Meal Planning Monday

I don't know if it's the cold, the grey misery that January brings with it, or something else entirely, but I am completely and utterly without inspiration for this week's meal plan. After last week's fluey bug that Harry was felled by, and the sinusitis and mastitis that have affected both M and I, one would think I was ready and raring to be back on plan at Slimming World, and cooking and eating lovely warming stews, broths and casseroles. Alas, 'twas not to be. I just feel a bit bleurgh and without any kind of inclination towards cooking or eating. However, I have a husband and a toddler who won't be putting up with that for longer than the hour and a half or so it takes them to get hungry so here's this week's meal plan.

Breakfasts - last week, between one thing and another I just could not be bothered with porridge. This week, my plan is to make it the night before and just warm it up in the morning. Plan. I want to try the Oh She Glows, Three bears porridge for starters.

Lunches - I need to make a pot of soup, and have used nearly all the veggies up this week - I think a minestrone might be in order, my plan is to make it tonight (Sunday).

Suppers -

Sunday: Leftover Tomato and butternut squash pasta - I made this without bacon

Monday: Chicken, and veggies, roasted with harissa. Served with couscous

Tuesday: Freezer surprise

Wednesday: Beef and Guinness casserole

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Schnitzel and homemade Slimming World chips, with peas and sweetcorn

Saturday: Slow cooker chilli

Sunday: Leftover chilli in baked potatoes

 I've got no baking planned for this week. A week spent snuggling on the sofa with a poorly, grumpy bubba has meant that more than my allocated quota of goodies has been inhaled. Lots of fruit on the shopping list this week instead.

As always, I'm joining up with Mrs M and the other Meal planners. Be sure to pop on by and garner some inspiration for your week.

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

After an exciting week last week, involving a family mini-break to Dorset and a trip to River Cottage for me, normal service is most definitely resumed this week. As autumn marches on and September moves into October our meal plan is definitely reflecting the change in the seasons. I want to be at my target weight for Christmas which means a final push on the Slimming World front over the next few months.

Breakfasts: Baked porridge for me and Harry, pear and ginger to start the week, and then apple and cinnamon. Apples from our tree no less!

Lunches: On Saturday I made a big slow cooker full of Chorizo, butternut squash and chorizo chilli - I've frozen most of the leftovers, save for enough for my lunches this week.

Suppers:

Today (Sunday) we're having my Super slow cooked brisket, with roast potatoes, dairy free yorkshire puddings, and veg from the veg patch.

Monday: Leftover roast beef with baked potatoes and more veggies

Tuesday: Shepherd's pie with the leftover beef - as it's not a particularly big bit of beef today it'll be eeked out with lentils and/ or baked beans

Wednesday: Leftover shepherd's pie (I seem to be playing just how far can you stretch a £5 piece of brisket)

Thursday: Baked salmon with lemon, garlic and chilli and some kind of roast amalgamation of all the veggies in the fridge

Friday: We've got some more of the Heck sausages in the freezer so those with baked potatoes and spinach and beans from the veg patch

Saturday: Chicken and butternut squash casserole without the Boursin - another slow cooker job I think, as it'll give us some lovely leftovers based lunches for the week after

Sunday: Roast chicken I think

Baking wise, I'm about to go and knock up some more flapjacks - jam and coconut ones this time.

That's us - as always, don't forget to pop on over to At Home with Mrs M and see what everyone else is up to this week. I'm also joining in with Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organising Junkie for the first time too.

Guinness casserole with dumplings

Just before Christmas I was trying to work out what other than turkey I was going to feed the extended family - I knew we were having Ham, egg and chips for Christmas Eve supper, but was at a bit of a loss. I was contacted to ask if I'd make a recipe using Guinness. The only thing I've cooked with Guinness previously was cake I use a Nigella recipe that I've worked into cupcakes as well as a big cake. 

The original recipe was for a venison stew - apparently venison is not purchaseable in North London the week before Christmas. None was to be found in Sainsburys or Tesco and our Butcher gently pointed out that he was up to his ears in turkeys and could I come back after Christmas. Undeterred, I adapted the recipe using shin of beef and some extra veggies. 

