Even more veggie fajitas

I can't get enough of these at the moment - could there be an addictive substance in the tortilla? It can't be in the combination of veg, as today I actually varied it. I had an onion, a clove of garlic, half a yellow pepper, a few mushrooms and a handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered. I shook a load of cayenne pepper over the top and had a big spoonful of Sainsbury's fresh tomato salsa for some extra spice.

Today's breakfast...

Looks a little bit nicer than yesterday's, I think. Today I had Rachel's Organic strawberry yoghurt with Alpen no-sugar muesli and Sainsbury's blueberries (half price at the moment). A lovely way to start the day. I also had a slice of toast with Sainsbury's wholenut peanut butter (no added sugar here either), as I needed a bit of extra oomph.

Posher than usual stirfry with pork

I ate this tonight at supper and it was cooked for me as I sat around - bliss. Him indoors cooked us pork stirfry with Blue Dragon hoisin and garlic sauce and some Sharwood's egg noodles. He used a Chinese stirfry pack from Sainsbury's - more expensive than the bog-standard packs we usually get with a bit of shredded cabbage and carrot, but it had spring onions and mangetouts in it for added crunch and extra taste. Well worth the extra fifty pence, I'd say.

This morning's breakfast

This may not look that appetising, but it was a revitalising way to start the day. We each had a Rachel's organic low-fat, summer fruits yoghurt with blueberries and I added some crunchy Alpen (no sugar) muesli to mine. I was so inspired by this breakfast I bought more Rachel's organic yoghurts and more blueberries today for more healthy, yoghurty breakfasts.

I know it looks a bit like dog-vomit; I realise I should have put the yoghurt in the bowl, sprinkled the museli on the top, then scattered blueberries over the surface as that would have looked prettier. I didn't though. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow and photograph it so you can see how pretty this breakfast can be.

Curry heaven - they still rule...

Especially when you come home late and starving and need some fast, nutritious food. Looking in your freezer, you choose a tupperware pot of reddish brown, homemade, frozen stuff, unlabelled of course - I'm not Delia - and wonder what it is. It's definitely not casserole - too reddish - it might well be bolognese or possibly curry. Didn't I make a chicken curry a few weeks ago and decide to freeze some? We didn't feel we could handle waiting for rice to cook and I realised there was also a garlic and coriander naan lying like an icey slab in the bottom of the freezer so I figured - if I microwaved it on full for five minutes then had a look, if it was curry I could stick the naan in the oven to defrost and warm through, and if it was bolognese I could put the pasta on asap and bob's your uncle, it would be a meal in minutes.

I whacked the oven on to 200 degrees - as even if I was cooking the pasta on the hob I knew it would help heat the room (unethical I know, but in my house of dodgy heating, the oven is often the best heat source around). Fortunately for my sense of ethics, I stirred the semi-frozen red stuff after 5 minutes blasting and realised it was definitely a chicken curry. I shoved the naan in the oven, put the chicken curry back in the microwave for another 5 minutes to make sure it was 'piping hot' and that was it - a meal in eleven minutes. Curries rule. And freezers. And microwaves and ovens. They rule too.

Curries Rule

Shilpa came out of the celebrity big brother house on Sunday night and pretty much summed up culinary life in two words, 'curries rule'. She has such wisdom. Having just finished my first takeaway curry from Vojan - the curry house near Angel that I was so happy to find a few weeks ago (see www.vojan.net) - I couldn't help but agree with her - curries rule.

There's something for everybody - mild, spicy, creamy, dry, veggie. I had a streaming cold at the weekend and fancied something to unblock my sinuses and, more importantly, something I could taste. We ordered a Shatkara Gosht (lamb cooked in calamansi juice [wild lemon], lemon leaf and naga chilli - a superb dish with lots of flavour, medium hot - £5.95), a chicken tikka massala, mainly to try the 'exotic sauce' and beacuse my other half wanted a creamy curry (dried chicken barbecued, tossed in butter with cultured yoghurt, fresh cream and served with exotic sauce - £5.95), bhindi bhaji (okra cooked in karala style - £2.45) and pilau rice (basmati rice aromatically flavoured with saffron - £2.00). I liked the menu, and the way dishes are described on it and it seems great value for round here.

