Week 5 2017 – eating wisely, but not well, at the MaE Deli (review)

My lovely friend Jo and I have a tradition of treating each other to a birthday meal each year. Unfortunately for Jo, her birthday falls in early January, when she – and everyone else – is trying to eat a bit more virtuously, so we generally choose a restaurant that allows some healthy-ish options. This […]

Week 2 2017 – time to stop eating chocolate

Andrew returns to work tomorrow after our Christmas break, and I have taken this date to be my annual return to eating healthily. There was no point in trying to be good whilst Andrew was off, as considered all food to be fair game as he was still celebrating Christmas, and I have no willpower […]

Week 50 – goodbye diet

Silly season has officially started as far as I am concerned (I write this, eating the chocolates out of Andrew’s advent calendar as he has foolishly fallen behind with opening the little doors). There’s no point in bothering to try and be virtuous at dinnertime when rich and delicious food and tasty booze abounds. It […]

Weeks 45 to 48 – bringing up baby

Where oh where does the time go? It’s like Ioan eats it with the same enthusiasm with which he eats his fingers (teething, wow, that’s not exactly a bundle of fun is it?!). Anyway, I have been planning my menus, but each time Sunday pops around I realise I don’t have time to write up […]

Week 44 – Chicken curry and chips, from the Chinese, in Wales

Yes, you read that correctly: chicken curry (what you might expect to be Indian in origin), served with chips (British?), but from a Chinese takeaway, in Wales. This is the food Andrew craves, and what he was delighted to eat during our recent trip to Wales. This is not the kind of curry you would […]

Week 43 – amazing roast beef and Laguiole carving set

Many years ago, Andrew went out shopping to buy me a birthday present in his lunch break, and when he returned to the office his colleagues were eager to know what he had bought me. It was a frying pan. They were horrified, but Andrew explained I would be delighted with it, as it would […]

Week 42 – invasion of the Welsh

As the first grandchild on both sides of our families, Ioan was always going to receive more than his fair share of attention from his grandparents. My mum lives in London so gets to see him regularly, but just for a few hours at a time, and Andrew’s parents live in Wales so see him […]

Week 41 – Asia to Columbia on a plate

Looking back on my week’s photos, I can see between the thousands of pictures of Ioan that most of our food has been Asian inspired this week, with a little pop across to Colombia for lunch with the girls. First up was a prawn stirfry for meat-free Monday – although I normally like to avoid […]

Week 40 – how wonderful life is while you’re in the world

So, with Ioan at 8 weeks old, we had our first night out without him. My brother, who pretends he is not a  big softy even though he already dotes on Ioan, babysat for us. We were completely confident that Jason would be fine with Ioan, but would Ioan be fine with Jason? He has […]

Week 36 – trying to meal plan again

Our little bundle of joy was four weeks old yesterday – I can’t believe that in four short weeks our world has completely turned upside down (and I can’t believe that I am still alive on so little sleep!). As a self-confessed control freak, I do find the  lack of structure a challenge, but want to embrace […]