak and chips with carrots and field beans over the fire. 

Sunday 2nd June - 3rd June

Away in Glastonbury

Saturday 1st June

Eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes and rye bread for brunch.

Eric made pizza

Friday 31st May

Cinnamon and apricot chelsea buns bought in Hay yesterday for breakfast.

There was a bit of rice, curry and chard leftover from last night, just a small bowlful. Mixed this with 6 eggs and some wensleydale cheese for the lunch muffins, worked really well.

Got some fish from the market in Hay yesterday, the closest fishmonger we have. I'm not a big fan of fish but want more in my diet. I got some sea bass which I presume is farmed and not wild, I'm not really clear what to look for in terms of sustainability and should have probably asked. They also had dorade and trout, one of which I'll get next time and cook on the fire. Felt really annoyed with myself as I'd forgotten to pick herbs for the fish and bring them home to the caravan (living and working between the two is a constant lesson in preparedness). I remembered that we bought some nduja from Hay Charcuterie yesterday which is amazing stuff. So I ended up making this Smoky Sea Bass Piccata which was insanely good. One of the best things I've cooked recently. I substituted the shallot for red onion and the asparagus for young field beans which worked really well. 

Thursday 30th May

Rye bread with homemade raspberry jam.

Went shopping in Hay, market day, for supplies, more on that tomorrow.

Egg cheese and ham muffins made yesterday.

Leftovers from the curries I defrosted for my friends the other weekend were all lumped together and chucked back in the freezer. I also cooked some wet garlic I harvested with a tablespoon of Panch Phoran mix, added some chopped chard stalks and then the chard leaves. Mixed some mint with yoghurt and served it all with brown rice. Had a bottle of wonderful cider from our friends Artistraw with it.

Wednesday 29th May

Museli for breakfast and made egg, cheese and ham muffins to take to the wood for lunch. Added the following to the slow cooker defrosted from the freezer: chicken stock, cooked courgette, cooked pumpkin, leftover roast lamb and a cube of wild garlic. Fried some onions and added them along with a cup of red lentils, a tin of tomatoes and some beef stock from an organic cube. Cooked for 5 hours. When I got home I added some kale I'd harvested and some parsley, plus some cooked chick peas from the freezer (I cook them in the slow cooker from dried then freeze them in tin-sized portions). Served with grated cheese on top and a hunk of bread.

Tuesday 28th May

Banana, blackberry, whole milk and peanut butter smoothie for breakfast

Egg, tomato, ham and cheese muffins for lunch

Special pre-birthday meal at Chapters in Hay-on-Wye.

Monday 27th May

Eggs, bacon, mushrooms and rye bread for brunch

Chips and a pint in a pub 

Nettle soup and sourdough for dinner

Sunday 26th May

Museli with stewed apple

Was at a fair all day selling my work. Took a salad that I made with broad beans tops, salad leaves, cold chicken, tomatoes, potato and a herb dressing. Also, Reece's Peanut Butter cups. 

At the Hay festival in the evening, had a pork gyros (which cost £14!!!), a beer then toffee and honeycomb ice cream. We are entering a bit of a holiday period leading up to my birthday in one week and have more tickets for Hay so I'm sure the high protein, low carb and fat diet will be the first casualty. 

Saturday 25th May

Eggs, bacon and mushrooms, one slice rye bread

Smoothie for lunch: frozen banana, frozen blackberries, peanut butter and whole milk

Eric is away on a timber framing course and we had an odd number of packets of raclette in the freezer so I took one for the team and had raclette with a small jar of our bottled ratatouille, new potatoes, gherkins and parma ham. I could barely breathe afterwards, not used to eating so much. 

Friday 24th May

Baked mushroom with egg, one slice rye bread

Egg, cheese, mushroom and bacon muffins volunteering at the Corner Collective

Chicken leg roasted with new potatoes and field bean tops

Thursday 23rd May

Baked mushroom with egg, one slice rye bread

Egg, cheese, mushroom and bacon muffins at knitting group

Chick pea and kale stew with baked potato

Wednesday 22nd May

Toast with banana, peanut butter and cacao for breakfast

Mushroom omelette

I was looking for something to do with leeks and found a leek lasagne recipe which I adapted. I cooked onions, leeks, field bean tops and kale, all from the garden, each separately (as they didn't fit in the pan together) then mixed them with 500ml of cooked courgettes from the freezer (I grow Lungo Bianco courgettes which cook down amazingly well and have great flavour) adding some wild garlic and seasoning. I made a béchamel and added some fennel pesto from the freezer then layered the whole thing up one layer of goats cheese that needed using up and another pot of pesto, this time a basil one from the freezer. Cheddar cheese on top. Wow, it was good. My first ever green lasagne! I'll do a variation on this throughout the summer I think. Would be even better to make my own green pasta too. I got a pasta machine for a birthday in my 20's... still not used it. Don't even know where it is in fact.