And it was - even the cartons seemed flashy. We had high expectations for this curry and we weren't disappointed. It took 45 minutes to arrive - always a good sign as it indicates it might be be freshly made to order. The meat was of good quality and the portions were reasonable. I was glad we'd ordered the okra as there wasn't a lot of veg in the dishes to go round. I just wished I had enough space in me to finish off the sauces as they were goooooood and we had a vibrant variety of flavours. All in all, I'd highly recommend Vojan - easily the best takeaway curry I've had in London. Vojan - you rule.

This was weird...

When I left my last job, my colleagues gave me a brilliant leaving present - a subscription to Olive magazine. I've been really looking forward to my first issue, and as I came in last night, I was thinking about eating one of the cakes I'd made before I went out. As I came in I saw that my first issue of Olive had arrived in yesterday's post. It's got a rare and juicy-looking hunk of roast beef on the front, which immediately made me feel hungry, but what I thought was odd was the insert - a little booklet of 30 irresistible cakes, with four fairy cakes decorated with buttercream on the cover. I haven't baked fairy cakes for ages, and I can't remember ever topping little cakes with buttercream before, so I just thought this was an interesting coincidence. Of all the foods to see yesterday...

Fairy cakes

When I was at school we used to go to my grandparents' for tea, once a week. My Mum disputes this, saying it wasn't anything like that often, but that's how I remember it. My grandmother would pick us up from school, give us a caramel bar each, and tell us not to tell our mother as we didn't have sweets very often at home. Then, almost without exception, we'd be spoiled with a feast of steak and homemade chips. The steak would be slathered in butter and grilled and the chips double-fried for extra oomph. We'd have something with Wall's vanilla ice-cream for pudding - usually tinned pineapple or other fruit.

But fairy cakes are the food I most associate with my grandmother. She seemed to make them all the time - squashed fly cakes (with sultanas and raisins), which were my elder brother's favourite, chocolate cakes for me. Everyone else seemed to like both. She also made butterfly cakes with whipped cream filling, scones, eclairs and lots of other amazing things for a greedy child to savour. I can't remember when I began 'helping' her bake cakes in the kitchen, but I really loved it and that experience played a great part in developing my deep passion for food.

Every now and then I feel the need to bake - I know my mum gets it too - and yesterday was one of those times. I realised I had all the right ingredients, which doesn't often happen, so I decided to bake a few chocolate fairy cakes. I didn't have any chocolate to hand to melt on the top as my gran would have done (it was always bourneville, with a cadbury's button squished in the top), but I made chocolate butter cream and added a smartie on each for a bit of colour. I've got a horrible cold so I'm not even sure I can taste them properly, but a bit of baking made me feel much better.

Bangers with mustard mash

I suppose I didn't leave it very long before more roasted sausages... Yesterday's meal was so welcome that after a late breakfast/brunch of scrambled eggs on toast, we had a 4 o'clock lunch/supper/tea of Taste the Difference Ultimate Pork Chipolatas, roasted with more onions, carrots and a courgette, served with mustard-mashed new potatoes.

I had to drain the pan again though as there was so much watery liquid - I think I might grill these sausages next time.

How did I forget about sausages?

Sausages are one of my favourite foods. And this is one of my favourite meals. I usually have it virtually every week in winter, so I'm not sure why I haven't cooked it for so long. I try not to think about what goes in to sausages, so in an attempt to minimise the rubbish we're eating I like to buy good quality sausages from farmers' markets and the butcher. Sadly, more often than not I find I don't manage it and end up buying them from supermarkets - but only their 'quality' ranges.

