28 March - crispy pork and noodles

It was a lovely sunny day, so lunch with a friend was outdoors at Browns. I had a rather chewy hot chicken sandwich, but it was okay with plenty of mayo and a few chips on the side, and it was just nice to be eating outdoors.

Tris was out this evening, so I used up the remaining cooked pork belly with some noodles, loosely based on a Jamie Oliver recipe. I stir-fried some spring onion, chilli and sliced red pepper, then added the shredded pork and a sprinkling of five-spice powder and fried until it went golden and crispy. Finally, I added some sliced pak choi and a splash of soy sauce and mixed it in with some noodles. The result was really delicious - all that lovely caramelised pork fat and spices - yum!

14 March - an omelette and Moroccan vegetables

Inspired by some leftover cold potatoes in the fridge, lunch today was an omelette. I fried the potatoes, adding some pancetta, onion and red pepper, then the eggs. It was a bit of a tricky flip, but finally came out in one piece.

For dinner, I did another variation on the five-vegetable couscous I've done before. This evening, I only managed four vegetables; red onion, pepper, carrot and leeks, plus all the usual spices, cooked up in a broth and served with lots of fresh coriander and couscous. It came out, as usual, looking like a rather unexciting pile of boiled veg, but looks can sometimes be deceptive and it was as delicious as ever with all those lovely spices and just the right chilli kick.

11 March - a warm salad and more chicken

Lunch today was a nice warm, tasty salad of potatoes, spinach, tomatoes, red pepper, a bit of chorizo and a poached egg.

I had the usual issue with cooking/shopping for one - I got yesterday's chicken thighs in a pack of four, so I was left with chicken again for supper. Trying to come up with something that would be quite different, I made some chicken and chickpea stew with spring greens. It's a Sophie Grigson recipe that involves putting some of the greens in the stew itself, then frying up a few leaves finely shredded to go on the top. It's a bit of a faff, but the crunchy topping is quite fun and less tricky with such a small amount.

9 March - a jacket potato and leftover chilli

I got some baking potatoes in today's vegbox, so lunch was a good old-fashioned jacket potato with tuna mayo and a big pile of salad on the side - can't be beaten!

Tris has gone away for the weekend, so it was a solo supper of some of the leftover chilli con carne, this time with sweetcorn fritters. The chilli was possibly even better for being a few days old and the fritters were yummy as usual.

2 March - the first asparagus and roast lamb

After the success of my chilli wrap earlier in the week, I went for another wrap today, this time grilled harissa chicken (just a grilled chicken breast brushed with harissa paste) with avocado, grilled red pepper and mayo. I made the mistake of popping the wrap under the grill to warm, because it was already on, but it just went crispy- d'oh! Thus it didn't actually 'wrap' very well, but still a tasty filling nonetheless.

I went into Ruby & White to get some lamb fillet for supper and while I was there spotted the first English asparagus of the season, from the Wye Valley. It was extortionately expensive, but as we were celebrating (a new work contract), I decided to go for it anyway. It was well worth it too ... a simple plate of lightly boiled asparagus with a bit of melted butter to start with a glass of bubbly was about as perfect as it gets! I used a Nigel Slater recipe from the Kitchen Diaries for the lamb, marinating it in a gloop of fresh mint, garlic, anchovy and olive oil, quickly roasting it whole, then slicing it thickly. We had it with some rosemary roast new potatoes, green beans and the rest of the champagne ... great start to the weekend!

6 February - vegetable couscous

I got round to using up the last of the pork bolognese sauce today in a jacket potato for lunch. Tris was out for the evening so I settled for a simple veggie supper based on the seven/five vegetable couscous I've cooked before. Tonight the veg was red onion, courgette, carrot, red pepper, white cabbage and a few chickpeas left over from yesterday, plus all the spices (garlic, ginger, toasted and ground cumin and coriander, saffron, paprika and dried chilli) and some stock. Once I'd chopped up the veg, I realised there was too much for one, so made enough for Tris to take for his lunch tomorrow as well. With couscous and a sprinkling of fresh coriander it made a tasty and healthy-feeling supper-for-one.