Tuesday 21st May

Smoothie for breakfast - blackberries picked last year from the freezer with frozen bananas, peanut butter and local organic milk.

Lunch was an omelette with field bean tops. 

Went to Llandovery to see some friends and ate at The Bear, excellent food. 

Monday 20th May

Mushroom omelette for breakfast

Leftovers from Saturday night salad - potato and tomato salad with lamb chops

Pumpkin soup from the freezer with sourdough and a slice of Wensleydale for dinner.

Sunday 19th May

Cooked bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs and toast for my guests before they left.

Eric made pizza.

Saturday 18th May

Cooked bacon, mushrooms, scrambled eggs and toast for everyone.

Went to Sombresa for drinks and some delicious cheese and charcuterie boards from local producers. It was heaven.

For dinner I made a potato salad and a tomato and red onion salad. I couldn't resist the dutch tomatoes in the veg shop but normally I try and wait for the Isle of Wight ones at least. On the petromax ( I highly recommend their griddle/fire bowls, we have had one for years and it's brilliant) over the fire I cooked Welsh dragon spicy sausages from our local butcher, I made a spice rub for some pork belly slices and did the rose lamb chops again. 

Friday 17th May

Eggs and mushrooms for breakfast

Toast and butter for lunch - was rushing

We have some friends camping with us at the woodland so I got some curries out of the freezer - courgette dahl, my basic dahl and a root veg curry - and made some brown rice. Took yoghurt and lime pickle down there as well.

Thursday 16th May

One slice wholemeal toast with peanut butter, a banana and a sprinkling of raw cacao on the top.

Eggs and mushrooms for lunch

I made a chard bake with creme fraiche, the chard has made a comeback in the garden. I roasted a whole cauliflower covered with a coconut oil and harissa rub, half went in the freezer. I cooked some local lamb chops using this Sabrina Ghayour recipe which I use all the time. I used rose petals that I picked last year and dried. It's a super quick way to cook lamb and always works out really well.

Wednesday 15th May

Kale with eggs and Cheddar cheese

Lunch was leftover veal stew, eaten out of the casserole dish, it's that kind of week.

Dinner, decided to go to a talk with Chris Smaje just down the road so had a super quick dinner of ratatouille from the freezer with some pickled nasturtiums chucked in, wholemeal pasta and grated cheese on top. 

Had some chocolate when we got home.

Tuesday 14th May

Muesli for breakfast

Made some egg, bacon, cheese and herb muffins to take to the wood for lunch, they were lovely (I put loads of cheese in)

Veal stew from the freezer with half a baked potato

Monday 13th May

Muesli for breakfast

Cauliflower rice, quinoa chilli from the freezer with that thick satay sauce the failed "tofu" made for lunch

Borlotti bean soup from the freezer

Sunday 12th May

Egg and bacon omelette

Volunteering at the Oil and Oak in Hay - slice of leftover pizza for lunch and a flapjack

Dahl with mushrooms, brown rice and yoghurt for dinner

Saturday 11th May

Eggs, bacon and mushrooms for breakfast

Day of Super Seconds festival and it was wonderful but intense and exhausting. Slice of toast with peanut butter for lunch

Eric made pizza, I drank too much and climbed up the hill behind the caravan to see the Northern Lights, didn't see anything. 

Friday 10th May

Mushroom omelette.

Was volunteering in the shop in Builth so took leftovers from the farro bake and cauliflower and chickpea thing from last night with some homegrown salad leaves and salad burnet I picked yesterday. 

Met Eric in the pub after work and this led onto us getting fish and chips from the chippy. Was in bed by 9.30 and missed the Northern Lights.

