Meal Planning Monday: I'm still hurting

I can't believe it's that time already. Meal Planning. Last week, was a bit of a disaster in the Pantry. I had the treatment for the migraine, and although it's lessened the pain, it bruised the back of my head something shocking, and the migraine is nowhere near gone. Add that to M working late, and long hours and you have a recipe for disaster. Certainly not one meal planning will help.

Here's hoping this is a better week; less pain, fewer working hours and being a bit closer to a return to work would all be good. Especially as I turn 35. Dear God yes, I am finally Bobby from Company.

So here's this week's meal plan as it stands currently:

Monday: Leftover roast beef Cottage pie - using this recipe, with mashed swede, carrot and parsnips and savoy cabbage

Tuesday: Steak, baked potatoes and salad/ veg (well it is Valentine's)

Wednesday: Veggie burritos/ enchiladas with guacamole and salad

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Slow cooked tomato pasta (I don't think I've blogged this before. I will as it's gorgeous and tastes like it's taken a whole lot of work, whereas in fact once it's super easy)

M's packed lunches are being supplemented with sausage rolls and soups at the moment as it's just so cold. We've also got banana bread to add in there.

Lunches for me will carry on being soup - I've got two portions of split pea and frankfurter left in the freezer.

Breakfasts are porridge, with stewed fruit for me.

Baking - well every girl needs a birthday cake, and I've got some fruit that's been soaking in a lot of brandy since before I went into hospital.

Have a good week all, and don't forget to head on over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to

Doorbells, and sleighbells and schnitzel with noodles (ish): Worldfoods Challenge no 2 - Pad Thai

I'm now happily singing My favourite things while I type this out, sadly I'm not in my nighty, nor am I surrounded by many small children harmonising beautifully with me. Still, you take what you can get.

Last week I was visited by my friend Louise, this week it's Lauren's turn, and last night I made us the second of my Worldfood fusion taste team challenge meals. Pad Thai. I was slightly concerned again as to the sweetness of the sauce, and the inauthenticity (it's a word) of my recipe, but without blowing my own trumpet it was fab. And made whilst exhausted, so doubly impressive when you think about it.

I should add a disclaimer here. I love Pad Thai. A lot. It's my favourite thing to order in Thai restaurants, and I never make it because I just think it won't live up to my expectations. Plus the ingredient list to make it from scratch is more offputting than sugar syrup ever was.

I really didn't want to have to shop specially for this, but have to recommend Waitrose's Thai section. Bearing in mind that the Whetstone Waitrose is tiny, I managed to pick up rice noodles, dried galangal, fish sauce and palm sugar. I then failed to use any of them save for the rice noodles. Fail. But I was pleased I picked those up, as the need for beansprouts, limes and peanuts escaped my tiny brain entirely, so as you will notice this recipe is utterly without them.

Pantry Pad Thai

2 cloves garlic
1 red chilli chopped
4 spring onions, whites finely chopped, greens sliced up like you would green beans
1 red pepper sliced
1 sweetcorn
300g mushrooms sliced
3 chicken thighs thinly sliced
flat leaf parsley
1 head brocolli
1 bottle Worldfood Pad Thai sauce
Juice of 1 lime
2 eggs, beaten
200g rice noodles cooked as per pack instructions

Stir fry the garlic, chilli, and spring onion whites in a flavourless oil until you can start to smell them
Add the chicken to the pan and cook until browned
Add the vegetables and cook lightly, stirring all the while
Shift the contents of your pan to one side and pour the eggs in and cook, then stir through
Add the cooked noodles, and stir through
Add the sauce, parsley and lime and serve. I kept the fish sauce and palm sugar on the side meaning to add them if I felt it needed a bit extra but it really didn't, the sauce had enough tang from the tamarind to mean that I didn't need to adjust the seasoning.

Quick and easy, and as I used the end of my veg box as well as some chicken in the freezer, a really well priced meal. What I made served three of us generously with a large tupperware of leftovers for Mark's lunch today. Perfect.

Despite loving this (and I actually hesitated to offer Mark the leftovers as I would have quite happily demolished them) I would like to try it again with prawns, coriander, beansprouts and peanuts as it was so tasty that I think the additions would really set it off. It's rare you'll see me say this, but I would happily go out and buy this again purely to the ends of adding Pad Thai this way to my simple suppers, as even with a bought sauce it's cheaper and healthier than my local Thai takeaway.

Nasi Goreng: add your own showtune here...

It's that time of year again when our thoughts turn to new shoes, a new pencil case, and of course - what to put in our packed lunch box. For me when I was at school it was always sandwiches - peanut butter and banana were my favourite - and one of my best friends Liz, taught me well that you add the banana at lunchtime so it's not brown! These days I really struggle with sandwiches - Mark has them every day, and when I try I just find them dull. As an alternative I tend to go for salads in the summer (this week, pea shoots, feta, prawn, tomato and sprouted seeds - also known as everything that was reduced in Sainsburys).

In the colder months, I have a lot of homemade soups, sometimes with homemade bread (when I'm watching what I eat, without), also leftovers. Now these aren't practical for a child's lunchbox unless you have a thermos - Lakeland do some pricy, but wide necked ones that I think would be amazing for my lunches, actually I look at them and think about ordering every time. There has to be a cheaper alternative for kids out there and I'll keep my eyes peeled.