Rather surprisingly, a few years ago I did some taste tests with the three supermarkets near where I was living - Safeway, Tesco and Waitrose. After much testing, I found the Safeway range to shrink the least on cooking - an important quality in a sausage. And they had a great range of flavours. I thought the Waitrose range was a bit disappointing and they had very thick sausage skins which was rather unappealing, but I may have had higher expectations for their sausages than the others as their meat always seems to be good quality. I admit, I was never a big fan of buying meat in Tesco, although my brother always preferred Tesco to our local Safeway, but even he admitted the Safeway sausages beat the Tesco ones. Having written this, I'll probably find out they all are from the same supplier...

More recently, I tend to buy Sainsbury's taste the difference sausages as there are two Sainsbury's supermarkets nearby - and their Ultimate Pork Chipolatas are great. But on Friday night we cooked the packet of Taste the Difference Toulouse sausages that had been stinking out my fridge for a couple of days. I roasted them in a pan with a couple of red onions, some whole, unpeeled garlic cloves, a large carrot in batons, a courgette and most of a green pepper. They produced so much water I drained the pan a couple of times as I wanted the meal to roast, not poach - this was hugely disappointing as I'm sure they don't usually seem to be pumped with so much water.

As you can see, we had leeks in white sauce (with lots of grated nutmeg) as an accompaniment. The Toulouse sausages had a satisfyingly meaty texture and flavour and were stuffed full of garlic and herbs (unsurprisingly, after smelling them in my fridge). Despite the excess liquid produced, I like them. And as I said, I try not to think too much about what goes in them anyway. Maybe one day I'll make my own so I can be sure.

This has to be a meal I'd consider if I ever have to choose my own last supper, although I bet I'd probably forget it and choose steak instead.

And for lunch on Friday, I had...

Penne pasta with pesto, pinenuts and parmesan. And veg, but that doesn't begin with a 'p' so I thought I'd put that in the next sentence. Alliteration - every writer's friend. The veg included an onion, a courgette and a tomato. The pasta was brown, so I felt full for longer - I'm assuming I did as that's what you're supposed to find with brown pasta. I just like the more fibrous flavour and consistency, if you cook it al dente - a bit like brown rice versus white rice, as brown's just more interesting.

Anyway, I was full and felt better. I've got a cold at the moment, and as my mother always told me, 'feed and cold and starve a fever'. I tend to feed both, but I'm sure it doesn't matter.

Mmmm, veggie fajitas

This is just such a good, quick lunch. I suppose it's not really fajitas as it's not served on a sizzling plate with grated cheese and all the extras (is that what makes a fajita a fajita?), but it's warm tortillas wrapped around salsa, sour cream (or actually natural yoghurt, as it is here), warm veg stirfried with cayenne pepper, lots of garlic and sometimes some lime or lemon juice or chillis. Such nice flavours and there's something wonderful about eating a warm, soft tortilla, filled with hot and spicy food, from your hands with salsa and sour cream and the cooking juices running down your fingers. I gave myself a bit too much veg this time and it all collapsed a bit so I ended up eating it with a knife and fork and denying myself all that pleasure. It was still good though.

Update on the week's eating - Sat supper to today

We were out for dinner with friends on Saturday evening. We went to Mem & Laz, a cheap eaterie in Islington. I've only been there once before and had a fantastic aubergine nest for starters (around £3 or so - a large aubergine slice filled with roasted veg, covered with melted mozzarella) and fishcakes for mains (£6ish), and my boyfriend had a trio of deep-fried cheeses (perhaps mozzarella, brie and camembert) with cranberry sauce followed by sea bass, which came with virtually nothing at all.

We've now learnt to order the more middle-eastern food on the menu, particularly after our experience on Saturday, which really wasn't very good. I'd smelt someone cooking steak just down the road from the restaurant, so there was only one meal on my mind. They did cook it as rare as I'd asked for, which seems quite unusual these days, but it was lacking flavour and they served it with just a pile of average chips, a couple of mushrooms and a grilled tomato - no salad garnish or green at all and I felt I needed some. For £10 something, I'd expected a little better and I wished I'd had the stuffed aubergine. My boyfriend's prawn linguini was rubbish too (tasted like a Heinz shapes tomato sauce). The soup seemed ok, but could have done with some more bread, and my friend who had the kofta with rice seemed to have made the best choice as it looked good. I know to choose aubergine next time.