Thursday 9th May

Eggs with kale for breakfast

Made some cottage cheese (I had some languishing in the fridge) low carb muffins yesterday to have for my lunch today. I was lying in bed last night thinking about food as I often do and realised that none of the ingredients taste of anything. I was annoyed as usually I realise this while I'm cooking a new recipe and do something about it. So basically had a very bland muffin for my lunch at the wood. 

It was hot and I was fantasising about buying a Magnum ice cream on the way home (white chocolate and vanilla if you were wondering, although those Gold Caramel Billionaires are amazing)... instead I made a smoothie at home with some frozen blackberries, banana, milk and peanut butter, it was really good.

In the afternoon I got on with a load of food related jobs that I've been meaning to do for some time. I gathered the fresh beech leaves from the huge grandmother beech that towers over the caravan and made beech leaf noyau. Made up a big batch of museli. Made paneer with some milk that was on the turn. Eric helped me bottle the blackberry wine last night (I should have done it ages ago) so I labelled it all and put it in the larder. Made flapjacks. We helped a neighbour put up some yurts on Tuesday and in return were given loads of lamb, honey and some chicken of the woods mushroom from the freezer. Made lamb koftas and roasted cauliflower and chickpeas with a herb dressing.

Wednesday 8th May

Museli with stewed apple and banana

Lunch - mushroom omelette

Dinner was sausages and the French Onion farro bake leftovers in the freezer and sauerkraut

Tuesday 7th May

Museli with stewed apple and banana

Lunch - provided by some friends we were helping out

Dinner - Borlotti bean soup from the freezer

Monday 6th May

Evening when we got home - jar of cassulet from France

Saturday - Monday - away staying with my sister

Friday 3rd May

Mushroom omelette

Yesterdays salad for lunch

Roast chicken legs with herby lemony dressing and roasted potatoes with sauerkraut

Thursday 2nd May

Mushroom omelette.

Forgot my salad packed lunch, only remembered the cheese scone to go with it. Had just that and cake at my knitting group and didn't feel too great after.

Baked potatoes, chick pea stew with kale, yoghurt and grated cheese on top.

Wednesday 1st May

Christmas pudding and custard - now the Christmas pudding is gone

Cauliflower rice, sauerkraut, blue cheese, leftover new potatoes with tahini sauce - smaller portion than yesterday and a slice of wholemeal toast with butter (which was heaven)

Made chicken noodle soup as Eric has had a lingering cold for weeks. Homemade chicken stock, roast chicken leftovers, lots of fresh herbs from the garden.

Tuesday 30th April

Eggs with kale

Cauliflower rice, sauerkraut, blue cheese, leftover new potatoes with tahini sauce

Made "tofu" with chick peas, this recipe, it did not work. Broccoli and satay sauce with the "tofu" stirred into it. It was actually very nice and I might use it as a way to make thick sauces for curry, etc in the future. Brown rice.

Monday

Christmas pudding and custard for breakfast again, I was exhausted and needed some comfort

Cauliflower rice, sauerkraut and bacon with tahini sauce

Lentil soup from the freezer with polenta bread I made last week

Sunday - working at Wonderwool

Eggs with ground elder

One slice of leftover pizza for lunch

Eric cooked fish with lemon and nduja, new potatoes and leeks

Saturday - at Wonderwool

Museli

Amazing pierogi, the most carbolicious thing I've had in ages

Eric made pizza

Friday 26th April

Museli and banana

Lunch out - Tapas in Brecon

Dinner - crackers, nduja, cheese and pickles

Thursday 25th April

Mushroom omelette for breakfast

Broccoli salad with some sweet potato wedges and kale and carrot salad leftovers

I was invited to contribute a foraged food recipe for CoedNet, a network of Welsh woodland makers I'm part of. I wrote the recipe and tried it out tonight. Foraged Spring Greens Galette. I served it with cauliflower rice, sauerkraut and a mint, parsley and caper sauce. 

Foraged Spring Greens Galette

For the pastry:

120g flour

110g cold grated salted butter

Ice cold water

For the filling:

1 tbsp butter or coconut oil

I medium onion

Sea salt

2 cloves garlic finely chopped - can leave out if you have wild garlic instead

Medium basket of mixed foraged greens - dandelion leaves, ground elder, sorrel, lamb’s quarters, wild garlic, garlic hedge mustard, plantain, etc. washed and roughly chopped, big bits is fine

Large handful (be careful) of nettles

1 heaped teaspoon Za’atar (optional)

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Around 150g of grated cheese or crumbly feta, whatever cheese you have to hand

Fresh garden herbs like rosemary, sage, thyme or a combination - about a tablespoon when finely chopped

Make the pastry: Pulse the flour and butter together in a food processor until it looks like fine crumbs then add the water slowly until the pastry starts to come together. (You can of course use your hands, cold grated butter will make it easier.) Remove from the food processor and knead briefly to create the dough. Shape into a disc, put in a plastic bag and into the fridge for at least one hour or up to two days.

