Meal Planning Monday: using what we have

It's a bit of a quiet one in the Pantry this week. Between one thing and another I realised I needed a quieter week cooking wise, so have hauled much of this week's meals, or the makings of those meals out of the freezer - the bonus of this being, most of our shop was veggies which made it lovely and cheap!

Harry's eating is going from strength to strength. He got to grips (quite literally) with pasta last week, eating fusili bolognaise from his tray with aplomb. We had our dietician appointment and his cows milk and soya allergy seems to have extended to eggs now. I'm hoping nothing else will come up, and the dietician was great, really helpful in terms of my calcium and iron levels. We've got a couple of suppliers for dairy and soya free yoghurts, cheese and cream to try, so I'll be reporting back on Harry's feelings about those. And mine.

I also baked bread this week - our normal bread now has soya flour in it and so M kindly hauled the breadmaker (I know, it's just easy) down from the loft for me, and a 50/50 wholemeal has already been made and heavily sampled.

I'm going to try and do an SP week as my weightloss needs a bit of a boost. My stumbling block will be the fruit I think, but the rest should be straightforward enough.

Breakfasts: Unsurprisingly mainly porridge for Harry and I - he's off eggs in their natural state, so the frittatas aren't going to be remade for now, but as he's OK with them in things I'll do a new lot of pancakes this week. There's always the new bread aswell.

Lunches: I made a split pea soup at the weekend, so that's me sorted. Harry likes it so we'll have it together (his favourite seems to be my Sweet potato and ginger soup) and he can have bread to dunk. Alternatively I've got some more tomato pasta in the freezer.

Suppers:

Monday - Meatballs in tomato sauce with pasta for M, and with Kale for me

Tuesday: Leftover pasta

Wednesday: Butternut squash dhaal with rice

Thursday: Leftover dhaal with roti if I can manage to make them

Friday: M's parents are visiting so a Shepherd's pie (with a swede topping for me) with veggies

Saturday: Sausages, baked potatoes and veggies

Sunday: Roast gammon with lots of veggies, roasties and cauliflower cheese.

That's our week - a straightforward one, with lots of meals based on things I already have in. What are your go-to meals? That you always have ingredients for to hand and don't need to think about much. Let me know in the comments below

As always, don't forget to hop on over to At Home with Mrs M and see what everyone else is up to.

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*

Meal Planning Monday: an easy one

I managed to spend last week on enforced bed rest - the sort of thing that when running around hell bent on organising myself, M, Brownies and Guides I thought would be a wonderful break from always having 'just so much to do!' It wasn't. It was painful, dull, scary as hell, tiring (who knew?) but most of all quiet. Faced with my body genuinely needing a week of rest I wasn't prepared for how difficult and painful something as straightforward as making a risotto might be. We ate from the freezer a lot, and I gave thanks for the food processor a lot.

This week doctors orders are to 'see how I go' so with one eye on my expanding waistline I'm declaring a slower version of business as usual.

We are without baked goods this week as the prospect of standing up and baking just felt painful this weekend, but neither of us will miss out I'm sure.

Breakfasts for me this week are yoghurt and granola with chopped banana.

Lunches are salads - with feta and olives in the first half of the week, and with halloumi in the latter half.

Dinners:

Monday: Cottage pie to my usual recipe

Tuesday: As it's my first day back at work and I'm not sure how I'll feel, one of the emergency packets of filled pasta with sauce, garlic bread and raw veggies

Wednesday: Baked potatoes with bolognaise from the freezer and grated cheese

Thursday: Chicken kiev, sweet potato chips and veggies

Friday: Homemade chicken curry - with naan bread

Saturday: we have some much looked forward to tickets to see Avenue Q in Greenwich (M missed it when it was in London so I've been hoping for a tour for a while now). We're planning on eating out as a treat - any suggestions on places to eat in Greenwich would be gratefully received.

Sunday: I'm going to say a roast - possibly my slow roast pork depending on what's on offer.

So that's us, a quieter week (in theory). What meals do you turn to, when you want an easy week? 

Meal planning Monday

I have to say this week I'm writing this bathed in glorious sunshine, wearing pjs and drinking buckets of tea - this seems to make the whole process a bit more hopeful. We're on the final countdown to the wedding and although the logical part of my brain tells me we're really organised, the hormonal part tells me I should be in full blown panic mode.

