Meal Planning Monday

It's that time of the week again. Sunday evening, feet up - crochet ready to have ends darned in and I thought I'd get ahead of myself and pop this up now. We've got a busy week this week, I'm helping out at our church holiday club which I'm really looking forward to, but will take up most of the week. 

Breakfasts, I've just popped some overnight oats/ baked porridge in the fridge for me and Harry. It's a very simple one, just 100g of porridge oats, a grated eating apple and almond milk to cover. I'll add sultanas to Harrys and a chopped banana to mine. 

Lunches, I was going to make some soup tonight, but I'm absolutely shattered today so I'll pop that on tomorrow at some point. It's just going to be my Spiced root veg soup, with carrots and parsnips as the main veggies.

Suppers:

Monday - leftover pulled pork in burritos with rice and veggies

Tuesday - Sausages, potato wedges and veggies (most likely carrots and brocolli)

Wednesday - a veg packed Spaghetti bolognaise

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Homemade steak burgers, Slimming world chips, peas and sweetcorn

Saturday - Sweet potato, lentil and chicken bake. It's a dairy free concoction I'm currently trying to refine for the blog as it's a bit hit and miss at the moment. Hopefully this week will be more hit than miss!

Sunday - Tomato, veg and red lentil pasta. We're having a bring and share lunch at Church so that's a nice all rounder that should be OK for the more common food allergies. I hope.

I think that's everything - as always, don't forget to pop on over to At home with Mrs M and see what the other planners are up to.

Meal Planning Monday

Another week, another meal plan. Shall I see if I can reach the giddy heights of actually managing to link up this week? Last week was a bit of a fail on all fronts really, Harry and I were both off our food which meant M was the only one who actually seemed to eat anything other than toast. All appetites seem to be restored for now, so it's time to look forwards again.

Breakfasts: I had Weetabix this morning, 2 are a Healthy Extra B (Slimming World) and I really enjoyed them. With warm almond milk and a banana, so that's me sorted for this week.

Lunches: I adapted a Hairy Bikers recipe this evening for a Parsnip and apple soup - they use oil, butter, and milk, I've used Fry light and will see if it needs a splash of almond milk at the end.

Suppers:

Monday - M and I are going out! It's St Dwynwen's day, which is Welsh St Valentine's so we celebrate then, rather than ending up with my birthday and Valentine's celebrations all mixed up together in February.

Tuesday - Spaghetti bolognaise that I made tonight. Syn free on Slimming World, packed full of bonus veggies and really tasty. I'm going to try and get a picture and blog the recipe, as although it's really simple I don't think I've blogged a bolognaise any time recently.

Wednesday - Leftover spaghetti bolognaise - possibly on baked potatoes.

Thursday - Butternut squash dhaal

Friday - leftover Butternut squash dhaal

Saturday - Frikadellen, homemade chips and veggies

Sunday - We might have friends coming for lunch after church so it'll be the casserole I didn't make last week.

That's us for this week - nothing too wildly interesting, although the squash dhaal is a new recipe to us, so I'll see how that goes. As always, pop on over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to.

Meal planning Monday: Week 1, 2016

Happy new year! I've had a lovely break over Christmas and the New Year - we had M at home and a lovely family time, with my sister as well as both sets of parents. It's back to business as usual today with weigh in at Slimming World for me and a bundled up trip to the swings for Harry.

I think it's safe to say I fell off the Slimming World wagon over Christmas - my mother-in-law is wonderful for finding allergy friendly treats for me, and she even went to the trouble to make me dairy free brandy butter which was amazing. It would have been rude not to heavily sample everything! This does mean a 2lb gain last week and so I'm back with my Food optimising as of this morning.

Breakfasts: I've been reading Oh She glows and am going to try being a bit more inventive with my porridge from now on. This morning we had her apple pie oatmeal which was lovely, although Harry reacted to something in it and Piriton has had to be located and administered. He's had nearly all the component parts before so I'm thinking it's either the chia seeds or a bigger amount of cinnamon. Truth be told I'm not sure. The irony being of course that he adored it.

Lunches: In a shocking turn of events, I've not made any soup this week. so that will need to happen. I think I'll do a carrot, chilli and red lentil concoction. Syn free with lots of goodness in there, and the lentils will make it lovely and filling.

Suppers:

Monday: Tomato, veg and red lentil pasta. It's a pack holiday favourite - I make it in massive quantities and our Brownies go loopy for it (heavily doused in cheese). I just really fancied it so will knock that up while Harry's napping this afternoon.

