I had a respite from my draconian diet rules this weekend.  I knew I would eat too much and too much of food high in fat and sugar so I went for a brisk early morning walk on Saturday to burn up some calories.

It was cold but beautiful in the early morning sunshine. Really beautiful. VERY wet and muddy though. After scrambled eggs with tomato for breakfast I had my first dairy and wheat of the year; a wholemeal sandwich with Cheddar cheese, ham and lamb’s lettuce. In the evening we had a few of the neighbours round for drinks and dinner. With an ‘Eat What You Like’ theme, everyone brought along a dish.  David made a fantastic olive and rosemary loaf which was perfect dipped in to a hot camembert topped with caramelised onion with garlic – thank you Kevin and Sarah. Sloe gin, gin and tonic and wine flowed.  We moved in to the dining room and began with a delicious spicy chicken satay with peanut sauce and salad courtesy of Sarah and Chris.  Marion made a lovely chicken and ham pie and David brought along a very richly flavoured onion and mushroom suet pudding.  Inevitably the photos became rather blurry! We finished with a very rummy Tiramisu – thank you Jane – and my contribution of a chocolate pecan meringue pie.  After that lot, there were few takers for cheese and biscuits.

Thank you to all my lovely neighbours for bringing such wonderful food.  Every dish was totally enjoyable and I enjoyed plenty of them all! Sunday morning surprised us by being sunny and much milder than recent days.  Gail was visiting for the weekend and we went for a long but very muddy walk.  We parked the car in Sissinghurst village and walked through the apple orchards and woods to Sissinghurst Castle Gardens. Squelching through the mud made the walk take much longer than usual and so we were out for 2 hours.  I did get fed up with the mud but it was wonderful to be outside in the sunshine and fresh air.

Abi had arrived with my lovely nieces by the time we got home.  We sat down and enjoyed the Prosecco, Manchego and Quince paste Gail had brought from the very fabulous Tapas Brindisa.  This was followed by roast pork, potatoes and veggies and some delicious peanut butter and butterscotch chocolate cookies made completely by Harvey.

I ate way too much on my weekend off.  I confess I had hoped my month of strict eating would have tempered my enthusiasm for all things naughty but sadly no.  I slipped back in to my old habits much too easily.  So as of now most of the January rules are back:

NO SUGAR

NO WHEAT

NO DAIRY

I am going to drink alcohol because I don’t drink excessively or regularly but ocassionally a glass of wine is just the thing.  I had a great weekend and do not regret anything I had.  But I really want to be back on the healthy eating regime from NOW!