Meal Planning Monday: 13th June 2016

No meal plan from us last week - shocking, I know! And it definitely showed in my haphazard approach to the week. We ended up with fish and chips one night, and a pizza night too. Onwards and upwards this week, once Harry wakes up we're off to Aldi to do what will hopefully not be an expensive shop.

I'm doing some baking this week - jam tarts as prep for Brownie holiday which is heading fast towards us. We're Alice in Wonderland themed, and it's just so long since I made jam tarts that I thought I'd better have a trial run. Allergies mean they'll be raspberry jam and dairy free.

My slow cooker is out at the moment for a big batch of my Chorizo and butternut squash chilli - I've not used it for a couple of weeks and have definitely missed the ease of big batch cooks, I think it'll be out three times this week!

Breakfasts: oddly for me I've been really enjoying eggs for breakfast: soft boiled, mashed onto a slice of wholemeal toast with some salt and pepper. I have to eat it stood up in the kitchen so it's not around Harry, but that's what Bing bunny is for, yes?

Lunches: this week is Aldi smoked salmon with salad. And possibly some couscous.

Suppers:

Monday - Chorizo and butternut squash chilli (I'll be having with cauliflower rice)

Tuesday - leftover chilli

Wednesday - Tomato, veg and lentil pasta (I'll be having with courgetti)

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - Slow cooked beef brisket (unseasonal I know, but beef is on special at Aldi this week)

So that's our week, wonderful slow cooker to the rescue!

An InLinkz Link-up

Meal Planning Monday: Preparing for festivties

I've started - amongst thinking about weaning, going dairy free, trying to keep the baby things scooped up together - I made the stuffing for Christmas day last week. The fruit for the cake is soaking in it's usual brandy, and the Christmas pudding is maturing nicely in a cupboard. This week I'm going to make the gravy which will then go in the freezer and next weekend I'll bake the cake so it's got a few weeks of feeding before I marzipan and ice it.

In other news, I'm still dairy free, and missing cheese wildly. However that pales into insignificance when I look at how much less Harry is sick. He's like a different baby. Obviously this gives us lots to think about in case this is a long term allergy, but for now we're embracing the weight gain (26oz in 3 weeks) and just going with it!

Meal wise this week, we're fully into our slow cooked winter warmers. Next weekend I'll make another batch of casserole both for our meals and the freezer, as our homemade ready meals are the saving grace of days when Harry isn't quite himself.

Breakfasts for me are porridge made with rice milk, either with chopped up banana or sultanas and brown sugar.

Lunches are falafel, houmous and pitta bread with carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes. Not particularly wintery I know, but easy to eat while I'm feeding.

Suppers:

Monday - freezer surprise (casserole I think)

Tuesday - Parsnip and bacon pasta but with pecorino instead of parmesan

Wednesday - Lentil ragu

Thursday - Leftover lentils

Friday - Breakfast for tea

Saturday - Chicken casserole with dumplings

Sunday - Super slow cooked brisket - which will take us into next week with leftovers for a cottage pie and hopefully some more pasties


That's our week - festivity preparation is gaining pace and other things are ticking along quite nicely *fingers crossed*

Souper soup on Saturdays

Each weekend through the winter I make a batch of soup - there has to be enough to do at least 4 portions for us over the weekend, and then ideally enough for me to have for lunches through the week. Whilst soup runs the risk of being an uninspiring lunch, I do enjoy putting different flavours together to stay interested.

The soups I usually make are vegetarian and it's rare I buy 'ingredients' as it were, I'm much more likely to look at waht's leftover in the fridge and then add that to spices, pulses etc to amp up the flavours.

Whilst I've been making soup on and off for years, at the moment my motive is about saving money - buying lunch can work out at about £4-£5 a day, which when you're on a budget, works out at a scary £120 per month. In comparison, taking your home made soup works out at around 50p per portion (if not less).

I've mentioned before that I'm no snob stock wise, bouillon or cubes are both fine by me, I just always watch the salt content if I am using bought stock.

This week I made a spicy carrot soup - I made it a bit quicker to cook by grating the carrots in the food processor (but you could easily do this by hand, or be less demanding and give the soup some time).

