12 March - lamb and beetroot salad

I finally used up the last of the chilli today for lunch on a baked potato with a dollop of plain yoghurt to tame the heat.

The vegbox always arrives with a little recipe leaflet. I usually have a glance through it, but only occasionally get inspired to try them. This week I spotted an idea for lamb and beetroot salad with a pumpkin seed and chilli dressing. You whizz up some toasted pumpkin seeds with chilli, garlic, lemon juice, parsley, mint and olive oil, then you use half the slush to marinate a couple of lamb leg steaks and keep the other half as the dressing. I made up a salad of spinach, roast beetroot and blood orange, then fried the lamb and sliced it on top. For the dressing, the slush looked a bit thick, so I added a bit more olive oil and it worked great. The dressing was really tasty, with just a nice bit of chilli kick in the background and the combination of the beetroot and orange in the salad made a really nice change.

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.

28 February - a chilli wrap and chicken with mushrooms

For lunch today I used up the leftover mince from the bolognese and some borlotti beans from last night to make a quick chilli:

• I fried up some onion, garlic and yellow pepper.
• Added the beef mince + a pinch of allspice, cumin, chilli and a stub of cinnamon stick
• Once browned, I tipped in some tinned tomatoes, the borlotti beans and a bit of fresh coriander

I made it up into a wrap with a few spinach leaves and a dollop of yoghurt - great lunch!

This evening, I just had a fancy for a basic "meat and two veg" type supper. I pan-fried a couple of chicken breasts and then in the same pan made a creamy mushroom and tarragon sauce to pour over them. Served with some new potatoes and cabbage, it was just what I'd been after.

27 February - shakshouka and stuffed peppers

There was a tasty-looking recipe in yesterday's Independent magazine for shakshouka - fried onions, peppers, chorizo, spinach and tomatoes with an egg broken in the middle, then sprinkled with sumac powder. It was a slight variation on a dish I've cooked before and a really tasty lunch.

After lots of meat and fish while we were away, we were both craving some veg. For supper I cooked a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe of peppers stuffed with beans. For my stuffing I cooked up onions, garlic, tomato, mushrooms and borlotti beans with some spices and dolloped it inside a couple of long red peppers. Served with a bit of garlicky yoghurt and a spinach salad, it really hit the spot.

8 February - salmon with spinach and lentils

After a jacket potato with tuna and sweetcorn mayo for lunch, it was more fish for supper, with a couple of wild salmon fillets. To go with them I used a Jamie Oliver idea for spinach with puy lentils, herbs and a drizzle of yoghurt. It's always a good combination and with the hearty lentils, you don't need any other carbs.

19 January - back to my own kitchen

I travelled back from Malta today - picking up a rather odd "pea pasty" for my lunch at the airport. It's been really good for the soul to have a break and a bit of sunshine - it felt horribly grey under the drizzly tupperware sky on the bus back from Bristol airport. But it's good to be back home to central heating and my own kitchen!

Tris was out this evening, so I cooked myself a simple supper of garlicky chicken thighs with a creamy sauce, new potatoes and a big pile of spinach - definitely my favourite comfort food!

7 January - prego and a hot chicken salad

It actually wasn't raining for a change, so we headed out for a bit of fresh air and walked up to the Downs, then on to Prego for Saturday lunch, an Italian place we'd talked about trying, but which is usually just a bit out of walking distance. We were a bit thrown by the menu initially - we'd both had in mind something light, maybe a salad, and everything was looking a bit big and heavy. We both went for pasta though and by the time it arrived, happily tucked in. I had ravioli filled with ricotta and served with beetroot tops and hazelnuts - really delicious and fantastic subtle flavours. Whilst the food was excellent though, the place was so full of families with young children, it felt like trying to eat in the middle of a nursery! I'm not sure if the restaurant is actively family-friendly (it did have a kids menu) or whether we were just unlucky with our timing, but with small kids screaming, often in stereo, as soon as we'd finished our food, we just asked for the bill to escape and went somewhere a bit more peaceful for our post-lunch coffee.

As we didn't get our salad at lunchtime, I cooked a hot chicken salad for supper instead. I marinated some strips of chicken in yoghurt mixed with some ras al hanout for a while, then cooked it on a hot griddle pan. With it we had roast beetroot and butternut squash on a big pile of spinach (to make it a salad!) and I drizzled over a dressing made of more yoghurt mixed with lemon juice and a bit of cumin. The chicken rather stuck to the griddle pan, but once I'd got it off, it tasted really good and with the dressing, it all went together really well. I also roasted a whole garlic while the oven was on which we had on the side - a bit messy to get out of their skins, but wonderfully soft and sweet.

