This dish is an old family favourite that I grew up with. To me, it’s one of the ultimate comfort foods! It’s delicious on its own but is best served with freshly toasted and buttered wholegrain toast triangles.

This recipe will serve either one main helping or two small ones if you want to have it as a side dish.

(Not pictured is the all-important curry powder. Oops.)

Ingredients
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 large onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 Tbsp flour
3/4 cup milk
210g (about 7oz) canned tuna chunks in spring water
3 Tbsp of spring water from the tuna can
Curry powder to taste
Salt & pepper to taste
1/3 cup of grated cheese (I used a mild cheddar but any kind will do)

Directions
1. Cook the onion with the oil on low-med heat until soft, about 5 minutes.

2. Make a roux in the onion by adding the butter or margarine, allowing it to melt, and then adding the flour. Mix thoroughly so the flour and butter bind with the onion to form a thick paste. Cook for 2 minutes.

3. Add half the milk and mix well to get rid of any lumps. Next, add the rest of the milk and mix well. Simmer until sauce thickens, about 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously.

4. Now add the tuna, spring water and mix well. If you have any particularly big tuna chunks, break them up a bit.

5. Start adding seasonings. I usually use about 1.5 teaspoons of curry powder, but you might want to start with one teaspoon and see how you go. Don’t forget the salt and pepper! Mix well.

6. Cook the curried tuna for a few more minutes to make sure the tuna is heated through and the flour is properly cooked.

7. When done, remove from heat and stir in cheese.

It may not look like the most appetising meal but it really is. My favourite way to serve it is in a bowl or on a plate with buttered wholegrain toast triangles.

Some variations I like:
- Lightly toast bread in the oven, place the curried tuna on top of the bread and put some grated or sliced cheese on top. Place back into the oven and grill until golden and cheese is bubbling.
- Serve the curried tuna on a bed of rice instead of toast.
- Fill pastry cases with the curried tuna.
- Make a savoury pie with it.

Obsessing over: All the foods I want to eat but shouldn’t since I’m supposed to be on a ‘diet’. This is stupid. Diets don’t work anyway, right? You lose weight and then put it back on again unless you make a total lifestyle change. Lord knows I am not going to be eating protein and veggies with little to no carbs for the rest of my life. I need to eat fruit!

Working on: Getting better. Since Sunday I’ve been feeling under the weather, though I can’t pinpoint exactly what’s wrong. I think I’ve been having a few light fevers though, I can’t stomach most foods, and my body is aching, almost like when you have the Flu. I’m sort of feeling better today. Ish.

Thinking about: White chocolate. Sigh. And berries; always berries.

Anticipating: A stretch of decent weather so I can launder the pile of big items like sheets and actually have them dry. Also, spending time with all my kiddos because they are made of fairy dust and happiness.

Listening to: Really nothing the past few days. I haven’t been in a big music mood lately, actually, which is very odd since I usually prefer to have something playing in the background.

Eating: I ate a banana for breakfast, which I wasn’t supposed to. I’m supposed to eat things like eggs and veggies but the thought of either right now makes my stomach turn. I would really just like a nice bowl of porridge with fruit in it.

Wishing: I wasn’t sick and that I hadn’t agreed to this particular diet. I think I’m more suited to something that involves eating whole and fresh foods, watching portion size, cutting out most sugar and excess fat. The idea of so much meat and beans and heavy protein foods is so much less appealing now that I have to do it.

Thankful for: Sleep and just being able to pay all bills this week. My mama and her homemade vegetable soup.

This past weekend was truly lovely. I had a friend’s 21st birthday party on Saturday night which was literally the most amazing party I’ve been to. It was Las Vegas and Circus themed, there were Vegas showgirls greeting guests and taking them to the photo area, a fantastic magician, Vegas game tables, Candy Lane dancers who performed a couple of numbers, DJ Severe, stunning decorations, amazing food, a pink and red themed candy table, and delicious drinks. It was like a dream and I’m so happy my friend got to celebrate in style with the people who love and adore her. She deserves it! Oh, and the speeches were brilliant/sweet/hilarious.