Spicy carrot soup

Olive oil
7-8 big carrots, grated
Half a cup of red lentils
1 litre veg stock
1 teaspoon Gran Luchito smoked chilli paste
2 teaspoons cumin seeds

Dry fry the cumin seeds until they start to pop
Put the carrots, lentils, cumin seeds, stock and chilli paste into a big pan and bring to a simmer
Cook for 20 minutes to half an hour
Take off the heat and blitz - I use a handheld stick blender
Serve with crusty bread and butter for dunking

 Other soups I've made:

Lifechanging soup
Tomato and cannelini bean
Chicken soup
Split pea and frankfurter

I'll try and keep updating - this week's concoction is Sweet potato and butternut squash (with a sneaky secret ingredient)

Meal Planning Monday: How long till next year?

Well that flew by in a flurry of mince pies, Christmas pudding, an immense amount of turkey, two families and some presents. I think I can say we all had a lovely time, seeing my nephew on his first Christmas (paper is the best present) and having some quiet days with M's parents were both fabulous. All too soon, I'm back to work; hair has been washed, bag packed, and clothes out ready for the morning. 

I actually did the meal plan on Saturday night - clearly, living life on the edge as always. It's a week of comfort food I've cooked (and in the main blogged) previously, food that's not poultry, dishes which will make leftovers to give us time for a couple of runs, a swim and hopefully even a cwtch. 

Breakfasts: Porridge without a doubt. Brown sugar and vanilla for me this week I think. 

Lunches: I made a batch of Nigella's split pea and frankfurter soup this afternoon, so that will be going into my trusty flask. Towards the end of the week I'll make some Lifechanging soup. I'll also make a couple of batches of soda bread. 

Dinners: 

Monday: New Years Eve, we'll be indoors having steak, wedges, veggies and bubbles to see in 2013

Tuesday: Sausage hotpot with braised red cabbage

Wednesday: Leftovers of above

Thursday: Freezer surprise for M as I'm out at a planning meeting

Friday: Lentil ragu with chorizo

Saturday: Leftovers of above

Sunday: Slow roast shoulder of pork

So that's our week in the pantry, nice and simple. What are you up to in the wake of turkey leftovers? If you have a meal plan, don't forget to hop on over to At Home with Mrs M and join in the blog hop.

Meal Planning Monday: freezer week

Sorry about the lack of posts this week, it turns out that returning to work, Guides, Brownies and nearly full mobility (save for the cast of course, don't even ask. Three more weeks!) can take it out of you somewhat. Somewhat being that you're in bed, asleep before ten most nights. Baking, has just not been on my mind.

That's not to say I didn't try to cook, I managed a disastrous attempt at rhubarb syrup, burnt a chicken casserole, ditto a vegetable soup. So towards the end of the week I relied heavily on leftovers. Tonight we had omlettes.

Truth be told we do need to clear down both freezers - the other plans that are keeping us going in the direction of moving in together are all in fifth gear. Two full freezers (that I keep adding tupperware to) are not going at the same speed. So this week comes to you, courtesy of reclaiming my tupperware. Freezer surprise it is.

Breakfast: I'm alternating the porridge with 0% fat greek yoghurt, each with fruit.

Lunches: Lifechanging soup and soda bread for me, supplemented by lots of fruit

Dinners:

Monday: Shepherd's pie (filling was frozen on Christmas Eve) with steamed veggies

Tuesday: Freezer surprise - I have my eye on what I suspect is leftover casserole, but it could also be pie filling.

Wednesday: From the freezer again, lentil ragu (I've got a bit of leftover chorizo from last week's chilli to perk it up a bit)

Thursday: Carbonara (I took a risk and froze leftovers)

Friday: M's off to his parents for Mother's Day, having done my daughterly duties this weekend I'm at home and will be indulging in poached smoked haddock and peas. A meal guaranteed to get M running for the hills if there ever was one.

Saturday: Truthfully I'm not sure, I could just dig around and see what I come up with. I know there's more bolognaise in there, and ditto to lentil ragu. But I'm going to be keeping to the pattern.

