In the past week or so, we have been all about cooking. I think we got tired of the "spaghetti, baked chicken, curry, pizza" weekly menu that we've more or less maintained for the past 2 .5 months. Also, we were really starting to miss some of the foods that were standard fare back in Spokane.

First, I really had a hankering for Mexican, the likes of which are nowhere to be found in this country. Yes, they have "Mexican" restaurants here, but they are ridiculously expensive (think £30 or $60 for a meal for 2) and not very good, so we just decided to make our own! Miranda had sent us some taco seasoning a while back (yay!), and Costco sells tortillas, so we sauteed up some Scottish minced beef and onions and carrots to go with it. We then found some sour cream (they call it "soured cream" here, which sounds less than appetizing) and jalapenos (!) and had ourselves
a proper feast:





It was delicious.

Next in our culinary journey, Dad sent me a fabulous lunchbox as an early Christmas gift. It perfectly suits my "must reduce, reuse, recycle" self perfectly! Gone are the days of bringing leftover pasta in an old mayonnaise jar with this bad boy:



Finally, Nana and Poppa gave us some extra spending money this month. Did we take ourselves out to eat? Buy some new clothes? Go to a B&B out in the country?

No, our choice was plain:



Yeah, with all the goodies you friends and family back in America provide, we are certainly spoiled here. But just know that we are very, very grateful. Without you, tacos and cool lunches and huge pots of veggie stew might never happen!