I should point out that the quantities below made loads - we had 16 portions in total, so have had it in the freezer and it's just as yummy as a freezer surprise dinner and warmed through. M made a good point that as it thickens up when you freeze it, then it would be a fantastic pie filling. I've finished it for now, so will have to make it again (such a hardship) to try that out. Overall, it's a warming, stick to your ribs, stew - the guinness flavour is there but not overwhelming, but really tasty. 

Because of the quantities of the original recipe I had to split the stew into 2 as I don't have a casserole or anything big enough - the first time I made it using the first method - which was the one I was given, the second time I used the second method which is closer to how I would normally make a casserole. The results were very similar - just the sauce/ gravy on the second one was much reduced. 



Guinness Dublin Porter stew

100ml Olive oil
2 White onions (I used red)
2 Garlic cloves3 Bay leaves
1tbsp Ground allspice
 2kg Venison (I used shin of beef), diced
500g Carrots
500g Swede 
500g Parsnips - my addition
300g mushrooms - my addition
1litre Water - I used a stock pot for some extra depth
1.2litres GUINNESS Dublin Porter
Salt and pepper

Chop your onions, crush the garlic and peel and chop the veggies into largeish chunks. Soften your onions and garlic in the olive oil and add your beef/ venison - brown off to seal. Put the water/ stock and Guinness into a pan and bring to the boil. Add the sealed venison, turn it down and leave it to simmer for 10 minutes. If any foam rises to the top just skim it off like you would stockAdd veggies and spice and continue to simmer for between an hour and 90 minutes.  








My adapted method 

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C
Chop your onions, crush the garlic and chop the veggies into largeish chunks
Soften the onions, and garlic in the olive oil over a low heat and seal your beef/ venison. Remove from the pan and deglaze it with a little of the Guinness. 
Add your veggies, meat, the rest of the Guinness, stock, herbs and spices. 
Cook in a covered casserole in the oven for 2 hours or until you have a gorgeously thick gravy, and super tender meat. If your beef/ venison doesn't fall apart when you touch it, then pop it back in the oven. 

I made dumplings to go with this 

3oz suet
3oz self-raising flour
1-2 tablespoons water
Thyme
Salt and pepper

In a bowl mix the suet, flour and water to make a soft, slightly sticky dough
Roll the dough into ping-pong ball size dumplings and add a little chopped thyme, salt & pepper
Add to the casserole (making sure there's lots of gravy to cook them in) about 45 minutes before the end of cooking.

 

Funnily enough, Guinness used to be recommeded to breastfeeding mothers to build up their strength - whilst I cant see that catching on nowadays, I have to say that making a hearty stew of this kind was Guinness certainly gave this breastfeeding mother a real boost in the middle of a very busy, cold, and dreary December.

   

Meal Planning Monday: Preparing for festivties

I've started - amongst thinking about weaning, going dairy free, trying to keep the baby things scooped up together - I made the stuffing for Christmas day last week. The fruit for the cake is soaking in it's usual brandy, and the Christmas pudding is maturing nicely in a cupboard. This week I'm going to make the gravy which will then go in the freezer and next weekend I'll bake the cake so it's got a few weeks of feeding before I marzipan and ice it.

In other news, I'm still dairy free, and missing cheese wildly. However that pales into insignificance when I look at how much less Harry is sick. He's like a different baby. Obviously this gives us lots to think about in case this is a long term allergy, but for now we're embracing the weight gain (26oz in 3 weeks) and just going with it!

Meal wise this week, we're fully into our slow cooked winter warmers. Next weekend I'll make another batch of casserole both for our meals and the freezer, as our homemade ready meals are the saving grace of days when Harry isn't quite himself.

Breakfasts for me are porridge made with rice milk, either with chopped up banana or sultanas and brown sugar.

Lunches are falafel, houmous and pitta bread with carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes. Not particularly wintery I know, but easy to eat while I'm feeding.

Suppers:

Monday - freezer surprise (casserole I think)

Tuesday - Parsnip and bacon pasta but with pecorino instead of parmesan

Wednesday - Lentil ragu

Thursday - Leftover lentils

Friday - Breakfast for tea

Saturday - Chicken casserole with dumplings

Sunday - Super slow cooked brisket - which will take us into next week with leftovers for a cottage pie and hopefully some more pasties


That's our week - festivity preparation is gaining pace and other things are ticking along quite nicely *fingers crossed*

Meal Planning Monday: a change in the weather

 

Well I don't know about where you are, but here it feels like autumn blew in over the weekend and all at once the temperature dropped, the leaves changed and with them my appetite. My obsession with cherry tomatoes is abating, I had porridge for breakfast, thought about soup at lunchtime and have a casserole on the meal plan. Defnitely autumn. 