Tuesday: Leftover pasta

Wednesday: Chilli con carne with rice and kale for me. Just rice for M

Thursday: Leftovers in a burrito for M, with rice for me

Friday: Schnitzel, Slimming world chips and veggies

Saturday: Casserole of some description. Possibly beef

Sunday: Leftovers with baked potatoes and green veggies

That's our week - we'll use the slow cooker for the chilli, and casserole to make life easier. And there should be lots of leftovers to stock up the freezer with some quick and easy suppers.

Right, bubba is up from his nap and we need to get off to this weigh in. Wish me luck and enjoy your weeks.

Meal Planning Monday

It feels a bit like Autumn sidled out the door last night - we woke up to a second morning of fog and a distinct snap in the air. Not impressed as it means no more drying washing outside this week. Mind you I don't know where I think I'd get the time as I'm going to catch myself on the way back this week.

Breakfasts - Everyone got back on the porridge wagon yesterday. So that's it now until March pretty much! I'm still grating apple into mine and Harry has sultanas in his.

Lunches - we've got enough of this soup left for today - then I've got some Pumpkin leftover from the weekend. I think I'll mix up some more parsnips, carrots, onion and sweet potato and add the leftover Pumpkin to vary what we had last week. I'll keep the spicing the same though.

Dinners

Monday: I've got some chicken defrosted that needs using up so this I'm going to make a variation on this Squash and chicken one pot recipe from from BBC using quinoa (as that's what I've got in) and some extra veggies.

Tuesday: I'm going to make us all a dairy free Pasta genovese, using this recipe as a guideline. I've got some broccoli to use up and will make up the rest of the veggies with anything green that's sat still in the kitchen *makes mental note to move scourers* ;-)

Wednesday: Sadly I've run out of Heck sausages and they're not stocked anywhere near us, so it's back to Pork and Apple done as a tray roast with butternut squash, sweet potatoes and some kale.

Thursday: Gammon steaks, homemade chips and veggies

Friday: I think a casserole of some sort - a variation on my Beef and Guinness stew as that does lovely leftovers

Saturday: Leftover casserole

Sunday: Roast chicken with all the dairy free trimmings.

For some reason I'm craving a crumble, so as Aldi have plums on their Super 6, I think I'll do a plum and apple crumble this week. We've got Parkin made up, ahead of next weekend (not that we'll be at any bonfire parties, but I like to get in the cake focussed spirit), and a vegan pumpkin cake which is refusing to photograph nicely and so as yet hasn't been blogged.

What are you up to this week meal planning wise? Be sure to pop on over to At Home with Mrs M, or I'm an Organising Junkie to see what everyone else is

Spiced root vegetable soup: dairy free, vegan, syn free

Soup is one of my favourite things to eat for lunch, and this is no exception - warming, packed full of healthy veggies with a fantastic kick of spices. It really is the perfect autumn lunch, and Harry loved it too. The other wonderful thing about this soup is just how thrifty it is. If you're going to have some leftover pumpkin knocking around this weekend or next week, it'd be ideal in here.

I'm having a real on-plan week with Slimming World - I have a very stubborn 2.5lb that I'd like to shift so this is a fantastic syn free lunch with lots of lovely speedy veggies in too.

For other baby led weaners, soup isn't a natural go-to, certainly for me it feels a lot like a puree, but Harry loves it - spoons are a bit wayward, so it worked beautifully with some slices of our current favourite dairy and soya free bread (Waitrose Essentials)

If you're not dairy free this would be a perfect lunch with a cheese and ham toastie. Harry had his bowl with bread for dunking and I had mine as it came. This would be amazing with some warm soda bread. 

print recipe

Spiced Root Vegetable Soup

by Penelope Reader October-28-2015

Dairy free, egg free, soya free, vegan

Ingredients

• 2 cloves Garlic
• 2 Parsnips
• 3-4 medium Carrots
• ½ Swede
• 2 Sweet potatoes
• 1l Vegetable Stock
• 1l Water
• 1tblsp Ground Cumin
• 1 Red Chilli
• ½ tsp Ground Coriander
• Pepper

Instructions

1. Pop the peeled and rougly chopped veggies in a large pan and cover with the stock and water 2. Add the garlic, spices, salt(if this isn't going to be eaten by babies) and pepper 3. Bring to the boil and turn the heat down before simmering until the veggies are lovely and soft 4. Puree with a stick blender until as smooth or lumpy as you like

Details

Prep time: 10m Cook time: 30m Total time: 40mYield: 6 bowls (grown up portions)

This keeps beautifully in the fridge so I make a batch at the start of the week and then we have it until it runs out. I say we - I'm a lot more keen on leftovers than Harry who hasn't quite come around to eating the same thing for a couple of days. 

