I enjoy cooking, it’s maybe the one time of the day where I totally zone out. I’m not staring at my phone or concerned about anything. It’s a really special time in the day as I look forward to the end result of producing something nourishing and hopefully beautiful which Nathan and I can enjoy together. As many of us are spending more time in the kitchen, we are turning to the dusty recipe books on the shelves or preparing meals that have been shown to us by our favourite chefs on instagram and we are depending less on pre-made, restaurant or take-out food, I know we have had to stop our wagamama habit. So I thought I would keep a record of what is on our plate each day without heading to the shops in preparation. I’m striving to use up every ingredient in my fridge (even that sad leek at the back) and reducing the waste I put in the bin. I hope this blog post can inspire or motivate you to cook something new.

Day One: Roasted Vegetable Panzanella.

This meal is one of our weekly favourites and an amazing way to use up whatever veg you have left in your fridge. I used squash, beetroot and onion. Roasted together with olive oil and garlic for about an 45 minutes, it’s nice with stale bread added for the last 10 minutes of roasting. I always top this meal with some feta cheese and eat it with hummus.

Day Two: Sourdough Pizza.

As many of you will know, Nathan is currently deep into his sourdough chapter. He’s been making lovely pizzas for years now but newly using sourdough as the base. This one was topped with blue cheese and pears, super rich and luxurious as a pizza topping. We ate in the garden.

Day Three: Veggie Katsu Curry.

We love Wagamama. It’s our comfort food, if either of us are feeling under the weather, Wagamama is where we head to be cheered up. Recently they have posted some of their popular recipes on their facebook page and Katsu is one of them. We deep fried aubergine and sweet potato slices and it was wildly better than I expected. Comfort food: success. Also I moulded my rice in a bowl and I’m well impressed.

Day Four: Leftover Pizza Sauce Pasta.

We had a bit of pizza sauce left over from the pizza’s we had, I heated it up and added more chopped garlic, some capers and a sardine we had in the fridge. Very simple but mega tasty.

Day Five: Sweet Potato Masala Dosa.

Based off an Anna Jones recipe from her Modern Cooks Year book (my most used cookbooks of all time) I only had one sweet potato so used a normal potato and some squash left over from the panzanella. But you could use any veggies really, it’s all about the spices.

Day Six: Puff Pastry Tart with Spring Veg and Eggs.

Another day, another Anna Jones recipe. This was a really fun dish to make and something totally different than what I usually make on a weeknight. I used up some leeks for this but again, you could use any veg. I overcooked my eggies though.. sad day. I served this with some buttery new potatoes and a salad.

Day Seven: Black Bean Tacos with Salads.

This is real summer in a mouthful. Super speedy and tastes complicated but is actually super easy. The best kind of recipe. You can find it here. Nathan made the little taco tortillas with sourdough discard, but you could use shop bought. We drank Northen beer and sat in the sun and it was a lovely end to this week of eats and a Mondayish Monday.

A week of eats.