Sunday lunch wasn't a traditional one, although we did have it last Sunday too - a cleansing salad with anchovies, as pictured above, then another round of chicken fajitas in the evening, sadly not pictured. On Monday evening we had spaghetti bolognese, using a pot of bolognese from the freezer that I'd made on the lasagne evening last week. Tuesday, I was out for Vietnamese in Old Street with the girls. I had bun with prawns which was nice, but I thought it didn't taste of very much at all, and spring rolls to start, which were the same - maybe I was coming down with the cold I've got now.

Last night, I was out for drinks and we shared some nachos (not v. healthy) and I had some toast when I got in to soak up the booze, but couldn't sleep after that. Note to self - don't shove two slice of toast down you just before going to bed. These veggie fajitas were my lunch yesterday - there was a massive pile of veg (courgettes, peppers, onions and a few mushrooms). Oh, I think I'm going to have to have that for lunch again today, with a tortilla or two and heaps of salsa. So addictive.

Update on the week's eating - Thurs to Sat lunch

I can't believe I haven't blogged for an entire week. It's gone so fast. And I'm finding it difficult to remember everything I've eaten, which is most unusual for me. Lets think:

I had this prawn and noodle stirfry one day last week - I think it was probably Thursday as we'd been out till quite late and wanted some fast food. It was nice - I used a Blue Dragon oyster and spring onion sauce, some big prawns, chopped up veg including carrots, onions, courgettes, peppers and a lone leek, and we shared a block of sharwood's thin noodles and sprinkled it with fresh coriander. It was tasty.

On Friday lunchtime I was starving and wanted some energy food, so I made a pasta with pesto, an onion, a large courgette and cubed mozzarella (the 'light' version from Sainsbury's Be Good to Yourself - which was fine in this). Hmmm, I might have pasta and pesto today, I do fancy that.

For friday supper we had salmon, poached in the microwave in my fish steamer with semi-mashed, garlicky new potatoes, leeks in white sauce and broccoli. Sadly I don't have a photo of this meal - I must have been tired and hungry.

At the weekend my aunt came round for lunch and we gave her chicken fajitas. They were good and I realised how long it had been since I'd had fajitas. When I was a student I used to make myself veggie fajitas regularly for lunch - it was a quick, nutritious meal and tastes so good. Expect to see more tortilla-based platefuls on this blog soon!

Yesterday's food - pub lunch followed by curry - grrrrrreat!!

Mmmm, I'm practically salivating just thinking about yesterday's food. I met some friends at the White Hart for lunch (again) and this time had an open sandwich with roasted veg and goat's cheese. It was on a smallish slice of granary bread, with roasted peppers, onions and courgettes and an enormous slab of charred goat's cheese. The cheese wasn't as delicate as some, and it was a little too much for me, but it was good with the veg and bread. The salad on the side had a tangy mustard dressing which I liked
a lot and there were Salty Dog (if I'm not mistaken) crisps on the side. It was all for £4.95 - a great lunch, as you can see above.

In the evening two friends I hadn't seen for ages came round for supper armed with lots of red wine. At Christmas I had been given a packet of ready-measured spices to make 'prawns in a hot and sweet sauce' (spice packet made by Kitchen Guru) and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to sample it. The spices included were cumin seeds, a mix of ground coriander and cumin, amchoor (dried mango powder), red chilli powder, turmeric and garam masala. I also used some red chillis, lots of garlic, a green pepper, onions, tomato puree and fresh tomatoes, finely chopped. The curry was fairly dry, so I added a couple of tinned tomatoes near the end to give a bit more of a sauce.