If you like this bowl of comforting vegetable goodness, why not try these other super soups

• Squash, sweet potato and coconut Autumn soup from Munchies and munchkins looks like a fantastic option if you have leftover (Teal) pumpkin next week
• I love the sound of this Parsnip, ginger and chickpea soup from Rough measures- although I swear M and Harry are going to despair of me if I add chickpeas to anything else! 
• I love lentils, and am intrigued by this Spiced Lentil, Carrot and roasted tomato soup that includes chocolate from Tin and Thyme
• The colour of this Beetroot and vegetable soup from Utterly Scrummy Food for Families is absolutely stunning, and makes me wish I hadn't finished ours from the veg patch all up - I shall have to pop up to Barnet market so I can give this one a try (although Harry's bib will never be the same again I suspect!) 
• This Thai Butternut squash soup from Celery and cupcakes sounds lovely - and so easy using a pre-prepared curry paste. Although I'll be double checking the ingredients in it just in case there's soy sauce.
• Harry loves peas so this Broccoli and pea soup from Eats amazing would be a great one to try (I suspect it won't be as much of a hit with M) 
• This Vegan leek and potato soup from Planet Veggie looks great - I've used cashews this week to make a 'cheese' sauce for pasta but hadn't thought of using them to make a soup creamy. 
• This gorgeous looking and sounding Porcini and sherry soup from The Veg space (I love sherry) is definitely going on the to make list for the grown ups! 

I'm entering this into this month's No Croutons required challenge from Tinned Tomatoes

I'm also adding this to A Mummy too's Recipe of the week

Meal Planning Monday

The baby is nearly one. I mean... how in the name of God did that happen? This time last year he wasn't even here! I am befuddled. Confused. Bewildered. I've been someone's mummy for a year! Holy hell.

This week we have the loveliness that occurs when M takes some time off mideweek to spend at home, so we get a couple of extra family days.

Breakfasts - I'm having conceptual difficulties in remembering to make overnight oats the night before and Harry has started reacting quite strongly to eggs if I eat them too now. Porridge it is.

Lunches - Spicy pepper and tomato soup for me, Harry is having homemade fishfingers and veggies

Suppers -

Monday: Leftover roast chicken, baked potatoes, green beans, carrots and brocolli

Tuesday: Hoi sin Chicken, mushroom and brocolli with rice

Wednesday: Pulled pork, baked sweet potatoes and sweetcorn

Thursday: Leftover pork in burritos with peppers and rice

Friday: Sausages, baked potatoes and veggies

Saturday: Harry's birthday party so ham, chicken, bread, salad, strawberries, cake...

Sunday: Leftovers of above!

 That's our week - please note we're not mentioning Slimming World as I've eaten a large quantity of vegan chocolate ice cream today and weigh in tomrorow may not be happening!

Spicy pepper and tomato soup: A Slimming World syn free recipe

Lunches for me of late are soup. Lets face it, until it's warm enough for salad - soup is pretty much the standard. I tend to rotate between favourites, of late my minestrone soup has been my go to. This week I fancied a change. Lacking much in the way of inspiration I remembered something I'd seen on our Slimming World group and decided to work with that as a starting point. The poster said hers was quick and easy and my variation really was too. The best part of it is that it's all storecupboard ingredients, so it's an easy one to have the ingredients for on hand, just in case you're in need of something quick, easy and syn free.

Spicy Pepper and tomato soup - syn free, dairy free, soya free, egg free
Serves 4

1 jar Peppadew peppers or similar - I used the hot piquant ones as I like a bit of spice, but if you're not a fan of heat, why not have the sweet ones
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 litre chicken stock
1 tin cannelini beans

Drain the peppers, and pop the lot in a pan
Add the tin of tomatoes
Add the chicken stock
Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes
Take off the heat and cool, before blitzing to a consistency you're happy with
Add the drained cannelini beans, warm through before serving

If you're doing Slimming World then you could use your Healthy Extra B to have wholemeal bread with it. I tend to use my Healthy Extra B for oats so just have it by itself. M has it with my homemade 50:50 wholemeal.

Getting better - minestrone soup for the soul

We're all in the process of shifting these rotten bugs, and I always turn to soups to help. There's just something about a hot bowl with lots of veggies and other good things in it that makes me feel better.

It was actually a suggestion at Slimming World that I try making soup - one of the things I struggle with is snacking. Biscuits and tea had become a bit of a habit during my pregnancy and then to 'keep me going' when breastfeeding. It was a habit I needed to shift, and happily I seem to have managed it. That said, fruit in the middle of winter is only ever going to have a limited appeal, and a cup or bowl of soup keeps me going nicely. This is the second time I've made my minestrone and although it's not in the slightest bit authentic I do really like it.

