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?

Vegan brownies (and a distinctly un-vegan chocolate icing)

Courgette isn't necessarily the worlds most natural companion to chocolate brownies, yet somehow a fortnight ago - given 2 giant courgettes - I decided that yes it was. Or would be. or something. A long time back (2007!) I made chocolate courgette cake which according to my notes went down very well with the office. However I had no abiding memory of the dish whatsoever which clearly meant that this latest glut of courgettes meant a new recipe was required. 

I often flit around with vegan cookery, and am good at making recipes dairy free (we had a guide who was dairy free for 4 years, and for a few years in the past I seemed to be unable to tolerate dairy products either - I still struggle, but not in the some way) However I truly struggle with vegan baking - it's the missing eggs I think. I was delighted to find a recipe that not only utilised a large quantity of courgettes, but was also vegan. 

This was based around a couple of recipes I found online - and I have to say it still feels most unnatural to bake without eggs, but the brownies were fabulous; dense, gooey, and surprisingly sturdy (which is always a bonus for packed lunches). 

I found these made 16 squares

125ml vegetable oil
300g caster sugar
2 tsps vanilla
250g plain flour
40g cocoa powder 
1.5 tsps bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
250g grated courgette
60g hazelnuts - I didn't chop these up, but you could - or substitute them for another nut, or leave them out altogether

Preheat the oven to 180 and grease and line a brownie pan - mine's about 20cm square

Grate your courgettes - I use the food processor and then wring out the excess water by popping them in the middle of a clean tea towel and wringing them out over the sink. Then set aside

Sift your dry ingredients together until well combined
Beat the oil and sugar together and add the vanilla
Add the dry ingredients to the wet, mix well
Fold through the courgettes and add the hazelnuts

Bake for 30 minutes until the top feels set and the cake has a bit of resistance when you press on it

These kept for just over a week in an airtight tin. Great for packed lunches, or as an afterschool snack, or if you're me with that precious cup of tea that you have on walking in the door from a long day at work. 

Here ends the vegan part of the recipe.  I had planned to use the chocolate icing I use for Nigella's chocolate cake for the brokenhearted - recipe here - but forgot.

Icing/ Frosting

6 tablespoons cocoa powder
60g butter
4 tablespoons milk
200g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
35g extra light Philadelphia

Melt the butter in a pan with the cocoa powder
While that's cooling down, beat together the milk, icing sugar and vanilla extract
Stir in the cooled down melted butter, beat in
Add the Philadelphia and continue to beat until smooth and glossy

Spread on top of the brownies and if you forgot to make your boyfriend a birthday cake, add sprinkles and candles

The icing would be epic on fairy cakes and M's colleagues happily ate the secret ingredient brownies. Another winner

Meal Planning Monday: trying to empty the freezer

I'm  a bit late to my spring cleaning this year for a multitude of reasons - however, I'm doing it now. Of course defrosting the freezer is on there, and we're trying to eat it down to make that easier and also to get rid of some of the things that I think have been in there since we moved. 

Breakfasts: You can tell it's warmer as I'm on fruit, yoghurt and grape nuts

Lunches: Salad - last week with smoked mackerel, this week with tuna mixed up with fat free fromage frais. 

Baking: I made some squishy oatmeal and tea soaked cinammon raisin cookies on Friday, but startlingly, there seem to be none left. At the moment this means we're bake-less but I'm sure I'll rectify that presently.

Suppers: 

Monday: Baked, barbecue chicken wings with salad and sweet potatoes

Tuesday: M is in charge... 

Wednesday: Courgetti spaghetti

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: M's away so fish for me. Probably en papillote if I'm being fancy, but in reality steamed in parchment with lemon and rosemary. With salad I suspect.

Saturday: I'm at Brownie revels all day so takeaway curry

Sunday: Leftover curry

So that's us - a quick and simple week in the Pantry. Hop on over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to

Meal Planning Monday: The edition for M's eyes only

Not in a filthy way you understand, but I'm not here for most of the week - banished to the South Coast leaving M to entertain himself and start a new job. It's rubbish when dates like that don't match up, but what can you do.

This weekend was intended to be another quiet one, but a hugely successful archery event at M's club, a visit to the Proms tonight, moving furniture for Mum, and lots of pottering in the kitchen have meant that this last of the summer bank holiday weekends has flown past. I'm hoping that it doesn't usher autumn in too quickly as I've just started enjoying the sunshine.