Harry is starting - as per the paediatrician's instructions - baby rice this week. I have my fingers firmly crossed it'll help the reflux as the acid and vomiting were really distressing him this weekend. 

Breakfasts for me will be porridge - I've got some frozen berries that I'm planning to defrost and stew with a little sugar as a topping. 

Lunches - I'm planning to move away from pate and houmous on ryvita to soups. Tomato soup to be precise. 

Dinners - 

Monday: Chilli and rice

Tuesday: Chilli burritos with wedges

Wednesday: Slow cooker chicken & butternut squash casserole

Thursday: Leftover casserole with baked potatoes

Friday: Pizza 

Saturday: Toad in the hole with veggies & onion gravy

Sunday:  Courgetti spaghetti (freezer)

A first outing for the slow cooker for a while, and some nice easy suppers from the freezer. Hopefully a relatively straightforward week to help me with the baby/ weaning/ reflux...

Meal planning Monday

Back and planning again - life here is altogether more hectic than we'd like; between work, decorating the new house, Guiding, and spending time together - I'm not sure where the time to eat or sleep has gone. All of that combined with an untimely dose of Labrynthitis have meant that meal planning has gone a bit awry. I'm actually sat down this morning having a bit of a rest in advance of a baking marathon and a bit of spray painting of the radiator.

We've been lucky enough to have some much needed and appreciated help with the decorating this weekend - and baking seems to be payment enough for Mark's colleagues, so we have Welsh cakes on the menu this week.

Breakfasts are porridge and fruit for me. I don't know about you, but I struggle much more with my 5 a day in the wintertime so adding dried or fresh fruit to my morning porridge is a great way to sneak an extra couple of portions in.

Lunches this week are some of the rice I froze from my fridge bottom bonanza the other week. Wonderfully spicy to blow those wintery cobwebs right away.

Dinners: tonight I have dibs on the telly in order to watch the new Doctor Who as well as Strictly and am accompanying that with a sausage and spaghetti squash bake. The spaghetti squash is a new endeavour for me, so I think I'll try with plenty of time, just in case it's troublesome.

Sunday: Leftovers from Saturday night

Monday -   I'm going to pop a chicken, butternut squash and barley casserole in the slow cooker.

Tuesday - Leftovers (can you see a pattern?)

Wednesday - last week's risotto leftovers from the freezer

Thursday - Baked potatoes with beans and cheese. These are ideal for Thursday nights as I can pop them in the oven before Brownies and they're ready to go afterwards.

Friday - Friday always feels such a long way away at this point, but we'll either be at home and I think if so it's be baked salmon and samphire for me, with chicken and veg for the non fish eater.

Next weekend we're at M's parents for their birthday celebrations (and a break from decorating) so no cooking on the agenda for me.

Baking this week is finally festive - It's stir up Sunday tomorrow so pudding is on the agenda, but I'm going to make the Christmas cake this afternoon. A lovely festive smelling house is on the agenda - which for me marks the gateway to the Christmas season and celebrations.

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. 

Happiness is... sausage hotpot

I always feel like a fraud if I'm blogging with no food in the house. Which is where I find myself this evening. I cobbled together our dinner from what was in the freezer and some decidedly lacklustre veggies. But that's the nice thing about cold weather dishes - it doesn't matter if your veggies are fridge-bottom leftovers, or that the rest of the ingredients have come out of the storecupboard. Sadly the same can't be said of summery salads. 

So tonight's dinner was Sausage hotpot. A dish I used to cook at uni, and the first thing I taught someone else to make. *proud* I'm not sure if this is still the same recipe I used to use, but this is how I made it tonight, and given the cold we both ate it from our laps. M even mopped up the leftover sauce with some bread.