With my lunch I have fruit - a lot of fruit, this week it's black grapes, plums, a banana and an apple and normally a Nakd bar. This allows me to graze throughout the day at work, which works for me if I don't have time for a proper lunch break. Mark has crisps, a sausage roll, peice of cheese, cereal bar, a banana and some dried fruit. We're quite different, but it's what suits us best.

 This week, I'm having a Pantry take on Nasi goreng - an Indonesian rice salad. Unusually for me,  I'm straying into the realms of cooking with tofu for the first time. Now, I had most of the base ingredients in my fridge and pantry, but had to buy the tofu, and edamame beans. However the amount of lunches this has made is extraordinary. There's definitely enough for the rest of the week, and I'll portion out the rest in the freezer for next week too. You could serve this hot - in a thermos or if your office has a microwave, or eat it cold as a rice salad.

 Penelope's Pantry does Nasi Goreng

Light olive oil
2 cups of brown basmati rice - cooked and cooled
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp lazy chilli
2 thumb size peices of ginger grated
4 spring onions finely chopped (all the way up - use the green parts too)
1 cup of chopped red pepper
1 cup of edamame beans (I used frozen)
1 cup of sweetcorn (again I used frozen)
200g tofu (I used smoked) finely chopped
2 eggs beaten
3 tablespoons of soy sauce

Cook the rice in double the volume of boiling water (I use Delia's infallible absorbtion method) and leave to cool down.
Heat up some olive oil in a big wok or large pan, and when it's hot, add the spring onions, garlic, chilli and ginger. Cook through until this mix becomes aromatic - stirring all the while
Add the rice, and stir through so that the base ingredients aren't stuck on the bottom of the pan, but are mixed through (this way your garlic won't burn and go bitter)
Add the pepper, edamame beans, sweetcorn and tofu and cook through, stirring for about 5 minutes
Make a well in the middle of your pan and add your beaten eggs. Stir them so that they scramble and then mix through the rest of the rice
Cook through for another couple of minutes and then add the soy sauce.

Now I've tasted this and feel it's missing something - thinking back to my Lifechanging soup (TM) I think it's the sourness that it needs an edge - a friend has recommended adding a tablespoon of the pickling vinegar from a jar of pickled veg. I don't have any in, so will go without but would add that as a change for next time.

I think it's worth mentioning that traditionally Nasi Goreng would have chicken and prawns added, but costs at the moment mean I'm reducing my meat intake again. The tofu worked out far cheaper for the quantity that this made. Whilst the eggs make this unsuitable for vegans, those could easily be left out, and if you're a hardened carnivore or pescatarian again, amend it to suit you.
So that's my packed lunches sorted for the forseeable. A tasty, veggie alternative to sandwiches.

Home is where the heart is meant to be: Couscous salad

The thing about working away from home and eating restaurant food is that I find I crave vegetables (yes I know I'm weird), food I can eat from a bowl on my lap, in my pyjamas. I just don't think they'd be down with that in a Harvester. Although I should say - Harvester for the win at being able to eat what you want as it suits you - sadly though, still not in your pjs.

So, it probably makes me something of a sad loser to admit that I spent a large part of Friday daydreaming about a couscous salad. Yes, I know. Something spiked with brightly coloured, fresh veggies, with lots of protein and flavour that tasted - wholesome. I know that's not a flavour, but that's what I wanted.

So Friday afternoon came and I popped up to Waitrose, as my fridge was almost completely bare - I would have added a picture here, but that would have entailed showing you the fact that it also needs a clean out with some bicarb in hot water and I'm not keen on my slatternly tendencies being on show for the whole world to see. I picked up some couscous and feta (both from their essentials range), working on the basis that I was sure I had odds and sods to use up in a fridge-bottom style...

However, the fridge wasn't completely bare - here's what I found in it:

A handful of dried up fresh mint
Two handfuls of equally dried up parsley
A tomato
Half a red romano pepper
Some spring onions that were only slightly wilted
Garlic
Lazy chilli
Half a cucumber that was looking very sorry for itself
A centimetre or so of homemade salad dressing in an old jam jar
And a bottle of rose with one glass left in it!

Also in the pantry I found the end of a packet of pine nuts, and some Marigold bouillon

I boiled the kettle and measured out 1 cup of couscous into a salad bowl
I added 2 teaspoons of bouillon and 2 cups of boiling water, stirred it all in, covered with a clean, dry tea towel and left for 10 minutes
Meanwhile, I chopped up the tomato, cucumber, pepper, spring onions and feta up into a small dice
I finely chopped the mint, parsley and garlic
I toasted the pine nuts in a dry pan until lightly browned

When the couscous was cool I added all the ingredients above, a teaspoon of lazy chilli and the leftover (shaken up) vinagrette. Everything was stirred in and served in a large bowl with the rose. It was exactly what I wanted - and made loads - which meant both Mark and I had it for dinner on Friday, and lunch on Saturday and Sunday.

On Monday I did a discount run around Waitrose, picking up a packet of prawns and a packet of feta, and a bag of peashoots - I added half of each of these to the remaining cous cous and had it for dinner on Monday. As an added bonus, packed lunches on Tuesday and today were the remains of all of those and some cherry tomatoes and alfalfa/ radish sprouts as an undressed salad. Yum.

I know it's not exciting to talk about those meals we make at the end of the month to make the budget stretch further, to use up the odds and ends from a veg box or a shop, and it's not a recipe per se as you could use anything languishing in your fridge but this is real life - we can't all be knocking up Jamie's 30 minute meals or Delia's suggestions every day - sometimes we just need something that nourishes us, that is tasty and that doesn't cost the earth. I know I do.