My minestrone (serves 6-8)

1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 sticks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
3 peppers - I use red and yellow, diced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 box passata
1 big splodge tomato puree
2 big handfuls of small pasta (or just break up some spaghetti)
2 pints of chicken/ veg stock
Fry light

Spray a big saucepan with Fry light and soften the onion, garlic, celery and carrots for about 10 minutes or so. If it starts to stick, add a splash of the stock
Add the other veggies, give the pan a good stir
Add the tomatoes, pasta and tomato puree, and fill the tomato tin up with water and add that too
Add the stock and leave to simmer for 30 to 45 minutes
After the soup has been simmering it should be nice and thick - add the pasta and if it feels like it might need it, another tinful of water
Turn the heat up so the pan's at a gentle boil for 7 or so minutes to cook the pasta through.

It's now ready to serve, you could garnish with shredded basil, and if you're not on Slimming world or dairy free (or both!) a big handful of grated chese in the middle of the bowl would be fabulous.

Don't feel restricted by this recipe though - if you have tinned beans, then add some for some extra fibre and protein (and if you're me to make it go a bit further although this makes lots and lots). Lardons would add some extra flavour, or even chopped leftover ham - if you've done a ham in Coca-Cola lately it's a great way to use up the end of the joint. Which is now making me want to do another ham. If you've got some courgettes or mushrooms, they'd be nice additions too.

I don't serve this with bread, because of the pasta. But I know that soup is always better with bread for dunking.

Meal Planning Monday - how is it that time again?

Just call me the white rabbit today - I've been late for everything and my meal plan is no exception. To be fair I realised at 5am whilst feeding Harry that I hadn't written up my plan but as I haven't yet worked out how to simultaneously blog, sleep and breastfeed that got promptly forgotten. Anyway, I'm typing up now - it's not Tuesday yet.


This week is a funny old time - we were talking about it today at Slimming world (it's going well, thank you) Apparently today is 'Blue Monday' the most depressing day of the year, and last Thursday was the day that all our New Year's Resolutions got chucked out of the window. I don't know about either of those being true, I am a bit down at the moment, I know I'm not getting enough daylight despite trying to get out everyday as sometimes it's just too cold. M is working crazy hours, and Harry is still teething. I think once the weather changes and M and I see each other a bit more I'll start to feel a bit brighter.

Food wise, this week is mainly roast chicken orientated. It's in the oven at the moment (smelling wonderful) and I'm hoping the leftovers will keep us going until Thursday.

Breakfasts: Porridge or scrambled eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes. Harry's still having his porridge fingers or scrambled eggs too.

Lunches: I made a root veg and pearl barley soup for this week. Then I can supplement that with chicken sandwiches.

Dinners:

Monday - Roast chicken, roast potatoes (does everyone else know how to make syn free roasties or should I blog them?) stuffing, lots of veggies

Tuesday - Leftover roast chicken with baked potatoes and veggies

Wednesday - Chicken and mushroom risotto (I'm going to try using a puree of cannelini beans to replace the butter and cheese at the end)

Thursday - Leftover risotto

Friday - Meatball pasta I think.

We're with family this weekend, so have a couple of days off meal planning. Which is always nice.

What are your favourite - make your chicken go further recipes? 

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

Souper soup on Saturdays

This week's soup was a revelation - and that's not entirely an understatement. Faced with either leek and potato or a combination of sweet potato and butternut squash, I keenly went for the latter. Leek and potato just never excites me, it's not something I'd choose or buy and may be something I need to get my head around. Especially while leeks are cheap.

I had a squiz around those interwebs for a recipe for sweet potato and butternut squash as all my ideas involved a heavy kick of chilli and ginger and this was to be in part for M's parents who aren't really chilli fans. One recipe stood out as either going to be a raging success or an utter diaster and clearly beset by the type of confidence that I can't normally muster up I went for it. Helped in part by the fact that the original recipe didn't require the butternut squash to be peeled.

We have one of those internets that works perfectly in 90% of the house, but blankly refuses to in the kitchen, as such - this was my take on the recipe I found.

Sweet potato and butternut squash soup

Half a butternut squash, chopped up into chunks about 2 - 3 inches square (or as square as a butternut squash will allow)
 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped up into biggish peices
Half teaspoon cinammon
Half teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 litre of veg stock (I used a cube)
Half a cup of marsala wine

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
Prep your veggies - and the best news - don't peel the squash (at this point I did do a little dance as I hate peeling butternut squash with a passion). Toss in the olive oil, cinammon and nutmeg. Roast in the hot oven until they've soft enough to squash easily
Pop the now soft veggies in a big saucepan, and add half the stock. Blitz with a hand blender until you get a nice thick puree. Add the rest of the stock, bring to a gentle boil and add the marsala
Allow to simmer gently for a few minutes, then serve with wholemeal bread and butter.