29 December - salmon with coriander pesto

It was another HFW recipe for lunch - chachouka is a mix of slow-cooked onions and peppers with tomatoes and spices, then an egg cracked in the top. I added a few chickpeas that were in the fridge and they went pretty well for a hearty lunch.

When I bought fresh coriander for yesterday's curry, the smaller packets were looking a bit yellowy, so I ended up getting a big bag. To use it up while it was still green and perky, I made up a batch of coriander pesto made with garlic and pistachios. I teamed it up with some plain salmon fillets and a pile of fresh veg; carrots, green beans and tenderstem broccoli. The pesto was really tasty and looked great against the pale pink of the salmon.

20 November - lamb tagine with pomegranate

I got a couple of pomegranates in Friday's vegbox, so today I made a lamb tagine (using my usual recipe) and instead of figs or dates, added the final sweet touch with a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds. It was a bit messy getting the seeds out - and I ended up with bright red stains all over my white t-shirt! - but the final result looked great and tasted pretty good too.

I remembered to put the tagine on well ahead of time and let it bubble for almost two hours, so the result was meltingly tender and with some roasted squash and peppers and a pile of couscous, it was a great way to end the weekend.

8 November - couscous salad and chicken noodle soup

Lunch recently seems to have alternated between something toast-based and pasta, so today I went for some couscous to mix things up. Yesterday I picked up a pack of little mini peppers in the supermarket, mostly because they looked neat. I roasted them this morning to mix in with the couscous and rather wished I'd just gone for a normal pepper because they were a bit too thin and tricky to peel. Mixed in with a bit of fried chopped chorizo and all it's nice paprika juices, they tasted fine though.

This morning I also cooked up the chicken carcass to make some stock, then used some of it this evening to make chicken noodle soup - dead quick and easy after being out early evening. What I chuck in the 'soup' varies, but today I used a chopped red chilli, which gave it quite a punch, some lemongrass, ginger and a star anise, together with some of the leftover chicken, some pak choi and the noodles, it was really tasty and warming, but fresh and light too.

26 October - more bruschetta and pasta with pesto

It was another HFW-inspired bruschetta recipe again for lunch today, this time broad beans boiled, podded then swooshed around with some melted butter and garlic before being blended to a paste. I spread the paste on toast, crumbled over a bit more goats cheese and this time a sprinkling of fresh mint. Another great combination and a great colour!

I was going to do just simple pasta with fresh pesto this evening, but decided to add some gently fried red pepper and courgette to make something a bit more substantial. It seemed to work and the pesto was spot-on - leaving that fabulous rounded taste in your mouth long after you've cleared your plate ... mmmm!

18 October - pork and chorizo stew

There are some salad leaves and beetroot in the fridge bought to go with the weekend's burgers, so lunch today is a salad made up of beetroot, grilled red peppers and goats cheese.

I'm still working my way through the meaty leftovers and tonight it's a bit of pork cut off the joint we had roasted (because it was a bit too big). I cook it up with some chorizo, the other half of the red pepper, onion, tomato and chickpeas, plus a few flavourings (garlic, thyme, saffron and parsley) and cook it long and slow to make a tasty, comforting stew. It's actually a "recipe" I came up with last winter based on the list of ingredients on the back of a "stew pot" at the supermarket that appealed but struck me as overpriced!

9 August - vegetable splodge!

It's a busy day and I'm a bit uninspired about dinner. I've got some nice cooking chorizo in the fridge that I bought the other day and a rather oversized courgette left in the vegbox, which somehow leads to a big pan of what I can only describe as 'vegetable splodge'! It's sort of 'ratatouille plus'; made up of onion, garlic, pepper, courgette, aubergine and tomatoes, plus some chorizo and a tin of cannellini beans. It's not very attractive, but it makes a tasty bowl of vegetably stew.

5 August - more goats cheese and singapore noodles

We seem to have fridge full of bits of leftover cheese; goats cheese, halloumi and mozzarella! So for lunch today I used up the goats cheese with some of the roast peppers left over from last night, mixed with some chickpeas, tomatoes and basil.

Dinner was Singapore noodles based on Ching-He Huang's recipe in Chinese Food Made Easy.