Coming up... Mark's mum sent me back a whole load of plums from their tree, mint from the garde and crabapples she was given, so for the cost of some sugar I'll be presrving madly this week. Also a long awaited foray into a nasi goreng inspired by something I saw on the Food Channel when I was off sick before I changed jobs.

Meal Planning Monday: A week at home!

I feel like I should preface this post with saying just how much I'm loving my new job. It's taking me to different parts of the country, meeting new people and trying new things. In this economic climate I recognise just how lucky I am as for so long I've been so miserable and stayed in a job that continued that. What it hasn't done thus far is let me have time to cook. This weekend however, I've blitzed the house, and whilst I have an empty fridge, the clean, ironed washing, and clean, tidy rooms will allow me the time over the next few nights to make some jam and jelly, turn museli into cookies for the office, and try some new recipes. Exciting stuff!

Breakfasts: fruit, yoghurt and a sprinkling of Grape nuts.

For lunches this week I'm going to make a rice salad with tofu, soy sauce and veggies.

Monday: Leftover cous cous salad (blogpost should be up on Wednesday) mixed in with prawns, pea shoots and feta

Tuesday: Beetroot, goats cheese and feta salad with roast chicken (peices if I get to the butcher)

Wednesday: Leftover roast chicken/ Sausages, sweetcorn and baked potatoes and salad

Thursday: I'm out Thursday night, but depending on when I get home and if I've eaten will either have an omlette or toast and marmite

Friday: We're off to Mark's parents for the weekend

I'm waiting on delivery of some Gourmet Raw brownies that I ordered last week. I know it's probably not the best introduction, but I've really got into Nakd bars of late and have been reading up on raw food. I eat a lot of fruit as you can probably tell and for snacking they're tasty, convenient and don't have that horribly processed aftertaste I find in a lot of cereal bars. I'm hoping the Gourmet raw brownies are similar, only slightly more decadent. Review to follow when they arrive. Not that I'm impatient or anything *taps foot*

Riverford veg box: Week four

I do like the veg box arriving, if it weren't for the email each week announcing my debit card being charged I'd persist with the view that it feels like a present arriving.

This week was a bit odd, truth be told. I felt so let down by last week's fruit bag that I really wasn't sure what to expect and was worrying about the content quite considerably. However, I needn't have worried as the produce that arrived was of a lovely quality. There's two things this week that I'm not sure what to do with. I wonder if you can guess what they are?

Blackcurrants
Melon
Salad bag
Cherry tomatoes
Courgettes
Head of broccoli
Bunched beetroot
Broad beans
Apples

I just had to go and check I hadn't forgotten some fruit, but nop that's everything. An easy to use week - Mark loves brocolli, as do I. And courgetti spaghetti is a firm favourite on our menu plan. Melon is lovely to use as a simple, fresh breakfast, and cherry tomatoes when not used up in lunches tend to be my 'hovering around the fridge' snack of choice.

A nice week, nothing explosively surprising, but all good quality and not overripe which is a key thing for me.

Next week a break - but week five will be back soon.

Beans mean(s) risotto?

No, wait, that's not right. One of the reasons I'm drawn to the concept of a veg box is the way it pushes me to try new things, either vegetables I haven't cooked previously or ones I wouldn't necessarily buy if left to my own devices at the shops.

Broad beans are just one of those veg - I love them (I'm a double podding fiend) they're so green, verdant in their freshness. Their presence introducing the start of the summer, yet even yesterday when pottering around Waitrose, I completely forgot to pick any up. Riverford had sent me lots so, on Wednesay evening I returned home from work and made a start on double podding the Elphaba-esque vegetable.

To cook these (at this stage of the season) I just add them to the dish late on, but towards July or even later, they will need bringing to the boil. Oddly, like gnocchi, once they're floating at the top of the water in the pan, they're cooked - normally it only takes a few minutes.

I love broadbeans, blitzed with some light olive oil and a grated clove of garlic as a side dish for any main meal, or spread on thick slices of french bread, lightly toasted as you would for  bruschetta. However, this week required more gutsy, warming food as the rain was pelting down as though it were still April. Comfort food was called for, and what is more soothing and comforting than risotto.

I always use the same recipe for risotto, just substituting the flavours and herbs depending on what way I'm going with it. If you think of a basic risotto recipe as a 'bianco' and then you change up what you add to it depending on what you fancy/ have in the fridge.

Risotto bianco

1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup/ 250g arborio rice
1 glass white wine, I use a fairly dry one
Olive oil
Chicken/ vegetable stock - 500ml(ish) I use chicken stock that I make myself - eeking out the frugalness of my roast chicken even further.
Parmesan
Salt and Pepper
Butter

Sautee the onion in a little olive oil, cooking until it goes translucent.
Add the white wine into the hot pan, and let it bubble down, stirring all the while.
Heat your stock through in a separate pan, bringing it to a gentle boil
Add the stock, ladle by ladle, stirring until each is absorbed, and only then adding the next
Once your stock is all absorbed, check that your rice is cooked, it should be soft with a little bite (not mush!)
Remove the pan from the heat and add butter, grated parmesan and pepper. Taste, and if it needs it add salt. Parmesan is quite salty so sometimes you only need a little.