Sausage hotpot (serves 3 hungry grownups - easily 4 or more if you served with green veggies, bread and butter)

1 tablespoon flavourless oil
1 pack of pork sausages (about 1lb) - I like Lincolnshire, but choose whichever ones you prefer 
2 cloves of garlic
3-4 carrots
1 red onion
Half a box of chestnut mushrooms
1 potato
3/4 pint beef stock (I used a cube and rinsed out the tin of tomatoes for the water)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato puree
Dash of worcestershire sauce
Salt
Pepper
Tablespoon unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
Put the oil in a frying pan and over a medium to high heat brown the sausages
Slice the onion, carrots and mushrooms - I use the food processor, but you could easily do this by hand
Finely slice the potato - you want slices that are about half a cm thick
Brown the sausages in a frying pan - this took about 15 minutes

In a biggish casserole dish with a lid:

Layer half the potato on the bottom of a casserole dish
Add half the onion/ carrots/ mushrooms
Add the tin of tomatoes, tomato puree and crush in the two cloves of garlic
Season - be gentle with the salt as you're using a stock cube and worcestershire sauce
Put the browned sausages on top of the tomatoes
Fill up the tomato tin with water and add this to your stock cube, give a good stir and add a liberal splash of worcestershire sauce
Add the veggies ontop of the sausages 
Pour in the stock
Cover the top with a layer of potatoes, dot these with butter
Put the lid on and cook in the oven for about an hour, then take off the lid and cook for another 45 minutes
Serve with green veggies and some French bread and butter

• If you want to make this go further, chop the sausages up before you put them in the casserole dish. If you want to stretch it even further, add half a cup of lentils to the casserole and up the water by half a pint

• Also to borrow an idea from Michelle at Utterlyscrummy to bulk it out further, add either oats or lentils to the sauce - add extra liquid too though. I'd add half a cup of lentils and a cup of liquid to start with and see how that goes - I reckon that would easily make it do another 3-4 portions (more if you're feeding little ones)

• If you like a more intense savoury flavour in casseroles, then add a drained tin of anchovies to the veggie layer at the bottom. But be careful with your salt if you do that. 

Had I had any in I would have served this with some steamed and lightly buttered kale or greens.

Meal planning monday: the cold, stressed edition

It's cold, wet and quickly darkening outside. I'm cold, stressed and grumpy. What better situation to put together this week's meal plan? Really, no need to answer, that was rhetorical.

I don't know if it's the weather, or trying to combine keeping our home lovely, clean, calm and restful with busy lives. Who knows? What I do know is that if work continues to be busy and life continues to be chaotic I'm going to be thinking about a cleaner. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really am beginning to consider it. 

Anyway, back to usual. It's another busy week, work, training, running, Guides, Brownies and then the annual Remembrance sleepover next weekend. M and I should get to catch up on Wednesday, but otherwise it's ships that pass in the night!

Breakfasts: so, as winter has finally taken hold, it's definitely porridge. I'm going to stew some blueberries to go on top. I try to have one of the Sainsbury's bags of frozen fruit in the freezer as they make for such convenient ways to add in extra fruit

Lunches: Definitely soup. Soup all the way. Salads and sarnies are a no go from this point onwards until - let's say June?

Dinners, always the interesting bit of these posts

Monday: I was hoping to have leftover Minced beef hash, but I only had half a pack of minced beef so at the moment I don't think it'll stretch. Mind you M's at Welsh so if I get a potato to bake it may well. Watch this space. 

Tuesday: I'm at Guides, so I'm going to get out some chorizo, butternut squash and cannelini bean chilli out of the freezer for M to have with rice. 

Wednesday: Seeing as it's our only night in together this week I should make something lovely - I was thinking of putting a casserole in the slow cooker to have when we get in.

Thursday: hopefully there'll be leftover casserole! 

Friday: M's going up to his parents, and I'm going to be getting ready for the Guide sleepover. I've got some undyed smoked haddock in the freezer, and I think I'll poach that in milk with bay and peppercorns, and have it with peas and some bread and butter. 

So that's it... a quick week in the pantry - the next few weeks are going to be non stop. I'm hoping M and I will do better than one night together in seven as we go on! Be sure to pop over to At Home with Mrs M to see what all the other meal planners are up to. 

Meal Planning Monday: Are we nearly there yet?

It's that time of week again, I'm currently cwtched under my camp blanket, staring out at hammering rain and wishing that spring would, well, spring already. I want to want to eat the salady items that are starting to permeate my veg box, I want to be able to go out walking and running again, to enjoy the opportunity for a potter. But, what can you do - spring will spring when it's good and ready.