The filling: Cook the onions in butter/coconut oil adding a generous pinch of salt until they are golden brown, adding the chopped garlic towards the end and giving them a stir when required. Tip into a bowl to cool. Pour a kettle full of boiling water over your nettles in a colander. Squeeze out the water and chop fairly small. Add all of your foraged greens including the nettles to the pan, season and stir until they are just wilted and coated with butter, add more if you need to. Add the za’atar if using. Allow to cool.

Assembly: Preheat the oven to 200°C. Roll out the pastry onto a floured surface, about 12-14 inches wide and put in onto a baking sheet. Don't worry if it hangs over the edge, you’ll be folding it over the filling. Spread the mustard over the dough leaving a gap around the edge of about 2 inches. Cover with 1/3 of the cheese. Add half of the greens then half the onions then another 1/3 of cheese. Add the remaining greens, the rest of the onions and the final 1/3 of cheese on top. Fold the edge of the pastry into the middle all the way around, leaving a gap of filling in the middle. Brush the pastry with a beaten egg or milk. Sprinkle the whole thing with finely chopped herbs.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden.

Wednesday 24th

Mushroom omelette for breakfast

Broccoli salad from yesterday with some leftover pasta from the dinner as well

Some breaded chicken from the freezer - made before the new diet - sweet potato wedges and kale and carrot salad

Tuesday 23rd

Eggs and kale for breakfast

Another day another broccoli salad. Slightly different, made tahini sauce and added bacon, pickled nasturtium seeds and feta cheese

Wholemeal pasta and a jar of homemade ratatouille, grated cheese on top

Monday 22nd April

Christmas pudding and custard for breakfast. I'm on my period and it seemed like an excellent idea.

Lunch, as yesterday

Dinner was the leftover veg puree from last weekend with a colander full of blanched and chopped nettles. Made some polenta bread to go with it, added some wild garlic kimchi to the batter which made it more intertesting.

Sunday 21st April

Mushroom omelete

Working at the shop in hay so took a packed lunch: Cauliflower rice, sauerkraut, chicken, herb dressing, feta cheese

On the way home I was craving cake and remembered the second Christmas pudding I made so had some with hastily made instant custard.

Dinner was sausages and the French Onion farro bake leftovers in the freezer.

Saturday 20th April

Museli with banana and rhubarb

Mushrooms baked with butter, thyme and garlic, eggs and wholemeal sourdough

Eric made pizza

Friday 19th

Eggs, bacon and mushrooms for breakfast

Lunch - chicken, kale, sauerkraut, cottage cheese, pickled cucumber

Dinner - quinoa burgers, cauliflower rice, feta cheese and satay sauce

Thursday 18th

Eggs and kale for breakfast

Lunch - chicken salad with foraged and homegrown salad and sauerkraut. I got some reduced 20p organic cucumbers from the wholefood shop (I wouldn't normally buy them out of season) and did a quick pickle with some pickling liquid leftover from the pickled onions. 

Dinner - Baked sweet potato with quinoa chilli and feta cheese

Tuesday 16th April

Museli and banana for breakfast

Lunch at a friends house

Made a curry with the leftover meat from the cockerel. Used Panang curry paste (good to keep in the fridge for quick curries), added onion, coconut milk and at the end a large handful of chopped ground elder and a handful of blanched and chopped nettles. Served with cauliflower rice, yoghurt and fermented wild garlic which was really good, need to make another batch.

