17 October - sweet potato soup and shepherd's pie

The week has started using up what's in the fridge. For lunch, I had the last of the sweet potato and red lentil soup. As well as a dollop of soured cream, I scattered a few fried lardons on the top and had a couple of slices of soft, fresh bread from Hart's.

I ummed and erred about what to do with the leftover lamb mince (from yesterday's burgers), coming up with lots of different options - meatballs, moussaka, stuffed peppers - but in the end, I went for some old-school shepherd's pie. I cooked up all the mince and came up with a bit more than a single helping, so it looks like I'll be eating leftovers for a while yet!

12 August - frittata and shepherd's pie

After my slightly crumbled attempt at frittata a couple of weeks ago, I had another go today and did it properly this time, cooking the top under the grill, rather than trying to flip it in the pan. I used a couple of cold potatoes, some bits of bacon and a big pile of fresh peas, with a couple of eggs and some mint. Looked much better this time!

I know it's rather unseasonal, but this evening I used up a little bit of leftover mince to make an individual shepherd's pie. I cooked the mince up with some onion, garlic, mushrooms and a bit of diced carrot, plus some beef stock (thickened with a bit of flour), popped it in a mini oven dish with some mash on the top and Bob's your uncle. With some homegrown beans on the side, it was fantastically tasty in a retro sort of way :)