Meal Planning Monday

We've planted up the veg patch this weekend - so although I'm expecting not to be able to move tomorrow we have veggies for the summer. And potatoes! All of which is very exciting, I just need to remember to water them now.

This week is as busy as ever - Guides, Brownies and an overnight camp at the weekend for me - M's getting ready for Les Mans next month and we're both battling against the sea of stuff that comes with the baby.

Breakfasts - I'm back on overnight oats for the most part, with the occaisional scrambled egg and mushrooms.

Lunches - This week I'm having syn free minestrone soup - Harry has it with most of the liquid drained out.

Suppers -

Monday: Leftover roast chicken, baked potatoes, carrots, broccoli and stuffing

Tuesday: I'm on a chip walk with the Guides - M is having pizza

Wednesday: Bacon and butternut squash pasta

Thursday: Chicken, broccoli and mushroom stir fry with rice

Friday: Cottage pie

Baking this week was dairy free almond macaroons - recipe up later this week.

As always, don't forget to pop on over to At home with Mrs M to see what the other planners are up to. 

Meal Planning Monday - late again!

I swear - first week of January and everyone else is all motivated and organised and I'm there flapping behind, trailing in a sleep deprived, teething baby haze of Calpol, concealer and coffee. But I'm here now. And almost organised. Ish.

Meal planning for the week actually happened at the end of last week as I did our online shop for Friday. It's been quite interesting planning as I've started doing Slimming World (I know it's a bit of a new mum, new year cliche but my default weightloss position of run isn't possible because of my hips) and combining that with being dairy free for Harry is a bit of a challenge. I suspect this first week won't be entirely successful as I'm struggling with balancing being dairy free, not eating artificial sweeteners, breastfeeding, Health Extra A's and also a lot of the things that seasoned slimmers rely on like low fat yoghurts are off the table for me. Overall I've been quite hungry and conscious that I'm probably not quite meeting the mark, but am hoping my food diary and notebook will help with that come Monday.

That said Harry's reflux is so much better and his weight gain (oh the irony) is off the charts with me off dairy (and soya) that even if it means that Slimming World isn't for me it's still worth it.

The weather here is freezing, so I've been having soup each day for lunch - a homemade carrot honey and chilli concoction that I really like. It's not quite syn free as it did have a couple of teaspoons of honey and a tablespoon of olive oil - but that was for the whole batch, which has done 10 portions thus far. Next week I'm doing a yellow split pea and veg soup - a variation on this Nigella one, but without the butter or frankfurters.

Breakfasts: I've been having porridge made with oat milk (but am going to try Almond milk next week) and mixed spices - aiming for a gingerbready flavour to compensate for a lack of sugar  with a chopped apple and banana in the bowl.

Lunches: It's strange that lunch is more important now as I've spent 7 months skipping it and compensating with large quantities of biscuits...  so I'm having either soup and a tuna sandwich, or a baked potato with prawns and a plateful of veggie sticks, or an omlette with mushrooms and ham.

Suppers: 

Sunday: Super slow cooked Brisket with extra veggies

Monday: Leftover roast beef with baked potatoes and veggies

Tuesday: Leftover beef turned into cottage pie with carrot, parsnip and potato mash on top and extra veggies. If I'm short on beef I'll be bulking it out with baked beans as randomly I've run out of lentils. 

Wednesday: Leftover cottage pie with frozen peas

Thursday: I've gone back to Brownies this term so will make a veggie pasta bake and leave it in the oven on low for M

Friday: Breakfast for tea

Saturday: I made a chilli con carne this week that I've frozen some portions of, so I think that would be a lovely warming supper

Sunday: Roast chicken (mainly to ensure an easy week next week!)

That's our week. Any of you out there doing slimming world with any suggestions for Slimming world friendly weeknight dinners that M would like and don't rely on heaps of dairy, please do leave your links below... I'd be super grateful for some inspiration.

Now, if someone could just poke me to remind me to link up with At home with Mrs M I'd be very grateful.

Meal Planning Monday: A thrifty Advent

Hello there, we've had a few weeks hiatus on the meal planning front. Since we went dairy free to help Harry's reflux, I've stuck to the same few recipes as I realised quite quickly just how much I relied on dairy products in my cooking. Whilst I wouldn't change how I'm eating for all the world as Harry's just so much better, I've kind of lost much in the way of impetus for cooking.

This week the run up to Christmas has hit home - we've scaled back our Christmas plans this year as I'm on Mat leave still, but even so we're still watching the pennies. This has meant that once again, we're having a week of freezer surprises. Albeit planned freezer surprises.

Harry's now having two meals a day - his breakfast tends to be a little bit of porridge or toast, with some fruit. and his lunch is either steamed veggies, fruit, or most excitingly... plaice fish cakes.

