Sue Russell

Sue Russell, 51, is a full-time mum who lives in Oxfordshire with husband Trevor and their three teenage children. Follow Sue on Twitter @sue_russell

28 July
Life rushes on! It’s the fourth week of the LOVE Life challenge, so it’s almost at an end. I’ve been thinking about what we’ve been eating less and more of over the last month:

Potatoes are definitely down. We’ve hardly eaten any spuds except for a new potato salad a few days ago – instead we have switched to pasta, wholegrain rice and sweet potatoes.

We’ve also eaten far fewer wheat products, especially white bread, and of course crisps are down. This might be harder to maintain, given my 14-year-old’s love of them!

Actually, wine consumption has also dropped, but I can’t guarantee to keep that one going either!

We’re now eating a lot more nuts, so no-one feels hungry, we’re just snacking on healthier foods.

I’m using more herbs and spices in my cooking, so although the fat levels are lower the flavour is still great, thanks to the recipes we were shown at the beginning of the challenge.

I’m also pleased to see that we are eating more fish. And there have been no complaints about fish being boring for at least a month!

All in all there hasn’t been a huge change in the way we eat, but it’s all been much more tasty and satisfying than before.

I needed a push out of the rut of the same old weekly meals, and some of the new LOVE Life recipes have already become fixtures, like the Watercress, pea & hot-smoked trout spaghetti and the Thai fishcakes.

I’ll carry on cooking fish in foil parcels and experimenting with new ingredients.

I'm also going to try one new Waitrose recipe each week, since they are all so easy to follow.

It’s been a fun month – even my 18-year-old son said that he’ll miss the LOVE Life challenge – although actually he won’t, since we’ll still be eating that way!

I will miss this weekly blog but the other new habit that I have acquired from this project is Twitter and that too will continue!

3 recipes I’ll make again:

1 Thai fish cakes
Easy to make (even if your food processor has given up the ghost!) and delicious. Went down well with everyone, including my 89-year-old mother-in-law who loved the Fragrant Thai Dressing.

2 Thai chicken salad
Used up the rest of the Fragrant Thai Dressing in this simple salad – it will become a standard on the weekly shop from now on.

3 Mexicana beef
A hit – younger son declared it ‘just like your kedgeree but without the fish, Mum…’ Hmm. It certainly has a lot less fat than my butter-laden kedgeree, but was equally tasty!

21 July
We’re now more than three weeks into the LOVE Life plan and it’s all going pretty well.

I don’t think that the family have noticed a huge change in the way we eat, which is reassuring – although the absence of crisps is causing concern in certain younger quarters! – but they’re all enjoying the different recipes and foods we’re trying.

I’ve got a jar of rose harissa, some crushed sumac and ras el hanout left from the first delivery of food, so I’m thinking about experimenting with some Moroccan cuisine.

Talking about eating new things, I finally tried out the lettuce wraps. My student daughter has declared these her favourites, and she seems to have been living off them for the latter half of this term – very unusual student food!

I like the idea of a low carb ‘sandwich’ so I gave it a go – the flavours are great, although they are a bit tricky to eat!

I’ve received all sorts of comments – mainly positive – about the whole LOVE Life campaign, but the oddest point of the week was when someone asked me to autograph the LOVE Life magazine!

My friends think I am looking good, but with the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables in season at Waitrose right now the LOVE Life plan is so easy to follow.

14 July
With the start of the school holidays the beginning of July is always a pretty manic time – end-of-term celebrations and sports days collide with my rush of activity when I realise that the kids will be off school for two solid months and nothing will get done for the rest of the summer! So all in all, maintaining a regular healthy diet becomes a bit of a challenge.

In spite of this, we all sat down to home-made Spinach and salad onion beef burgers the other night. There were rumbles of ‘what, no chips?’ and ‘burgers need chips!’ from certain quarters but the burgers were scoffed, all three kids refused extra helpings and declared themselves happy – so emergency chips were not needed after all.

Funny how recipes like these, that are packed with a wide range of healthy ingredients seem to satisfy and fill you up more easily. And the cumin seeds, which I don’t usually cook with, produced a great flavour – so this will definitely be tried again.

My favourite three things so far are:

1 LOVE Life Apple & Prune Juice
This is my guilty secret. I have a growing addiction. Despite the fact that it’s exactly the same colour as HP Sauce I can’t get enough of it.

2 Hot-smoked Trout Fillets
I love these, especially in the spaghetti recipe. This will become a family regular.

3 LOVE Life Broccoli, Pea & Mint Soup
The soups in general are great, but this is just the best – it’s fresh and delicious.

7 July
The LOVE Life campaign has finally started and Waitrose has just delivered a pile of healthy groceries – never has a house had so many nuts and so many pots of herbs! Slight look of panic from eldest when she realises there are no crisps, but she can be spotted later happily munching pistachios. I realise that unlike my fellow bloggers, my lot are quite old enough to make their preferences very clear!

The first day goes well – muesli and fruit for me for breakfast, and bacon and eggs for the boys before they play cricket. Well, I did grill the bacon, the eggs were scrambled and it was wholemeal toast. I feel a gradual start will work best with the family.

The new soups are proving an instant hit – the boys scoffed the Red Lentil & Chilli in spite of first declaring that they hated lentils. I think the little bit of grated cheese on top was a good addition. The Lemon Rasam is absolutely delicious – a bit like the Waitrose Green Thai Chicken Soup.

Another early success has been the Watercress, pea & hot smoked trout spaghetti that Silvana Franco showed us. We had it for supper on Sunday after a very busy weekend – when all I felt like was collapsing with a glass of crisp white wine! It was very quick and easy to make, really tasty and seemed to really fill up the boys. My daughter and her boyfriend even requested the recipe to take back to university, which is the ultimate accolade!

All in all, the first few days have been really easy (the toughest part has been learning to use Twitter!) and it’s been great to have some new recipes and foods to try, with lots more to come.

30 June
How do I fill up teenagers without changing shape myself? I enjoy cooking and have always been passionate about making sure that the family eats healthily. So I know the basics: I look at labels, try to buy local, seasonal food and avoid highly processed ready meals. But I’d really like to learn about how foods work together, so nutritionally you get the most out of them.

Although I don’t need to lose weight, I have noticed in the last couple of years that my shape is changing a little, particularly around the middle. So my challenge is to fill up two sporty, constantly hungry teenage boys while cooking healthily for two adults.