Yesterday was, of course, Mother’s Day. I spent it at my parent’s house where they put on a brunch for the whole family. My mama is always entertaining! Especially when she shouldn’t be because it should be her day off. She even told me I wasn’t allowed to do the dishes yesterday – no one was to do any dishes that day, she said – but I did them anyway. I’m not a mama so it didn’t count for me! Anyway, it was a lovely morning and the food was, as always, delicious. Anything with croissants, cheese, and bacon is delicious.

I hope you had a lovely weekend! xo

If you’re viewing this post in a reader, click on over to take a look!

This week has turned into a roller coaster. The beginning was good and my mood was upbeat, hopeful and generally ok but as it went on I became sad and angry. There are a couple of reasons for this which I don’t want to go into, but I can say that it’s left me feeling distrustful and not at all like sharing how I feel with this person. They always want to know how I am doing and how my therapy is going but then when I talk about it I feel like they judge and criticise me. It’s true that I don’t take criticism well, however I think that is because I’m so self-critical that other people’s negative evaluations of me serve only to ‘prove’ what I already thought about myself (be it true or not). That in turn makes me feel worthless and then anxious and depressed. I would greatly prefer it if this person tried to be a bit more positive about my experiences in therapy and my efforts at getting better. Empathy; that would be good.

Shaking the disappointed and hurt feelings is a little harder than it can otherwise be. If it was a different person, I probably wouldn’t care so much.

Oh well, here’s to a good weekend!
xo

*I recently finished reading The Help (extremely excellent, by the way) and now I say everything in my head with a Southern American accent. It’s spilling out onto the blog because I think the only way to get rid of it to SHARE it.

Obsessing over: Tattoos. For my birthday Josh gave me cash towards a tattoo so I’ve been busy playing with various ideas I’ve had for ages and trying to find artists that might be suitable to execute said ideas. Fingers crossed I hear back from one artist in particular, soon!

Working on: A new design for the blog. It’s been up and down and I’m still not sure if I’m happy with what I’ve come up with. It’s always the way!

Thinking about: My menstrual cycle, the changes it’s been going through, and whether or not my current birth control pill needs reevaluating in order to get things back on track.

Listening to: Lana Del Ray’s Born To Die album. I’m really enjoying it and I love her voice.

Thankful for: My guy, who plays with my hair to make me feel better. My mum for the amazing birthday dinner on Monday and the lovely day we had together. My mum, again, for bringing over painkillers and anti-inflammatory gel which she rubbed on my right shoulder and neck yesterday (I’ve injured them, somehow). Massages, which I’m going to have this morning in order to try and fix aforementioned injury.

xox

Thanks to Danielle for inspiring this post.

Tomorrow is my birthday day. I don’t have anything in particular planned except for dinner with my parents. Birthdays get less important every year, really. It’s just another day. I suppose I try to be extra-kind to myself though, and maybe do something nice just for me. If I had a bath, you betcha I’d be having a bubble filled one and finishing up my latest book!

I can’t believe I’m going to be 24 at 11:30pm tomorrow. I feel simultaneously younger and older. I used to think that age was a marker of various milestones for adults, too, but it really isn’t. Age is just, literally, how old your body is. You neither gain nor loose anything with age and milestones occur because adults choose to attain them. We don’t have any more teeth to cut, we can (most of us) walk and run fine. Now, we get jobs and save money for houses because we choose to, not because it happens when you are ‘a certain age’.

Just the two.

Gala’s article on self-injury, and specifically the aftermath of it, is very good, and close to my heart.

Mona Eltahawy wrote a good article on the oppression of women in Arab countries. The comments are interesting as well.

xox

Hello blogosphere (does anyone other than journalists ever use that word? Probably not…), how was your weekend? Full of loveliness, I hope! Mine was pretty good. I started off by getting a manicure on Friday, using shellac/gel colour. It was excellent because it dried under the special lights incredibly fast and meant I could leave sooner and not worry about smudging. Let me just say, I love this manicure. It’s been three days and there are zero chips. I have used a metal wool pot scrubber, without gloves, moved furniture and have done general everyday things. I’m definitely not careful with my manicures so they usually only last (in perfect condition) for a day or two, but this one is still going strong! Worth the extra money ($45 instead of $22) though, especially because I don’t get professional ones very often.