I always think a really good curry needs a few accompaniments to ensure lots of flavours, or maybe it's just because I'm greedy, but I decided to cook a variation on brinjal bhaji (with a whole aubergine, onion, a few cherry tomatoes to add some colour, lots of garlic and cumin) to have as a side dish, and served the lot with brown rice (it was overcooked and I do apologise), garlic and coriander mini-naans, yoghurt and an onion salad. We all had seconds (and some of us, thirds) and I shall do my best to make a similar curry again, perhaps without the Kitchen Guru's help this time...

BTW, you can't see any rice in the photo but it was there (it wasn't so overcooked it was inedible or anything), but it was just hidden underneath the rest in the bowl, I promise.

Homemade lasagne

It's strange but I don't think I've ever made lasagne before. I think it's mainly because I'm too greedy when I'm making a meat sauce like bolognese and I want to eat it with spaghetti or something quick. And I do love a good spaghetti bolognese.

But tonight I fancied making lasagne, so I went out and bought some Sainsbury's organic (no need to precook) lasagne sheets. I made a big bolognese with a kilo of beef and the usual veg, the rest of pack of bacon, red wine and a couple of 'secret' ingredients (worcestershire sauce, a dash of balsamic vinegar, tabasco, a few crushed chillis, a bouquet garni) - everyone has their own special bolognese recipe, I suppose, and mine varies slightly with my mood. Anyway, I added some parmesan to the white sauce to give it a cheesy edge and layered it up with the pasta (dipped into some hot water first to give it a head start) and the meat mixture then let it bubble with some parmesan on the top for extra browning.

Happily, it worked brilliantly and wasn't half as much effort after the meat stage as I thought it might have been before I started. There's something about lasagne that's so comforting so I'm sure I'll make it again soon. In the meantime I've got three pots of bolognese to freeze for quick suppers.

Sainsbury's tomato and basil soup

It's really nice. A powerful tomato flavour with big chunks of tomato and and bits of onion, and you can see the basil, which I like. I'm not a big fan of thick, smooth soup that kind of coats your teeth and this isn't and doesn't. I don't understand why people like soup to have no bits - it's just boring. Anyway, I sometimes have half a pot but today I had a whole. And I grated lots of parmesan on the top - living dangerously!

Monday salad and stirfry

It's been a healthy day today but god I could do with an unhealthy snack RIGHT NOW. After I'd been to the gym (yes, for the first time in 2007 - it was horrible) I had a slice of toast with wholenut peanut butter, then for lunch I made a salad with the rest of the spinach, watercress and rocket and some Sainsbury's mixed salad (I like the cabbage crunch), cherry tomatoes and carrots, a raw mushroom (haven't had one of those for ages), some of the obligatory pumpkin seeds (they'll be obligatory until I finish the packet and it's a big one) and a John West tuna with a twist, (the lime and black pepper version). It was nice.

But at about 5.00 I had to have two slices of toast with peanut butter - I was starving and cold, and I fancied comfort food, but a cup of tea hadn't helped.

I had quite a late supper of tuna steak, marinated with soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and ginger on stirfried veg with a dash of soy sauce and a dash of sherry vinegar in it to give it some flavour. It was tasty and I tried to make it more rare than I have before but to be honest I didn't really notice much difference apart from what it looked like. I think I prefer the lime and chilli marinade I've used on previous occasions, but it was worth trying. Bloody hell I'm starving. Can somebody find me a big chocolate cake please?

Garlic bread...

A great evening greed-snack.

Saturday supper - a not-so-healthy meal

We spent most of this afternoon going through papers and cupboards and tidying as our flat needed a proper blitz. My dad rang in the evening and told me about two curries he's had recently - I was starving and that didn't help matters much. So we nearly got a takeaway to reward ourselves after all the work we'd done. But we had a Vietnamese on Thursday and we try not to have them too often, and reluctantly I cooked a pasta supper.

To save time I used a Sacla tomato and marscarpone sauce, which we had with extra onions, green pepper, courgette, garlic and a few halved cherry tomatoes. At the last minute, when I drained the wholewheat pasta (which I now prefer to white pasta, unless I'm making a cream-based sauce - I think you need something spicy to stand up to the stronger, more fibrous flavour of the wholewheat variety), I added a big load of cubed mozzarella (hence the not-so-healthy meal). I grated parmesan on the top and added a bit of black pepper. I thought it was a bit flavourless, but I've still got a bit of a cold so I hope that's why. It was big and warm though, which was just what we wanted.

