Dinner, 28/10/20: Burrito Bowl

A bit like a burrito, but instead of wrapped up, everything is in the bowl (rice underneath, but you can't see it here).  This one had, besides the rice, some spicy sweet potato, black beans, peppers and onions, avocado, pickled jalapenos, pumpkin seeds, and various hot sauces to choose from, if you so wished. Plus cheese for those who wanted it. Yum.

 

Book 75: Wings of Fire, Charles Todd

Second in this series, which I've recently started reading after picking up a mid-title at my mother's house last time I visited. I'm enjoying them. Interesting premise, and good plotting.

 

Dinner, 27/10/20: Orichiette with Brussels Sprouts and Pancetta

Another fun use for Brussels Sprouts. Yum.

 

Dinner, 25/10/20: Toad in Hole, Purple Carrots, Savoy Cabbage

Mini toad in the holes - served with savoy cabbage and purple carrots. We've had purple carrots in our veggie box several times (and I've bought them at the farmers' market) - they taste like regular carrots but a little more earthy. These were the purplest I've ever seen, though - purple all the way through, unlike some which have a paler centre.

 

Dinner, 24/10/20: Squash and Swiss Chard Frittata

Frittata is also a nice quick midweek supper - and you can put lots of things in a frittata, basically to use up whatever you have.  This was originally scheduled for last night, but we decided to have fish & chips instead, so it got bumped to Saturday. 

 

Dinner, 22/10/20: Pasta with Squash and Chorizo

A variation on one of our house standby dishes - pasta with sweet potato (or squash) and bacon (or chorizo or sundried tomatoes if Liv is eating with us) and sometimes regular potato. Great way to use up bits of squash...Yum.

 

Dinner, 21/10/20: Brussels sprouts and blue cheese pizza, salad

We love this one - it sounds like an odd combo perhaps but it's very tasty. The sprouts are shredded finely, and have a very mild flavour done this way; the blue cheese really works with it. It's not a tomato based pizza - the initial topping is a mix of egg and mascarpone, so it's a white pizza. But yum.

 

Dinner, 20/10/20: Spicy Coconut Noodle Soup

Soup with noodles, tofu, mushrooms, beansprouts, and various other things. 

 

Dinner, 18/10/20: Steak and Mushroom Pie, New Potatoes, Cabbage

 

Geoff's birthday - traditionally, the birthday person gets to choose what meal to have. Geoff often chooses something like a pie - this is steak and mushroom pie, served with new potatoes and cabbage. Very nice, if I do say so myself!

 

Dinner, 17/10/20: Mexican Style Salmon Traybake

With spicy potatoes and purple carrots.

 

Dinner, 16/10/20: Pork Schnitzel, Roast Squash, Swiss Chard

 

A request from the kids - schnitzel. This one made with pork steaks. Also some roasted squash (first of the season) and some greens. Tasty.

Dinner, 15/10/20: Potato, Leek and Stilton Soup

Soup is a great thing to have for a meal (or at least, I think so), but it's so boring to photograph. Especially blended soups. This was a potato, leek and Stilton soup and was very nice. What more can I say.

 

Dinner, 14/10/20: Stuffed Romano Peppers

Stuffed peppers - we love the long Romano peppers we sometimes get in our veggie box and if stuffing peppers, prefer them to bell peppers. Also had a bit of out of season asparagus which was lovely - a friend bought a large bag at Costco and shared the bounty... 

 

Dinner, 13/10/20: Potato and Turmeric Tacos

We love tacos and other Mexican and TexMex stuff here, and have a wide variety of fillings on offer. This time was a new idea - turmeric and potato tacos - the base filling was a very nice turmeric spiced potato, then various other bits and pieces - a pico de gallo, some avocado, roasted padron peppers, pickled red cabbage, pickled chilis, etc, etc. Really tasty.

 

Dinner, 11/10/20: Carrot Tart, Olive & Artichoke Salad

Carrot and potato tart here - a little hard to see. We love this one- it uses thinly sliced potatoes as the "crust" of the tart, with a carrot and onion filling and some grated cheese. Also had some little fritters from leftover mashed potato and an artichoke and olive salad.

 

Dinner, 10/10/20: Sausages, mash, peas

Sausages from the famers' market, mash, peas, gravy. Yum.

 

Dinner, 9/10/20: Teriyaki Salmon Noodles

Blurry photo, but it tasted nice - stir fried noodles and salmon and veg in a teriyaki sauce.

 

Dinner, 8/10/20: Red Thai Curried Potatoes

The recipe for this came from a vegan cookbook (one of Aine Carlin's), and included a macadamia cream to use. Because I'm lazy, and because my vegan isn't here at the moment, I just used regular dairy cream, but I'm sure it would be equally nice with the vegan option (or I'm sure it would work nicely with coconut cream). 

