Spicing up Lockdown

Lockdown: the repetitive days and weeks that drone on. It started off alright in the first week, but now… Now the ways of riding boredom have ceased, even watching TV has become something uninteresting. However, here I am to come to the rescue.

An entertaining classic TV show of ‘Come Dine with Me’, with some remarkable characteristically hilarious moments.

Before you roll your eyes, I am not telling you to watch ‘Come Dine With Me’. Instead, take part! A fun way for all of your family to get involved in something together with a competitive edge. Here’s a little outline of what to do: each select a night for you to host, decide on how many courses you’ll each have to prepare, scavenge for ideas on what to do, and get ready to prepare the food on the night. As for scoring after each meal is finished: take a slip of paper and write the score you think was deserved. Then, on the final night, scores will be read out and counted - the crown is given to the righteous winner. If you want some inspiration on a winning dish, graciously, I will provide some. My three course meal started with a mezze board consisting of homemade flat bread, sun dried hummus, baba ghanoush and tzatziki, paired with some bread sticks and olives. A perfect way to start because as you finish off preparing the main, the rest can still indulge in food. For the main course, (sticking with a Greek theme), I prepared some lamb and pistachio koftas, paired with a curried yoghurt and roasted aubergines, topped with pomegranate seeds. To finish off the night, some crispy chocolate baskets -easy to do as they can be made first and kept in the fridge. This, ladies and gentleman, scored me 33/40! I would highly recommend doing this - it was fun for all of the family and it took a load off my mum, who always does the cooking. three: do some art. Whether or not you think you are good at art, give it a go. There are so many videos online that can help you out and give you inspiration. I find that this is a great way to pass time, as I can spend hours just painting, which makes the day go so much quicker. Art is an endless opportunity; there’s so much to draw, paint or mediums to use - you will never run short of things to do. Also, it could be a great way to give a present to someone, especially the lockdown babies who are spending birthdays at home, and provide a personal touch, making it that extra bit more meaningful. And who knows, you might find out you have a hidden talent for art.

Continuing on with the cooking theme, the next way to spice up your life is through a themed evening week. Similarly, all take one night of the week to host, pick your choice of country, and find food and a film that relates to it. This way it is slightly more relaxed - you just have to cook the main meal of the night and then you can all go and enjoy a movie upstairs later. For my family, we had Italian, Japanese, Scottish, Indian and Chinese evenings.

My final spice up is to grow some herbs. Of course, I would manage to somehow put something environmental into spicing up your lockdown, it just had to be done, but, on a serious note, growing herbs is actually a good idea. They are probably one of the easiest plants to grow in your home and they don’t take too long to grow either. On top of this, herbs go into all meals - if you aren’t putting herbs in your meals then you clearly need to learn how to cook! (That’s a bonus activity to spice up lockdown for you). Additionally, growing herbs is an easy way to save money on the shop-bought ones, reduce single use plastic, and add a nice touch to your garden or if you don’t have one, a window sill. So get growing!