Saturday white anchovy salad - a healthy lunch

This morning we had the hangover after the night before and, having slept it off for ages, we felt we needed some seriously healthy food for lunch. We decided on marinated anchovies (they were packaged in a little pot from Waitrose - expensive but well worth it) on a bed of spinach, watercress and rocket leaves, cherry tomatoes and a few pinenuts and pumpkin seeds as they were so good and crunchy on my salad yesterday. We didn't need any dressing as the anchovies are so powerful and delicious.

I can't eat those horrible little brown and hairy anchovies from tins - they just taste so wrong - but these silver little fillets from Waitrose (or I've seen them at olive stalls in posh markets) are simply amazing. They're pretty, they taste powerfully vinegary, they're smooth and fresh-looking AND they're so good for you, full of all the fish oils and all that. I wish we had them more often... happily I've got another tub of them in the fridge, so I know I won't have to wait long.

Friday food (b) salmon with sweet pototo mash, leeks in white sauce and broccoli

Mmmmm, this was great. And it looks so nice and colourful. It was quite quick too - I simmered the peeled and cubed sweet spuds while I made leeks in white sauce. The salmon took about 4 minutes in the microwave, steamed above some milk, with a slice of lemon on top of each, and I bunged the broccoli in with the sweet potatoes to simmer for a few minutes before I served (to create as little washing up as possible). Lovely, especially with a glass of white wine - who cares about January detox anymore? Not me it seems...

Friday food (a) pork and pumpkin seed salad

For lunch on Friday I had this rather unappetising-looking meal - a cold pork salad. I'd defrosted the pork to have on Thursday night, but when I got round to cooking I really felt knackered and couldn't be bothered, and my boyfriend couldn't either, so we got a delicious takeaway from the local Vietnamese (singapore noodles, crispy beef and squid in tamarind sauce). But I'd defrosted the pork, so before I went to bed I cooked it up with some onions and garlic, a touch of sherry vinegar and soy sauce and, after cooling, left it in the fridge for the next day.

So, I had half the pork/onion mixture for lunch on Friday with a pack of Sainsbury's crispy salad, sprinkled with pumpkin seeds and pinenuts, some cherry tomatoes (I have no idea why I arranged them around the plate 70's style) and a drizzle of toasted sesame oil and balsamic vinegar. It was big, quite filling, and tastier than it looks.

Tuna steak - mmmmmmmm

I've just realised I never blogged about this. I ate it on Monday night. I marinated the tuna steak in a garlic/ginger/chilli/lemon/ coriander mixture then griddled it over a high heat and served it with stirfry veg (again), pak choi with soy sauce and brown rice. Quick and oh so tender and tasty.

Another prawn stirfry

I seem to have prawn stirfrys a lot, but they're always so nice I don't think it matters. It has to be the quickest hot meal possible. Well, I can't think of any freshly-made meal that might steal that crown at the moment. If you can, let me know.

Anyway, last night I broke a New Year's resolution (the main one in fact). It started off as 'let's not drink in January', an idea we felt was good for our wallets, our sanity and our health. Then a planned evening with friends last Friday meant it morphed into 'let's not drink in the week in January and only once at the weekend'. But last night a friend came over to sort out some stuff on my computer and suggested we meet in the pub first as he was in the mood for celebrating. I put up a big of a struggle, but I confess, not enough. A glass or two of red wine or two later, I realised I'd promised to cook a meal so we could eat by 7.15 and go out. There was nothing for it but to rush home and make a prawn stirfry with whatever was in the fridge.

I used a pack of Sainsbury's crunchy salad, a couple of onions, a red pepper, an aubergine, Sainsbury's king prawns, two blocks of Sharwood's egg noodles and a Blue Dragon Oyster and spring onion sauce. It was ready in ten minutes and easily enough for the three of us - perfect.