6 January - the clifton sausage

I spent all morning waiting in for the vegbox. It usually arrives at around 11, but today, with a different driver, it didn't turn up until mid-afternoon. That meant there was very little in for my lunch, so I ended up making my version of the Greek dish "gigantes" - big white butterbeans cooked up in a tomato sauce with a few onions and some oregano. I had the beans with a few boiled potatoes and the rest of the parma ham - an unlikely combination, but not too bad.

In the evening, we went to the Clifton Sausage. As its name suggests, the menu's heavily sausage-oriented. I started with potted pork with spiced pear chutney, then as I'm not a big sausage fan, I went for the specials , which today included one of my favourites, brill. It came on a big pile of spinach with a creamy saffron sauce - mmm!

23 December - tuna ceviche and venison with figs

With a weekend at the in-laws looming, I wanted to have a pre-Christmas meal that contained lots of nice flavours but without lots of rich stodge. I went for another couple of Nigel Slater recipes from Simple Cooking, both adapted a bit. I turned his sweet and sharp sea bass into a tuna ceviche - thin slices of fresh tuna marinated in citrus juices (passion fruit, lime and orange) with some red chilli and a scattering of coriander. I made it first thing and left it in the fridge to "cook". The whole lot nearly went in the bin after Tris texted early evening to say he was going to be late ... I was not amused! I gave him until 7.30 and he walked in the door just in the nick of time for a few sharp words, but the food still on the plate! The tuna was really good and the sharp and sweet juices worked really well. The slices could have perhaps been a bit thinner to make it a bit more delicate, but I'm not sure any of my knives would've been up to it!

To follow, I pan-fried some venison fillets with red onions, then threw in some halved fresh figs to caramelise right at the end and some port and balsamic vinegar to make a sauce. The Nigel Slater recipe called for 3 times as much vinegar as port, which I think could be a misprint. It came out very sharp and I ended up adding more port to balance it out. The final result was good though, the venison perfectly pink, the caramelised onions and figs piled on top and served with a big pile of spinach.

8 December - a bacon sandwich and a leek and bacon tart

Lunch today was a good old bacon and avocado sandwich with some proper smoky bacon from Ruby & White - mmm!

Perhaps inspired by yesterday's successful baking, I decided to use the leeks still sitting in the vegbox in a tart. It was sort of a made up recipe, roughly as follows:

• I made up some basic pastry and lined a tart tin - chilled it for a bit, then baked it blind for about 15 mins @ 200C.
• I sweated a couple of chopped leeks, then mixed them in a bowl with c.100g soft goats cheese, c.50ml double cream, one whole egg and one egg yolk, plus a bit of chopped fried bacon.
• I poured the mixture in the pastry case and put the whole lot back in the oven for about half an hour at 180C.

We had the tart with a salad of spinach and beetroot - tasty and warming, but not too heavy.

12 November - tapas and a huge pork steak

It was Saturday lunchtime tapas at the Lido again today - humus, squash and feta salad and some posh ham - a great relaxed start to the weekend.

For dinner I got some pork steaks from Ruby & White, which turned out to be absolutely huge. I did some cream and tarragon sauce and we had them with a small splodge of potato and parsnip mash and some spinach. As I was cooking them, and struggling to squeeze them both in a large frying pan, there was talk of leaving some meat to have cold tomorrow, but somehow we managed to clear our plates after all!

24 October - five vegetable couscous

I used up the rest of the vegbox spinach for lunch with some pasta, plus some bacon and a generous splodge of cream - great combo.

After Hugh F-W on TV again last night with his River Cottage Veg, I decided to go for something veggie for dinner. I made a variation on a recipe from For Every Season for seven vegetable couscous - although mine only included five!

• Fry a sliced red onion in a little oil to soften, then add a couple of cloves of chopped garlic and about the same amount of chopped fresh ginger.
• Toast and then crush 1/2tsp cumin seeds and 1 tsp coriander seeds and add to the onions with a pinch of saffron and a few chilli flakes.
• Add the following vegetables to the pan, all chopped into roughly similar sized chunks: a red pepper, a courgette, a carrot and a bit of butternut squash.
• Stir around to coat the veg in the spices, then cover with about 400ml veg stock and leave to simmer gently until tender - about 20 mins.
• Serve on pile of couscous with some of the broth spooned over the top and a sprinking of chopped coriander.

A tasty way to get lots of veg that gets yummier as you get towards the bottom and all the nice garlicy-gingery bits!