I'm installed on the sofa at present enjoying Sense & Sensibility before we head off into town, and despite not being the person installed at the cooker this week I didn't want to not submit my meal plan.

Breakfasts: Yoghurt & fruit for me. Buckets of tea and coffee as always.

Lunches: M will be having - sandwiches, crisps, cereal bars, dried fruit, cheese, banana and coke. I'm training so salad and fruit for me.

Dinners:

Monday: Tonight we're out and I'm supposed to be finding somewhere for us to have tea, not watching what the Dashwood sisters get up to next. Oops.

Tuesday: Sweet and sour chicken with rice. I made this last week to a recipe another Guider taught me as it's a quick camp cook. Leftovers went in the freezer.

Wednesday: Courgetti spaghetti - frozen leftovers again.

Thursday: The last portion of sweet and sour chicken with rice

Friday: I'm hoping not to be back too late from Poole, as we're going to fit in a food shop - so whatever we see there. Something quick and easy I hope.

 

Saturday: This is where inspiration abandons me. I'm not sure what we have planned - if it's just a pottery day or a 'here's our list of all the many, many things to do' day.

Sunday: A roast dinner I think - either beef, chicken or pork - I shall see what's in stock at the butchers

Meal Planning Monday: The post-Olympic dip

I never thought I'd say it, but I got completely caught up in the Olympics. I'm now a minor expert in so many sports (some, I'd never even heard of before - Modern Pentathlon I'm looking at you) and how they can be done better, providing I can drink coffee whilst watching them and help with the commentary. No really, just ask me anything - mainly about diving, gymnastics and archery I give you that. I also made a red, white and blue pavlova. Oh yes, with softly whipped cream, blueberries (can I just say how much I adore our local Sainsbury's for reducing their fruit) Blogpost on that to come later this week.

So, all in all it's been a bit of a comedown today, the broadband hasn't been connected, I can't put off the housework any longer. However, Londoners are still being friendly to each other and I'm hoping the Paralympics heading over the horizon keeps it that way. That said, I'm working away from home and we all now how cheerful that makes me.

I did a mealplan for this week but left it at home so I'm doing this from memory.

Breakfasts: fruit, yoghurt with a sprinkle of grape nuts.

Lunch: today was leftover salad with avocado and a random piece of leftover mozzarella. Later in teh week, salad with ham.

Dinners:

Monday: M is having leftover steak, wedges, sweetcorn and mushrooms - it's a kind of assemble it yourself dinner. I've just spent the best part of forty minutes picking cheese and weird 'bacon' bits off a chicken breast and moving chips around the plate.

Tuesday: I'm out for dinner with a friend. M has tortellini with home made tomato pasta sauce.

Wednesday: Courgetti spaghetti

Thursday: M is at archery, so poached eggs with asparagus for me

Friday: Sausages, baked potatoes and salad

Saturday or Sunday I'm going to roast chicken - with lots of garlic and lemon, and greek potato salad. Mainly for the leftovers.

So a quiet, relatively uninspired week, hopefully next week will be better as I can't blame the Olympics ending for having no idea what to cook!

Be sure to hop over to At home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to.

Meal Planning Monday: another freezer based week

Will it surprise you, dear reader, if I tell you that last week didn't clear down the freezer? I didn't think so. So, another week of clearing down the freezers. Not thrilling I'm afraid.

But there is good news. I am without plastercast. After five months of incapacitation, my wrist is healed. Sadly I have the early stages of a pressure sore which was what alerted me to the need for the cast to come off last week. An acute sense of burning in a place about the size of a 50 pence peice. Alarming, but I have to say Barnet really did step up. Although they frustrate me at times, they did step up. Physio starts in a fortnight or so, and in the meantime in case I started to miss them I have another set of nerve blocker injections in the back of my head on Monday. Hurrah!

Initially I thought this weekend would involve much rolling out, kneading, and general kitchen activities that involve an unplastered wrist. And then it struck me just how much pain an unplastered, newly healed wrist can cause. So, in place of that I sat. Watched trashy telly. Slept. Generally broke the mould and gave my mind and body some extra time and space in which to heal. Which meant that this morning I practically bounced from my bed, wished M a good morning and promptly started work. At half past 7. I know.

The blue skies (albeit freezing outside) are trying to convince me that a run is imminent, and depending on how my nerve blockers go, I may try one later. At present I'm sorting out Diplomas and drinking coffee.

