1 February - pinto bean chilli

For lunch today, I finished off the very last bits of chicken left over from the weekend, with some stir-fried noodles and a few green beans.

I'd planned to try out a pork bolognese recipe that my Mum had sent me this evening, but the butcher's didn't have any pork mince and the supermarket only had huge packs. So I had to quickly change plans and instead tried out another Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall veg recipe, this time for pinto bean chilli. It's pretty much the sort of standard veggie chilli I would've cooked without a recipe, but still tasty with a bit of guacamole and some warm pitta.

11 December - eggs again and Tris's chilli

It was eggs again for lunch today, but this time poached on toast with a bit of spinach - kind of eggs Florentine, but without the hollandaise.

After huffing a bit this week about doing all the shopping and cooking, Tris made chilli for supper this evening with a bit of rice and guacamole. It's always good and all the better for not having to cook.

31 October - cheese on toast and beef chilli

With fresh Turkish figs still in season, I bought a lovely crusty sourdough loaf from Hart's this morning to make some goats cheese on toast with figs on the side for lunch.

There was a chunk of beef from yesterday in the fridge which I somehow fancied slow cooking. I stopped in Smith's on my way to the supermarket to flick through Thomasina Miers' Mexican Food Made Simple. I really ought to buy a copy, but for today, I settled for just memorising a recipe for beef chilli. It's a pretty long list of ingredients, but I think I managed to get home with them all still in my head it more or less the right proportions and order!

• Blend an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic.
• Brown a chunk of beef on all sides in a pan- I used about 150g topside - and remove.
• Fry some chopped cooking chorizo in the same pan, then add the onion and garlic mix.
• Add a tsp cumin and a tsp allspice, a few cloves, a cinnamon stick and a bay leaf.
• Stir in a couple of chopped red chillis, a few bits of jalapeno (from a jar), a splash of balsamic vinegar, a squirt of tomato ketchup, some dried oregano and half a tin of tomatoes. Stir it all around to cook for a while, then return the beef and top up with about 150ml water.
• I transferred the whole lot to a casserole, covered it with foil and popped it in a low oven (150C) for a couple of hours.
• Towards the end, stir in half a tin of borlotti beans.
• When you take it out, break up the beef with a fork into shreds.

The result wasn't particularly photogenic, but it tasted absolutely fantastic! All the flavours came together wonderfully to create a real 'surround-sound' kind of taste that lingered long after the last mouthful! Rather than rice or tortillas, I served it with some cubes of roast sweet potato and a blob of guacamole.

6 October - a jacket potato and a hot lamb salad

It's feeling distinctly autumnal now, so a nice hot jacket potato seemed perfect for lunch. I made an avocado left from the other night into a basic guacamole to dollop on the top and topped it with some bacon - proper bacon, that is, from the butchers, so there were nice crispy rinds to chew on too.

I'd bought a couple of big chunks of lamb neck fillet to make up another batch of curry for my Dad, but I had a bit more than I needed, so I cut off a length to have for dinner. I marinated it in some yoghurt with chopped mint and a squeeze of lemon juice, then grilled it and sliced it on top of a hot salad of spinach leaves, roasted cherry tomatoes and roasted red onion. I made up a yoghurty dressing to drizzle on the top (yoghurt mixed with some tahini). A really nice combination.

For pudding, I tried out a Nigel Slater recipe from the weekend's Guardian, some fresh figs baked with a drizzle of honey, then some ricotta mixed with yoghurt, icing sugar and fresh vanilla (that we brought back from Madagascar) dolloped on the top.

30 August - chilli and guacamole

Tuesday again, so Tris was cooking - this time a chilli con carne (to a Jamie Oliver recipe) made the night before. Nice and tasty, with just the right amount of heat and served with fresh guacamole and sweetcorn fritters (my contribution). Can't go wrong!

22 June - chilli beans, guacamole and sweetcorn fritters

I ordered a couple of avocado's in last week's vegbox, which have been sat in the fruit bowl for nearly a week and are now rather soft and definitely need eating. So the starting point for dinner is some home-made guacamole:

• Mix together mashed avocado flesh with a good squeeze of lime juice, a crushed clove of garlic, a bit of finely chopped tomato and a good handful of chopped coriander.

To go with it I make up some chilli beans:

• Fry a small red onion, add a pepper (mine was orange today) in chunks and some chopped garlic and fry gently until the pepper has softened.
• Sprinkle in half a tsp of cumin powder, a good pinch each of paprika and cayenne pepper and a bay leaf.
• Add a small tin of drained kidney beans and a tin of chopped tomatoes and leave to simmer (15-20 mins is enough, but can be left to bubble away as long as you want on a low heat).

Then the bit that really makes this meal is the sweetcorn fritters, based on a recipe originally from Waitrose Food Illustrated, but adapted, these are always great:

• Make a batter from 50g plain flour and half a tsp of baking powder beaten together with about 75ml milk and an egg yolk, until smooth.
• Add the sweetcorn cut from one fresh corn cob, a shake of dried chilli flakes, some chopped coriander, a few chopped chives and a pinch of salt.
• Whisk the egg white until fluffy and fold this gently into the batter mixture at the last minute.
• Dollop the batter into a hot non-stick frying pan with a bit of oil to make four big fritters. Fry for about 3 mins on each side, until nice and golden.