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.