22 October - lunch in the sun and a chicken curry

It was one of those fantastically bright, sunny autumnal days, so we wandered down to the harbourside for lunch at Mud Dock. It was so lovely and sunny, we were able to eat outside - I even had to peel off a few layers the sun was so warm! I had some really nice fishcakes with chilli dipping sauce, followed by a long, lingering coffee just to make the most of those rays! Then we headed over to visit mshed, Bristol's new museum - it's a cool building with great views.

There was a big bag of spinach in yesterday's vegbox which I know won't keep long, so tonight I made chicken and spinach curry. It wasn't as creamy and delicious as some curries can be, but tasty nonetheless.

17 August - double lunch and kedgeree

We have a staff meeting on a Wednesday lunchtime. I knew I wouldn't make it through to after the meeting without something to eat, but I hadn't been organised enough to get anything in for a packed lunch, so I stopped off at Hart's on my way in this morning and picked up a courgette and feta danish. It made the perfect savoury snack just to get me through. It wasn't quite enough to last through the rest of the afternoon though, so after the meeting I went into Chandos Deli for a goats cheese and red onion tart which I had when I finally got home at about 3.

Dinner was another quick favourite, kedgeree with smoked mackerel, spinach and peas. I think I've complained before that my kedgeree hasn't been as good since Sainsbury's changed their smoked mackerel. Tonight, I used some new curry powder though, from Steenbergs, which gave it just the right amount of kick and flavour. I think it went some way to making up for the less flavoursome fish.

16 August - being cooked for

Tuesdays are my busiest teaching day, so last night I made up a packed lunch; saffron rice salad with dill and broad beans. I was intending to have it with a splodge of yoghurt, but then discovered this morning there was none left in the fridge. I'd feared it might be a bit dry, but was actually spot on for a quick lunch break.

Tris was cooking this evening, quite nice to just sit down and have my dinner put in front of me for a change - salmon wrapped in proscuitto with spinach and lentils - a Jamie Oliver recipe and tasty as always.

15 August - pea & ham soup and harissa chicken

Yesterday evening, along with all my other baking, I made up a batch of fresh pea and ham soup for lunch today. Really nice to come home to after a busy morning before heading out again.

With lots of other things on my mind, I was feeling a bit uninspired about dinner. Tris had requested something "without meat or cheese" after he'd overdosed on both during his trip to Switzerland. I came up with some quick and easy harissa chicken together with corn on the cob and a nice big pile of spinach. It was really tasty, but by the time I went to bed I realised I was still a bit hungry after having no carbs all day.

4 August - leftover tart and roasted veg

For lunch today I had the leftover slice of courgette and goats cheese tart - just as good second time around with a pile of spinach wilted with some garlic and butter.

Dinner was a big pile of roasted veg; peppers, aubergine, beetroot and tomatoes (from the garden). I made up a bit of vaguely Moroccan-inspired sauce; a chopped onion, chopped garlic and red chilli fried up with some toasted and crushed cumin and coriander seeds. I then added some tinned tomatoes and a splodge of harissa. It seemed to work quite well along with a pile of herby couscous.

1 August - goats cheese on toast and pasta with spinach

Another cheesy lunch today, this time goats cheese on toast with a pile of salad. And a quick supper of orecchiette with spinach, pancetta and a slurp of cream to make a simple sauce.

27 July - salad and lemon polenta cake

I've had some peashoots and a second sowing of spinach growing on the terrace and today there was just enough for a first picking. Together with some tomatoes, also homegrown, some green beans, broad beans, new potatoes and a bit of mozzarella, it made a great lunchtime salad.

This evening was Book Club and I was providing pudding, so I tried out the lemon polenta cake recipe I brought back from my cookery workshop.

It seemed to go down well, even with the girls who weren't meant to be doing pudding!

24 July - haddock chowder and fillet steak

I'm not always convinced about fishy soups and stews, but there's something romantic-sounding about a chowder. This recipe for haddock and sweetcorn chowder is roughly based on a couple of different ones I found online and came out pretty well:

• Fry half a chopped onion and a few cubes of pancetta.
• Add a couple of new potatoes peeled and finely diced.
• Then add about 200ml vegetable stock and 225ml milk and simmer for about 5 mins.
• Add the corn from one fresh corn on the cob and simmer for another 10 mins.
• Finally add one small smoked haddock fillet cut into chunks and simmer another 10 mins.
• Season with parsley and cives to serve.

Dinner was fillet steak with some baked portobello mushrooms that came in the vegbox with garlicky buttered spinach and some chunky chips.