So, this week - M's mum (she of the WI and marmalade & jam coaching) has sent us back half a sultana and cherry cake which is my favourite, and some welshcakes. Which is a bonus as it relieves me of baking duties for the time being. That said, following the purchase and demolition of an epic sourdough from Barnet farmers market I think I'm going to kick start myself a sourdough starter this week.

Breakfast wise, I thought I'd try the Sainsbury's frozen fruit bags, they're 3 for £5 and I got peaches, blueberries and mixed summer fruits. I'm a big fan of a lot of Sainsburys basics range and although a bit more pricey than I would have liked I thought I'd try making these into smoothies with my 0% fat greek yoghurt. I've got some sachets of ground linseed etc that I think would make good additions as well. Any suggestions for other things to add to a breakfast smoothie?

Lunches: well the early morning has given me a kick in the right direction and I've got a pan of Lifechanging soup (TM), that is to say Skye Gyngell's Sweet Potato and ginger which I haven't made for far too long. I've got a little sourdough left to have with, and may make up some soda bread in rolls for the rest of the week.

Dinner: Largely freezer roulette again...

Monday: Bolognaise sauce, with grated cheese and pasta for Mark, just with steamed veggies for me.

Tuesday: Minced beef hash, with a poached egg on top

Wednesday: I'm out Leith's cookery school for the evening, so will be leaving M lentil ragu with chorizo I thing

Thursday: M is at Welsh, so probably his leftover lentil ragu for me

Friday: As yet I'm undecided, we're both in and the freezer will be mainly empty by then.... I've got some chicken and leeks in the freezer so I might make up some more of the butternut squash, chicken and leek casserole I've made previously. It's a simple really warming dish and the addition of barley makes it stretch further quite cheaply.

I do have some unearmarked courgettes in the fridge from last week's veg box, and I'm torn between courgetti spaghetti, and doing something different with them... Any suggestions?

Do be sure to pop over and see what everyone else is up to At home with Mrs M

Whatcher gonna do? Make courgette fritters...

I can't believe that actually scans... clearly I missed my vocation. Anyway, when not listening to the National theatre cast recording of Oklahoma! or catching up on all the Groff based episodes of Glee I've actually managed to do some cooking. I know, I was shocked too.

It's that time of year again when the veg are glutting (is that even a word?) but inevitably whatever you choose to grown in your allotment, veg plot, the pots on your balcony, patio or drive has gone mental. Courgettes, runner beans tomatoes all seem to pick the same time and just produce loads and loads of veg. Normally I do a lot of blanching and freezing, but that demands you pick things just as they're ripe and as I've mentioned recently I've just not been around enough to be able to time that well enough.
Instead I've found myself looking for new ways with old favourites - courgettes normally become courgetti spaghetti or get used up in ratatouille that I then freeze as a base for bolognaise or pasta bakes when it's colder and I need the comfort of carby, cheesy goodness.

However, even in my house there are only so many times you can rustle up aforementioned pasta dish before Mark looks at you with despair in his eyes. So with four courgettes languishing, unloved in the veg drawer I turned to recipe books with no luck - well I did contemplate resurrecting courgette brownies, but as I keep harping on, I'm trying to be healthy and as Mark can't eat dark chocolate (don't even ask) that would have meant either foisting more cake off on my landlord, or eating it myself. Such hardship. Well, not fitting into my jeans is.

So to google it was - and surprisingly Courgette fritters were the answer to my prayers. The web is practically teeming with recipes for them - who knew? Allrecipes was the recipe I chose, and despite not having half the ingredients (more on this presently) they were an indupitable success.

The other thing that's going on for me at the moment, is a shortage of funds. I've been in my new role for a month but am yet to have a full salary, that plus this being the first time ever I've had to work with expenses (or expensives as they're known in our house) and it's meant I'm cutting costs. So, my fridge is currently bare save for some Greek yoghurt, a bottle of cider left over from the Hertfordshire County show, 2 Lush solid perfumes and an eye mask that helps with my migraines. Anyway, this has meant aside from bare essentials I'm trying not to shop.

So here are Penelope's penniless Pantry courgette patties.

4 courgettes, grated (I use the food processor)
2 eggs, beaten
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
8 tablespoons of plain flour
200g mature cheddar grated
Pinch of salt
Teaspoon of chopped red chilli
2 tablespoons of light olive oil

I prepped the courgettes, cheese and onion in the food processor (you could easily chop and grate but it was Friday and I was tired), and tipped them out into a big mixing bowl
Add the eggs, flour, salt and chilli and stir until you get a thick mixture
Heat the oil in a non stick frying pan, when hot, drop heaped tablespoons of mixture into the pan, and leave for about 3 minutes before turning over and cooking on the other side.
As I finished each batch of three, I popped these in the oven on a low heat until we were ready to eat.