Over the las week or so, I've not done too well on the cooking/ eating front. It's nice to be flexible, but  just don't feel inspired. That said, I had a lovely pink day in the kitchen yesterday stewing some beautifully rosy early rhubarb that I picked up at the market, and then making some blood orange curd (I have another batch to do but have run out of eggs annoyingly).

I also finally got around to making the salted caramel & pecan brownies that I've been meaning to try for ages. The recipe came from Rachel at Baking Brownies for Mozart, as her brownie cups were one of my swaps at Let's make Christmas, which although in itself a distant memory - recreating those brownies has been playing on my mind ever since. A good friend of mine Kat (of the epic photography skills at my sister's Hen Party), taste tested them for me, and they were definitely a success.

So next week - what does this have in store?  Health wise, I'm still headachey on and off, but managing work well actually. I'm still going for easy food as my energy levels are still low. Ideally I'd be starting the week with the fridge slightly better prepared but I have a plate of picky bits ready for any dining emergencies.

Breakfasts: Porridge still (the only upside to the continuing weather) with the rhubarb I stewed.

Lunches: I wanted to make some soup yesterday, but the plastercast hindered my abilities to chop up the squash that was intended for said soup. I will be cornering M this afternoon and bribing him with brownies to do it for me. Hopefully then I can commandeer half of it for a lovely thick soup with ginger and chilli. If not, I've made a lovely batch of homemade houmous and randomly for me, am really enjoying seeded Ryvita thins, salad and crudites with it.

Dinner - I'm cooking a huge shoulder of pork today for dinner with M's parents and am hoping leftovers will be enough for Monday and Tuesday. I'll try to take the pictures as I'm using the same guidelines as I did here.

Monday: Leftover roast pork, with vegetables

Tuesday: Either leftover leftovers - maybe in a pitta bread or shredded into some steamed veggies.

Wednesday: Chicken, butternut squash and barley casserole (on the proviso that M chops up said squash)

Thursday: Fingers crossed for aforementioned soup and soda bread

Friday: I can't remember what or where we're up to next weekend so I think we'll have the leftovers from the minced meat hash I made this weekend - as if we've got no plans I'd like to pop and see my Mum I think. I think topped with a poached egg and a a good dollop of ketchup it should be better second time around.

Well that's the Pantry - what about you? What're you up to this week? Be sure to head over to At Home with Mrs M for more meal inspiration

Meal planning Monday: would anyone else like to do this for me?

Now, don't get me wrong, I love to cook. I write a food blog, that much is obvious. I am the woman who, 5 weeks in to a chronic migraine thought making 17 jars of marmalade was a good move. Today, this week, I just can't be bothered. Quite frankly my student diet of pasta/ marmite on toast for the whole week would be fine. If I weren't trying to be healthy. It seems even having a reason to be healthy isn't motivation enough to want to cook when you're flat out exhausted. It's obviously because I'm back at work and what's left of the gray matter is working again. But still, cooking? Eating? Meh! Not so much.

I think in part it comes down to that time of year as well, the fresh colours of daffodils, and crocuses aren't out yet, the days are getting interminably slowly longer, it's too cold, too grey, and I just feel bleurgh. Interestingly since leaving hospital I've been taking supplements and I'm hoping that they're going to start taking effect, but as anyone knows they need to be backed up by a nutritious diet. So, incredibly slowly and with much prevarication, here is this week's meal plan (deliberately styled to restock my freezer with easy midweek meals):

Monday: Spaghetti bolognaise, with cabbage instead of pasta for me

Tuesday: Chicken, leek, butternut squash and barley casserole

Wednesday: Butternut squash, chorizo and cannelini bean chilli

Thursday: Leftovers from one of the above

Friday: As M will be at his parents, probably steamed fish and greens

I'm seeing a friend who's a pescatarian at the weekend, so I'm not sure what I'm cooking. Or even if I'm cooking! I have promised M's parents a roast at mine (probably that pork shoulder again) on Sunday as they're helping to ready his house to go on the market.

Baking wise, I've got a salted caramel and chocolate brownie recipe to try out to take to a team meeting on Friday as a thank you for my colleagues who have picked up my classes while Mr migraine has left me indisposed. I also really fancy some dark chocolate so am going to make some triple chocolate cookies from a scribbled recipe I got at a Guiders weekend some years back. Far too good for Guides though! Although I suspect they would be an actual cure for any camp injury/ homesickness!