 

Book 74: A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (audiobook)

I've read a bit of Dickens in the past - not a lot, because I find him quite wordy - but I do always enjoy adaptations, because the stories are so good. With this one, perhaps because it's more pacey than some, or perhaps because it was audio and I listened a bit at a time, I really enjoyed it - a gripping story and quite witty in places. It was also really interesting to see how the end was reached - as the end is so famous, I knew the main thing that happened, but didn't really know the backstory of how or why Sidney Carton is in that position. Anyway, a real corker - you can really understand why it was one fo the best selling novels of all time for so long. 

 

Dinner, 7/10/20: Minestrone

A nice bowl of minestrone always works well, no matter what the weather. Though there's a lot more soup in our house in the autumn and winter than in the summer.  This particular minestrone was technically made with chicken stock, because there were bones in the freezer which wanted using, but I often make it with veggie stock and it's just as nice.

 

Book 73: Venetia, Georgette Heyer (re-read)

A walk with an old friend got me thinking about Georgette Heyer (vis a vis a discussion about book groups and snobbery and so forth) so I decided to revisit a favourite.

 

Dinner, 6/10/20: Lemon & Bean Linguine

This was a nice combination of beans, pasta and other bits, but it needed a lot more greens than in the recipe (greens do have a tendency to cook down). The flavour was good, though. 

 

Dinner, 4/10/20: Roast pork, roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips, swede

While it's not true that the moment the vegan leaves the house it will be all-meat-all-the-time, a rainy autumn Sunday screams out Roast Dinner, and with Liv away, the roast pork is a nice choice (if she'd been home, we probably would have still had this, just with something else as her main - after all, everyone can eat roast potatoes and veggies)

 

Book 72: Educated, Tara Westover (audio, mostly)

Borrowed this one on audiobook from the library, but yesterday found a copy in a charity shop for £1 and decided to finish it off by actual reading. I really enjoyed this - it was a very interesting and powerful memoir. 

 

Dinner, 3/10/20: Winter Vegetable Pie

  

A lovely vegetable pie for a rather wintery day. Yum!

 

Dinner, 2/10/20: Swede Laksa

Yum - a laksa (soup with coconut milk), with roasted swedes and shallots. Gorgeous!

 

Dinner, 1/10/20: Sweet potato and coconut lentil dhal

This is a variation on a coconut dhal which Olivia made a while back - she added sweet potatoes. It was very nice, but the first time was really gloopy, which I think works even better. 

 

September Round Up

 

WHAT WAS FOR DINNER, SEPTEMBER 2020

• 30th: Black Bean Burritos
• 29th: Peanut Butter and Broccoli Pad Thai
• 28th: Fend for yourself Monday
• 27th: Out to dinner, Sarah's birthday
• 26th: Out to Wagamama's
• 25th: Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
• 24th: Pasta Genovese
• 23rd: Chicken Peanut Butter Curry
• 22nd: Burrito Bowls
• 21st: Fend for yourself Monday
• 20th: Spicy Sweet Potato Wraps, Broccoli Salad
• 19th: Ravioli, Garlic Bread, Salad
• 18th: Pasta and Vegetable Soup
• 17th: Courgette Tart, Tomato Tart
• 16th: Mushroom Mapu Tofu
• 15th: Cabbage Wraps
• 14th: Fend for yourself Monday
• 13th: Burgers, Salad
• 12th: Root Vegetable Stew with Dumplings
• 11th: Homemade Pizza
• 10th: Jacket Potatoes with toppings
• 9th: Black Bean Tofu, Carrot and Broccoli Stir Fry
• 8th: Salad: Assemble!
• 7th: Fend for yourself Monday
• 6th: Vegan Lancashire Hotpot
• 5th: Spinach, Bean and New Potato Curry
• 4th: Bean and Herb Pasta
• 3rd: Paneer Stuffed Peppers
• 2nd: Leek & Bacon Risotto
• 1st: Kung Pao Cauliflower and Prawn Stir Fry

September Reading 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 September: new (to me) books read: 6 ; books re-read:
Favourite Book in September: The Dutch House, Ann Patchett

in August:  new (to me) books read: 7; books re-read: 2
Favourite Book in August: Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

in July: new (to me) books read: 5; books re-read: 9
Favourite Book in July: The Singer's Gun, Emily St John Mandel

in June: new (to me) books read: 4; books re-read: 2
Favourite Book in June: Muse of Nightmares, Laini Taylor

 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 September, I read:

• The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom - audiobook. Actually mostly listened to this in August, but forgot to include it in the August list
• The Dutch House, Ann Patchett - knew I'd enjoy this one as I always like her books
• a book we are reading for my class (The Song of the Dolphin Boy, Elizabeth Laird)
• a memoir I've been meaning to read for a while to try to better sooth my frustrations with the American public (Hillbilly Elegy, J D Vance)
• The latest in the Gamache series by Louise Penny (Kingdom of the Blind)
• The Power by Naomi Alderman, which has been sitting on my shelf for a while, and which I really enjoyed

Dinner, 30/9/20: Black Bean Burritos

Another family favourite - black bean burritos. Although the base is the same (black beans, peppers, tomatoes, spices) what other things go in the burritos depends a lot on what's in the house - avocados, some sort of leaf (spinach this time), various pickles and condiments... 

