Friday 5th June 2026
Lunch
We had a delicious lunch at our regular Friday spot, Baker’s Yard. We often get a slice of their quiche and one of their large salads and share it and we did that today. The salad was roasted veg, olives and feta on a bed of a sauce made from butter beans and sprinkled with very crunchy crumbs. It was really good – Tom voted it his favourite of their salads and there have been many good ones!
Dinner
We got a large sweet potato in our veg box a week or two ago and I’d been meaning to make this meal ever since: Black bean and sweet potato hotpot with charred sweetcorn salsa from “Soph’s Plant Kitchen” by Sophie Waplington.
It’s a smoky black bean and lentil stew which she makes with a layer of thinly sliced sweet potato on top. I did it a bit differently, roasting the sweet potato in smallish cubes and stirring in at the end.
It’s then served with cashew queso – a quick creamy and garlicky cashew ‘cheese’ and sweetcorn salsa. The salsa was a real find because it’s quick and easy and would be a great side to add a zing to lots of dishes. I made it with defrosted frozen sweetcorn kernels which you then fry with olive oil (and I added in some dried chilli flakes) over a high heat for a few minutes to get a bit of colour. When they were ready I stirred in the juice of half a lime.
Saturday 6th June 2026
Lunch
Leftover spicy lentil and tomato (aka magic) soup from Thursday.
Dinner
It was Walkley Festival this afternoon which was really nice. The weather forecast had been terrible (thunder and lightening levels of terrible) but it turned out fine and the sun even peeped out at one. There was lots of music on and we saw loads of people we know from Walkley Beer Company. We bought lovely chocolates from Chocolates by Design, drank some beers and had an onion bhaji supplied by The Bhaji Shop. After a couple of beers I wasn’t sure whether cooking dinner would happen but I really wanted home-cooked food so I pulled myself together and made aubergine and potato curry with rice. It’s a recipe that’s in one of my scrapbooks and it’s easy, tasty and comforting.
Sunday 7th June 2026
Lunch
I’m writing a couple of weeks later and seem to have no note or any memory of what we had for lunch!
Dinner
Tonight I made spaghetti and meatless balls which have been in my head ever since I failed to make some to take on holiday with us because I just ran out of time. This is a lovely dinner and the recipe makes enought meatless balls to freeze half for another time. Bonus!
I also finally got round to make some granola this weekend and it’s really nice to have homemade rather than shop bought again.
Monday 8th June 2026
A day of leftovers which I believe is quite traditional for a Monday…
Lunch
I picked up a couple of vegan sausage rolls from Pom Kitchen on my way back from the office and we had these with leftover aubergine and potato curry. Not the most obvious pairing but it worked okay.
Dinner
And dinner was leftover black bean and sweet potato hotpot from Friday night. We didn’t have the cashew queso with it this time but I did make more of the very quick and easy sweetcorn salsa.
Tuesday 9th June 2026
Lunch
I went out for lunch with Kerry and we tried out a fairly new French café in town, Aux Bon Vivant. I wouldn’t usually choose French as a vegetarian but they had posted some great looking veggie specials on Instagram so we thought we’d give it a go. The day we went there wasn’t a lot of veggie choice but I had one of the small plates – large pasta shells stuffed with cheese and onion and flaked almonds. It was very tasty but the overall experience didn’t quite hit the mark for me. They do cheese platters and lots of wine by the glass though so I could be tempted back for that!
I spotted my first lions from the Pride of Yorkshire while I was in town.
Dinner
I had loads of work to fit in after my lunch out and the time ran away with me so we ended up going to the pub for dinner. We went to The Sportsman in Crosspool which is reliable and easy for a mid-week dinner. I had the Rainbow Lasagne which is a vegan butternut squash, spinach, red pepper and tomato lasagne. It was a bit on the gloopy side but did the job! Tom’s Roasted Cauliflower Dopiaza was probably the better choice and came with really good crunchy onion bhajis as an extra.
Wednesday 10th June 2026
Lunch
Today it was our Network Bee 4th birthday. (Network Bee is a women’s business networking group I run with two friends.) We held the event at The Florentine with pizzas to share. I made us a bee birthday cake for the occasion. The cake inside is a lemon sponge with lemon butter cream.
Dinner
A frequent favourite for dinner tonight: Vegetarian sausages (Cauldron Lincolnshire Sausages) with patatas bravas and garlic mayonnaise.
Thursday 11th June 2026
Lunch
Lunch out with my friend Hilary at The Dore Grill. I really like this place. It has a nice varied menu, lovely service and it’s always quite busy. It reminds me a bit of the 80s for some reason. Perhaps because it’s in quite a wealthy area of town it has a bit of that feel of 80s excess.
Dinner
After a few too many meals out I fancied cooking something nice tonight so I picked up a packet of Thai basil on the way home from lunch and did a recipe from Meera Sodha’s fantastic cookbook, Dinner. We had the “Aubergine, green bean and tofu pad krapow” served with rice. It’s such a tasty dish. I made a really big portion but somehow we managed it all!