• Tonight I fried a couple of chopped spring onions with some grated ginger and a tsp turmeric.
• I added a red pepper cut into strips, a carrot and some sugarsnap peas that came in today's vegbox.
• Then in went a few small chunks of bacon and a chicken breast cut into thins strips.
• Meanwhile I boiled some noodles, drained them and then added them to the wok with a few chilli flakes, 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 2 tbsp oyster sauce and a tbsp rice vinegar.

Tasty with just a hint of a chilli kick in the background.

26 July - spicy sausage pasta

The other day we heard a sports commentator mention having had spicy sausage pasta and it's been on my mind ever since! So today I was in St Nick's market in town and picked up a couple of Moroccan lamb sausages from the Bristol Sausage Shop.

I fried a chopped red onion with a bit of garlic and some chopped red pepper. Then I skinned the sausages and crumbled the sausagemeat into the pan. Plus half a tin of tomatoes and a few chilli flakes and hey presto, spicy sausage pasta sauce. The sausages were a good choice and the result came out just as hoped.

12 July - chickpea salad and a fruity chilli

Lunch today was a chickpea salad with goats cheese. I mixed half a tin of chickpeas with a grilled pepper cut into thin strips and a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, crushed garlic and chopped parsley ... oh yes, and a few more tomatoes from the garden.

For dinner I was going to try out a recipe I saw on a TV cookery programme the other day. It was a version of chilli con carne on Channel 5's Mexican Food Made Simple. I checked the Channel 5 website - I found the episode which included the recipe, but not a list of exact ingredients or quantities. So when I went out to the supermarket, I dropped into Smiths and found the book to go with the series by Thomasina Miers. I had a flick through, but rather oddly, it contains a completely different chilli con carne recipe. Anyway, I gave it a go roughly based on the programme with a few changes:

• Roast a couple of whole tomatoes, a whole green chilli and a chopped onion, then whizz them together in a blender to make the base of the sauce.
• Brown about 100g each of beef and pork mince in a pan, then add the sauce.
• Stir in a teaspoon of cumin and a pinch of cinnamon, plus some fresh chopped oregano.
• Add about 250ml chicken stock, then throw in a chopped banana (yes, a banana!) and the corn from a fresh corn cob.
• Simmer for 20 mins, then add a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a little chilli powder (it could have done with a bit more).
• Simmer a bit longer, season and serve with rice.

The result was quite good, with some nice flavours, but not enough kick for a chilli.

27 June - mint tea & sausage and pepper pasta

It was another really hot day today, up around 30C, but very close and sultry. I try to drink plenty of water when it's hot, but it gets a bit boring, so this afternoon I made myself a pot of fresh mint tea. I roughly follow the way I was taught in a cookery workshop in Morocco last year, using gunpowder green tea and fresh mint leaves. You're supposed to pour a little boiling water over the tea first and swish it around until the leaves open out. You then pour that water away, because it's quite bitter. I use my glass Bodum teapot with a built-in infuser, so I put the green tea in the infuser, then the mint leaves in the main body and let it all brew together. With a bit of sugar and served in one of the little glasses we brought back from Morocco, it tasted spot on and really refreshing.

This evening I used up the couple of sausages in the fridge to make a favourite pasta sauce.

Sausage and pepper pasta

• Grill a red, orange or yellow pepper until the skin's blackened. Pop it in a container with a lid for a few minutes (to help steam off the skin), then peel and chop into chunks.
• Fry a chopped onion (mine was red today) in a decent pool of extra virgin olive oil (I think it's needed for the flavour here), with a little chopped or sliced garlic.
• Peel the skin from the sausages and crumb the sausage meat into the pan. If I'm using more sausages I leave it in quite big chunks, but with only two today, I break it up into smaller pieces. Fry gently until the meat is starting to brown.
• Add about 250ml of white wine (although I used an open bottle of rose today and it came out fine), plus some fresh herbs (oregano, parsley) and a couple of slices of lemon peel. Let this simmer gently for a few minutes. As you add the wine, it forms a kind of milky emulsion with the oil, which gives this sauce a slightly different feel from a standard tomato-based sauce.
• Now add a tin of tomatoes and the pepper.
• Leave to bubble away gently - 30 mins is good, but if you put the water on to boil for the pasta now, it'll probably be enough.
• Serve with some pasta - papadelle is good, but tonight I had big twists.