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)

Perfect pulses - lentils 2 ways, and some thrifty tips

As we heralded in the New Year I had one of those dawning realisations that this year was going to be an expensive one - between doing up our house (which grows as a project each time we remove another layer of lining paper) and arranging a wedding, our available funds are, shall we say... depleted?

I know that January is a common time for people to be tightening their belts and when this is the case for us pulses become a staple not just in my storecupboard, but in more of our meals, bulking out dishes so that they easily do leftovers as well as using them as a meat replacement in meals such us bolognaise.

It was with this all in mind that I gleefully happened across Michelle's recipe for Root vegetable dhaal. It fulfills criteria necessary at this time of year - thrifty, healthy and warming. Ideal for my packed lunches - although the search for a functioning flask continues - and with some homemade soda bread (recipe on the link below with the soup) the perfect Saturday lunch for a break in the decorating.

Alongside that I'm also going to knock up a batch of a Nigella recipe I appropriated and adapted a couple of years ago, her Split pea and frankfurter soup (I've always called split peas yellow lentils). I have the frankfurters in the freezer as I pick them up when they're on BOGOF. 

These are just a couple of pulses centric recipes that I'm making now. of course, lentils can be added to soups - especially good for thickening as well as bulking out, stews, chillis, bolognaises and plenty of other things to make them go further. If in doubt I add a cupful of red lentils and add the same of extra liquid - be that stock, water or wine.

Other recipes I've blogged include:

Lentil ragu
Harissa lentil salad
Spicy lentils with sausages (both these posts link to Helen at Fuss Free Flavours, as they're her recipes)

I use pulses in lots of other recipes, including last night's supper - chorizo and cannelini bean chilli (I double the cannelini beans as a cheap way of making dinner go further. I do the same with kidney beans in normal chilli and my slow cooker chilli.

Meal Planning Monday: the neverending winter edition

Just to be terribly British, but isn't the weather foul? It feels like it's been winter forever and I'm tired of being cold, of being wet and therefore miserable. I've also been grumpy for what seems like forever - I'm blaming it on a lack of vitamin D so hopefully once Spring, well, springs, things should improve. 

We've not got such a busy week as usual planned, the usual Welsh, archery, Brownies and Guides, but those aside... fairly quiet. Hopefully it'll help us stay on top of the housework, our sleep and health. 

Breakfasts: I've gone off poached eggs! The last two I had were tasteless and I really didn't enjoy them. So I'm back on porridge either until it warms up, or eggs seem more appealing. 

Lunches: I'm trying to eat lunch at the moment. Most typically my day is busy until about 4 when I finally stop and realise I've not eaten since about 6am, whereupon I become acutely awar I'm staaaarving and grab rubbish. I'm taking chopped carrot, cucumber and cherry tomatoes as I can eat them on the run. Mini babybel light also feature as do apples and satsumas. Hopefully this will help stave off the 4pm 'Must. Eat. Now' feeling.

Dinners: We had an epic roast tonight so most meals this week will be chicken based. 

Monday: Leftover chicken, baked potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and braised red cabbage.

Tuesday: Risotto (chicken stock is in the freezer)

I'll also strip the chicken on Tuesday and make stock out of the carcass. Any leftover meat will go into soup which will go into the freezer until next weekend. 

Wednesday: Leftover risotto

Thursday: Sausage hotpot (slow cooker)

Friday: Leftover hotpot

Saturday: Lasagne

Sunday: Leftover lasagne

All in all, not a bad week, lots of storecupboard staples being used up and using up of veg and things in the freezer. 

Seeing as I managed to remember to link up last week - I'll try and make it two in a row - pop on over to At Home with Mrs M to see what all the other meal planners are up to. 

Souper soup - Tomato and cannelini bean

Soup is a staple of my diet. M sometimes says it practically forms it's own food group. When I work from home it's nearly always my lunch, and I have a flask to take it to work when I'm training. Unless I'm poorly, I make all my soups from scratch. I don't usually blog the recipes, as in the main I don't use one, but it's come up on a couple of emails and comments that making your own seems a bit daunting or that cuppa soup was people's first Home Ec lesson.

Really? Who on God's earth planned that one? Lesson outcome: By the end of this session students will have boiled a kettle & safely added hot water to a packet soup.(!) Don't get me started - Mum, Mandy and I were having this discussion on Sunday - Mum's cookery at school was epic. Proper, old style learning to cook. Mandy describes her Home Ec classes as 'a catering course' and she covered some amazing skills. Mine started with apple crumble, and then we focussed on cakes for the first term, then did CDT, then textiles. And in the second year our Home Ec covered Child Development.

