Meal planning Monday: the spring edition

I'm sure that should mean there should be pictures of lambs, and grass and things, but we're sadly lacking in those in Barnet, so the normal badge will have to do. 

Last week was a fantastic week (not so much in the Pantry, but what can you do) topped off by a visit to Leith's cookery school on Wednesday for an Extra Special Easter evening with Asda. Lots of fun first making our dinner, and then eating it. Look out for a post tomorrow with a giveaway of a hamper of Asda Extra Special goodies. 

The weekend went a bit haywire and plans down the drain, but in good news my Mum can now use her laptop which hopefully means she might pop by a bit more often, and in better news M really helped out cleaning the flat. I've still lost a knitting needle though. Just the one! So Mandy's baby blanket is on hold until I can get some new ones. 

This week is a quieter week  only one hospital trip is planned - for physio, and the Guides and Brownies break up for Easter. I'm re-starting my Couch to 5km programme (thank you NHS) and hopefully - headaches permitting - will get to the swimming pool for a splash. 

On the health front, my headaches have been really bad, both last week and over the weekend, which again has led to the dearth of posts. I've had my nerve blocker injections and hopefully they should kick in soon as I have lots of things I want to bake and blog. 

Anyway, this week's meal plan:

Breakfasts: I'm sticking with the 0% fat greek yoghurt, with either fresh or frozen fruit, and a sprinkle of flaxseeds

Lunches: Sainsbury's Moroccan houmous, with carrot sticks, celery, tomatoes and peppers. And some cheese if I'm still hungry

Baking: I've still not made the simnel cake, so that. And also maybe a satsuma and cardamom drizzle cake 

Dinners:

Monday: Roasted squash, peppers, fennel and leeks, with chorizo, garlic and olive oil. Served with rocket as a warm salad for me, and with pasta for M. If this is as nice as I hope, I'll blog it as a midweek dinner. 

Tuesday: Cauliflower cheese, with chorizo and tomatoes. I'll probably portion off M's and do it as a caulimacaroni affair.

Wednesday: Roast chicken with veggies and roast potatoes

Thursday: Leftover chicken with veg and baked potatoes

Friday: More leftover chicken, in a risotto

I'm actually not sure what we're up to this weekend, but I'll be making stock out of the chicken carcass as I'm out of homemade stock at the moment.

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

Satsuma and cardamom drizzle cake - shouldn't a fruit that's so good inside have a matching exterior?

A couple of weeks back my regular fruit bag from Riverford Organics arrived, apples, a mango and a lot of green skinned satsumas - green miyagawa satsumas. And a note, explaining that these satsumas would stay green, so not to wait for them to ripen as they were ripe already. Now, never one to discriminate against someone(thing) for having a touch of 'verdigris' I was happily snacking on them at work. Slightly tart, but these are early satusumas as they're a fruit I normally associate with winter. And then I had a 'vision, almost like a prophecy'... Satsuma drizzle cake. I know, it sounds truly crazy, but bear with me

I duly kept 5 of these aside to, when blessed with time, turn into a satsuma drizzle cake. Having been overwhelmed by the success of the lime drizzle, I thought I'd follow Vanessa's recipe more closely and deal with one of my issues. Cardamom. I love the scent. But, it smells like perfume to me, not like a spice and I actively avoid it because much as I don't want to wear perfume that makes me smell of biscuits, neither do I want to eat food that smells of Chanel.

But, much like the pastry and the repeated attempts at aubergine (still not winning) I felt like I needed to address this. So...all right, why not... into my mixture went 5 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed, the outers discarded and the seeds pounded to a powder in my pestle and mortar. I actually really like it. There is the faint sugesstion of perfume in the cake, but the robust tartness of the satsumas works with it really pleasingly to take that edge away.

The recipe is exactly as the Lime Drizzle cake, but with the zest and juice of 5 satsumas (they were tiny) and the cardamom folded in with the flour. I used a square cake tin this time to see if a slightly flatter cake would alter the absorbtion of the drizzle. Still yummy, but I really must buy a skewer at some point soon.

And this time, as there's only me at home... pictures!

*This post is brought to you courtesy of myself, The Wizard and I from Wicked. If you had to be told, really? REALLY?