March Book Update

This year, I'm just going to keep track of books I read as I go through the year - not worrying about how many books I have waiting to be read or anything like that. So each month's roundup will just be a picture collage showing the books I've read, with a running tally for each month. I think I'll break down new (to me) books and re-reading as well. And maybe pick a favourite each month. This could change as the year goes on... Once again, I'll set my goal as 100 books - it's about what I have time for, more or less.

So, in March:  new (to me) books read: 5; books re-read:  5
Favourite Book in March: The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt och Dag

in February:  new (to me) books read: 6; books re-read:  0
Favourite Book in February: Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus

in January:  new (to me) books read: 6; books re-read: 3
Favourite book in January:  Once Upon a River, Diane Setterfield

• I re-read an old favourite, which I was reminded of for some reason (Beauty, Robin McKinley)
• I read a couple of children's books - one which my class is reading, one which was sitting in my pile to go into schoool (Auggie & Me, R J Palacion; Tom's Midnight Garden, Philippa Pearce)
• I read a teen distopian novel - not sure if I will continue with the series, though I did enjoy the book (Unwind, Neal Shusterman)
• I read a book from my pile by an author I always enjoy (Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver)
• I re-read a couple more standbys, while working through Unsheltered and not quite feeling up to more serious reading (Summer of the Dragon, Elizabeth Peters; The Heroine's Sister, Frances Murray)
• I read a book (in translation, not speaking Swedish myself) passed on to me by a friend (The Wolf and the Watchman, Niklas Natt och Dag)
• I re-read two books which year 6 will be doing again next year - with an aim towards pulling out vocabulary and generating comprehension questions (read parts more than twice, but I'm not counting that!) (Skellig by David Almond, Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley)

Book 24: The Wolf and the Watchman, Niklas Natt och Dag

A historical crime novel set in late 18th century Sweden - often not a comfortable read, but an excellent story - interesting characters and an insight into the history of another country at a time when we are often focused on the UK. Passed on to me by a friend with a Swedish husband, who read it in the Swedish original (the husband) and highly recommended it. If this is what the author can do in a first novel, I certainly look forward to more!

Dinner, 31/3/20: Pasta with Courgette, Tomato, Wild Garlic & Pine Nuts

Tonight's pasta dish was dictated by what veggies we had in the fridge that wanted using. A nice, spring-like dish.  Hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate with this feeling of spring in the air...

Dinner, 30/3/20: Homemade Pizza

Another meal which can be tweaked to suit one's own preferences - meat (or not), cheese (or not), mushrooms (or not) and so on.  Yum. 

Books 22, 23: Skellig, Tales of Terror

 

Both of these are books which we'll be doing in year 6 next year. We've done them before, but I re-read them as part of a vocabulary gathering prep for next year - I'll probably read them again before I'm through, as I'll also be helping to develop comprehension questions, but I won't count them again.

Dinner, 29/3/20: Maple Glazed Salted Parsnips, Mash & Beanburgers (or Lamb Cutlets), Homemade Bread

So, here's an example of a meal which caters to the vegan and non-vegan aspects of the family.  I had a small package of lamb cutlets from the farmers' market, which, even if everyone ate meat (Liv doesn't) or liked lamb (Sarah doesn't), wouldn't have been enough. Usually, in our week, there is at least one night when everyone has to cook for themselves, and often on those nights, Geoff will eat something like that.  But of course, we are all in for dinner every night at the moment. So, Alex and Geoff had the lamb chops (because I don't really mind not eating meat, even though I'm not  a vegetarian) and the girls and I had some spicy bean burgers. The lovely roast parsnips, with maple syrup, chili flakes and sea salt were gorgeous, the mashed potato was good and Liv made some homemade bread as well. Tasty!

Dinner, 28/3/20: Cauliflower, Sweet Potato & Chickpea Curry

Dinner, 27/3/20: Broad Bean and Blue Cheese Risotto

After today, Liv will be home as well, so a lot more of our meals will be vegan or have a vegan-friendly option. We don't eat much meat anyway as a family, but we do use eggs, cheese, etc a lot.  In some cases, it's an easy optional extra, but there are things which we will just avoid while Liv is home.  Though she has kindly offered to just make her own meal if there's something non-vegan we are simply dying to eat.

Dinner, 26/3/20: Chicken Soup with pasta

Using the stock from the roast chicken bones, plus a bit of chicken, some pak choi we had in the house and some tiny pasta (which has all sunk to the bottom of course, so you can't see it!)

Dinner, 25/3/20: Greek Style Chicken Salad

A salad with olives, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, etc - and the leftover roast chicken from the other day. 

Dinner, 24/3/20: Frittata with peppers & onions

...and other things like chilis, wild garlic, etc. 