Saturday morning I spent reorganizing my half of the sunroom/my office. Last weekend I bought a large wooden desk which I sanded, repainted white and varnished. I moved the damn thing by myself, with the help of a blanket, because Josh was out and, honestly, it’s less stressful to move furniture by myself (men…). Below is what things are looking like at the moment.

Next I’m going to be making an on-the-wall pen and supplies storage system and lowering some of the stuff on the walls. When I’m all done I’ll share some proper before + after photos (maybe a DIY if my storage system works out). There is something so wonderfully fresh about white furniture. I’m pretty much obsessed lately!

The rest of the weekend was chilled out and we mostly hung out at home, watching movies, internetting and snuggling.

Hope your Monday is going nicely, or will be nice if you’re not in my timezone.
xox

Obsessing over: My new Hello Kitty onesie. These PJs are probably the most comfortable I’ve owned since, well, childhood. Even though my boyfriend thinks I look ridiculous and it’s not quite cold enough to be covered in this much polar fleece, I am working this pink snuggle-fest.

Working on: A bunch of small items to start selling on Etsy. Making leather bags is a lot of work and it’s taking time. Learning as I go and a lack of the right tools is also adding to this. So, in the meantime, I want to create some items that are much less time-consuming to make. As a hint, expect owls and other forest critters.

Thinking about: Life and what I want out of it, trying to reconcile that with the fact I need to do things in the meantime while I wait until I can embark on what I really want to actually do/experience (motherhood). Sometimes I feel the most unambitious person because I actually just want to be a stay-at-home mama and raise a family. There is a lot of societal pressure to be something more than that, despite the fact I honestly feel it’s one the most honorable, actual full-time jobs out there. It doesn’t pay in money but it pays in the most wonderful ways imaginable. I feel the most fulfilled and peaceful when I’m with my nieces and nephews, playing and looking after them. The little things they do, the smiles and laughter, even the exasperating things they do, are so rewarding.

Anticipating: Sorting out our garden. At the moment we have lots of pots with herbs and veggies but not an actual garden yet. If it’s ok with the landlady (i.e., my grandmother), I want to remove a bunch of large, boring plants from a raised bed and turn it into a vegetable patch. I also have two large pots with lavender in them still at my parents, and I want to make a new garden bed for a flower garden as well as re-do the existing bed that lies under the sunroom windows. So yes, this is what I am currently really excited about!

Listening to: I’ve been in a rap mood of late. YouTubing Jay-Z and Tupac, mostly.

Eating: My diet has been horrid the last two weeks. Absolutely atrocious. Twice this week we ordered pizza because I don’t like cooking. Like, I really do not like cooking at the moment. Sometimes I don’t mind it, if it’s easy and not too time-consuming. But even then, cooking isn’t my thing. I am a baker, really. I will give you cake and cupcakes and cookies, but ask me to make dinner and I will whine about it. At the moment I’d be pretty happy to hand over all cooking duties to Josh and do all the cleaning duties myself!

Wishing: For a professional manicure. I don’t like doing them myself and it’d be really nice to get my horrible digits looking better.

xox

Thanks to Danielle for inspiring this post.

My birthday is in 19 days so I decided to buy myself some gifts. Mostly because I am sad about not being able to get a dog so I’m compensating with impulse shopping. As you do.

Plush Hello Kitty slippers from Amazon.

Kello Kitty onesie PJs from Amazon. Yep, I bought a onesie.

Two of these kraft magazine holders from Typo, from the physical store in St Lukes, but you can buy online here.

And a recipe folder, also from Typo, which I don’t have a picture of because it was on sale. Once I start putting recipes in it I will post some photos!

Have you bought anything lately? Do you comfort shop?

Caine’s Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

If I could go to LA, Caine’s Arcade would be at the top of my list of places to visit.