A Day Out...

My friend Pete and I like going on days out where we wander round exploring London and looking at little-known curiosities (and occasionally some well-known ones). Today we roamed all over Southwark, the City and the East End, and we saw Ai Weiwei's sunflower seeds, the abandoned St Dunstan's church, a few bits of London Wall that I hadn't seen before, some interesting streets around Brick Lane and Spitalfields, and all sorts of other things! And we had enormous burgers from Byron in the new One New Change shopping centre (and Byron's famous courgette fries, too, which were very nice indeed).

Porridge and apple...

After last weekend's crumble I had a Bramley apple lurking in the fruit bowl. The other week, I met my mum for breakfast in Ealing and we had the most gorgeous creamy porridge topped with stewed apple and cinnamon. So I decided to recreate that at home, only with a golden syrup Oatso Simple sachet. I just stewed the apple with a bit of mixed spice and a splash of water, and it made a lovely topping for my porridge - and there's enough left for tomorrow too!

Roasted squash...

I had half a small squash in the fridge, and I wanted to make something involving pasta. So I decided to roast the squash (I just cut it in half, scooped out the seeds and put it in the oven) and then when it was all lovely and squidgy and roasted, I scraped the yummy squash off the skin and mixed it with some leeks, garlic, nutmeg, black pepper and extra-light cream cheese. It might not look all that pretty but it was gorgeous with spinach and ricotta tortellini and a sprinkle of toasted pine nuts!

'Brought', surely...?

Frugal February: Week One

So I've been trying to be frugal for a whole week now, and I think it's gone fairly well. I haven't bought any new clothes, which is a major achievement - last Wednesday I forgot to bring socks to wear for Pilates, but I went to Peacocks and bought the cheapest pair of socks they had. Which happen to have zebras on them!

I did spend money at the pub with some people from work on Thursday, and then on Saturday I bought some tile paint, a sanding block and a paintbrush to paint the tiles around my kitchen sink with. Fair enough, that was spending I didn't need to do. The tiles do look fab, though. I want to do the rest of the kitchen now but that would involve doing things like moving the cooker and the fridge and I don't think I'm up for tackling that!

I've done quite well with food shopping, too - I had a friend round for supper on Sunday, and when I went to Tesco to do my 'big ingredients shop' I feared the worst. But in fact I spent less than £7.50 and for that I got carrots, coriander seeds and crème fraiche for my carrot and coriander soup, buttermilk for my soda bread (I already had the flours, egg, bicarb and walnuts), apples and custard for my apple crumble, cucumber for my gin and tonic (Hendricks, of course) and crisps for nibbling. I didn't think that was too bad! I'm going to have egg and beans on toast for supper tonight - Wednesday night is Pilates night, and I usually pop to the little Tesco on the corner afterwards, but as I already have eggs, beans and bread at home, there isn't really any need to do that!

Still light at 5pm!

Yes, I know. I've posted umpteen photos banging on about how light (or otherwise) it is when I leave work. But when I look back to this time last year, it's quite fun seeing the days gradually getting lighter! And it reminds me that, although it's cold and grey and wet and miserable now, one day it'll be light when I get home in the evenings! And then it'll be spring!

Valentine's Day...

I spent my Valentine's Day with a tubular hound and lots of pink fizz. And some lovely friends. It was a most excellent evening!