For the Broad bean risotto, I added a little garlic to the cooked onion (if you add it earlier it runs teh risk of burning), and lots of shredded mint, a little thyme and then the broadbeans at the end, just with the last ladle of stock.

I didn't use pecorino, but whilst I was cooking I thought how well this would have gone with the broad beans. The sharpness of the sheep's cheese contrasting with the soft sweetness of the little beans. I also didn't have any white wine in, as I don't tend to have it in the house, I diluted half a glass of sherry with water and used this at the same point in the dish as I would the wine. Similarly you could just add an extra 250ml of stock.

I had intended to add bacon to this, as I think the salty crispness of well cooked, crumbled in bacon would have been lovely - but I think it must have evaporated as there was none in the fridge, instead, I chopped up a chicken breast that was leftover from the previous night's Guide Division BBQ. It wasn't quite the same, flavour wise, but did provide some extra protein, and an extra dimension texture-wise.

I made this risotto in less than an hour (and that includes double podding millions of broad beans) so it's a perfect midweek dinner; tasty, soothing and on a wet, cold June evening - just what the doctor ordered.

Riverford veg box: Week three

Last week I spoke to Riverford about the veg boxes I've been receiving. Even with the vast quantities of veg I eat I just wasn't getting through the whole box, and whilst it is value for money I had another issue with overripe fruit last week (the first week I had the same issue with pears, last week with nectarines - no compensation has been offered for these items, something interestingly Abel and Cole always did when I called to complain yet again). The discussion I had with the lady on the phone resulted in me opting to try alternating a fruit bag with my regular box on the week's between. Hopefully this would overcome my issue with not having enough room in the fridge for the veggies, and I wouldn't be stuck with no fruit in between times.

At the moment I've been supplementing the fruit and veg with potatoes for Mark, and bananas for both of us, as well as anything that partifularly grabs me owing to a special offer when I do the weekly shop. Part of me resents this, the other part accepts it as par for the course with a fruit and veg box - not being able to choose your contents means you are sometimes pleasantly surprised but may need to supplement with the things you need, be they for packed lunches or standard recipes.

Truth be told, at first glance I'm not that impressed with the fruit bag, 3 relatively dull types of fruit: grapes, satsumas and apples. The grapes, like all of the soft fruit I've been sent, need to be eaten today and are a small bunch - 300g. .  The apples and satsumas will hopefully last longer, and quanitity wise I would say that is perfect, 6 apples and 8 satsumas (I typically take an apple and two satsumas to work each day). I used Mysupermarket.c.uk to compare prices from my local supermarkets (and by local I mean the ones I can walk or take the bus to):

Tesco: £1.34
Ocado: £1.79
Sainsbury's &; Asda: £1.49

Bearing in mind that the fruit bag cost £6.45 - if we put Riverford's grapes on a par with Ocado's then we're looking at a cost of £4.66 for the apples and satsumas. This got me to thinking - what would be their cost at the local supermarkets too.

	Apples	Clementines	Total
Ocado	£      2.83	£        2.49	£    5.32
Tesco	£      2.25	£        1.50	£    3.75
Sainsburys	£      1.50	£        2.09	£    3.59
Asda	£      1.80	£        1.77	£    3.57
	Grapes
Tesco	£      1.34		£    5.09
Ocado	£      1.79		£    7.11
Sainsburys	£      1.49		£    5.08
Asda	£      1.49		£    5.06

I was surprised at just how much more Riverford are charging - and I've deliberately not compared them with Basics or Economy range fruit and veg as I didn't feel that would be a fair comparison. Interestingly with the exception of Waitrose (where I would automatically buy their Essentials range anyway) Riverford fruit is around £1.50 more expensive for the 3 types of fruit. Now obviously I am getting it delivered, which accounts for some of the cost, but I think for me the quality of the fruit is such that I can't justify this difference. I need fruit to last a week, to be fairly transport friendly - as well as fitting in to my budget. I think for me, this is just too much which is a shame. So, despite the convenience being a huge bonus for me, the fruit is going to have to go.

Next week, I'll do a similar compare and contrast with the veg, but truthfully I'm much happier with the veg box, so I'm hoping to be able to justify retaining that.

Riverford veg box: Week two

Well, last week's veg (with the exception of the pears) have lasted really well. I'm using up the greens tonight, the tomatoes and cucumber are going strong in packed lunch salads, and the mushrooms are waiting to be used up. What for I'm not entirely sure, I had some kind of inspiration about polenta cakes or something yesterday but can't remember where that was. I blame the meds as I'm trying to head off another migraine, and it's leaving me a bit groggy.

Excitingly I had no idea what to do with the gooseberries, so decided to live life on the edge and try making some jam - whilst entirely unsupervised. It was a success, set beautifully, tastes gorgeous and is a glorious colour. Photos to follow with excitable post. I did tweet throughout the process, and if you fancy being party to the occaisional overexcited rambling, click the follow me on twitter button to your left.

The aubergine was another matter entirely. They are still the work of the devil, pretty much ruining my gorgeous pasta bake surprise last week. The surprise is a middle layer of mozzarella. Pantry tip by the way - if you're cooking with mozzarella, then buy the cheaper options as in blind taste tests consumers can't tell the difference between the fancy and bargain when it's cooked. For tomato salads and the like, get as good as you can afford.

So this week, we have no aubergine - Hurrah! but we do have broad beans, which I know for many people are comparable to my loathing of aubergine. I'm actually quite excited, and utterly undecided about what I'm going to do with them as yet. Suggestions would be very welcome.

