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.

2 February - squash soup, pork bolognese and wonderful rhubarb

There's been a large squash hanging around for weeks and the last chunk was starting to go a bit mouldy, so I finally used the last of it up in some soup for lunch. I roasted the squash, then added the flesh to some sweated onion in a pan, added some chicken stock and liquidised the whole lot before adding a slurp of cream. With a few bits of fried bacon on the top, it actually wasn't too bad.

I went back to Ruby & White as they'd said they'd put some pork mince aside for me today. As usual though, I somehow managed to come away with more than I really wanted. I was going to use half and keep the other half for something else, but then I was a bit late getting started on dinner and in my rush to get it going, I dumped all the mince into the pan - d'oh! So rather than using up the half a tin of tomatoes I'd specifically kept from yesterday, I had to open a new tin and we ended up with more bloody leftovers! The pork bolognese recipe from my Mum was quite simple and not much different from my usual bolognese - apart from substituting pork mince for beef and red wine instead of white. It was quite nice though and made a little bit of a change.

I'd wanted to keep the pasta portions small because I had plans for pudding. With a bit of a glut of milk in the fridge, I made some rice pudding and also cooked up some lovely new season rhubarb, using a recipe from the weekend Guardian. You bake the rhubarb with some sugar, dessert wine and vanilla - with some chopped pistachios sprinkled on top it was absolutely delicious and great with the creamy rice pudding!

30 July - melon & mozzarella and spicy meatballs

The weekend started with another trip to Ruby & White for some more meat - I think it's going to prove quite difficult to resist! Lunch was a lovely, summery salad of canteloupe melon with parma ham and creamy mozzarella, scattered with a few basil leaves and dressed with a little olive oil and lemon dressing.

For dinner, I made meatballs based on a Nigel Slater recipe:

• Mix 300g pork mince, a handful of lardons, a chopped shallot, some chopped lemongrass, chopped red chilli and a handful of fresh chopped coriander. And shape into small (walnut-sized) balls - today I made 10.
• Gently fry a few mushrooms with some sliced garlic and chilli in a wok.
• Add about 500ml chicken stock and a bashed stalk of lemongrass. Throw in a good handful of fresh peas and simmer.
• Fry the meatballs in vegetable oil for a few minutes until cooked through and nicely caramelised on the outside.
• Boil a few noodles. Add some chopped mint, coriander and basil to the broth.
• Serve a pile of noodles in the bottom of a large bowl with the meatballs on the top and the broth poured over.

The first time I came across the idea of meatballs in soup, it seemed a bit odd, but it's actually a really good combination - substantial (with the meatballs and noodles), but fresh and herby too.

13 July - spicy pork noodles

With pork mince left over from yesterday, I looked up a recipe I'd used before in an old Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine for spicy pork noodles. Whilst pulling the various ingredients out of the cupboards before I got started, I noticed that the sweet chilli sauce was looking a bit worse for wear and when I checked the best before date, it said March 2009 - oops! It normally goes in the sauce with the oyster and soy sauces, but I substituted some fresh red chilli at the beginning and a spoonful of sugar to the sauce.

• Stir-fry a few chopped spring onions, some chopped red chilli and some grated fresh ginger.
• Add about 250g pork mince and fry until browned.
• Mix together a good tablespoon oyster sauce, the same of soy sauce and a pinch of sugar, then mix in with the mince. Stir and simmer for a couple of minutes.
• Mix a good teaspoon of cornflower with a couple of teaspoons of Chinese cooking wine to a smooth paste. Add it to the mince and stir to thicken.

I served the spicy mince with a small pile of noodles and some tenderstem broccoli - lots of nice flavours in the mince with the simple noodles and clean-tasting broccoli worked well together.