A busyish week for us, although no Guides for me this week as I'm travelling back from a meeting on the South coast so don't think I'm going to make it in time. We're starting off with a roast today, although sadly it's not going to provide leftovers as the piece of beef I roasted yesterday is about a third of the size of normal. Just enough in fact to do 4 meals.

Breakfasts: I'm still firmly on the granola and knitted home made yoghurt bandwagon.

Lunches: Still no enthusiasm - so soup or a sarnie it is.

Dinners:

Sunday - leftover brisket with roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, veggies, yorkshire puds and gravy. Yum. 

Monday - I'm meeting one of my very best friends for an overdue catch up and squee over the upcoming nuptials. Food will be involved.

Tuesday - I've got some courgettes knocking around in the freezer so courgetti spaghetti is on the cards

Wednesday - Cottage pie with peas

Thursday - Leftover cottage pie

Friday - Homemade chicken kebabs - I use a variation on this recipe

Next weekend I think I'll do a roast chicken as I'm off in the run up to the wedding so it'll make for a nice straightforward week.

Have a good week - here's hoping this weather holds. What have you got on the meal plan?

Meal Planning Monday

You know those weeks where you've clearly been really bad in a previous life? Yep. So that was last week. I'm hoping this week will be better. Either that or I'm going to bed and refusing to get up again until the spring. And don't you think I won't!

Is there any point in telling you how cold I am right now? Dear Lord it's freezing. Unsurprisingly this change in the weather *scary hands* Ahem. Excuse me. ... has heralded the return of porridge. I'm stewing off some apples with spices for a topping as I type.  Oh yes, I'm multitasking (Bake off is on in the background, I'm listening to Kate of The Small things talk about hair as well as writing)

Meal planning...

Breakfasts - porridge. Made with water, a splash of skimmed milk towards the end and topped with stewed apples. From one of my trees. Oh yes, I have not one but TWO apple trees.

Lunches - soup again. I've not made any this week so it's tinned *blush*

Dinners:

Monday - Acorn squash, stuffed with mince and topped with cheese

Tuesday - Cottage pie

Wednesday - Leftovers (I'm desperately hoping to drag the beef out a long way this week - I may add lentils)

Thursday -Pantry pasta

Friday - We're out at a friend's wedding for the evening

Saturday - Chicken marsala with green veggies

I baked at the weekend - a plum sponge cake - post will be written after this one. That's us fed pretty much. Pop on by to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to.

Meal Planning Monday: The Bank Holiday edition

Well it's a Bank Holiday and clearly this is late, owing to much decluttering this weekend in both mine and M's houses in advance of certain big moving adventures set to happen in the not too distant future. I shant tell you when, but will let you notice when the backdrop to the pictures changes (for the better? I hope so).

That said, M and I had a lovely day together on Saturday, pottering, shopping and dinner. Between being on my feet all day and last week's three Couch to 5km runs I should be feeling super fit and healthy. In actual fact I'm coughing and full of sinusitis. Yes, again. This means food this week needs to be full of nutrients as well as quick and easy.

Breakfasts: I'm trying to go back on the small doses of dairy this week so have some yoghurts to have with a banana and cup of tea.

Lunches: Houmous with veg sticks and lots of fruit - if it gets colder again then it'll be Butternut squash soup that I made last week and froze

Snacks: Another batch of oaty bars have been baked for this week (blogpost to come)

Baby starter will be fed Tuesday and baked on or around Thursday

Dinners:

Monday: Cottage pie, with steamed purple sprouting broccoli

Tuesday: Leftover cottage pie, more broccoli and cabbage

Wednesday: Butternut squash, chorizo and cannelini bean chilli (again, leftovers that were frozen)

Thursday: M is at Welsh and I'm at Brownies so soup for me

Friday: It's the end of the week, and in clearing down M's freezer I found some chicken kievs (which were the hight of sophistication when I was growing up and requested as my birthday tea for many of my formative years) so those, with lots of veggies and wedges for M

Saturday: At present we have no plans, but I think I'll cook up a big pan of chilli con carne to have with rice or cornbread. It keeps the freezer stocked with dinners, and works out really cheaply as I double the kidney beans. I've just had a look-see and noticed that I haven't blogged the recipe I use, so will do so next weekend.

So that's this week in the Pantry - what does this Bank Holiday week hold in store for you? Don't forget to pop over to At Home with Mrs M and see what the other linkers are up to.

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.

We wish you a Merry Christmas

True to form, I have sherry on the go and we're putting the finishing touches to some of our decorations.