Bunched carrots - will probably be scrubbed and eaten raw with moroccan houmous. I love this, and actually the only thing I will voluntarily eat aubergine in is my houmous recipe.
Courgettes - so courgetti spaghetti will feature on next week's meal plan
Onions - I have to do something with onions, I feel like they're breeding in the veg drawer
Nectarines
Apples
Tomatoes
Peppers
Melon, I'll blatantly eat this for breakfast and will do nothing of any interest with it.

So another lovely box, save for one damaged nectarine and despite spending much of Tuesday in a darkened room being poorly I managed to have a lovely chat with my veg man. Apologies for no pictures of my produce, I can't make the camera turn on or find the charger.

So, lets see what next week shall bring - well I know actually - as I've still got so much veg to use up, I'm just getting a fruit bag. Fingers crossed for lots of fruity goodness. Or something.

Meal Planning Monday: Vegetably (it's a word) goodness

Well that was a week and a half. Who knew that the meds you were prescribed could make you iller? Oh, everyone else did? Great. You'll doubtlessly be pleased to hear that I'm back in the pantry, slightly bruised, slightly tender of head but feeling much better for the first time since pretty much Easter.

That said, for the most part we had a successful week in the pantry. Leftovers have been frozen for another day, overripe pears are begging to be eaten, but all of that aside not too bad.

The pasta bake was lovely, I layered it up with mozzarella in the middle as well as on top which made a difference, and it was fantastically gooey. My only error was in adding the dreaded aubergine. Nope, not happening. Riverford, can you hear me? NO MORE AUBERGINES. Ahem.

Once again the salmon and greens went by the wayside as I ended up in hospital with a shocker of a migraine. This week. I promise. Guides honour.

Steak and wedges didn't happen as because of the migraine I was whisked away to Mark's family to basically convalesce - do people do that any more? So we were treated to someone else's home cooking which was lovely.

This week, I'm hoping to combine lots of the vegetables from my box, with some recipe testing for Helen at Fuss Free Flavours, so with any luck it'll be a nicely frugal week as well as a healthy one.

Monday: Tonight was supposed to be freezer surprise, but alas I didn't manage to remove anything from the freezer to surprise myself with. If it were just me, I would court contraversy and have toast, but I suspect someone wouldn't agree with that so it'll be Pantry pasta. If I have time, I think I'll make Fuss Free Flavours' Harissa Lentil Salad for my packed lunches as the low GI of lentils plus the increased veg intake makes it a winner in my eyes for a healthy lunch that isn't sarnies.

Tuesday: Guides tonight, so I think some soup for me, with some of last week's wholemeal bread (defrosted - the heel that was left is suitable for flinging at enemies now).

Wednesday: Salmon and Greens. I shall say nothing else. Apart from today is the Milk Bread day.

Thursday: Leftover salmon and greens. Yes, honestly.

Friday: Fuss Free Flavours' Spicy Tomato Lentils with Cabbage, with additional sausages for the carnivore.

Saturday: Now this weekend is going to be glorious, M is working and at his parents, so I am planning on getting my nails done, heading into town, going to Dress Circle to pick up the new Musical Theatre magazine, and then having a potter. I've heard a lot about the Nordic Bakery so am cultivating a plan for coffee and a cake there I think. It's such a treat a day where you have no one to please but yourself isn't it?

Sunday: I'm not sure really, possibly a chicken. Stop yawning at the back there please, I know. Or lamb, maybe. Or maybe I'll go wild and experiement with something from a cookbook. Who knows, it's living life on the edge.

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

Riverford veg box: Week one

Being fairly au fait with the veg box process, I have to say that Riverford have surprised me - surpassing my expectations on a number of fronts. After placing my order I had a call from their Customer Service team, checking where I'd be on delivery day. On the day the delivery driver gave me a ring as I wasn't it, and told me were he had left the box. All good so far.

Bearing in mind I hadn't wanted to go back to a national veg box scheme I was really impressed. Having seen the Riverford stand at the Hertfordshire county show and spoken to their rep I was keen to give them a go - I really liked their use of semi local farming - it's not local by any manner or means, but isn't all imported either. I had really wanted to use my local food co-op. When I looked on Big barn - you can use the widget in the sidebar - I found there was one in Tottenham. However, further excited investigation found that it had actually become inactive due to a lack of volunteers. This was such a shame, and I would say if you're reading and live in the local area, please consider volunteering. http://growinginharingey.wikispaces.com/Tottenham+Food+Coop

However, for the time being, Riverford it is. Slightly more expensive than I would like, but I think I eat a lot more veg than your average person.

Coming home to a box is always a delight, and this was no exception. The reusable box was chock full of fruit and veg - some that are nice basics and will get used up just as a matter of course, and others that need a bit more inspiration.

My box contained:

Apples
Pears
Gooseberries
Onions
Mushrooms
Broccoli
Greens
Tomatoes
Cucumber

Oh... and an aubergine

Only one of the pears was damaged, and the pears are already very ripe so they need to be eaten up smartish. I'm not sure what to do with the gooseberries yet - although I'm wondering about branching out without Mark's mum and trying jam. The rest are all veg that I will use up as the week progresses and fit nicely into my meal plan. Apart from the aubergine that is. As regular readers will know, alongside macaroni cheese, aubergine is pretty much the only vegetable I give an enourmously wide berth to. Miles sized berth. Moussaka is my idea of hell. There's just something about the texture and taste that I can't get my head around. Still, there's no escaping it now, and it's been added to my fridge bottom pasta bake in the hope that I won't/ can't taste it. Please God.