I'm also going to restart my starter. Mabel is sadly no longer with us, and in lieu of anyone having a starter that has a baby I could pinch, I shall start my own. Or something *vague*

Lunch wise, I really fancy a good soup but Riverford are sending me salady veg this week so it'll be homemade aubergine houmous and crudites.

Breakfast is still porridge, I am loving it and I think it's helping my calcium levels too as I have upped it from water to half and half water and milk. With a big dollop of unsweetened, stewed apples, a pinch of cinnamon and a sprinkle of dark brown soft sugar. I'm a happy bunny till lunchtime.

Well, I'd better do the online shop to get this lot started I suppose. D'you think M will do the ironing if I bribe him with a triple chocolate cookie?

Now, be sure to pop over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to

Baby it's cold outside: Butternut Squash, chicken and barley casserole

It's snowed. Hurrah. I am over the prettiness in record time this year (without nary a snowball fight nor even a snoman) owing to this stupid *insert swearing here* migraine which is now on its sixth week of hanging around. However, the fact that I would miserably cocoon myself in my duvet and hibernate until spring arrives doesn't help M, who needs to eat. As I *suppose* do I. This means that I got up on my steps (yes, I'm that short) and got the slow cooker out of the top of the cupboard. Casserole it is.

I like casserole done in the slow cooker for lots of reasons. You can chuck stuff in, first thing in the morning and when you get home, shazam! Dinner is ready. Pretty much infallible, you can chuck most inseason ingredients in the dish, add some stock and then there you are, casserole. Increase your veggies, to make it healthier, to up the comfort factor add some philly cheese, double cream, or even Greek yoghurt towards the end of cooking.

This is a favourite recipe of mine, based on a long lost recipe card from a supermarket. In fact I have to tell you that I have no idea if it resembles the original any longer. There is plenty you could do differently, and if you don't have a slow cooker it transfers beautifully to a hob on a low heat or an oven. If I wanted to be fancy (as in serve it up to anyone other than myself and M) I'd flour and brown the chicken off in a frying pan first. I always serve this with greens, steamed lightly. This recipe easily serves 6 and it freezes beautifully.

Pantry casserole

350g chicken thigh fillets, chopped into bite size pieces and either, floured and browned off in a pan, or thrown, sleepily into the slow cooker
1 Butternut squash, peeled and diced (although that said, as my wrist - yes, still broken - wouldn't let me get a knife through it I chopped it up into siz pieces and put those through the food processor)
4 big leeks, sliced into pound coin thicknesses
750ml(ish) chicken stock - either from a leftover roast, or a stock cube. Just watch your salt if it's a cube
Half a mug (about 100g) of barley
150g boursin garlic and herb soft cheese
Salt and pepper

Prep your veggies, and chicken and put these in the slow cooker.
Cover with the stock
Add the barley and season with salt and pepper
Cook on high for about 4 hours, then add the cheese, and stir in, and cook for another 2 hours on low

This results in soft, yielding meat, sweet vegetables and a slightly creamy gravy. The perfect dinner for when it's cold outside *belts*

Meal Planning Monday: The healing edition

After last week's slightly incoherent, rambly post about the ills of hospital food, I'm still at home and slowly getting back to full strength. I'm hoping to go back to work next week, but have to get checked out by the doctor to say that's OK first. Consequently this week features a lot of comfort food, as demanded both by the weather and by the slowly healing system of this poorly person.

Breakfasts are 0% Total Greek yoghurt with some lightly stewed eating apples that I cooked down this evening with about 100g of sultanas soaked in orange juice and zest. I'm planning on making some granola to add some crunch - apparently crunchy foods increase serotonin and I've been craving them since my release last week.

Lunches for me are another batch of Nigella's split pea and frankfurter soup, with a good spoonful of lazy chilli stirred through.

Dinners, as I say are full on comfort food. It's not so much about calories, but about needing that soothing unctuousness that comfort food provides. M has work and Welsh this week so I'm getting the slow cooker back out for a hearty, warming casserole:

Monday: Toad in the hole, mashed potatoes and vegetables

Tuesday: Chicken and sweet leek pie with vegetables- cauliflower and spring greens I think

Wednesday: Chicken, butternut squash and barley casserole - I'll blog this as it's a long standing recipe I've been using for years that doesn't seem to have made the blog as yet

Thursday: Leftover casserole

Friday: Apparently I said we'd find out when we got there which means my brain was addled after thinking up four dinners. The fact that I just had to ask M this is evidence that I really am not on form yet.