Today so far:

• I've finished off a Ham in Coca Cola
• Made a Cottage pie and apple crumble for tomorrow
• Got the stuffing, and bacon for the pigs in blankets out of the freezer
• The veg and fruit is in boxes in the cupboard under the stairs
• The Christmas cake has been iced

I am repeating to myself "It's just a roast" while listening to Christmas radio and thinking about heading off to bed but before I do just that I wanted to wish all my readers (and Readers) a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'm going to try and have a mainly proper break over the festive period but will try and do and update on the justaroast at some point.


Having just searched for the link, I realised that I've never actually posted the full recipe, just repeatedly told you that it comes from an ancient Good Housekeeping cookbook of my Mum's. So here, as a bonus, somewhat randomly in Christmas week is my tried and tested, can be increased to serve up to 24, can be made with leftover roast beef, roast lamb or mince depending on what you have to hand at any time, recipe. Erroneously called Shepherds Pie, it is nearly always Cottage in this house.


Penelope's Pantry does Shepherds Pie


2 Carrots, diced
1 Onion, finely chopped
1 tblsp plain flour
1 pt beef stock
Approx 1/2 lb minced or leftover finely chopped beef
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tblsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
Mashed potatoes to top


Cook the carrots and onion in oil for 3 or 4 minutes until softened, add the flour and cook out whilst stirring.
Add the beef, if mince, cook until browned, if leftovers just stir in.
Add the stock, thyme, Worcester sauce and leave to simmer for about 1/2 hour.
Check seasoning and add to taste.
Top with mashed potato, you can sprinkle or stir in cheese here. Tonight I've used a mix of winter vegetables to top.
Bake in the over at about 200 degC for about 1/2 hour.
Serve with green veg and embarrassingly, if you are me, ketchup

Be sure to have a lovely time with your nearest and dearest. If I don't see you before, I'll see you in the New Year with some posts on frugal food no doubt.

It's going to be a Happy New Year

As always for me, New Year was a quiet affair, it's a celebration that I don't really have much time for; parties make it feel anticlimactic, I can't bear the prospect of paying to get into pubs and then paying more for drinks and London itself is just bananas, and not having been part of a couple of late I am excluded from the nights in a lot of my peers indulge in. Anyway this year I decided to spend it with someone and just have a night in. I made us comfort food - cottage pie with lots of green vegetables, and bought some cava for midnight. It felt exactly right, relaxed, cosy and intimate.

I used the cottage/ shepherd's pie recipe I always revert to, which came from one of my Mum's Good Housekeeping recipe books from the 1970's. It was one of those books that was designed to help you use up your leftovers, and told you what you could freeze, and what could be made in a slow cooker and things. I have no clue where it is now, which is a shame as it would be really useful. Apart from the section on cooking things in aspic, I don't think anyone will ever want to revive that trend *shudders*

Anyway, so that was my new year, cottage pie, some winter Pimms (which I deserve commision on because I am encouraging so many people to try it!) and the heating on.

So, with a post title that finally bears some resemblance to lyrics from a musical (I'm hoping the launch of Glee will provide me with some new inspiration as of late I've been reduced to titles that actually resemble my recipe and not some vague allusion!)

Not making the Nigella cornbread stuffing had left me with a single orange and a pack of fresh cranberries. A morning spent googling for muffin recipes hadn't come up with anything much, and I wasn't sure where to go until a friend pointed me back to Nigella, and Domestic Goddess this time (I know I've been all about Feast of late). The Christmas Morning muffins were just what I had in mind, and took about 20 minutes to knock up.

Christmas Morning Muffins

200g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
75g demerara sugar
good grating fresh nutmeg
1 clementine or small orange - I would grate and add the zest aswell if making again
approximately 50ml milk
60g unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
150g dried cranberries
12-bun muffin tin with papers

for the topping:
2 teaspoons demerara sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 200ºC/gas mark 6.

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugar, and grate over a generous amount of fresh nutmeg.
2. Squeeze the orange or clementine juice into a measuring jug, then pour in milk on top till it comes up to the 150ml mark. Add the melted butter and the egg, and beat to combine.
3. Pour the jug of liquid ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir till the ingredients are more or less combined, remembering that a lumpy batter makes light muffins.
4. Last of all, lightly fold in the cranberries and fill the muffin cases or cups. The amount of cranberries specified here makes for heavily fruited muffins; if you want them sparser, use half the amount.
5. Mix together the demerara sugar and ground cinnamon and sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.
6. Stick them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes

Nigella says to split them open and spread them with butter and marmalade, but we just ate them as they were. The cranberries make for fantastic pockets of tartness in what would otherwise be a quite sweet, but very light muffin, which is quite nice with a coffee for a late breakfast.