I'll update again with how the veg box experiment is going - there's obviously for me a cost implication involved and if I can't get enough meals out of it to make it good value (I am a firm believer in basics veg) then sadly I'll be back to Sainsos - but fingers crossed.

Meal planning Monday: Awaiting inspiration

Well, heaven knows how it's got to be that time again, and I haven't been to Sainsburys since before my last post. There is method in my madness however, my first Riverford delivery is coming tomorrow, and as I'm by myself this week I'll be mainly veggie I expect so I am awaiting inspiration from said veg box for what I'll be cooking. It's thrown me out of routine slightly, so tonight will be freezer surprise, and then hopefully tomorrow onwards should be easier.

Last week was fairly successful in the pantry, I ended up making a chicken and vegetable soup instead of the planned pie, as I just wasn't in the mood for a pie (read not in the mood as throwing up lots). The leftovers of that are now in the freezer, and I had 3 languishing courgettes in the veg tray, so courgetti spaghetti was made instead of the salmon.

The weekend was really good actually, I made the Barefoot Contessa's chicken salad, a variation on the famous Good Housekeeping sticky sausages and Nigella's banana bread for a picnic on Saturday, and had leftovers last night and today. I haven't blogged the salad yet, but will definitely be making it again so expect to see it up here soon.

This week, is term time again, so Tuesday and Thursday I'll be out, which always poses a problem for me. I love my volunteering but it really is too late for me to eat when I get back home. Some weeks I manage to eat a meal at lunchtime, and others I just end up skipping - which is not great for my health and wellbeing. Solutions to this problem gratefully received. I've planned for these nights, but it's always a bit hit and miss.

I've got a loaf of bread proving at the moment, for something I'm planning on starting on the blog. Watch this space - and while you're reading have you entered the giveaway for £50 voucher for Kitchen Stools Direct? If not, why not and please do!

So, this week...

Monday: Freezer surprise - Mexican chicken (a fancy name for enchilada filling) with soured cream, salad and a tortilla.

Tuesday: Pasta bake (I've got the fridge bottom pasta sauce out to defrost) and some lovely mozzarella to put with.

Wednesday: Leftover pasta bake

Thursday: Salmon and greens (No, really!)

Friday: Steak and wedges

Saturday: I've got some mince in the freezer so Mark has a choice of one of my 1001 ways with mince, I'm hoping he chooses chilli because I want to use up the polenta to make cornbread.

For more inspiration, pop over to At Home with Mrs M for all the links to the other meal planners.

Take me to the world: Jess blogs me!

Not a recipe in this post, but some news and updates on life in my teeny flat of wondrousness. I've finally managed to book a veg box delivery, for next week from Riverford Organics I wanted to know where my veg and fruit were coming from and also felt slightly distanced by the big business feel of the veg box scheme I had been using, combined with getting damaged produce every week. Riverford seems a little more expensive at first glance, but I'll blog next week and let you know what I got and if it inspires me to do or try anything new.

In other news, Jess of Dreaming Wide Awake decided to try out my posh pasta sauce - the one with all the wine. And very kindly she blogged it. I had thought about asking her to do it as a guest post, but she beat me to it, her linky is here I will master every pasta till it's right.

Jess is my go to person in times of need for wine advice, working as she does for Olly Smith. The wine he recommended for the pasta sauce was a Tesco one, Tesco Finest Nero D'Avola so if you're thinking of trying out the deep winey (it's a word) deliciousness of that pasta sauce then now is a good time to do so with  an expert recommended wine.

As I'm still without a starter, I'm bread baking with yeast at the moment, and am hoping to get a loaf on for a nice slow rise tonight so M has some fresh for his sandwiches tomorrow. I think I'll also defrost some of that fridge bottom pasta sauce I turned into pizza topping a couple of weeks back, let it down with some vegetable stock and blitz it so I have soup for lunch.

And finally a bit of a teaser for you... this week will feature my first every giveaway! Make sure you're a follower for a heads up!

Crappy cooking...

I'm having a week of it. At least the alliteration has returned, I guess that's something. No? Well, my back is bad again, I've resorted to Raul Esparza in Company to cheer myself up. I've also decided that "Marry me a little" if taken out of context has both the most beautiful sentiment and also is just stunning (although I concede Lauren, I hear the nasalliness - it's a word! - just before the final crescendo).

For the uninitiated... from 2007s amahzing Broadway production of Company... Raul Esparza singing Marry me a little (although I actually prefer "Being Alive" that would be too much of a tangent even for me!)

So crappy cooking, well it's more of a case of unattractive cooking. This week, I decided to make cabbage soup; I promise I'm not dieting, it's just the veg box people have decided to fill my box with brassicas - a one person box contained; broccoli, curly kale and a head sized cabbage. Nice. In my attempt to introduce some more vegetables into my diet (well you try being on co-codamol for 8 weeks and tell me how you feel!) and in response to the spat of chilly weather we've had this week I thought I'd make the soup I linked to here. In true thrifty, credit crunchy style I increased the quantity to use up all the brassicas, and froze half. However, I should probably have eaten some first. I'd also used my clearly honed cookery skills to know that adding some extra vegetables (carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower) would only enhance the flavour, and also substituted pancetta for bacon owing to the crapness of the local supermarket. However, that's a whole other post and the reason for the distinct lack of houmous in this one. But don't get me started. No, really don't.

