Friday 12th June 2026
Lunch
A big weekend ahead with my friend Beckie coming to stay ready for the Hardwich Hobble tomorrow (a looped run in the grounds of Hardwick Hall where you get to run as many or as few 6kim as you want and can in 6 hours). I made Magic Soup for lunch which was then good to leave for Beckie to have when she arrived a bit later.
Dinner
It’s traditional to have pasta for dinner the night before a run so I made pizzocheri, a buckwheat pasta from Valtellina, a valley in Lombardy in Northern Italy. I got the recipe from a friend but I think it was originally from a Pasta Grannies cookbook and you can watch the Pasta Grannies making pizzocheri here.
The pasta is made by hand without using a pasta machine but is still pretty quick and easy to do. I save myself lots of kneading by using the dough hook on my Kenwood mixer and then you roll it out and cut it into short strips. The original recipe layers it with potatoes and savoy cabbage – I used spring greens instead which works really well and skipped the potato (though maybe I should have included it given we were ‘carbing up’ for the run). I also used Tallegio cheese instead of the local cheese specified in the recipe.
Saturday 13th June 2026
Lunch
No official lunch today because we were busy running but the race organisers, Rasselbock, provided a great array of snacks for in between laps including little onion bhajis and samosas, fresh fruit and lovely homemade cherry cake.
Dinner
After a day of snacking and running, our reward was a meal at the fantastic South Street Kitchen. A lot of their food has a Middle Eastern feel so when I saw that they were doing Italian evenings in June I was a bit dubious – and then I looked at the menu: it looked amazing!
We shared some olives and crispy gnocchi to start. The gnocchi was a mixture of white and very dark green which I assume was spinach and it was fantastic. For mains Beckie and I both had the asparagus and pea rigatoni and Tom had the gnocchi and squash in a creamed pesto sauce. Everything was beautiful! I haven’t made gnocchi for a long time and think that should go on my to do list.
Sunday 14th June 2026
Lunch
I was still feeling quite hungry today after yesterday’s run so I made us a veggie full English for lunch – potato cakes, baked beans, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, veggie sausages, fried egg and halloumi! It was a big one and very satisfying.
Dinner
It turned out to be a good job that I’d had such a sustaining lunch because severe bruising around my hip for no apparent reason meant I ended up spending 7 hours in our local A&E Department having been sent there from Minor Injuries. There was nothing to buy except crisps and chocolate so Tom rescued me with a lovely smoked cheese and red pepper sandwich. This is one of my favourite sandwich fillings and has history for me because it’s what my Dad used to make for me to take for lunch when I was at college doing my A Levels – though back then it was always the local Lancashire cheese and green pepper.
Monday 15th June 2026
Lunch
It’s that time of year when we get a lot of courgettes in the veg box so it was Courgette and Sweetcorn Soup for lunch.
Dinner
I made one of our favourite curries for dinner tonight. It’s a Prue Leith recipe for Pea, Paneer and Spinach Curry and it’s very tasty and satisfying.
Tuesday 16th June 2026
Lunch
A treat today. It was lovely and sunny and we were in town so we had lunch in the courtyard at Birdhouse. I always forget to check the specials here but for once I remembered and ordered a sweet potato and butter bean sandwich. It was enormous and we’d ordered chips on the side as well so what you see in the picture below is just half of it; I wrapped the other half to take home. Tom had the whipped ricotta on toast which was very pretty.
Dinner
For dinner I did a really nice ‘bowl’. It’s really any veg you have lying around in veg stock and then you roast potatoes which get added in at the end and it’s served with veggie sausages and pesto to drizzle on top. I sometimes make the pesto but I was in Waitrose at lunchtime so I picked up their posh fresh one. It’s a recipe I should blog at some point.
Wednesday 17th June 2026
Lunch
I drove up to the Pennines beyond Barnard Castle today doing some hospital visiting so the other half of yesterday’s sandwich came in very useful.
Dinner
The very easy and tasty courgette, lemon and creme fraiche tagliatelle for tea tonight. My courgettes are growing well so I’m quite excited about being able to do this with home-grown courgettes soon.
Thursday 18th June 2026
Lunch
Green Minestrone for lunch. I can’t remember exactly what I put in – it’s one of those very forgiving recipes that you pretty much make with whatever you have to hand. I know I didn’t have any fennel which does work well in it but it was still really good.
Dinner
It was Grindleford Fell Race this evening. My hip wasn’t up to doing it but I went along as driver and spectator and because I’d ordered a veggie burger as part of my race entry. They were really good, satisfying burgers.