So as a starter in Souper soup... here are some things I think it's useful to know, and at the end a really yummy tomato and cannelini bean one.

Making soup is quick, easy and cheap. You can put in it exactly what you like to eat, use up those veggies languishing at the bottom of the salad tray or your leftover roast dinner, bulk it up with lentils or tins of beans... the possibilities are endless.

You don't have to make your own stock - cubes and bouillon powders are fantastic. My hero product would be Swiss Marigold bouillon (I use the reduced salt version) but I also happily use Knorr stock cubes. I do make my own chicken stock, but that's a personal preference and a way for me to eek out every last bit of value for money from a roast chicken - it's absolutely fine to use a stock cube or pot (I haven't tried the new stock pots but my Mum absolutely sings their praises!) Also, if you've got nothing in the cupboard - use water, it's by no means the end of the world. The only thing I do find with stock is just to taste the soup before I add salt as cubes can be a little salty for my taste buds.

You don't need any special equipment. A big pan - mine is an Ikea 365 pan - it was about £15 and I use it loads. A wooden spoon. A knife and chopping board. If you like your soup smooth, then a hand blender. For years I used a Tesco economy hand blender. It was £5 and never let me down, lasting for near on 10 years. If you like chunky soup, then you don't need a blender at all.

So - there's your need to know for soup. The first thing I do each week is open the fridge and look to see what veggies are hanging around. Inevitably at this time of year it's mainly root vegetables; carrots, swede, parsnips, sweet potatoes and then some butternut squash, the occasional leek, onion or a sad looking bit of celery all make appearances.

I will normally use a base of 2 sticks of celery, an onion and carrot to start off any soup. That said, it's not cast in stone... If I don't have celery I'll use a leek, if I don't have an onion I'll use a leek. Sometimes I just use an onion and carrot. It's all negotiable.

Then I have a look in the Pantry, red lentils, green lentils, tins of cannelini beans all bulk out those veggies.  And my stock options - bouillon, a cube, water or a quick dart over to the freezer for some chicken stock.

The recipe below is based on one I cut out from a magazine and then promptly found that I was missing some of the bits for.

Tomato and cannelini bean soup

Olive oil
2 celery sticks
2 cloves of garlic
1 red onion
1 tin of tomatoes 400g
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved (I had these in the fridge as they were reduced in the supermarket)
Splodge of tomato puree
1.5 litres of chicken/ vegetable stock (or water)
1 tin of cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
Salt & pepper
Dried oregano

Chop the celery and onion as finely as you can, and put in the big pan with the olive oil, crush in the garlic. Cook these through until the onions start to go transparent and soft.
Add the tinned and halved cherry tomates, a splodge of puree and the dried orgeano
Add the stock, and cannelini beans
Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 45 minutes
Taste, and season as necessary
If you like smooth soup, blitz

Serve hot with bread and cheese for a fantastic lunch. I have a pinterest recipe for some cheesey pull apart bread that would be amazing with this. I'm going to try it tomorrow and will let you know.

For me this was storecupboard cooking as I had everything in the house - but I understand that if you don't have frozen bags of stock, or a packet of stock cubes around the house it's not a frugal dish in terms of initial outlay. If you're trying to cook more from scratch or try new things then it's definitely worth the investment.

Meal Planning Monday: absence makes the heart grow fonder

Or so they tell me. In my case it just seems to make me feel guilty. My absence from the blog that is. It's as though the longer I don't write, the worse I feel. But an infection in my wisdom tooth as well as a heavy workload of late just seem to have sapped my motivation, for blogging, for running, you name it. I'm on antibiotics at the moment, which are making me feel rotten; nauseous and just - heavy. I'm sure it'll pass soon enough.

This week is a working away week. I'm hoping to catch up with a good friend one evening, and the other will hopefully involve a hot bath and an early night. We don't celebrate St Valentines, not least because love should be something you do everyday not just once a year - but more because we celebrate the Welsh St Dwynwen's day in January. However we do celebrate my birthday which is also this week. I suspect I'm getting too old to be excited about getting older, but I do have a day off which is exciting at any age!

So, now onto the business of meal planning:

Breakfast: I'm continuing with poached eggs and porridge - not together! Rather on alternate days.

Lunches: I've made some more spicy root vegetable soup

Dinners:

Monday - Leftover pork and vegetable hash, with baked potatoes

Tuesday - I'm away, but M is having pork and apple burgers that I made and froze tonight

Wednesday - Still away, I can't quite think what M's going to have. I vaguely feel there's *something* in the freezer, but I should probably check on that

Thursday - after Brownies so it'll need to be quick and easy. Maybe pasta something? Pantry pasta with added bacon.