Monday 15th April

Eggs and kale for breakfast

Broccoli salad for lunch - I really need to branch out with some new high protein salads - also had homegrown salad leaves and some of the dressing from last night

Lentil soup with a slice of rye bread for dinner

Sunday 14th April

Eggs, bacon and mushrooms for breakfast

Broccoli salad for lunch

Was working at the wood all day so before I left I put the following in the slow cooker: Chunky pieces of carrot, celery, onion, potatoes, cooked bacon chopped, half a pint of cider, half a pint of chicken stock then one of our cockerels smeared with butter and seasoned on the top. Cooked for 6 hours and kept warm for 2 hours - too long, will cook for less next time. Served with a dressing made of ACV, Dijon mustard, capers, olive oil, parsley and mint from the garden, it was delicious. The cockerel tasted good, maybe a bit tough but possibly as I overcooked it. Maybe if it was covered in liquid it might be better. Stripped the carcas and froze the bones for stock, put the meat aside for later in the week. Put the leftover veg in the blender, added some stock and out in the freezer for soup.

13th April

Eggs with ground elder for breakfast 

Rye bread with peanut butter and banana

Eric made pizza for dinner

12th April

Cornish teacake for breakfast

Frittata and salad at a local cafe for lunch as I was volunteering in the shop

Courgette dal with brown rice

7th - 11th April in Cornwall on holiday, fish and chips and beers on the horizon...

Saturday 6th April

Breakfast as yesterday

Broccoli salad

Dinner - rump steak with homemade chips, kale and roasted carrots

Friday 5th April

Dutch pancake with the first rhubarb harvested from the garden and blackberries from the freezer, plus maple syrup

Broccoli salad with some grated cheese on top to make it more satisfying

Baked potato with cottage cheese, three types of sprouted seeds, sauerkraut and herb dressing

Thursday 4th April

Breakfast - Eggs and kale with garlic and some nutritional yeast

Made another batch of broccoli salad as before but had nutritional yeast instead of grated chedder, used no mayo and less dressing. It was nowhere near as nice, left me feeling hungry and unsatisfied so I ate a mini egg brownie... lesson learnt.

Quinoa chilli with cauliflower rice and feta cheese for dinner. Made a huge batch of the quinoa chilli yesterday when I was making the burgers so four portions go in the freezer.

Wednesday 3rd April

Museli and banana

Volunteering at the shop, had borlotti bean soup and a couple of stale crispbread things (I didn't realise they were stale until I ate them)

3 x brazil nuts

Quinoa and black bean burgers which were really good, salad leaves, tahini dressing, feta cheese and cauliflower rice.

Tuesday 2nd April

Museli and banana

Borlotti bean soup at the wood

3 x brazil nuts

PSB from the garden, slices of roast pork from the freezer, cauliflower rice and a satay sauce.

Monday 1st April

Mushroom and bacon omelete

Had a really late lunch, 3.30, at the pub, I had mushroom soup and didn't feel like eating again, just had a bit of Easter egg later

Sunday 31st March

Was working today so had museli with a banana

Lunch - Broccoli salad with leftover Cauliflower rice

3 x brazil nuts

Dinner was pork chops roasted with new potatoes and thyme, carrots roasted with mustard and honey

Saturday 30th March

Baked eggs with bacon

Lunch - Broccoli salad with leftover Cauliflower rice

3 x brazil nuts

Eric made pizza

Friday 29th March

Baked a wholemeal sourdough which actually looks great.

Breakfast - baked eggs with cooked mushrooms (I put some aside last night when cooking the dinner) and manchego cheese. One bite of wholemeal bread, I found the eggs were enough on their own. Maybe this won't be as hard as I think. 

Lunch - raw broccoli and bacon salad it was really good, made enough for two more days

3 x brazil nuts

Dinner - chilli and lime chicken kebabs from the butcher and cauliflower rice (got a nice organic cauliflower from the farmers market today) with salad. The cauliflower rice was a revelation, it was delicious. Actually managed to eat twice the protein to carbs today.

Thursday 28th March

I've been seeing a herbalist to regulate my cycle and had mineral analysis done. I now need to follow a high protein, low carb, low fat diet for 12 weeks to sort things out (decreased thyroid and adrenal function probably due to some extreme work stress over the past few years, ending up on anxiety medication and having therapy). Just a casual stroll through this diary will show that I eat a lot of sourdough, lentils, rice, potatoes, etc. I'm using Chronometer to track it all and it's clear that I am going to have to make some radical changes to eat more protein than carbs day to day, it's hard to imagine what that will look like and also annoying that I will have to buy in a lot of food to achieve this and not just eat from the larder, freezer and garden. In the summer it would be easier with plenty of lovely fresh food to eat. Anyway, despite being pretty down about it right now I realise that I'm massively privileged to be able to make changes and even have access to food. Made some mini egg brownies today as a futile act of defiance which I'll now feel very guilty about eating. 