Where was I? Oh yes, so I've merrily adapted the soup, and it looks, well, erm... green? So I decided to blitz it. Although not directed to in the recipe I thought it might perk it up a bit. So now I have well, erm... green sludge. With eyes closed and a deep breath I tasted some. Salty. Now, it's a family joke that I don't add salt to anything. But I do like the saltiness of things like bacon and marmite. We're talking sea salty. Oyster salty. And don't say potatoes, it already has potatoes in it. Not happy. In fact distinctly grumpy about the soup. But budget constraints mean it needs to be eaten. So far I've found that diluting the soup with boiling water before heating through tempers the saltiness slightly. Enough at least.

I decided that the soup needed bread. And I haven't made much (any?) bread since I moved into the new place. So last night I decided on my usual half and half loaf, with a few tablespoons of linseeds in (co-codamol again). Only I didn't think about the quantities I was using at all, just dumped them in the breadmaker and let it do it's job. And I ended up with a mishapen blob of bread. Nice. It tastes great. Yay! At least an improvement of the soup of DOOM there, but does look like the offcuts from a bakery or something.

So a week of crappy cooking... tonight I'm having Delia baked potatoes. Hopefully even I can't mess that up. Hopefully. And should I ever be able to find any tinned chickpeas, I'll post about houmous and pitta bread. Promise.

The weekend may hold some excitement, if the back permits I'm going on an outing to Borough market, so fingers crossed a report will be on it's way!

Do you remember Saturday soup?

Earlier this year I made a lot of soup; be it lifechanging, carrot and celeriac, chicken or Saturday. "Hang on!", I hear you ask, "What's Saturday soup?" The answer, dear reader, lies here, but just in case you have mid-week fatigue and can't be bothered with clicking,

"my stock recipe is what I call 'Saturday soup' (TM) where I use up all the
leftover veggies from the last weeks veg box, boil them in stock until soft
and blend until smooth. That's it. Hardly Masterchef material."

Since the move, the day I get my veg box has changed to a Tuesday. Which in itself is fairly radical as changes go; well radical for me, I've always planned my menus Saturday to Friday. But, there's more. I know, brace yourselves. It's summer, so what am I to do with leftover veggies? Of course I can parboil and freeze (or when I'm feeling lazy just freeze). And our Local authority does collect our compostable waste each week, so snaps to Enfield there. But it still needs using up in some way at some point. And that is where my quandry lies.

This week for instance, I was left with a leek, a red pepper, some celery, 2 tomatoes a cauliflower and some lettuce. Were I at work then packed lunches would safely dispatch the salad ingredients with some added feta or houmous. But what to do with a pepper, a leek and some cauliflower in August? I should also mention I had defrosted some chicken pieces on Sunday before feeling horrid due to my painkillers. I've made varying pasta sauces using most of the veggies already this week and was not in the mood for a further variation on pasta and veggies in a tomato-ey sauce. I bet Nigella doesn't have these problems. However further investigation into the what to eat situation produced half a jar of passata, half a bottle of white wine (the only reason for this is the fact that I'm on medication, I promise you that I wouldn't normally be so lax) and of course my usual storecupboard. So I made a fairly outlandish (for me) decision and decided upon a kind of tomato based, chicken and cauliflower curry.

Leeks and onions are related aren't they? Because that's where this plan started. Consider the leek chopped, and added to a red chilli and crushed couple of cloves of garlic. I sauteed this off until the leek started to soften and then added the chopped up tomatoes, a couple of chopped up sticks of celery and half the head of cauliflower which I had broken down into florets. And now for the spices. Here I must confess that I'm not confident with Indian cooking. Give me a recipe and I'm good to go, but I'm just a bit wary of chucking it all in the way I can for casseroles or pasta sauces; due to lack of experience more than active choice. So I added half a teaspoon of turmeric, ground coriander (smelling slightly dusty so the rest of that has been binned), ground cumin, and garam masala. You know what? It smelled great! I was still slightly worried about the cauliflower which didn't seem to be softening at all, but added the chicken and stirred the fantastic smelling, but slightly odd looking concoction in my pan. Once the chicken had started to seal, I added the passata and then about a big glass of white wine. It didn't look great, kind of pink to be honest and smelling dubiously of alcoholic spices.... I wasn't convinced, and found I had a distinct lack of a back up meal of toast and marmite. Damn. So I did what any aspiring chef does in a tricky situation such as this. Made a cup of tea, turned the heat down and went for a sit down and a chat to my flatmate and the cat.

To my complete and utter surprise, twenty minutes later, we had a relatively dry but fantastic looking curry. The cauliflower had cooked beautifully, and worked really well with the spicing (which I have to say I was dubious about) and the sauce, whilst reduced to a really thick consistency (think more like a paste than a sauce) had great flavour (and was no longer scarily pink either which was a HUGE relief). Added to some basmati rice I was most impressed. As always I made far too much, so the remainder is in the freezer but I am generally pleased with my Monday masterpiece. So now we have Saturday soup, and Monday masterpieces... I may need to work on that name.

Photo to come... completely forgot to take one last night, but will do so next time I have some. Although right now, I have to work out what in heaven's name to do with the marrow from today's box, as my memories of stuffed marrow are up there with aubergines, and macaroni cheese. Watch this space...