We had them with Greek potato salad, sausages and regular salad.

This easily made 12 large fritters, you could use a dessert spoon and probably nearly double this if you wanted more, smaller patties, or make one large fritter that fitted the pan, and slice it up. I had all these ingredients in the house, so this was incredible economical for me. You could follow the original recipe and use a mix of mozzarella and parmesan, and omit the chilli but for me these were tasty and moreish.

Apologies for the lack of picture, the camera has gone a bit strange and a whole load of pictures I took have just vanished. I'm bound to make these again soon and will update when I do. Guides honour.

Suppertime: Courgetti spaghetti

Some recipes I blog come from books, others are family favourites that I sort of carry in my head, or have scribbled in notebooks or on random peices of paper. Then there are those that I cook, some regularly with absolutely no memory of where or from who the recipe came from. In those instances I generally credit 'the interwebs' as it's probably a case of someone, somewhere mentioned it, and I've taken it on, adapted it to suit myself and by a process of natural selection it's arrived on the blog.

This is just one of those recipes. Well I say recipe, as you'll see, that's a decidedly loose term when it comes to this meal. This year I'm not going to be growing any veg, as I don't have a garden - I am already growing herbs in a proliferation of pots outside my front door; thyme, rosemary, tarragon and flat leaf parsley are doing beautifully. Although I could probably rearrange things into bigger pots and grow courgettes, tomatoes and other veg that's happy to be pot bound, this year with my health and moving and all it would have been just too much. So for now, we'll look forward to that next year and until then, pinch Mark's potatoes and corn. However, this recipe is great when you have a glut of courgettes to use up.

Courgetti spaghetti (provenance unknown)

4 medium courgettes, grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped finely
1 red chilli, chopped finely
Large handful of pine nuts, toasted
100g parmesan, grated (plus extra to serve)
Pasta, I use wholewheat spaghetti -- but that's purely a personal choice
Salt and Pepper

Put the water for your pasta on to boil. The quantities I've given above would serve about 4 depending on appetities.
Meanwhile grate your courgettes, I do this in the food processor, mainly because I'm lazy but also because it contains the mess. Then tip them ou tonto a clean tea towel and squeeze out the water.
Toast the pine nuts in a dry, non stick pan - keep an eye on them, I swear they wait until you turn around to burn. When they're golden brown tip them out into a spare bowl or plate
Pour a couple of big glugs of olive oil into a nice big pan, add the garlic and chilli
When they start to sizzle, add the courgettes and stir around for a few minutes until they start to brown
Add the pine nuts back in and the parmesan (reserve a little to scatter on top as you serve up)
Season with lots of black pepper and a bit of salt as parmesan is already quite salty
As the cheese starts to melt, either turn the heat down and wait for your pasta to finish cooking or if your pasta is cooked and drained (save a ladleful or so of the cooking water) add this into the pan you're cooking the sauce in
Stir everything around so that the courgettes and pasta are all mixed up together, serve in bowls, with salad if you want with extra parmesan on top.

All of this is to taste, if you want more heat or garlic, add more, similarly if you want more crunch, add more pine nuts. I've substituted the parmesan for mozzarella and instead of cooking it into the sauce, added it right at the end, for an even more summery dish - I suspect I also added cherry tomatoes that time.

This freezes well, I do it in portion sized tupperware so I can get it out of the freezer in the morning, and add it to hot pasta of an evening, making a quick and tasty tea.

Paciencia y Fe

More of a theme than a title, Patience and Faith, from In the Heights, another of my favourite Broadway musicals. Perhaps I should just move there since there's barely anything on in the West End that takes my fancy anylonger. Although, that said the upcoming adaptation of Terry Pratchett's novel Nation by The National Theatre is making me squeeishly excited despite not being a musical (unless one were to include the beer song? Does one song about beer a musical make? Hmm, I'm sure that's a debate for another post)

Anyway, Paciencia y Fe were much needed in the vicinity of the Pantry on Saturday as I attempted to make lime curd. I should explain, I have attempted to make custard from scratch once before, and we suspect I poisoned my little sister with it. I was doing it by hand and had been whisking for EVER before giving up and putting the not custard in ramekins and baking them in an attempt to make creme brulees. They weren't successful, Mandy was very sick. However, this was a long time ago, and before making my notes for this post (because I do make notes y'know, it's not entirely a stream of consciousness) I had forgotten all about it. I must have been scarred though as, until Saturday I had never attempted anything custardy from scratch again. Ambrosia or Sainsos TTD were as custardy as I got. The shame. But on Saturday, when challenged to do something new with courgettes, and having decided upon Flora's famous Courgette layer cake from Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess, lime curd was required. As an aside, don't you just hate that, when you look over a recipe and think. That's it. That's the one I'll try, only for the last line to be, "and fill with the lime curd from page 344" Outrage. However, I was organised, and eggs were purchased.

