Meal Planning Monday: where is the Spring?

The sunshine this week had me fooled here and there - I expected it to be warmer, but no - Harry and I are as wrapped up as ever! We're in need of a change in the weather, I need it to be warmer. It's all systems go this week in the Pantry, as well as our normal baby groups, job hunting and Brownies, we've finally got Harry's allergy and dietician appointment and I'm hopeful for and looking forward to getting some support with his milk allergy.

 

Breakfasts - as always, porridge and fruit for me, and a selection from this post for Harry.

Lunches - in the absence of having any fresh soup made up, there's some split pea in the freezer which I'll pop out and retrieve tomorrow. Hopefully enough for a couple of days lunches at least and then the plan is to make a ham and pea soup with some of the leftovers from Tuesday night's supper.

Dinners -

Monday - I made a vegan vegetable lasagne - using the Deliciously Ella suggestion of pureed butternut squash instead of cheese. That worked beautifully, but her suggestion for the ragu seemed a little flat so I made my usual bolognaise, just with lots of lovely veggies instead of mince. We have the last portion for supper tomorrow.

Tuesday - Sainsburys have their ham joints on special so we're going to have roast gammon, roast potatoes and veggies

Wednesday - leftover ham, with eggs, baked potatoes and peas

Thursday - Ham and mushroom omlettes

Friday - Tomato pasta (I made double last week and have frozen the leftovers)

Saturday - I've got some chilli in the freezer so think I'm going to defrost and bake that in a butternut squash - much like this recipe.

Sunday - Leftovers

Nothing madly exciting this week - but lots of warming, keeping you going type dinners. As always, be sure to pop on over to At Home with Mrs M and join up with all the other planners to see what everyone else is up to.

November favourites

Last month's October favourites post seems to have been relatively popular so I thought I'd do another to let you know what I've been enjoying cooking with, using and making in the pantry this month.

November's been a funny month - busy on the Guiding front, cold - oh so cold - and somewhat stressful. But nonetheless there has been plenty of time for pottering, baking and whatnot.

Hot chocolate - the temperature drops and suddenly the extra calories are but something to be dismissed. I am quite fussy, it has to be either drinking chocolate that you make with milk or proper cocoa. And it has to be Green & Black's. All the way. As it's an evening only treat it's spiked with amaretto. I try to kid myself that as it's made with skimmed milk it's not too bad for me. Try to kid myself you'll note.

Eggs - well not eggs themselves, but omlettes. Again I don't know if it's the cold weather, but on a few occasions this month when I've been doing the dance of the bare cupboards, I've found myself reaching for 2 eggs, a knob of butter, splash of milk, salt, pepper, some elderly mushrooms and the heel of cheese that languishes at the back of the fridge

Couch to 5km - this month has seen my progress continue to build and the only thing holding me back is time. Leaving home at 7am and not getting home until after Brownies/ Guides or working away all week aren't particularly conducive to fitting in a run. This week I've taken my kit away to Poole with me, but am still a bit wobbly about running in the dark (and without headphones it seems).

Nigella's Kitchen - I got this book for Christmas last year and I've not really cooked from it, so I've deliberately pushed myself to pick a couple of recipes this month. I suspect my New year's resolution will be to cook a new recipe  from a cookbook each week.

Cake spice - or sweet, mixed spice. I'm actually out of this at the moment, but it's my go-to spice when I want to spice a cake or bake at this time of year. All at once it tastes of Christmas, winter and autumn depending on what it's paired with and it's earthy sweetness has something about it which says 'home' to me.

And finally, my nutmeg grater, passed on to me from Mark's mum. I think I'm right in saying it was actually her Mum's, and I love it. I use nutmeg a lot in cooking at this point in the year and the grater and the spice make me smile each time I use it.

So what about your favourites this month?

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?