We then did a quick think of how many different meals we cooked regularly and it wasn’t many more than that!

Our goal from then was to diversify our repertoire and see how many new things we could cook from our 30+ cookbooks, and initially we did well but quite quickly fell back into our rut.

So once again we are going to be trying to expand the number of recipes we make regularly, and even if they don’t get added to the regular rota make new and different foods to excite.

Our regular list of food at the moment is below, though some, like pizza. have many variants:

• Spanish Fish Soup
• Frittata
• Lentil mushroom spaghetti bol
• Scrambled Tofu and rice
• Spicy Tuna
• Veggie chilli
• Smoked haddock, leek and potato soup
• Omelette and salad/beans
• Veggie Burgers
• Pizza
• Chickpea, coconut and spinach curry
• Goats cheese parcels
• Beetroot falafel
• Butternut and squash falafel
• Roast carrot and chickpea soup
• Carrot and red lentil soup
• Fish pie
• Salmon, potatoes and peas/broccoli
• Smoked mackerel pate
• Fishfinger sarnies
• Pasta pesto and rocket
• Peanut butter noodles
• Veg stew
• Risotto
• Gnocchi
• Salmon with cannellini bean mash
• Roast carrots with walnuts, feta and cumin
• Sausage casserole
• Butternut and chestnut roast
• Savoury flapjack
• Vegetable tagine

We also do a lot of chutney making and pickling when things are in season.

This is despite having a couple of dozen cook books and masses of bookmarked recipes from newspapers and websites, and being a more than competent cook who’s very comfortable in a kitchen.

It just becomes too easy to fall back on the regular meals, the ones you can put together without thinking, the ones that are store cupboard meals, filling and comforting after a long day at work.

So the plan is to make at least one different recipe a month and log it here, rating it, and talking about any changes I would make to it to encourage myself out of my comfort zone with cooking.

And to support all this I want to develop a nice allotment growing ingredients to put straight into our kitchen, we have one but I’ve not really been involved and I want this to change.

So keep an eye on here, and Instagram to see what I’m up to!

Recipes

Just a list of the recipes that are I’ve got up on the blog, most of these recipes are vegetarian.

• Red Onion, Apple and Goat’s Cheese Pizza
• Spanish(ish) Fish Soup
• Spicy Mushroom and Lentil Sauce
• Torta di riso
• Wild Garlic Risotto