May 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 May: new (to me) books read: 5; books re-read: 1
Favourite Book in May: Toffee by Sarah Crossan

in April: new (to me) books read: 6; books re-read:  0
Favourite Book in April: A Boy and his Dog at the End of the World, C A Fletcher

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

In May, I read:

• Another book which we'll be doing next year in Year 6 (Call of the Wild, Jack London) - I read this many years ago, but barely remembered it, as it has been so long, and a book which a younger year group is reading (Secrets of a Sun King, Emma Carroll).
• The third book in a series I've been making my way through (slowly) (The Golden Cage, JD Oswald)
• A young adult title I picked up back when we could go to bookshops, because it sounded promising (Toffee, Sarah Crossan)
• And a fantasy novel Alex gave me for Mothers' Day (The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders)

Book 35: The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders

This one was a Mothers Day present from Alex - I won't pretend I didn't help him browse through stuff which looked promising, though.  There were aspects of this I liked a lot, and some of it, I found it hard to get my head around - with some fantasy/SF it does help not to try to work out how stuff works, but just accept that it does. Anyway, I enjoyed it.

(Mothers Day gift, 2020)

Dinner, 31/5/20: Lemon Chicken with Asparagus, Roast Potatoes & Roast Turnips

Had a small amount of asparagus in our veggie box this week, which is always nice - and lots of turnips, so I've roasted the turnips with some potatoes, just in chunks with some spices - they are really excellent that way. Nice!

Dinner, 30/5/20: Pea, Courgette & Feta Fritters

I love a fritter, of most types (though I don't make deep fried ones in my own house) - these are one we've had a number of times before, and work well when you've got a lot of courgettes hanging about.

Dinner, 29/5/20: Sri Lankan Bean Curry

The recipe here used runner beans, but we had other beans which needed using, and it's not quite runner bean season yet, so we subbed in regular green beans, which were awesome here. I'm sure runner beans would be good, too.  Really nice flavour.

Dinner, 27/5/20: Pizzas!

Everyone loves a homemade pizza (and a takeaway pizza too, let's be honest). Another nice thing about pizzas, in addition to the fact that they are awesome, is that they are adjustable to everyone's taste - meat/no meat, spicy/less spicy, mushrooms/no mushrooms and so on.  This is my pizza - it's white (no tomato sauce) but with smoked tomatoes from the farmers' market. It has parma ham, jalapenos, mushrooms, artichokes and cheese as well. Tasty! I didn't get photos of everyone else's pizzas.

Dinner, 26/5/20: Black Bean Burritos

A common meal in our house - black beans and tomatoes, with a variety of toppings - peppers & onions, lettuce or spinach, cheese (or cheeze) for those who want, jalapenos, various hot sauces, etc. Versatile and tasty!

Dinner: 25/5/20: Burgers, Oven Potatoes, Courgette, Fennel & Turnip Salad

We used a recipe from the Riverford cookbook to make this salad/slaw. The original recipe uses kohlrabi, but we had a glut of turnips, so we used those instead and it worked very well. Otherwise it's just burgers (bean or meat depending) and some spicy oven chips. A nice patio meal!

Book 34: Secrets of a Sun King, Emma Carroll

Another book which I was reading for school - not for year 6, but another year, going through to look for vocabulary, etc. Fun!

Dinner, 24/5/20: Vegetable Biryani

Tonight's dinner was a case of working out what needed using from the fridge - I had a package of green beans (got two in the shopping when I only ordered one) and half a cauliflower (it was a huge cauliflower, so our other cauliflower meal only needed half). Add some sweet potato, rice & cashews and it's one of our standards - a vegetable biryani - with lots of pickles and chutneys and some nice crispy poppadoms. Yum.

Dinner, 23/5/20: Tofu & Miso Ramen Bowl

Gotta love a nice soup bowl with noodles - this has cabbage in it as well as the tofu and noodles. Yum.