Friday - as it's my birthday I'm pitching to go out, but just in case it's horribly busy I may crown off my day with a trip to Sainsburys. I know how to live!

Baking wise, we've still got the last of the Christmas cake to eat up, but hopefully I should be baking again in the next week or so!

So that's this week - be sure to pop on over to At Home with Mrs M and see what everyone's up to.

Meal Planning Monday: The leftovers edition

Ok, so it's not a proper meal plan as such - more a round up of what to do with your leftover turkey. I've trawled the blog for ideas that you could replace chicken with turkey and the ones I like are listed here.

My Dad's chicken curry (obviously with turkey) - quick, easy and the only extra ingredients you need are some spinach, and tomatoes which are easy enough to chuck in your trolley on that last run round. 

Butternut squash, barley and chicken casserole: one you can put in the slow cooker and leave be all day

Chicken and mushroom risotto: remember you can add any veggies to this, and could even stir in some leftover shredded sprouts towards the end

Turkey soup - made with homemade stock. Again bulk out with any veggies you have, dried peas, beans or lentils

Turkey surprise pie: You can add any leftover ham you've got knocking around to this. Also, just use shop bought puff pastry. There is no point at this time of year in fretting over your own. 

Turkey and sweet leek pie: This is the original recipe for turkey surprise pie - minus leftover veggies, ham (and any other fillers you've got!)

Also don't forget yesterday's turkey chilli, which you can wrap in tortillas, have in a big bowl that people help themselves to with rice, taco shells, cornbread, or as M did when I was poorly a bowl of tortilla chips

Coming up tomorrow (if it works) turkey carnitas

Meal Planning Monday: the 15 sleeps to go edition

I've missed Meal Planning Monday the last few weeks, workload, the ability to fall downstairs (yes, really) and having no time to do a foodshop have impacted on the time I've had for blogging. That said, I'm at my laptop now, and am hoping to catch up this week. 

In our family (as in many I now realise, but for a long time I did think it was just us) it's traditional to count down to an event in terms of the number of sleeps left. Preparations for Christmas are well under way. I have a list of wines from Asda to search out, the Christmas cake(s) are made, the pudding ready, there are mince pies in the freezer, and aside from a much needed trip to Aldi for German foodstuffs we're pretty much organised. *touch wood* Presents wise I'm not doing so well, but am kidding myself that I'm nearly there!

So, meal planning... where am I? 

Breakfasts - vanilla porridge with blackberry and apple compote. 

Lunches - soup, Lifechanging with any luck - luck being the impetus to get up and make it. 

Dinners -

Monday: Beef and barley casserole that I made in the slow cooker today

Tuesday: I'm at Guides, but M can have the casserole

Wednesday: I've promised M carbonara using some lovely jamon we picked up in Barcelona

Thursday: It's the Brownies Christmas party so maybe soup and a sandwich afterwards.

Friday: Is our festive evening, so we've decided on Bratwurst, rosti, Liebkuchen with Gluwhein and amaretto - and LOTS of Christmas decorations

Saturday: I'm expecting that we'll be running around finishing off any necessary and last minute Christmas bits, so possibly a pizza or similar

Sunday: My sister, her husband and my nephew are coming over for slow roast shoulder of pork with all the trimmings. Yum. 

So that's it, be sure to pop over to At Home with Mrs M and link up with everyone else. 

One Chicken many ways: the definitive round up

As I've mentioned previously, I was sent a Farmers Choice meat box recently, and I wanted to work with it in the way I really cook and not succumb to any temptation to try flashy new recipes, but focus on making thrifty, well cooked and loved food. 

One of the things that I mentioned in my original post was that the £72 cost of the meat box would probably have put me off purchasing, however - when I sat down and worked it out, this worked out at approximately £7 per pack of meat, which I had to admit was cheap, especially for good quality, free range meat. I typically spend £10 on a free range chicken, and only do so, probably once a month. So, the meat box is looking so far so good in terms of value for money. 

I decided to approach the value for money idea with the chicken. I love roast chicken - I remember in one of Jamie Oliver's books he mentioned that he cooks it weekly for his family and I really understand why, it's tasty, comforting, good food. Regular readers will know, and can explore the One chicken many ways posts I do - working out how to make a free range bird worth the investment. 

So, we started on Sunday with roast chicken - cooked simply with lemon and garlic, sat on thick slices of red onion. Served with roast potatoes, stuffing, cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots. Gravy made from the meat juices, cooked down red onion and a splash of white wine. We each had a generous portion of this on Sunday. 

On Monday we each had leftovers with baked potatoes and veg. 