All change please!

On the veg box front. Oddly enough I was talking to Ginger from Dinner Diary a few weeks back and said that although I loved my Abel and Cole veg box, I did feel I should try others. The past month has been a riot in my A&C veg box. Beetroot, and fennel. And fennel, and beetroot. And beetroot... you get the picture. Really, there is only so much borscht one woman can eat without a) turning purple (I saw it on an episode of the District Nurse once. It CAN happen) and b) having a kitchen that looks like a scene from a slasher movie. And please, lets not even get on to the state of my fingernails. People have taken to complimenting me on my Rouge Noir nail polish, I just dimple my thanks and say NOTHING... as it's not Chanel but beetroot.

Sooo, where was I? Oh yes. Veg box. Having done a thorough investigation (I do work hard most of the time, promise!) today, I'm switching my allegieance to *insert Mama Who Bore me reprise drumming here* (well it's more exciting than a drum roll) The Organic Delivery Company; catchy title! First delivery is Friday, and breath is already bated.

Oh and did I mention I'm going back to New York in May. Booked it last weekend. Counting down the days already. Broadway here I come! And I swear if there's another strike, people will get hurt and I will cry. That's not a threat. That's fact. I've already started making lists...

• Sephora (cause as well as being a foodie and a theatre geek I'm a beauty slut! Go me!)

BROADWAY (so important it has it's own list):

• Rent
• Spring Awakening (yes again!)
• possibly Wicked if our very own Mirrrrrriam is still in it
• Legally Blonde
• Xanadu
• and possibly In the Heights.

No I have no idea how I'm going to fit all that in either! Oh and if someone could arrange for Next to Normal to extend to May I would be eternally grateful. Oh and also, if that happens I may need to take out shares in handkerchiefs.

Sightseeing - not in the freezing snow this time. And because I'm so utterly cool I want to go and sing "That's How you'll know" in Central Park. What do you mean you haven't seen Enchanted yet? See what I mean about the coolness?

Food! I have a list... D'you want to see?

• Ellen's Stardust Diner I mean, seriously. How camply wonderful does that look?
• Arriba Arriba
• Josie's - would like to suss it out. I hear good things. Healthy, organic, burgers. I feel in the interests of our debates on provenance and organicness and yeah, I just want to see how big the burgers are! Holy Portions Batman!
• Magnolia Bakery Have I blogged about making these myself yet? I'm doing it again this weekend, I'll take more pictures then. But truly, the best cakes. In the world. Ever. Some would say life changing. Not being one prone to overstatement or exaggeration, I would agree.
• Independent coffee places for more French Vanilla, so I can pretend I live there and people watch.
• Jamba Juice I physically NEED one of these to open in London. More than I need Lent to be over so I can eat chocolate, drink Starbucks and read Heat Magazine again. Yes, that much. Juice that's so good for you, and like a meal in a cup.
• Life Café OK, if you're not a theatre geek in general, or more specifically a Renthead this may mean nothing to you. But the LIFE CAFE! Sweet mother of God, I may have to be strapped down to stop myself jumping up on the tables and belting out La vie Boheme.

So I think we can safely say that I'll be dieting AGAIN when I get back from New York. Oh joy! This was supposed to be a brief chatty post... but look at that, once I get going I really don't know where to stop.

Reasons why I love my veg box

I'm clearly in a blogging mood today, but it's a year this week since I started getting a weekly vegetable box from Abel and Cole (other veg boxes are available... ) and really I just wanted to have a short moment of indulgence to praise the goodness that is the veg box:

1. I hate supermarkets, with a passion. So a weekly veg box means I only go once a month to stock up on storecupboard ingredients and my sanity remains intact. My veggies arrive on a Friday and are left for me to pick up when I get home, packed naked in their box which is reused/ recycled every week.
   
2. You are forced to cook with new ingredients, even sometimes things I've never seen or heard of before. Here I should also praise the ladies at the www.handbag.com food and drink forums. What would I do without them? New veggies cooked this year include, jerusalem artichokes, fennel, and kohlrabi - and they're just the ones I can think of.
   
3. The variety of vegetables that turn up... this year I've had so far, 3 varieties of beetroot, regular deep red, pink stripy and yesterday yellow! I confess, I didn't even know that you could get beetroot in that many colours... it's like Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat in my kitchen at the moment...

Welcome to my Pantry

Well firstly I should say hello, and welcome to my pantry.

I'm sat typing this, my first ever blog, in my pyjamas, drinking coffee while a celeriac and carrot soup is simmering on the hob and making the flat smell fabulous and homely. In front of me is my shopping list for the weekend, as I need to stock up the freezer with some batch cooking for those cold winter evenings when anything apart from sinking into the sofa with a glass of wine seems too much work. As always on the weekends I am embracing my inner domestic goddess and spending my time making casseroles and soups of hearty, healthy ingredients.

Things to cook this weekend:

Celeriac and carrot soup
Spiced apple and pecan cake
Sausage and bean casserole

The soup and casserole are my favourite type of cooking; recipes I've made over and over again, that change each time depending on what I have in cupboards and veg box. The cake is a new favourite of my colleagues in the office, and as I have a friend coming over for tea tomorrow I'm sure it will go down well with cups of tea aplenty. (I'm quite old-fashioned in lots of things, and afternoon tea with cake is one of those institutions I love. Proper leaf tea, cups and saucers, home-made cake, and a warmed pot are all essential ingredients)