I had this weekend to myself as Husband John was out of town, and it was quite a satisfying Get’er Done weekend. In addition to boring stuff like 3 loads of laundry and loo scrubbing, I manage to go for morning yoga and start the first Great Wardrobe Cull of 2014! Trying on all the clothes you have not worn in the last 12 months is a highly effective (and visual..) reality check if you have the niggly feeling you are a teeny tiny bit heavier than you should be :p But I digress..  I still need to work blogging into my weekly schedule, but I feel I’m getting better at not over-thinking the whole process. Stream-of-consciousness writing works fine for now!

In reverse order : The cheeky five was a berry smoothie. I added some muesli (sidenote: I always feel like it should be spelt meusli..) as a trial, but I don’t think I’ll be doing it again as it detracts from the sharp tang of the berries.

Four was proper cooking – A few weeks ago Husband John invented what he calls Meatestrone soup – basically it’s like minestrone but with beef mince and mixed pulses. Soup is such a good way of using up the good intentions veggies that are languishing in the fridge and we usually get at least 3-4 freezer meals out of our beloved Le Creuset.

Ingredients this time were :  Some garlic, onions and 1 chilli, 2 carrots, 1 fresh tomato and 1 tin of plum tomatoes,  1 beef stock cube and 1 veggie stock cubes, some dried mixed Italian herbs and extra rosemary, 150 grams of mixed pulses (pre-soaked) and 300g beef mince.

The mince looks extra brain-like in this shot..

The 2 dots in the top left hand corner are raw lentils, not spills. My kitchen counters are quite clean, promise!

Despite pre-soaking the mixed pulses for almost 18 hours, some of the larger grains were still a little crunchy after an hour of cooking. Note to self  – look up name of the crunchy grains to see if they are actually meant to be crunchy.. Hmm, also look up side effects of eating partially cooked pulses..