Monday 20 February - Steak and Kidney

I started this off on Sunday, by frying off the meat and mushrooms and concocting a sauce from stock, wine, worcester sauce and onions and garlic. This then went in the fridge overnight and was then heated up and put in the slow cooker for the whole of the afternoon.

Found it quite difficult to work for the afternoon as it smelt wonderful!

This was served in a large bowl over the top of mash, and steamed beans and carrots

This probably doesn't look like low fat food, but this is still so much better than how I used to eat. A few months ago I would have added large numbers of dumplings to the stew, and the mash would have been loaded with butter and cream. I would also probably have added a large knob of butter to the beans and glazed the carrots in butter and sugar.

I used to get through a couple of packs of butter in a week - since January we have got through one pack, which we bought when George needed it for a school cookery lesson a few weeks ago - the last of this was used in the dal on Saturday - a couple of ounces in a whole pack of lentils that served 14 people.

Struggling a bit now to think of different things to eat, and the same meals keep coming round and round - I've just popped some chicken fillets into some piri piri sauce to marinade for tonight. In the meantime a bit of reading up of some of my books to try and find inspiration to keep me going!