I should be getting beetroot in my veg box tomorrow so M has requested Jenny's Beetroot chocolate cake, and I have a bit of a craving (is it the crunch again?) for Eccles cakes, so will be breaking out my t&t Delia recipe. 

I've promised M a roast on Sunday as he's at archery in the morning, so will either do the slow roast pork from the other week, or go steady on the cauliflower in the week and do roast beef and cauliflower cheese. Oh I think I've just decided! Beef it is, with a mustardy crust. Yum.

Sunday

By the blue
Purple yellow red water
On the green
Purple yellow red grass

Well, it's Sunday, and only Sondheim could accurately express my melancholia *dramatic sigh* (or words to that effect anyway). Long dark teatime of the soul and all that, well it's rainy and grey outside and I have about three weeks to organise a fundraiser for the Guides.


Some people always cook a roast on a Sunday, I pretty much will only cook a roast on a Sunday but not always. Last week my Mum very kindly gave me some braising steak - I am officially so pale that there is a familial conspiracy theory that I am either a vampire or anaemic. One of these is more likely than the other, hence the donation of iron rich meat. Where was I? Sondheim? melancholia? braising steak? Oh yes, so today has rounded off a week of illness (not anaemia you'll be pleased to hear, doubly if you're a Spring Awakening geek I should imagine) and I felt the need for something wholesome, something filling and the sort of thing that my mother would describe as 'stick to your ribs' kind of food. Well actually my mother wouldn't, but I'm sure someone's would. I've got through the week by eating the contents of my freezer, which has a double edged benefit, it means I can fit the soap the Guides are making next week in there to keep it solid till we come to sell it. And it also means I get to batch cook and put new food in there.

So I defrosted the steak with a vague idea of making some kind of casserole. I had said to my sister's fiance that I was thinking about the Jamie Oliver Beef and Newcastle Brown Ale casserole, but last time I tasted that it was just a bit too iron-y (not irony, although with the anaemia and things? Too far? OK, I'll stop now) for my tastes. I had a bit of a Google and a squiz around Jamie Oliver's website which I am liking a lot, and came across Jools' favourite beef stew from Jamie's Dinners. I have the book so got it down and had a proper read through. It was like it was written for this very occaision. I had bags of frozen swede, parsnip, carrot and butternut squash from earlier in the year - I tend to chop veg like this up and freeze it so that I can use it when I want to - in the freezer and obviously the beef already. I was pretty much good to go. I must say I was impressed with how store-cupboard-y (it's a word!) this recipe was. Too often I'll flick through a book because I'm after inspiration in a particular vein, will find something that ticks one box and then still need to go to Sainsos for the rest of the ingredients, and even so there'll still be one that remains elusive (dried shrimp, I am looking at you). Anyway, so this wasn't that kind of a recipe, red wine? check. Beef stock? check. Root veggies... well you get the picture.

The only downside is that when prepping, this seemed to take up my whole worktop - now I'm not a hideously messy cook (the dissention you can hear is my mother in the distance) but there just seemed to be a lot of stuff for this. Maybe it's just me. Anyway this is the definition of simple, a real bung it all in, hope for the best and leave it for three hours jobbie. Hurrah!

I've taken in out and have to say it's lush, really tender meat and a gorgeous gravy with lovely soft veggies. Winner. Oh and aside from the beef - which I only knew from the label on the packet - I didn't weigh anything. I'm just flying by the seat of my pants here...

My only amendments would be:

• to increase the stock and the red wine. I got slightly distracted and added about 3/4 of the bottle, but the sauce has reduced down a lot and I prefer a saucier stew. I was considering adding dumplings and I would definitely have needed to double both the wine and stock for that.
• I only used 400g of braising steak and I think that has made more than enough for at least 6 people, I just couldn't see the need to use 2 big packs of braising steak. But that's a personal choice thing really.