Breakfast - Museli - full of carbs! - with full fat milk. Also just to say, I was lactose intolerant for years and recently found I no longer am so have been really enjoying full fat milk from a local farm in refilled glass bottles which I now have to cut down as part of this diet.

Lunch - One slice sourdough, two eggs

3 x brazil nuts - new daily addition to increase selenium levels. 

Dinner - Spelt and mushroom risotto - delicious, still loads of carbs but "packed with energising and immune-strengthening vitamins and minerals". Feel free to check in with this blog in 12 weeks, I'm boring myself already. 

Prepared a wholemeal sourdough to bake in the morning.

Wednesday 27th March

Porridge with blackberries

Lunch - two slices sourdough with peanut butter and banana

Dinner - Made this French onion baked lentils and farro dish after I saw it on Instagram, luckily had some farro from Hodmedods. It was amazing, four portions left over.

Tuesday 26th March

Porridge with blackberries

Snack - the last two stale jacobs cream crackers from the Christmas cracker selection with butter

Lunch - soup leftovers with cheese scones from the freezer

Dinner - leftover roast lamb baked in the oven with some date and tamarind sauce I got with some samosas I bought from an Indian cafe in Leicester (i.e. about 2 years old), it tasted great. Served with gigantic bean stew baked with some manchego cheese grated on the top. Kale from the garden cooked with garlic.

Monday 25th March

Porridge with blackberries

Lunch - used leftover mashed potato to make rostis with wild garlic and some cheese, cooked in the pan I cooked the pork in last night to use the fat, had with eggs and a slice of toast

Snack - brazil nuts

Dinner - Freezer grab soup. Browned onions, added garlic and chillies, celery and carrots a sachet of miso soup and curry powder then beef stock, pumpkin, courgette and the last cube of frozen wild garlic from the freezer. Added one tin tomatoes and 250g of green lentils from Hodmedod's Served with yoghurt, roasted pumpkin seeds and a slice of sourdough. Had 6 portions leftover.

Sunday 24th March

Mushrooms (I cook them in butter with thyme and mushroom relish added towards the end), eggs and sourdough for brunch

Chocolate cake with pecans and cherries from the freezer, made in January

Dinner - pork chops with mashed potatoes. Gravy and runner beans from the freezer

Saturday 23rd March

Brunch - sourdough with our PSB and poached eggs.

We killed and prepared two of our cockerels today for the first time. One of the hardest things I've ever done but necessary, we have 4 cockerels left. 

Dinner - Eric made pizza

Friday 22nd March

Porridge with banana and blackberries

Made breaded chicken escalopes and chips, should have had PSB with it but I didn't harvest enough, saved it for breakfast

Thursday 21st March

Baked bread

Lunch - last nights leftovers

Dinner - new potatoes. Galette with 4 different kales, blue cheese and cheddar cheese, homemade shortcrust pastry

20th March

Made bread to bake in the morning

Made sauerkraut with bought organic cabbage

Fermented some wild garlic

Lunch - kale and eggs on sourdough

Dinner - smoked quinoa with chickpeas and PSB with tahini dressing and wild garlic pesto. It was okay, needed more textures.

19th March

Chick pea stew from freezer with baked potatoes and cheese

18th March

Got blackberries from the freezer to make wine.

Soup from freezer - pumpkin, apple and mustard with sourdough croutons in the freezer

17th March

Brunch - mushrooms, eggs, bacon and toast

This recipe from Gill Mellers beautiful book, Time - https://www.instagram.com/p/C0QuXvjCBVE/. Used veal shin from Hafod Dairy Farm. Adapted to cook in the pressure cooker.

16th March

Lunch - leftover pots, squash

Dinner - pub

15th March

Late breakfast - sausage sandwich

Dinner - pizza with blue cheese and mushrooms

14th March

Lunch - leftover pots, squash

Dinner - sausages, herby yoghurt, baked potatoes, squash

13th March

Dinner from the freezer - Galette made with layers of mustard, cooked onions, cabbage and cheese, kale from garden, new potatoes 

12th March

Dahl and homegrown squash

11th March

Soup, borlotti beans, whole crop, tasted wonderful with homemade chicken stock, cooked courgette and squash from the freezer, onions, garlic, chilli, tin of tomatoes and curry powder.