Dinner, 23/3/20: Roast Chicken, Potatoes, PSB

Sarah asked for a roast chicken, and once we found one in the shop (took a couple of tries), we went for it. We'll have the leftover meat later in the week and use the bones for stock for risotto or soup some time after that. (Liv's not home yet, so she needn't feel left out on the meal front...)

Dinner, 22/3/20: Spag bol with garlic bread & salad

As it was Mothers' Day, I didn't cook - Geoff cooked (the kids could have done it, but we weren't really sure who was going to be home and who wasn't when we planned, and anyway, as long as it wasn't me who had to do it...)

Dinner, 21/3/20: Clementine Roasted Root Vegetables with Pan Fried Salmon

My photo of this was terrible, so I've nicked one from the website of the cookbook (Bish Bash Bosh) - the veg were really nice, and so was the salmon, even though it stuck to the pan (salmon not from the recipe).  Here's a link if you want to cook this yourself.

Dinner, 20/3/20: Honey, Soy & Ginger Braised Tofu

A recipe from the Cookbook East by Meera Sodha - if you are vegan, just change the honey for something else.  Delicious!  I served it with thin little soba noodles and some pak choi and it was lovely.

Dinner, 18/3/20: Roasted Cauliflower "Carbonara"

Not a strict carbonara, of course, as it uses cream rather than just eggs and cheese, but it worked really well - the roasted cauliflower was nice, of course - always is - but the real star here were the hazelnuts (or perhaps the hazelnuts and the cauliflower in combination). Recipe from BBC Good Food.

Book 21: Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver

As usual, very good, though in places, a bit hard to read as it deals with issues like an older relative who is reactionary and a support of a certain politician, extreme capitalism, environmental distress, etc. And the part set in the Victorian era makes you want to throttle people and throw books at them (but in a good way). 

Dinner, 17/3/20: Spinach Pie

A little different from the traditional Spanakopita - this has spinach, feta, eggs & spring onion in it (and filo pasty), which are my basics for this kind of pie - but also in this case, the rest of the cavolo nero from the weekend and a small handful of new potatoes (pre-cooked).  

Dinner, 16/3/20: Cauliflower, Chickpea and Spinach Curry

So simple - just some cauliflower, a tin of chickpeas, and some chopped spinach (at the end), with part of a jar of curry paste.  And really tasty, too!

Dinner, 15/3/20: Lentil Shepherd's Pie with Squash & Swede

This was fantastic. No recipe, just made it up (just carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, brown lentils, with some herbs).  Used a swede and a small butternut squash on the top, which was a great combination of toppings - really liked the way the two veg worked together. Highly yummy!

Dinner, 14/3/20: Sole, Cavolo Nero, Sweet Potatoes

Fish and kale from the farmers' market, sweet potatoes from the veggie box. Yum.

Dinner, 13/3/20: Chicken Curry (Geoff cooking)

Geoff cooked this one, as I had to drop Alex off in the middle of nowhere around dinner time. It was great to come home to a house which smelled of lovely curry, and then have a nice bowl of yum to tuck into. In the end, I didn't even make any rice, just ate the curry with flatbread.

Dinner, 10/3/20: Pasta with artichokes and wild garlic

Book 20: The Heroine's Sister, Frances Murray (re-read)

Another re-read, on a lazy Sunday afternoon/evening (finished up the next day). 

Dinner, 9/3/20: Asian Steamed Chicken Dumplings with Spiralized Veg

Dinner, 8/3/20: Stuffed Peppers

This was a different take on stuffed peppers -stuffed with new potatoes, cheese and pesto (from the book Veg by Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall). We really liked this - a nice alternative to stuffing with rice or couscous or some other grain. I made extra of the stuffing as I had enough, so we had a little on the side as well. And a green salad.

Book 19: Summer of the Dragon, Elizabeth Peters (re-read)

Elizabeth Peters writes great lighthearted suspense - witty and fun.  I have another, more serious, book on the go, but sometimes I just want something a little fluffier...  Like the reading equivalent of mac & cheese or grilled cheese - comfort reading.

Dinner, 7/3/20: Squash and Bacon Risotto

I had two cute little butternut squashes in my veggie box this week, so one of them went into this risotto. The other, still lurking for next week.  Not sure how I will use it - I'm sure I'll think of something!

Dinner, 6/3/20: Cauliflower Cheese with sautee potatoes

Using the whole cauliflower, including the leaves and stalks from the outside, as well as a couple of bits of broccoli which were knocking around in the freezer.

Dinner, 4/3/20: Penne and roasted veg in basil sauce

The roasted veg here were peppers and fennel - this was very nice. We'd had it ages ago, and then not recently, and forgotten how nice the veg were roasted, especially the fennel. Served with garlic bread. Yum.