Ingredients
• olive oil
• a knob of butter
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• a handful of fresh sage leaves
• 800g/1¾lb stewing steak or beef skirt, cut into 5cm/2 inch pieces
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• flour, to dust
• 2 parsnips, peeled and quartered
• 4 carrots, peeled and halved
• ½ a butternut squash, halved, deseeded and roughly diced
• 500g/1lb 2oz small potatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• ½ a bottle of red wine
• 285ml/½ pint beef or vegetable stock
• zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
• a handful of rosemary, leaves picked
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped


Method

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/300ºF/gas 2. Put a little oil and your knob of butter into an appropriately sized pot or casserole pan. Add your onion and all the sage leaves and fry for 3 or 4 minutes. Toss the meat in a little seasoned flour, then add it to the pan with all the vegetables, the tomato purée, wine and stock, and gently stir together. Season generously with freshly ground black pepper and just a little salt. Bring to the boil, place a lid on top, then cook in the preheated oven until the meat is tender. Sometimes this takes 3 hours, sometimes 4 – it depends on what cut of meat you’re using and how fresh it is. The only way to test is to mash up a piece of meat and if it falls apart easily it’s ready. Once it’s cooked, you can turn the oven down to about 110°C/225°F/gas ¼ and just hold it there until you’re ready to eat.

Now Jamie says, to chop up the lemon, rosemary and garlic and add them to the hot stew just as you're ready to serve. I'm a bit nervous about this, but am going to give it a go anyway despite the thought of raw garlic giving me the heebie jeebies.

Also I'm going to serve it with green veg as there's potatoes already in the stew so I don't think I need to add any more carbs with it.

And I really really want to link to Finishing the Hat, but it's just not relevant. Boo. So let's have some Tick, Tick... Boom! instead

Sausage casserole...

Well, as planned over the weekend I also made a sausage casserole, which was very nearly a 'Sausage casserole of death' (I do not exaggerate in the least!) Here I should take the opportunity to explain that as far as what I term 'family meals' go; so your shepherd's pie, casseroles, lasagne, roasts etc... I've been making these for my family since I was about 9, and that's a fair few years. Every now and then I tweak my tried and testeds, but largely can do (and have done) them in my sleep/ with a hangover/ whilst jetlagged/ and on a rare occaision, when drunk. I find making these sorts of things soporifically relaxing, and if I'm unwell or in need of generally soothing they are the type of thing I turn to. Alas, with the 'sausage casserole of death' (TM) this was not the case... Oh and you should probably get wine, and some supplies in as this may be lengthy...

1 Red onion (2)

1 clove garlic (3)

8 pork sausages

2 tins chopped tomatoes

1 pint vegetable stock

1 tin drained haricot beans

1 tin drained cannelinni beans

thyme

parsley

cabbage

mushrooms

I started out as always by frying off some bacon, removing that from the pan and using the fat to cook a chopped red onion and a clove of garlic. To this I added the sausages and just lightly browned them. I then added 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, some vegetable stock, mushrooms and cabbage, 1 drained tin of haricot beans and the same of cannelini beans. I then added some fresh chopped thyme, seasoned and brought the casserole to a gentle simmer.

To be honest, at this point I was a little concerned as it smelt of tomatoes, and that's it... no homely casseroley aromas filling my flat. Oh no. But I persevered, took it off the heat and walloped it in a low oven for an hour (or so)

On taking it out of the oven I was dismayed to find a distinct lack of any yummy casserole smell, and when I tasted it, it was awful, very bland verging on nasty. So, back to the old faithful standbys... a teaspoonful of marmite, lots of pepper, and randomly some paprika (what can I say, I was getting desperate)... still no improvement. It was at this point that I very nearly deleted my blog account as clearly I am an imposter and should be cooking from jars. But instead of throwing a tantrum, I just put the casserole back in the oven and decided to return to it in the morning.

So on Sunday morning, back I am in my Primark sheep pjs fishing out the sausages from the casserole, and frying them off a bit more with another red onion and some more garlic, when they were sizzling away (I'm still not entirely sure that they weren't at fault) I put the rest of the casserole back in... and we were starting to improve... sloooowly though. I had suspected that the flavours would develop overnight somewhat, and importantly there was some flavour in there and it wasn't nasty. So I decided to trawl my cupboards for things to add... in went, the remains of a jar of caramelised onions, more thyme, some winter greens and a bit more garlic.

Finally, we were getting somewhere. So off I pottered to generally get ready to face the day... leaving the casserole simmering on the hob. By lunchtime. Bingo! I had it for dinner for three nights and froze three large portions.

I have no idea what went wrong, but my money is still on the sausages...