Dinner, 22/5/20: Cheeseburger Quesadillas

These are a family favourite, though we no longer use beef mince to make them - this time we used turkey mince. Liv made something different, in a quesadilla. We love the combination of mince, mustard, pickles and cheese though - and gotta love those 5 ingredient meals!  Plus a salad this time.

Dinner, 21/5/20: Lentil Bolognese

A lovely slow-cooked lentil sauce with papardelle. Yum.

Dinner, 20/5/20: Crusted Polenta Tart with Peso & Courgette

This isn't my photo of this dish -I forgot to take a photo until it was on my plate, and it didn't firm up quite as much as it should have, so it was a bit messy. But it tasted great. Next time, I'll be sure to leave it to sit a bit longer out of the oven to really firm up - but we all really liked the taste of the polenta base, just wanted it a little less gloopy.  Recipe from BBC Good Food. No real vegan option to this; Liv just got her own meal.

Book 33: Toffee, Sarah Crossan

I do enjoy a good bookshop browse (who doesn't) - this I found on the table in the young adult section of the shop and the premise sounded interesting. I enjoyed it; it was a quick read as the chapters are more poetry than prose, so it was fairly short. An interesting story which raises issues on many levels.

(Bought in Waterstones Wimbledon, 21.2.20)

Dinner, 19/5/20: Roasted new carrots, cauliflower and grains

This one uses the carrots with the tops, cauliflower with the stems and leaves,and various other bits and pieces. Nice to have a dish which incorporates bits which might otherwise get thrown away...

Dinner, 18/5/20: Artichoke, Olive & Lemon Pasta

One of our quick classic weeknight suppers - easy and tasty. Ticks all the boxes. Can be served with grated cheese, if you wish...

Dinner, 17/5/20: Potato and Carrot Hash, Roast New Potatoes & Broccoli, Salad

Dinner, 16/5/20: Grilled Courgettes with Almond Pesto, Roast Beetroot, Potato Salad

 

We had a lot of different veggies that just wanted using, so these were some dishes to use them up. The main dish was the grilled courgettes - the pesto was made from almonds and pine nuts and was from the cookbook Mildred's Vegan (from Mildred's restaurant). The potato salad I just made up - it has a sort of salsa verde on it - capers and herbs and an oil and vinegar dressing rather than mayonnaise - and the roast beetroot is just roast beetroot. A nice summery meal.

Dinner, 14/5/20: Penne alla Amatriciana

This is a firm favourite in our house - the sauce is onions, chili, red wine and, when appropriate, bacon.  In this case, I cooked the bacon separately and then added it after taking out Liv's portion. Still gorgeous, even without the bacon!

Dinner, 13/5/20: Assemble your own Dinner Salad

So this was a works-for-everyone salad - lots of ingredients which people can then choose between - and some lovely crusty bread.  The only non-vegan ingredients were a little cooked chicken and some crumbled feta; everything else was vegan-friendly anyway (because it's salad). It also suits the people who don't eat avocado or raw tomatoes or whatever. 

Book 32: The Golden Cage, J D Oswald

The third in a series I've been reading. It's fantasy, but set largely from the point of view of the dragon(s), which makes it slightly different. The secondary characters are getting more and more interesting, which is a great sign, I think...

Dinner, 12/5/20: Firecracker vegan lettuce wraps

These have noodles inside, and crispy tofu; the sauce is a sort of satay sauce. We also had broccoli salad along the side.  Very tasty, but messy to make and eat. 

Dinner, 11/5/20: Roast Vegetables, Crusty Bread

Had a variety of vegetables lurking around wanting to be used, and another box due tomorrow, so it was a great time for a simple dinner of roast vegetables and crusty bread, with an optional sprinkle of feta for those who wanted it. We've got rainbow carrots, some squash, beetroot, courgettes, two kinds of peppers. Gorgeous!