Vojan, 422 St. John Street, Islington, London EC1V 4NJ

I'm delighted to have found a good curry house in Islington. I've tried a few in the area but they've all been disappointing. Until Vojan. I met a friend who works in Angel for lunch today and she suggested we try Vojan's lunch menu. I've got a stinking cold and thought a curry would be just the thing.

It was. I had an Empress Delight - chunks of chicken tikka with sauteed onions, peppers, tomato and coriander, served with naan and salad. A fantastic dish, it was clearly freshly made, using good quality ingredients. It was filling enough to make me feel like I'd been out for a proper lunch, all for only £4.95. Amazing. My friend had barbecued fish (I think it was salmon), served with a veg curry, rice and a naan. Hers looked good too (£4.95 also). The service was friendly, and they gave us each one of their own minty chocolates with our bill - I know some might consider it tacky, but I love it when places do that. I'd take chocolate over a nasty shot of amaretto any day. I took a copy of their takeaway menu and it looks like it's very good value in the evenings too - I'm going to remember this place.

Sunday supper of beef and ale casserole

A casserole on a chilly day seems like proper home cooking. I think I've blogged about this one before too - it's a really nice recipe from the Waitrose website, with a bottle of Timothy Taylor's ale and balsamic vinegar. I add mushrooms, sometimes use whole shallots instead of onions and thicken the sauce with some extra flour if I feel like it. Last time I made it I used the gloriously thick Belazu balsamic vinegar (the food of the Gods - it's expensive but worth every penny - it's just sublime drizzled over a tomato salad) and it didn't work as well as before, when I used a cheap one, so I specifically bought a horrible, thin Balsamic vinegar from Sainsbury's purely for cooking purposes. This seemed to give a better result.

I left the casserole doing its stuff in the oven for a good 2 hours, and served it with lightly mashed new potatoes with garlic and olive oil, carrots and broccoli. It was lovely, and we ate less than half of it so there's loads in a pot in the freezer for another day. I was pleased - I'd bought Sainsbury's be good to yourself casserole steak with a little trepidation (I made a spag bol with their BGTY mince once and it was horrible, grisly and flavourless) but it was beautifully tender and tasty.

Tuna salad lunch

On a normal Sunday I would have a large lunch, ideally followed by a sleep for an hour or so, then a lightish supper. This Sunday we reversed it. I couldn't sleep at all on Saturday night and gave up trying at about 6 o'clock - but then slept heavily for four hours from about 10 in the morning, just the time when I was going to make a casserole. So we had a tuna salad for lunch. I can't be bothered to say much about it as it's quite a regular meal for us so I'm sure I've blogged about it before. But here some of it is, in a bowl. I would have added olives (and more lettuce) if we had some, but we didn't.

Tamarind king prawns

I love this meal. I know it's not very food-sluttish of me, but I'm making a concerted effort to eat more healthily this month after the gluttony of Christmas. And this meal feels and looks healthy.

While I was cooking some brown rice, I marinated a pack of king prawns in a big bowl with lots of freshly grated ginger, 3 cloves of finely chopped garlic, the juice of a lemon (lime's even better), a jar of Bart's tamarind paste (sometimes I just use half but today I thought 'sod it, I'll put it all in'), a pinch of crushed chilies and some black pepper. This meal is good with a mixture of veg, but today I added finely chopped red pepper, carrot and red onion to the bowl. Then I fished the prawns out of the marinade/veg mix. I simmered the veg and most of its marinade in the sauce, adding the prawns to warm through at the end. It's great served on top of some brown rice (for the nutty flavour and texture - white rice would be rubbish) with a wedge of lime.

NYE supper of prawns and Dover sole

Wow, our brains are going to be healthy in 2007 with this amount of seafood. We had an early supper to line our stomachs and allow enough drinking time. The starter was big prawns, simply cooked with garlic and ginger (see them in the pan below), served with a bit of the bread from the day before to mop up the juices and a squeeze of lemon. They were meaty and so, so tasty. Prawns (and scallops) are easily my favourite seafood - not the tiny, flavourless supermarket prawns, but big, fresh prawns like these that pack a bit of a punch.