 

Dinner, 29/9/20: Pad Thai with Broccoli

A vegan version of pad thai using broccoli and tofu, with no egg. Tasty.

 

Book 71: The Power, Naomi Alderman

I really enjoyed this - hard to say much without spoiling it, but an interesting idea making some very valid points, but also enjoyable to read - good variety of characters, none of which fall entirely into the good or bad categories and raises some good questions about the nature of power.

 

Dinner, 25/9/20: Stuffed Mushrooms

This one was less of a success. The filling was nice - a kind of mix of potato, sweet potato and chickpeas with various seasonings and breadcrumbs on top, but it didn't really go with the mushrooms - not enough texture contrast. 

 

Dinner, 24/9/20: Spaghetti Genovese

Our take on this traditional dish of pasta with green beans, new potatoes & pesto. Our main difference: homemade pesto, so that it only involves herbs, pinenuts, garlic and olive oil (and no parmesan).  Used runner beans here because that was what was in our veggie box, and it was lovely.

 

Dinner, 23/9/20: Chicken Peanut Butter Curry

Sarah's turn to cook - this was featured in a recent magazine and sounded appealing, and Liv was away for the evening, so we tried it out. It was good, though the recipe needs a few tweaks.

 

Dinner, 22/9/20: Burrito Bowls

Love this kind of meal, where there's lots of bits and pieces and you can assemble your own thing.  We all like these sorts of meals, but with a vegan in the house it makes life even easier, as you don't always have to find alternatives to cheese or sour cream for everyone... Liv cooked tonight as well, which is always nice...

 

Book 70: Kingdom of the Blind, Louise Penny

This is the latest in a series I have enjoyed a great deal in the past. I still like the books, but I do think that some of the characters are beginning to be caricatures of themselves, rather than actual characters. This often happens with long-running series, unfortunately.

Dinner, 20/9/20: Spicy sweet potato wraps, broccoli salad

A family favourite tonight, though I didn't manage to get a photo of a wrap made up - not that that's an exciting photo. One of our favourite ways to use sweet potatoes, even for those who aren't big sweet potato fans (i.e. Geoff). Served with an oriental broccoli salad.

 

Dinner, 19/9/20: Ravioli, Garlic Bread

Sometimes, what you need is a more-or-less ready meal - I don't make my own ravioli, though I suppose I could.  In this instance, I bought several different types, including one vegan one for Liv, and made the sauce - a simple sauce with herbs, chilis, garlic, pine nuts and olive oil. Garlic Bread on the side. Yum.

 

Dinner, 18/9/20: Vegetable and Pasta Soup

A brothy soup with little pasta pieces, by request. Always good for using those bits and pieces of vegetables left hanging about...

 

Dinner, 17/9/20: Courgette & Pesto Tart, Tomato & Tapenade Tart

Two different kinds of tart - one vegan, one with cheese - and some courgettes on the side as there were too many for the tart. Now that I'm back to work, the girls are helping out by taking turns cooking one night a week each, which is lovely. Tonight was Sarah's turn.

 

Dinner, 16/9/20: Mushroom Mapu Tofu

 

This was lovely. It's from the cookbook East by Meera Sodha (we are a big fan of her vegan recipes - always very tasty). 

Dinner, 15/9/20: Quinoa and Vegetable Cabbage Wraps (Liv cooking)

Very nice - interesting filling in the cabbage leaves, and a nice tomato sauce on top, with some breadcrumbs for texture. Yum!

 

Dinner, 13/9/20: Burgers

Various burger options for various people - some beef burgers for the boys, Sarah and I ate some quorn burgers which were in the freezer, which came by mistake in my shopping one week and Liv had some vegan sausages in buns (the quorn burgers aren't vegan). And then various toppings, as desired.  Salad and stuff along the side...

 

Dinner, 12/9/20: Root Vegetable Stew with Dumplings

 

For the dumplings, I just used my recipe for American biscuits, which is easy to adapt to make vegan (soy milk, margarine). 

 

Dinner, 11/9/20: Homemade pizza

Another great one for a household where not everyone likes the same things - the dough itself is vegan, so you can add toppings as you like... I quite like a white pizza (no tomato sauce), but I like to add sundried tomatoes, so it's nice for me, too...  not that I dislike red pizza, mind you!

 

Dinner 9/9/20: Black Bean Tofu, Carrot and Broccoli Stir Fry