I have been having trouble sleeping lately so last night I went to bed with a mug of camomile tea.

It didn’t help me sleep but I enjoyed the camomile.
This morning I fancied porridge.  I bought this lovely bag of oats in Australia but they do take some cooking. I decided to grind the oats to speed up cooking time and presumably improve digestion.  I ground up some pumpkin seeds to a fine powder and some hazlenuts and walnuts to a coarser texture.  I also added some Goji berries and protein powder.  When I threw away everything with sugar, included dried fruits, I spared the Goji berries.  They were expensive but also they don’t taste sweet like raisins do so I thought I would eat them sparingly and when they are gone, not replace them. I put all my ingredients in a non stick pan.  I used 1/2 a cup of oats and 1 tbsp of everything else.Plus 1 and 1/2 cups of milk.
It was cooked in about 3 minutes and I poured the porridge in a bowl and topped it with coconut butter and a few blueberries.  This was such a delicious breakfast, I could eat it again for dinner!  The porridge seemed creamy and was mainly smooth thanks to the grinding of the oats and seeds.  Texture was provided by the nuts and Goji berries.  A really good breakfast. Oh no!  Some sugar sneaked in to my house!  I was looking for some tissues without nasty chemicals and these came up so I bought them.  Made from sugar cane!  I tell you, that sugar stuff is in EVERYthing! I started work early today because I treated myself to 2 hours off for lunch.  I rarely have any lunch at all, apart from dashing to the local shops and then eating at my desk.  Today I decided it was time to catch up with the lovely ladies I live near, many of whom I used to see every day at the school gates. I do miss these dear and lovely people and have been looking forward to catching up all week.  We were seated in a large alcove off the main dining room at our local village pub, The Milk House.It was lovely to forget about work and all my other worries for a couple of splendid hours.  Thank you Sarah for organising it for us.
My starter was excellent.  Antipasto which had cheese, olives,  tomatoes, pesto, cured meats and roasted vegetables.  I enjoyed it very much. We were given a choice from the classic menu.  As we were a party of 12 we had to pre-order.  I chose the beef burger and fries.  I asked for it to be served without the relish as that would most likely have had sugar in it and was impressed that they had remembered.  I left the bun and the lettuce as it was covered in mayonnaise.  The actual burger was quite adequate and the chips tasty enough.  I managed to leave nearly half of the chips, I think.

I love the way The Milk House has been decorated and furnished.  It is very comfortable and pleasant to sit in but I do think the food needs to be livened up a bit.  My starter was great and the crab cakes looked really good too.  But the mains are a bit too ordinary.  We are spoilt in this area with many wonderful restaurants and gastro pubs.  If they want to compete with food, they need to be more imaginative.

But as for the people?  No competition.  It was wonderful to see the local lovelies and I just wish I could have stayed longer. An early evening glass of wine – cheers!  First drink of the week.I feel exhausted after a very challenging week.  A mug of the leftover chicken soup will do for supper followed by a very early night.

Have a restful evening and a wonderful weekend.