Breakfasts - I'm having porridge with oat milk which is surprisingly neutral in taste.

Lunches - tend to be whatever's hanging around. Eggs feature quite heavily.

Suppers -

Monday: Baked potatoes with leftover ham in coca-cola, cheese, bacon, beans (fridge surprise basically)

Tuesday: Chicken and mushroom risotto (freezer)

Wednesday: Cottage pie/ lasagne (freezer)

Thursday: Parsnip and pancetta pasta

Friday: There are two unlabelled tupperwares of red mystery leftovers in the freezer. I'm tempted but not sure how brave I actually am.

Saturday: I've got a portion of brisket frozen to slow cook, and I think I'll put that on when we get back from swimming to have as a roast dinner that evening

Sunday: Leftover brisket with baked potatoes

That's our week - a thrifty run up to Christmas in a bid to spend a very little money and also make some space in the freezer for my much loved and looked forward to turkey soup!

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*

Filling the freezer

Auditing, emptying, defrosting and refilling the freezer is something I try to do at least annually (my life is just that exciting!) and whenever I do it, I reluctantly declare that I should really do it more often. I regularly subject M to 'freezer surprise' dinners which on some days are wildly successful, and on others mildly perturbing - stewed apples with pasta anyone?

In advance of the baby arriving I felt that I should really get on top of the random contents of the freezer and try to organise them a bit more fully in order that we might have a good few weeks of being able to get something quick and easy for dinner out of our stocks.

As part of this planning, I've been going through my recipes and noting what would work best either doubled up, or cooked with leftovers portioned off and frozen. So far I've made and frozen the following:

• Lasagne
• Cottage pie
• Chicken and butternut squash casserole
• Chicken and spinach curry

Last week when I gave M another 6 carefully labelled takeaway containers he asked if we should get another freezer. I'm hoping that by the time the baby comes (9 weeks) ours will be nice and full of things that will see us through. I'm also planning a new currency whereby I swap cuddles (with bubba, not me) for roast chicken and salads. There are no flaws in this plan.

I've never posted my recipe for lasagne, and despite being sure that anyone actually Italian might want to kill me merely on sight of it I thought I'd pop it here as it's a long held favourite of ours - it's not changed that much since uni... OK well it has a bit, but it's very similar in essence.

Lasagne

2 cloves garlic
1 red onion
2 sticks celery
250g (ish) chestnut mushrooms
2 large/ 4 small carrots grated
350g minced beef
1 tin tomatoes
1 glass red wine
Dried oregano
Bay leaf
Splash of milk
Tomato puree
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Worcestershire sauce

30g (ish) Equal quantities butter & flour
300ml (ish) Milk
Nutmeg
Grated cheddar cheese
Parmesan, grated
If you're feeling flush - add some mozzarella too

Lasagne sheets

 Put some oil in a nice big pan, cook down your onion, garlic and celery until soft over a medium heat
Add the minced beef, and brown this off too
Add the grated carrots and chopped mushrooms and stir to combine
Add the tomatoes, wine, oregano, bay leaf, tomato puree and milk. Stir to combine and leave to simmer gently for about 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened.
This can stay over a low heat simmering gently (if it starts reducing too much add a wine glass of water - or more wine - and put a lid on) until you're ready for it.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat (if you're using a non stick saucepan and want it to stay that way use a non stick whisk. Don't wreck your pans like I do) and whisk in the flour.
Once they've combined to make a sticky paste (roux) add your milk slowly, whisking as you go
Add the nutmeg and bring to a gentle simmer whisking as it warms through
As the sauce starts to thicken add the grated cheddar and switch to a wooden spoon - the sauce should thicken quickly now

Get a nice large, but shallow square dish
Line the bottom with a third of the meat sauce
Cover with lasagne sheets
Add a third of the cheese sauce
Then the meat sauce, then Lasagne sheets... and so on until you've used the final lot of cheese sauce
Top the lasagne with the grated parmesan - and if you're feeling flush some torn up mozzarella too

Put it in a preheated oven - about 180 for 30 - 40 minutes until the top is crunchy and if you stick a knife in it the pasta sheets feel cooked.

Serve with lots of red wine and good company.


What are your ideas of dishes to cook to stock your freezer up in advance of a big event?

Meal Planning Monday: an easy one

I managed to spend last week on enforced bed rest - the sort of thing that when running around hell bent on organising myself, M, Brownies and Guides I thought would be a wonderful break from always having 'just so much to do!' It wasn't. It was painful, dull, scary as hell, tiring (who knew?) but most of all quiet. Faced with my body genuinely needing a week of rest I wasn't prepared for how difficult and painful something as straightforward as making a risotto might be. We ate from the freezer a lot, and I gave thanks for the food processor a lot.