For mains we had our big Dover sole, grilled with lots of butter and dismembered by me (sorry - I forgot to photograph it before I served the fish on our plates) with lightly mashed new potatoes smothered in garlic and olive oil (I'd chopped the garlic earlier in the evening and left it in the olive oil to flavour it and save time later - I was quite proud of that trick!), simple leeks and I thought I'd add some colour by finishing off the cherry tomatoes with a bit of balsamic vinegar.

We didn't have any pudding - having had a load more to drink and danced around we just forgot, I think, although we had bought some cheese to nibble on later.

Prawns changing colour in the pan

I just love the way they start off such a glorious blue and turn so pink, so quickly. It's like magic and never fails to fascinate me. You can see them just starting to turn pink at their tails. They're in the pan in a bit of olive oil and lots of chopped ginger and garlic.

Scallop and bacon salad - healthy?

This was our scallop and bacon salad. It felt pretty healthy. I love the contrasts of delicate scallops with crispy, salty bacon and salad. Just thinking about it is making me hungry.

Veggie pasta supper

On Thursday night we'd had a big tapas meal with my family, and we guzzled a lot of Spanish wine. The tapas included bruschetta with smoked salmon, white anchovies and pimento pepper, asparagus wrapped in proscuttio, marinated garlic cloves, king prawns wrapped in bacon, then in a sliver of courgette, served hot, meatballs in a tomato sauce, omlette and new potatoes lightly mashed with lots of garlic and olive oil. Sadly, I didn't take any photos, and I was far too drunk to blog about it later. But we had lots of the tomato sauce from the meatballs left over and I took this away with us for a quick supper. On Saturday night we had it, with aubergine, red onion, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, more garlic and penne pasta. Very filling.

Mussels for Saturday lunch

Well, we were by the sea, so fish was on the menu. We went to the beach-side fishmonger in the morning but sadly they didn't have mussels, although we did get big, raw prawns and a large Dover sole to share for our New Year's Eve dinner. The local Waitrose did provide the mussels though, and I felt a little foolish knowing those mussels had probably travelled most of the country before getting back to the seaside, but I guess that's how it all works. We also managed to buy some scallops at great expense in Waitrose, as the fishmonger didn't have any in.

For lunch I cooked the mussels in white wine and lots of garlic, adding double cream, a touch of butter and fresh parsley and tarragon at the end. We sliced a delicious organic brown loaf from Waitrose (look out for them if you live near a Waitrose) to dip in the sauce and eat on the side, thickly spread with butter. The mussels were good, but slighly flabby - I don't think it was my cooking, at least I hope it wasn't - perhaps it was something to do with they way they were rope-grown, as I usually buy 'wild' ones, if I can.

Friday Sunday Tea - a Tandoori Hut curry special

You'd think I'd be too full to eat a proper supper after my Friday Sunday lunch of roast beef and afters, but no! It was still the Christmas season - any excuse for overindulgence. My boyfriend and I went away to the seaside for a short New Year holiday on Friday afternoon and as there was no internet connection there, I'm having to update all my meals now. We arrived when it was dark and ordered a curry from the excellent curry house there. Here's my plate. I was stuffed and didn't manage to eat much of the garlic naan but manfully finished the rest. On my plate you can see, clockwise from the top, a scarily coloured chicken tikka masala, pilau rice (also scarily coloured in places), king prawn jalfrezi (nice and spicy with lots of green chillis), sag aloo (spinach and potatoes), garlic naan and in the centre brinjal bhaji (fried aubergine) and a bit of the end of the onion salad we'd had with poppadoms. Did you think we didn't have poppadoms with mint sauce and all the trimmings to start? Would a takeaway curry be acceptable without them? Of course not. Oohh, and the garlic naan was great dipped in a bit of cold curry in the morning - a fab breakfast.