Lime Curd (pg 344 Domestic Goddess)

75g unsalted butter

3 large eggs

75g caster sugar

Juice of 4 limes

zest of 1 lime

So, having grated and zested my limes, and weighed out my ingredients, I melted the butter in a big pan over a low heat. When melted I added the sugar, eggs, lime juice and zest and whisked. Now, I have a lovely little handheld electric whisk that does everything I need it to, and it still took 5 tracks of Daniel Boys album So Close, which is approximately 20 minutes of whisking time. With electricity - hence the need for paciencia y fe. I rolled my eyes, made exasperated noises and even sang at it, but clearly it was time for me to learn a lesson and it didn't cook any faster for all my efforts. However, eventually it came together, and all my worry that I wouldn't know when that was and would end up poisoning people again went out the window as I could clearly tell it was ready.

Compared to that the courgette cake was a doddle. Basically 2 sponge cakes with courgette added, however, Nigella tells you to drain the courgettes, which I did in the same way as always by wrapping them in a teatowl and wringing it out. Fortunately I did this into a bowl as I found Nigella's batter as per her recipe far too dry. I added about 3 tablespoons of the courgette water until the batter worked it's way to a dropping consistency.

250g courgettes (weighed before grating)

2 large eggs

125ml vegetable oil

150g caster sugar

225g self raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarb

1/2 tsp baking powder

Once again Paciencia y Fe were the keywords as for some strange reason I only have one sandwich pan, so had to bake each layer separately, leave them to cool in the tin and then re-butter and line and cook the next one. When everything was finally baked and cooled, and I must say that they came out of the oven the prettiest golden brown (which was a result having made banana bread last week that entirely caught on top) although not particularly risen, but very light nonetheless. So, yes, baked and cooled, I sandwiched together with the lime curd (the remains of which are now in a kilner jar in my fridge waiting for an opportune moment.)

Now finally I have a bone to pick with Nigella middlename Lawson. Your cream cheese icing recipe is pants. I used exactly the quantities in the recipe and even 24 hours later it resembles nothing like the one I use on top of the chocolate Guinness cake. I was very disappointed, and stomped around (yes, so much for Paciencia y Fe, Olga Merediz can just bugger off and I'll skip straight onto 96,000 thankyouverymuch). However, it does taste fab, the lime juice cutting through the richness of the cream cheese and icing sugar wonderfully.

So here we have the assembled cake. Courgette Layer cake, with lime curd, and a large dose of Paciencia y Fe.

A quiet week; for cooking and blogging

As the title would suggest, this has been a quiet week on both the cookery and blog fronts.

I did manage to cook chicken enchiladas, using my t&t recipe which is loosely based on a very old recipe from Sainsburys... when I say very old, I'm easily talking 6 years or so!

I start by making a salsa with onions, tomatoes, garlic, chilli and green pepper. Pop that on one side and cook some chicken, spring onions, mushrooms, yellow and red pepper, garlic, chilli and cumin in a hot pan until the chicken is cooked through. I add a couple of large handfuls of grated cheese to this and then fill 8 tortillas with the mixture, roll them up, put them in a baking tray and top with the salsa. I then sprinkle more cheese on top and bake in a medium oven for about 20 minutes. They're a great home-made ready meal I find, as I cook and assemble them on one night, and then do the final step for however many I want to eat (usually 2, I'm not that much of a gannet!) as I go through the week.

I've also made pesto this week, to my basic recipe from Jamie O. It's currently in the fridge as I haven't got around to actually eating it yet. But I will.

The big success of the week, was the chocolate courgette cake. Recipe here It was ridiculously easy to make, and everyone adored it; even when they heard that it had sneaky vegetables hidden within!

Oh but quantities? This makes 18 generous squares of cake... I have no idea how if made to the recipe it serves 6... but my office didn't mind at all!