Sunday: Church Parade and a massage for me, so food is probably going to lag behind those somewhat. I do actually quite fancy cooking something but as yet inspiration is sorely lacking. I'll think on it and come back to this. Maybe.

Baking: This week will be banana bread as I have a fruitbowl full of overripe bananas, and also some more blood orange curd.

As an upside, I think the only shopping I need for that lot is eggs. Score!

Be sure to pop on over to At Home with Mrs M and see what everyone else is up to.

Meal Planning Monday: The Poorly Pantry edition

Last week there was no meal plan from the Pantry as initially I was supposed to be working away all week and then I was felled, swiftly and painfully by a migrainey virus thing. That's right folks a week of migraines. I seem to be doing better now, and am chancing my arm at a meal plan for next week, despite only having eaten toast and marmite this week.

Guides and Brownies are back this week, and I think M returns to Welsh too, so normal levels of hectic-ness have been resumed. Also, January is January and I am seriously skint, so am eating my way through the freezer and pantry. Care packages may be required by the end of the month.

I've checked what's in my veg box next week, so have planned with that in mind.

Lunches are soup, I made a batch of fridge bottom soup the week before last which owing to being poorly ended up being frozen.

Monday: Pantry pasta

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: Stir fried veg, chicken and noodles. I use rice noodles for this as I much prefer them to egg noodles. Instead of buying a sauce I use soy, sherry and honey to make a home made stir fry sauce. I know I've got onions and peppers in the fridge, but could do with picking up some cheap greens to bulk it out.

Thursday: Is it too much to hope for leftovers? If not, M is at Welsh so I might have an omlette

Friday: Reverting to student standbys is normally my 'too much month at the end of my money' standpoint but I've got some green lentils doing very little in the pantry, so I think it's time to bring the lentil ragu out from retirement and may even splash out on some chorizo! Madness I know.

Be sure to pop on over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is cooking this week. And while we're at it, what are your frugal, end of the month standby dishes?

So much better: Spicy tomato lentils with sausages

It's rare that I completely screw things up in the kitchen, but it does happen. December 2000 I rushed making my first ever creme brulee and my sister got food poisoning as the eggs weren't cooked through. No one else did though I hasten to add. It took until last year sometime, for me to try anything similar with eggs. Fortunately my lime curd was a raging success, and the courgette cake it went into poisoned nobody.

Cue Friday night. I got home early and decided to start making Fuss Free Flavours Spicy tomato lentils for our dinner. I was accompanying it with sausages so that our resident carnivore didn't feel too hard done by. That, it turned out was the least of my problems. Since getting meningitis and starting to get migraines I have become really sensitive to smell just before they set in, and whilst Mark assured me that the lentils smelled lovely, something about the scent of them cooking sent me off into a chaotic tailspin, convinced I had spoiled the dish. In the face of blind panic Mark did what any sane man would do when his partner is nearing hysterics about a pan of lentils - he suggested takeaway. I left the lentils in the pan to cool, convinced I would throw them away in the morning, took a sumatriptan and went to bed.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, and the headache from the night before had passed. I studiously ignored said lentils whilst having my breakfast and at lunchtime braved opening the pan. They smelled lovely, earthy, spicy with a hint of something deeper behind them (I love how cumin can add such depth to a dish) That night, I baked the sausages (as always Sainsbury's Taste the Difference - because I really can) and had two with the spicy lentils. I thouroughly enjoyed them, I like lentils at the best of time. Their low GI and general healthiness appeals to me and they go so well lentil ragu is one of my favourite batch cooks.

I would definitely cook these again (without the migraine induced freakout) I have frozen the leftovers and will be insisting Mark tastes them for Thursday night tea as per the mealplan.

You can find the recipe here at Fuss Free Flavours, the only thing I did differently was to add broccoli as that was what I had in the fridge and needed to be used up. Obviously the original recipe doesn't suggest pairing it with sausages (neither does it suggest flipping out and getting a migraine), but I'm guessing Helen doesn't have a hardened carnivore to contend with.