On Tuesday, I stripped the chicken, made risotto with about half the meat, some mushrooms, onion and arborio rice (using chicken stock from a previous roast). This did 4 generous portions, so we had it on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Tuesday I also made stock from the chicken carcass, a carrot, onion, celery, peppercorns and a little salt, 4 litres of water and boiled it up for 2 hours, skimming any scum from the surface. This made 3 pints of stock which I let jellify, and then...

On Thursday I made soup, I softened a finely sliced leek, carrot, some mushrooms, and thyme. To this I added a cup of barley, the shredded chicken and the stock, I let this cook over a gentle heat for about an hour to soften the barley. Then I simply seasoned and served. This made about 6 portions, 4 of which I froze and two we ate for supper. 

We're eating the 4 previously frozen portions at the moment, it's tasty, warming and filling. 

Most excitingly (yes, I know this makes me a nerd) our chicken provided the basis for 8 meals (14 portions). Aside from the roast, they weren't exclusively chicken, and we used lots of veg, rice and pulses as additions - but that works out at less than £1 per meal. Which is clearly good value. Obviously if you were cooking for a family and not just a couple this would be cut down, but I reckon 4 adult portions would easily work for 2 adults and 3 hungry children. I base that on portion sizes on Brownie and Guide holidays - but obviously each child is different. 

Find all the suggestions, recipes and whatnot for all my One chicken many ways posts here

I'm already considering getting another meat box when we've finished this one - and am wondering about Farmers Choice Christmas produce, specifically the turkeys have caught my eye already! 

Meal Planning Monday: limping along

Well hello, and apologies for the hiatus in posting this last week. It's that time of year when, as the nights start to draw in, I start to battle overtiredness and colds and fitting everything in just starts to become a bit more tricky.

That said, this week in the Pantry should be a nice one. M and I are both at home, after a lovely weekend, and looking forward to some time together.

Baking wise, I've got a pumpkin and apple traybake to bake and have promised M a batch of my Practically Perfect Parkin.

Breakfasts: I think this will be my last packet of granola, after this I'll be heading steadily into porridge. But until this is finished, granola with chopped bananas and some extra sultanas is the meal of choice.

Lunchtimes: Because we've been away this weekend I've not had time to make any soup, but am hoping to knock up a batch one evening this week. So soup it is - Maybe of the Lifechanging variety.

Dinners:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday: Turkey, barley and pumpkin casserole

Thursday: I'm at Brownies, so leftovers afterwards.

Friday:  Italian sausage and pasta bake - see post later in the week for details.

Meal Planning Monday: April showers got me down

Well I think we can all agree that it's wet, windy and miserable out there. Anyone who has good weather? If you could please just not mention it, that would be great. 

So another week of work, blogging, baking, guiding, sleeping... and so it goes on. I feel a bit like I usually do in November; slightly devoid of any inspiration. This week will be a challenge on the meal planning front, I'm sure. 

You'll be pleased to hear that baby sourdough is proving ever so slowly in the kitchen at the moment. Not quite doubled in size, but hopefully the warmth of the kitchen will keep her going. 

The other baking I've done this evening (that I will blog this week) are some granola/ energy bars for M. He runs around like nobody's business on building sites and burns up more energy daily than I'm sure I do in a week. Hopefully these should give him some oomph at 3pm when he needs that kick to get through the rest of the afternoon. They're loosely based around something I saw on River Cottage the other week, and the flapjacks I used to back as a child. 

So, this week:

Breakfasts: Cereal and Toast for M. Fruit for me, hopefully moving to sourdough (if it ever proves that is) 

Lunch: I think I'll be making soup this week - the weather is just too foul to try and manage on salad or veg sticks. 

Dinners:

Monday: Fortunately we had roast chicken tonight so tomorrow will be leftover chicken, stuffing with veggies and a baked potato. 

Tuesday: Chicken and mushroom risotto (mental note to self: get chicken stock out of freezer) and then I'll make stock from this chicken

Wednesday: Possibly a butternut squash soup using the soup, and with the sourdough and some cheese. 

Thursday: Butternut squash, chorizo and cannellini bean chilli

Friday: Leftovers of the chilli - with cornbread (don't tell M but I'm going to introduce him to the wonders of Nigella's cornbread)

Now we've got no plans next weekend, except my Mum is coming to visit, so I think I'm going to do slow roast pork, but also a bit of batch cooking, maybe a lasagne, chilli and cottage pie (we just cleared M's freezer out, there was a lot of mince). Hopefully I'll have a better handle on the sourdough so will be able to bake for Saturday morning, which will mean we can have poached eggs on toast. 

Not a terribly exciting week I'm afraid, but it's just that kind of weather really - I feel like I should be in summer skirts skipping around, but I'm wrapped up in woolies and wellies. Sad times. 

However, make sure you pop over to At Home with Mrs M and see what everyone else is up to this week.