The hard yards of the week are done, and now I’m cruising towards the weekend. I know I’ve said it before, but I love Thursdays - even though the Monster no longer trains on Thursday mornings (now I love Wednesday for that reason). Although it’s a 6am start, I know I don’t have to go back into work again, and Friday is always a late start. Disturbing referring to 8am as late, and my previous self would be sickened, but I’ve got to go with the times.

I’ve stuck to my insane shopping budget with an iron fist, and today cooked two chocolate cakes from a recipe I totally bastardised in order to use ingredients I had on hand. It was supposed to be a dairy and egg free cake, and use margarine and water for moistening, but I only had butter, and some left over sour cream I was determined not to throw out. Clearly the no dairy thing was not going to fly. I also had almond and walnut meal left over from the insanely bitter orange cake from a couple of weeks ago, so I threw it all in, and the result is surprisingly fantastic. I’ve also been smart enough to lock them into a container away from Pilchen, lover of all cakes, especially those of a forbidden nature.

My big ticket item for the week was a free range chicken, which is roasting as I type. I butterflied it with my vicious bone cutting scissors, and we’ll have it for dinner with polenta and salad tonight. Leftovers will be tomorrow’s lunch, and the pan juices will go into risotto next week. I went to the supermarket today for some boring basic staple type things, and restrained myself from buying coffee, which we ran out of yesterday, until Sunday, which is now grocery day. It’s okay if I breathe deeply, and I’m trying to remind myself I’m only drinking one cup a day anyway, so I can wait … can’t I? If only the coffee machine would stop staring at me like that!

Today I’m loving: using all the fruit and vegetables from the market, and not throwing any away for possibly the first time ever.