14 June - chickpeas with tomatoes and harissa

It was a lovely sunny day today, so both lunch and dinner were al fresco - hooray! It was a quick lunchtime favourite; peas and pancetta with linguine. Unfortunately, I wasn't really concentrating and undercooked the pasta.

This evening's dinner was from Sunday's Observer magazine; Nigel Slater's chickpeas with tomatoes and harissa. I roasted 8 medium tomatoes cut into 6 pieces each with a red pepper chopped into large chunks mixed with some olive oil, a splash of red wine vinegar and a pinch of cumin seeds at about 200C. I left them to cook while I was on the phone and when I went back to check after nearly an hour, they were a bit charred around the edges - oops! I picked out some of the very blackened bits of skin and tipped the lot into a pan, added a splash more olive oil, a teaspoon of harissa paste and the chopped rind of preserved lemon and let it heat through. Meanwhile I cooked up some giant couscous that I came across in the supermarket the other day. Finally, I stirred some whole basil leaves into the chickpea mix. The stew was really tasty - the lemon and harissa really gave it a tang. I was a bit less convinced about the giant couscous; rather back to that frogspawn feel again!

16 May - leftover lamb and chicken noodles

The last chunk of Saturday's lamb was still in the fridge, so for lunch I cooked up some rice and peas, friend an onion and mixed it altogether with the cold lamb and a few spices. Not very attractive, but very tasty.

This evening's stir-fried chicken noodles were loosely based on a recipe from Ching-He Huang's Chinese Food Made Easy.

• Boil some dried noodles with some fresh peas - 5 mins.
• Stir-fry some chopped spring onions, half a chopped red chilli, some grated fresh ginger, a sliced chicken breast (just one for two people), half a sliced pepper, some quartered mushrooms and half a teaspoon turmeric.
• Add the drained noodles and peas, add a pinch of dried chilli flakes, 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp rice vinegar and stir together.

14 May - slow-roast lamb

With the FA Cup Final to watch on the telly this afternoon, it was the ideal time to do slow-roast lamb - popped in the oven at half-time, it was perfectly cooked for 8. This is a favourite recipe, originally from Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine.

• Slice two large onions and scatter in the bottom of an oven-proof dish. Add a whole bulb of garlic, split into cloves, but unpeeled, 50ml red wine vinegar, 150ml red wine, 50ml olive oil, a heaped teaspoon of rose harissa paste and some salt.
• Nestle a shoulder of lamb (c.700g today) on top of this mix and add water until the lamb's about 80% covered. Bring it just to the boil on the hob, then put in the oven at 180C for about half an hour.
• Turn the oven down to 150C and leave to cook for around 4 hours.

The resulting lamb is meltingly tender and falling to pieces on the bottom, but with a lovely crunchy crust on the top. The onions and garlic become really tender and jammy, but need straining out of the remaining liquid with a slotted spoon. I dollop the onion mix onto plates and top with a chunk of lamb (a mix of soft and crunchy bits), then serve it with some couscous, roast beetroot and pepper, and a splodge of minty yoghurt (just Greek yoghurt with chopped mint). It's a fabulous combination of flavours and textures and today was washed down with a bottle of bubbly to celebrate Man City's cup win!

12 May - roast veg salad and garlicky chicken

When I was making the pasta last night, I bunged some bits of pepper and courgette that I wasn't using in the sauce in the oven to roast and I had them as a roast veg salad for lunch today, combined with some cherry tomatoes and served with some new potatoes and a few slices of mozzarella.

For dinner, it was another Nigel Slater favourite; chicken thighs browned in a frying pan with a little butter and some oil, then turned down, covered and cooked very slowly over a low heat for about 30-40 mins with some whole cloves of garlic and some thyme leaves. Then I took out the chicken, poured off most of the fat, put the pan back on a high heat and poured in a good slurp of white wine. I let it bubble, scraping up any bits from the pan and squashing the soft garlic cloves. Usually, I add a bit of butter at the end to make a really rich sauce, but today, still on a health drive, I just added a squeeze of lemon juice and poured it over the chicken - less rich, but lovely and sharp and garlicky. No potatoes tonight either, just a plateful of veg; spring greens (from the vegbox), asparagus and a few green beans.