SATURDAY

It was one of those rare days when I had no schedules and could do everything at my own pace – wahey!

Breakfast was my favourite porridge with cinnamon, apple and natural yoghurt. It takes longer to make than the average bowl of porridge, which is why I rarely make it during the week, but it’s well worth it. You can find the recipe here. Because I always try to get my five a day, I also had a mandarin.

I was preparing to host a course walking workshop for the agility club on Sunday, so I made some banana, peanut butter and oat cookies, which I tested out as a snack. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that either as this recipe is vegan friendly and gluten free, so I broke none of my own rules!

Lunch was a stuffed tomato with a side salad, tortilla chips and hummus. One of my pet hates is food waste, so I wanted to make the most of those tortilla chips, and they were a nice addition to this meal.

Because I got up late, lunch was late and so I skipped straight to dinner. I treated myself to a Chinese. The only takeaway in the village where I live is a Chinese, but I have no complaints as their food is absolutely divine! I went for my favourite, crispy shredded chicken in sweet chilli sauce with boiled rice. I had prawn crackers, of course, which I don’t think break my rules either as they’re more like crisps. My dogs would have been disappointed had there been no prawn crackers – they always get a prawn cracker to share between them.

Dinner: Crispy shredded chicken in sweet chilli sauce with boiled rice. Yep, I still buy and watch DVDs!

I enjoyed my dinner in front of the TV while watching my favourite Finnish film of recent years, Teit meistä kauniin. Before I moved to Ireland, I wouldn’t have dreamed of watching a Finnish film, but they have vastly improved in the last couple of decades, and this particular film follows the early days of one of our biggest rock bands, Apulanta, who I’m a fan of.

I was quite full after dinner, but after my stomach settled a little, I had a cup of tea with a couple of squares of dark chocolate with sea salted caramel – yummy! – which just slaked the craving for something sweet.