My son and I will happily confess to being foodies. We eat to live, though if we can enjoy preparing, and eating, our food then so much the better. Of late, we’ve been cutting back on the meat for various reasons and have enjoyed sourcing, and trying, different recipes. Invariably though, we’ve sometimes returned to old favourites and simply substituted pulses for the meat.

Last time we had chicken tagine we didn’t enjoy it so much, so recently I left out the chicken and the chicken stock cube, and used a vegetable stock cube and a tin of chick peas for the protein. The chicken would have cost a few pounds, the chick peas cost me 33 pence, and honestly, we both preferred it with chick peas. We’ve also had shepherd’s pie, substituting minced beef with green lentils, and that was nice too. Pork and beans – a slightly spicy dish, became mushrooms and beans, and for today’s French style chicken soup I’ll replace the chicken with cannellini beans.

It’s been an interesting ‘experiment’ and a tasty one too, and so far, the only thing we haven’t really liked was pulled pork wraps whereby the pork was replaced with jackfruit. I’d made my own BBQ sauce, but neither of us particularly liked the texture or colour of the jackfruit – sold in a tin, in water, it’s pieces of what is a very large fruit with an almost stringy texture. Very popular as a substitute for pulled meat apparently though not to our liking as mentioned.

It may be coincidence, however this past week I’ve been sleeping a whole lot better and can only remember dreaming the one night. I often remember my dreams, which suggests I’m not sleeping deeply, so this new regime is a nice change. My only complaint is that I’m not sleeping long enough; I average about 6 hours a night on a good night, and whilst that may be enough for some, I find I yawn a lot and lately and I have a ‘twitch’ in one eye suggesting tiredness. Give me 7 hours and I’ll be happy; 8 hours and I’ll be ecstatic! I’ve always liked my sleep lol.

We’re down to 2 meat meals a week with the occasional fish dish thrown in and though it does take a little planning, we intend to keep at it. My son often states he was vegetarian, mostly, when he lived in student housing and plans to return to it once he leaves home again. No-one is stopping him doing it now, just to clarify. For myself, I’ll most likely keep on this way, having meat/fish twice a week as it suits me; my own version of the 5:2 diet. It cuts down on the food bills for one thing; pulses are so cheap. Nothing, however, can replace a good bacon sandwich!

When I was living with a hardened vegetarian, we tried various substitutes for bacon, and none of them were that nice. After a few years, and without any prompting from me, he gave up and became a raving carnivore! No idea what he is now, living in Oz, nor do I care. Speaking of, true to form LMAO he emailed today to let us know that they’re moving, again. He never was happy in one place for long, and it seems like that hasn’t changed. They lived in Brisbane for a while, he didn’t like it. They bought property in Tasmania; it was too quiet. They then moved to Canberra, now that’s too quiet once the working day is over, and in January, they’re on the move again, apparently to a town 40 miles away. I can only assume he’ll move jobs too as I can’t see him commuting 80 miles a day for work. I wouldn’t!

Good manners suggest I respond to his email, wish them a Happy Christmas, and a successful move, but I’ll probably not reply; as my son says, if I do, it’ll just open the floodgates again along the lines of when are you visiting us, what’s your phone number/address… Meh!

Have a good week :)