Today is the start of ‘Reduce Portion Sizes‘ week. I started with halving the amount of porridge in todays serving, but keeping the same amount of toppings. It worked fine. Still looked good, and lasted the right length of time.

Porridge and Toppings

I took the car out today for the first time since the start of our Arctic Week. Our road is now clear but there are still some ice clumps on all the roads, especially around junctions, round abouts and car parks. Still, the countryside looks beautiful, and lots of people were enjoying tobogganing down the hills south of Shepton.

We drove a long sunny drive to Waitrose in Gillingham. We love Waitrose. The quality of the meat, vegetables and range of foods is excellent. We learned today that we can order from this supermarket for home delivery, which would save us a 70 minute round trip if we wish. We had lunch at the supermarket. Cumberland sausage whorl in a white roll with mustard and a Cappuccino. Lovely but un-photographed! I’m going to see what quality of photo I can take with my camera phone, or work out how I am going to deal with ‘outside home’ meals.

Dinner was a hearty Chilli Con Carne; extra lean steak mince, chopped carrots, celery, onions, peppers, kidney beans in chilli sauce, passata, and then a mixture of spice, fennel seeds, marjoram, cinnamon and salt. Started on the stove and finished in the oven. I served this with some Cornbread, using a recipe from the Waitrose website. I’ve not made this before, and although nice, it was very dense. The chilli was topped with grated cheese and a dollop of sour cream. Check out the space on the plate… thats the way to do it.

Chilli and Cornbread

Tonight was an NCIS catch up. Two episodes we hadn’t seen… which, lets face it is quite unusual to find any unseen episodes of anything on UK TV at the moment. We have more channels than ever and yet we watch less TV than ever before. How come?

I finished the day with a dessert, although I think it was too much as I have felt stuffed since. Although this Truffle Mouse looked wonderful, it was too much. I am also trying a new Kopparberg Premium Cider with Elderflower and Lime. It tastes just like elderflower squash, but fizzy. It is very sweet, too sweet. I think it would be good on a nice hot day, but then again, I think I would prefer just the squash.

Chocolate Truffle Dessert