Dinner, 10/5/20: Squash, Butterbean and Purple Sprouting Broccoli Stew

Another butterbean stew (this also has some cannelini beans in it). The other one we eat quite often has lots of tomatoes, so this is a nice option for something similar but different. Optional feta sprinkle for those who wanted it.

Dinner, 9/5/20: Chili, Garlic and Chard Fusili

Served with some crusty bread. I threw some sun-dried tomatoes in here as well. 

Dinner, 8/5/20: Chicken Wings, Chard, Potatoes

Olivia had veggie sausage rolls instead of the chicken wings. Normally I don't do a lot of meals where there's a big chunk of meat and Liv has a substitute, but from time to time, we go down that road.  In normal times, we simply wait until Liv has something in her social schedule which means she won't be home for dinner, and have a meat meal then if we want something with meat. Obviously, that's not really possible at the moment...

Dinner, 7/5/20: Spring Pilau with Asparagus, Fennel and Pea

This is from the Meera Sodha cookbook, East, and it was tasty, though a little bit lacking in zing. Nice to have the spring asparagus, though.

Dinner, 6/5/20: Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili

This was very tasty - the sweet potato was roasted in the oven, then added into the slow-cooked chili base, with the black beans, right near the end. Loved the pumpkin seeds for texture as well. 

Book 31: Call of the Wild, Jack London

This is a book we are reading next year in year 6. I read it many many moons ago - perhaps when I was about that age myself - but remembered very little about it, so wanted to visit it again in advance of teaching it. I wonder what the kids will make of it?  It's quite exciting, but also fairly brutal and violent, and a bit old-fashioned in places. It will be interesting to see what they think...

Dinner, 5/5/20: Green lentil and Spinach Curry with Red Rice

This was really nice, very comfort-foody, and the red rice was great with it, because it gave a contrasting texture with a little bite to it. 

Dinner, 4/5/20: Sausages, Mash, Cabbage

Meat for the meat eaters, veggie sausges for the vegan...

Dinner, 3/5/20: Carrot & Chickpea Tagine

Middle Eastern spices liven up what is essentially a carrot stew; served with couscous.

Dinner, 2/5/20: Spiced Pea and Potato Cakes; Courgettes

With some Indian type spices - the dressing is a herby yogurt (you can easily use a non-dairy yogurt for vegans; we did). 

April Round Up

WHAT WAS FOR DINNER, APRIL 2020

• 30th: Roast Cauliflower with Caper Dressing
• 29th: Sausage Rolls, New Potatoes, Braised Cardoons
• 28th: Chard and New Potato Curry
• 27th: Lime & Ginger Udon Noodles
• 26th: Mixed Vegetable Rosti
• 25th: Vegetable Soup
• 24th: Tomato Tart/Artichoke Tart
• 23rd: Kidney Bean Curry
• 22nd: Burgers, Oven Chips, Sweet Corn, Asparagus
• 21st: Pasta with Cavolo Nero
• 20th: Rustic Beans & Spinach with Garlic Yogurt
• 19th: Roast Pork, Roast Potatoes, Chard
• 18th: Sticky Sesame Tofu
• 17th: Malaysian Sweet Potato Curry
• 16th: Fusili with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Prawns
• 15th: Green "Gumbo"
• 14th: Breakfast for Dinner
• 13th: Leftovers
• 12th: Whole Merguez Spiced Roast Cauliflower
• 11th: Root Vegetable Stew with Dumplings
• 10th: Mushroom Risotto
• 9th: Butter Bean Stew with Pretzel Rolls
• 8th: Creole Spiced Chicken & Courgette Traybake
• 7th: Bean Burritos
• 6th: Sausages, Peas, Spiced Wedges
• 5th: Burnt Aubergine Chili
• 4th: Creamy Mushroom Pasta
• 3rd: Curried Carrot Fritters
• 2nd: Vegan Hotpot
• 1st: Potato, Onion & Watercress Soup