Book 18: Tom's Midnight Garden, Philippa Pearce

Another children's book, which was waiting on my pile of things to go into my classroom. This is a classic, but I'd never read it - I enjoyed it. 

Dinner, 3/3/20: Quinoa with courgettes & onions

I'd made this before and forgotten about it (I was looking for something to help use a glut of onions) - remembered partway through making it that although we liked it last time, we felt it needed something a bit more, rather than being a supper on its own. However, this time it seemed to work better by itself - not sure why - maybe it was having it in a bowl - seemed more like a meal in itself.  I know it sounds funny, but it's true!

Dinner, 2/3/20: Indian Spiced Sweet Potato Wraps

We really like these - the quick pickled onion adds a lovely piquancy as well. Yogurt can be added, if you like, or not, if you are keeping it vegan.

Book 17: Unwind, Neal Shusterman

This is a teen fiction, distopian novel - the start of a series. I'm not sure I'm going to read the whole series, but it was enjoyable. 

(bought from Abe Books, November 2019)

Dinner, 1/3/20: Spinach and Ricotta Pizza Bianco

Not much to say about this one, other than yum.

Book 16: Auggie & Me, R J Palacio

This is a companion book to Wonder, but not a sequel - just an exploration of what's happening in the lives of three of the characters in Wonder, alongside their interactions with Auggie.  My class is using it as a homework reading book, so I thought I'd better read it. I enjoyed it - it was a nice addition to the universe of Wonder.

Be More Eco 6: In the bathroom

One of the major things we are trying to do, as I've mentioned before, is to reduce our plastic consumption - a lot of this focuses on bottles (as does a lot of the attention in the media). But there are lots of other ways we are trying to be more eco-friendly in our house - here are some of the ones for the bathroom.  I have always, since it became available, bought toilet roll made from recycled paper.  Recently, I've been buying from Who Gives a Crap because of their additional credentials - building toilets in impoverished places, etc.  I've also tried to buy recycled paper tissues (we can't do without tissues in our house - 4 out of 5 of us have hayfever, for one thing!) - Sainsbury's always has recycled tissues, but only in this shape box. Recently, I've bought the other (more cube-shaped) size from Who Gives a Crap as well. 

This is one of Olivia's projects - she stopped using cotton pads and/or face wipes and made her own from old towels and t-shirts. After you've taken off your makeup or cleaned your face, these just go in the wash and get reused over and over.

Toothbrushes - three of us have switched to bamboo from plastic. The guys like the electric toothbrush (I know they are supposed to be better, but I hate them!) so they use disposable heads - but recently I've seen some ads for heads made from recycled plastic, so I might check that out.

This is Alex's razor - it still takes cartridges, which you have to throw away, but it's better than disposable ones - small steps!

My razor takes plain razor blades - wasn't sure how I'd like using it, but it works fine - I manage not to cut myself any more with this than I did with any other kind.

This is one of my favourite things - I've been wanting one of these for a while, before I got around to getting one. It's a little string bag that you put the tiny end bits of soap in, and hey presto - it turns into a scrubby thing with soap inside. Uses up all those awkward little bits of soap.  And you can see my wooden scrub brush on the side. 

I'm sure there are lots of other ways to improve your environmental footprint in the bathroom; these are just what we've done to do our part.

February Round Up

WHAT WAS  FOR DINNER, FEBRUARY 2020

• 29th: Beetroot & Coconut Curry
• 28th: Dinner out (Anniversary)
• 27th: Fend for yourself Thursday
• 26th: Pea & Courgette Fritters
• 25th: Broccoli with butterbeans and pine nuts, carrots
• 24th: Black Bean Burritos
• 23rd: Goat Cheese and Pesto Canneloni
• 22nd: Gang Show (K & A out)
• 21st: Oriental Veg & Noodles
• 20th: Gang Show (K & A out)
• 19th: Gang Show (K & A out)
• 18th: Gang Show (K & A out)
• 17th: Roast Squash, Broccoli Salad, Salmon
• 16th: Parsnip Pilaf
• 15th: Sweet & Sour Crispy Tofu
• 14th: Thai curry with hearts of palm
• 13th: Fend for yourself Thursday
• 12th: Ravioli with Artichoke Sauce
• 11th: Cauliflower, Broccoli & Blue Cheese Soup
• 10th: Prawn and Courgette Curry
• 9th: Potato and Onion Gratin, Salad
• 8th: Spiced Parsnip Bubble and Squeak Cake
• 7th: Carrot and Chickpea Tagine
• 6th: Fend for yourself Thursday
• 5th: Bang Bang Chicken
• 4th: Vegetable Jalfrezi
• 3rd: Curried Carrot Fritters, Brussels Flowers
• 2nd: Roasted Squash with bacon and feta
• 1st: Cod, Swiss Chard, Oven Chips