10th March

Pressure cooker lamb, greek potatoes cooked with chicken stock, PSB

9th March

Eric made pizza

8th March

Chinese takeaway

Thurs 7th March

Pub lunch at Kilpeck

Pate for dinner

Tues 5th March

Dinner - Cheese and broccoli pasties with potatoes and PSB

Friday 1st March - 4th March - Away in Dartmoor

Thursday 29th Feb

Baked bread

Breakfast - Porridge as before

Lunch - toast with jam

Dinner - Enchiladas from the freezer

Wednesday 28th Feb

Breakfast - Porridge

Lunch - Sourdough with eggs

Dinner - Made a Gigantes bean stew with our whole crop of dried beans from last year (they were plated too late and went mouldy so the crop was small. Served with polenta made with 2/3 organic chicken stock cube and 1/3 whole milk which I hadn’t tried before. Yoghurt and grated cheese on top.

Tuesday 27th

Breakfast - Porridge with bottled apple, flax, mixed seeds and honey.

Lunch - crisp breads and cream cheese (leftovers from working away) and sauerkraut

Dinner - Our first PSB, steamed with poached eggs. I made a hollandaise which failed miserably, we ate it anyway. Eric forgot to pick up new potatoes on the way home so I made potato wedges.

Monday

Breakfast - Porridge with bottled apple, flax, mixed seeds and honey.

Lunch - leftover pizza

Dinner - Curried pumpkin soup with cheese and herb flatbread, made with pizza dough

Sunday 25th February

Bacon, eggs and sourdough (from a Cumbrian bakery) for breakfast. Came home to about 10 eggs! Lasagne from the freezer for dinner.

Saturday 24th February - home

Eric made pizza

Wednesday 14th

Breakfast - porridge with homemade mincemeat found at the back of the fridge

Drove to Cumbria - away till 24th Feb

Tuesday 13th

Breakfast - porridge with sliced dates, ground flax, seeds and honey

Lunch - leftover roast potatoes sliced and fried in the leftover butter from cooing the carrots, fresh eggs from the hens and sourdough toast

Dinner - Courgette dal, brown rice and yoghurt

Monday 12th Feb

Breakfast - porridge with blackberries from the freezer, ground flax, seeds and honey

Lunch - Salad of leftover potatoes, carrots and sauerkraut with herb dressing

Dinner - Lentil soup and sourdough

Sunday 11th Feb

Brunch - our eggs, local bacon and homemade sourdough

Afternoon - last of the Christmas cake!

Chicken pie from the freezer and batch cooked roast potatoes and carrots cooked in mustard, butter and our honey.

Saturday 10th February

Museli for breakfast

Toast for lunch

Out for dinner

Friday eve - mushroom carbonara

Friday 2nd February - Friday 9th February we had a visitor and were staying with them at their holiday accommodation. We cooked and ate together and it wasn’t particularly representative of what we would normally eat but very enjoyable all the same.

Thursday 1st February

Chick pea and tomato stew with oat topping - some biscuits that went wrong with coleslaw and potato salad

Wednesday 31st

Roasted beetroot with orange zest and thyme, new potato salad, coleslaw

Tuesday 30th

Out for lunch

Soup and bread and cheese

Monday 29th

Lunch - soup and bread

Cabbage, onion and cheese galette with baby potatoes

Sunday 28th

Brunch - toast with our eggs and some grated cheese on top

Did some food prep for the week

Made a random soup - onion, HG chilli, garlic, added the drained water from the re-freid beans made on Thursday, two cubes of frozen wild garlic, vegetable stock, HG pumpkin puree and courgette both from the freezer, some beetroot concentrate, curry powder, leftover brown rice from Thurs

Cubed some Hg beetroot for roasting later

Fried onion and HG cabbage for tomorrow’s galette

Dinner - leftover roast lamb, gravy and spiced red cabbage from the freezer, potatoes roasted with thyme

Saturday 27th Jan

Baked a loaf with rye flour, worked well, has a sweetness to it

Bacon sandwich with smoked bacon from the butcher and home made brown sauce

Made some pie dough, half went in the freezer, half in the fridge for a later date