Next time, I need to find a way to use up the huge bag of oatmeal I bought to make facepacks with the Guides, and also more exploits in bread with Mabel the leaven.

Seasons change...

Well let's face it, summer was little more than a flash in the pan; not that I'm bitter at having had the whole summer off (admittedly ill, but that's not the point) and the weather being almost entirely lousy. Nope. Not one bit. At all. In the slightest. But to add more to the misery, my whole hope for a season of mist and mellow fruitfulness seems to have gone out the window and we seem to have gone straight into biting cold, the only solution for which being tea - lots of it, and of course home-made soups and bread.

Never one to shirk my responsibilities, the first batch of this season's lifechanging soup was made (I really should write to Skye Gyngell, I am practically, single handedly marketing her book(s) for her!) and devoured, quite promptly. The frozen batch of the salty green sludge is being worked it's way through steadily, and the wonderful breadmaker is back in action at least weekly. Hoorah for carbs I say. Although having managed to drop a dress size purely down to stress and ill health maybe not too many carbs. Or too much cheese. Mind you if this weather keeps up I'm going to be almost entirely hidden under layers of thermals and fleeces so I probably have a little grace.

At the start of the year I declared (with foolish amounts of enthusiasm) that this was the year I was going to tackle pastry. Haunted by the memory of the Home Economics teacher from hell I have been convinced that pastry and I are not a match made in heaven. Well I think her words were along the lines of heavy and pointless, at which point she put it in the bin in front of the rest of the class. I nearly wept. In fact, knowing me, I probably did. So to put Mrs Carter in her place this weekend I will be mastering pastry. And going to a Scott Alan signing and *fingers crossed* gig. Who is Scott Alan? I hear you cry.... well fortunately for you, I have managed to locate a video of Stephanie J Block singing Never Never Land which is, it has to be said, one of the most beautiful songs I have heard in a long while. It's sentiment, along with it's melody take me away from the realms of pain, of being permanently cold, and hating having to work in a basement, and allow me to fly, far away... Ladies, and gentleman I give you (another Elphaba) Stephanie J Block.

So after our regular break for musical theatre. Come on, admit it, you would miss it if it weren't there... Well I would, and it's my blog! I wanted to go back to pastry. If I tell the truth, which I try to, I'm terrified. I'm cooking for someone I like for the first time, and although they don't know that they're going to be getting this, they are. I have consulted both Nigella (How to Eat) and Delia (old school mind you, none of this frozen mashed potato business). Both women agree on needing to use lard aswell as butter, and both are comfortingly reassuring. To be honest, I'm currently favouring Nigella from an empathetic perspective as she declares herself intially terrified of the stuff. Both How to Eat, and How to Cook (book one) provide simple instructions for shortcrust pastry, and include helpful tips such as:

• Put the measured out fat and flour in the freezer first (Nigella)


• Use the food processor (also Nigella, although I'm not entirely sure what blade she means)


• Acidulate your water/ water and egg yolk mixture (Nigella)


• Get as much air as possible in the pastry by seiving your flour from on high (Delia... mental note to self... find the step)


• Keep cool, yourself and the kitchenas this stops teh fat becoming oily and the pastry too crumbly (Delia) So that sounds ideal for the weather, I'll open a window and wear thermals then


• Short means light and crisp. (Thank you Delia, I never actually had a clue about this I just got away with smiling and nodding... for thirty one years)

However, unhelpfully, neither woman has a recipe for apple and blackberry pie. For that, I've turned - surprisingly in my mind at least - to Jamie Oliver courtesy of Jamie's Dinners. As I would have expected the recipe is no nonsense, straight talking (none of Nigella's empathy about running away and hiding behind the sofa when faced with a recipe that requires pastry) but one I think I can do. So, I guess now it's a case of finding a pie dish, buying some lard, opening the window, donning the thermals, and watching this space... You do realise if I can do this you will be subjected to (entirely ironic) excerpts from Sweeney Todd?

Oh and I'm also making Shepherd's pie, to a recipe I have memorised from a Good Housekeeping cookbook we had when I was about 14. But I'll post that when done.