Cooked the rest of the pumpkin in the pressure cooker, went in the freezer

Eric made pizza with sourdough discard

Friday 26th

Porridge with rhubarb

Lunch leftover brown rice, fried egg, za’tar and parmesan

Dinner - Carbonara with stored pumpkin - wrong one for that dish, too watery

Thursday 25th Jan

Porridge with blackberries and rhubarb from the freezer

Lunch - as yesterday

Dinner - Enchiladas from last week plus re-fried beans - https://www.wellplated.com/instant-pot-refried-beans/ and brown rice and wild garlic kimchi

Wednesday 24th Jan

Baked bread

Homemade museli - oat, wheat and barley flakes, homemade apple slices, dates, sultanas, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds, pecan and hazel nuts, ground flax.

Lunch - blue cheese and chutney sandwiches

Dinner - dragon sausages from the butcher, lentils cooked with diced veg and herbs from the freezer and a beetroot, celeriac and potato gratin from the freezer. Fresh herb dressing - Winter savoury, sage, thyme, salad burnet, rosemary.

Tuesday 23rd Jan

Porridge with apple cooked with sultanas and cinnamon.

Lunch - leftover onion soup from last night

Christmas cake in the afternoon

Dinner - Tartiflette with reblochen cheese I bought in France and has been in the freezer for a year and 3 months, it looked perfectly fine. Bit of an extravagant mid week meal but should have had it lat week when the pipes were frozen. It was delicious!

Monday 22nd Jan

Porridge with apple cooked with sultanas and cinnamon.

Lunch - brown seeded rolls scavenged from the buffet at a family party with Roast plum and liquorice chutney and stilton cheese.

Dinner - Onion soup with apple and cheese on toast - Gill Mellor Time book

Weekend - away visiting family

Friday 19th Jan

Porridge with rhubarb

Lunch - Tomato soup from the freezer with gremolata

Dinner - Chicken enchiladas

Chicken mixture - freezer raid - leftover roast chicken, roast tomatoes, ratatouille, tin tomatoes, black eye beans from freezer. Added to onions, garlic and chilli. Thought it was super spicy but when we ate it it was barely spicy at all.

Couldn’t get organic flour tortillas, agonised over whether I should make my own, got a grip and got them from the coop.

Thurs 18th Jan

Toast with neighbours homemade lemon curd

Lunch - leftover curry cold from Tuesday night

Took cake to knitting cherry and pecan cake from Gais’s feasts

Dinner - kitchen pipes are frozen - fish and chips from the chippy

Wed 17th Jan

Porridge with rhubarb from the freezer

Lunch pumpkin soup from Monday with gremolata (delicious)

Gremolata basic recipe -

1 tbs salted butter and 1 tbs oil in a pan

Add 1/2 cup chopped pumpkin seeds - sunflower? Hazelnut? Any nuts?

1 garlic clove

1 tbs chopped rosemary

Cool

Add 1 cup finely chopped herbs

Zest of one orange/lemon/preserved lemon?

1/4 tsp sea salt

Dinner - Deep freezer retrieval game pie filling - didn’t realise, failed oat biscuits on the top - made it super dry. Celeriac, beetroot and potato gratin. All a bit dry but good to use up

Tues 16th Jan

Porridge with rhubarb and blackberries from the freezer

Lunch - Toast with ham cheese and egg

Dinner - Kale thoran, courgette dal and brown rice

15th Jan

Porridge made with organic whole milk, turmeric, apples cooked fresh with sultanas and cinnamon. Topped with ground flaxseed, sunflower seeds, pumpkin and sesame seeds, bee pollen and our honey.

Lunch - baked potatoes with cottage cheese and homemade sauerkraut

Dinner - Made soup - pumpkin, courgette from freezer, stock with stock veg inc. onion, chilli, garlic - in blender, yellow split peas and curry powder. With cheese scones

14th Jan

Croque monsieur - only one egg

Christmas cake

Lamb hotpot from the freezer and taunton dean kale from the wood

13th January

Breakfast - baked eggs with ham and perl wen cheese

Made beef stock in the pressure cooker

Baked bread

Eric made pizza, Shropshire blue and mozzarella. Wish we had a better supply of organic mozzarella

12th January 2024

Porridge with apples cooked fresh, hazelnuts and honey

Lunch at the Hop In

Dinner - chicken pie made with stock leftovers, braised red cabbage and roast potatoes