This week doctors orders are to 'see how I go' so with one eye on my expanding waistline I'm declaring a slower version of business as usual.

We are without baked goods this week as the prospect of standing up and baking just felt painful this weekend, but neither of us will miss out I'm sure.

Breakfasts for me this week are yoghurt and granola with chopped banana.

Lunches are salads - with feta and olives in the first half of the week, and with halloumi in the latter half.

Dinners:

Monday: Cottage pie to my usual recipe

Tuesday: As it's my first day back at work and I'm not sure how I'll feel, one of the emergency packets of filled pasta with sauce, garlic bread and raw veggies

Wednesday: Baked potatoes with bolognaise from the freezer and grated cheese

Thursday: Chicken kiev, sweet potato chips and veggies

Friday: Homemade chicken curry - with naan bread

Saturday: we have some much looked forward to tickets to see Avenue Q in Greenwich (M missed it when it was in London so I've been hoping for a tour for a while now). We're planning on eating out as a treat - any suggestions on places to eat in Greenwich would be gratefully received.

Sunday: I'm going to say a roast - possibly my slow roast pork depending on what's on offer.

So that's us, a quieter week (in theory). What meals do you turn to, when you want an easy week? 

Making your food go further: roast beef 2 ways

Roast beef isn't something we eat very often in this house. Don't get me wrong, I love it - but I'm not quite as good at it as my mum and it's just a bit too expensive to be overcooking. I mean really, who wants to eat grey, leathery meat? And then I cottoned on to pot roasting a joint. A brisket specifically.

Brisket is one of those cuts of beef that used to be really cheap. And then people started using it more widely and the price has risen. However, in good news it's amazing in leftovers - my cottage pie was labelled fantastic this week.

I pot roast my brisket using this recipe every time. It's infallible, quick to get on and in the slow cooker and really doesn't take any particular skill on my part (so it's ideal for a busy Sunday). Thinking about making your food go further, it doesn't just provide leftovers in the form of the meat, but also the stock and veggies - both of which made their way into the Cottage pie this week.

I take out a pint of stock from the slow cooker towards the end of cooking and bubble that up in a pan for a bit to make our gravy, so there's no need to do any separately.

As it's National Yorkshire pudding day this weekend I'll include my old faithful yorkshire recipe - I've only recently transcribed it to actual measurements as growing up we made it in a jug and just added milk to this line, flour to that one... This makes enough for 2 nights of yorkshires, or alternatively puds with your roast and pancakes/ fritters for lunch.

Yorkshire puddings

70g plain flour
100ml milk
2 eggs
Sunflower oil or fat for the pan

Preheat your oven as hot as it will go
Beat the flour, eggs and milk into a batter and leave to stand. I normally do this an hour or so ahead of when you want to cook them
Put your yorkshires pan (I say this like we have a dedicated pan - it's an ancient fairy cake tin) in the oven with a teaspoon of sunflower oil or fat in each dip. Allow to heat up for at least 5 minutes or until the oil is smoking
Fill each dint with batter, put on the top shelf in the oven and leave for 15 minutes (don't open the door!) Enjoy, with your roast beef.

The leftovers this week went into cottage pie, based on this recipe of mine - as I mentioned, I used the leftover stock from the slow cooker and topped up the carrot and onion with the leftover carrot, turnip and parsnip from the pot roast. Topped with mashed potato and grated cheese, this was definitely a hit.

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Meal Planning Monday: the quickfire edition

Quickfire mainly because I'm writing this on the train using the blogger app in a hitherto unheard of fit of last-minute organisation as despite the meal plan being written on Friday, there's just been no time to sit and compose a post.

I'm going to do a couple of posts this week about making your food go further with Sainsburys, so on Saturday we treated ourselves to a brisket and pot roasted that to this recipe This has meant that we had leftovers with baked potatoes last night, and tonight and tomorrow there's cottage pie on the menu - taking a 2lb joint of brisket that cost £8 down to a cost per serving of 66p. Score!

Monday: Cottage pie with beans or kale

Tuesday: Leftover cottage pie with beans or kale

Wednesday: Pizza

Thursday: Pasta bake - loosely based on Pantry pasta with added mushrooms

Friday: Leftovers of pasta bake if possible, or similar from the freezer

Saturday: We're out for my Christmas present of a trip to see Book of Mormon so we'll be treating ourselves to something lovely while we're out and about.

Sunday: Roast chicken I think, mainly to set us up for another week of leftovers.

As I said, a bit of a whistlestop one from me today, but be sure to pop on by At Home with Mrs M and see what the people not doing this on a train are up to.

Meal Planning Monday

You know those weeks where you've clearly been really bad in a previous life? Yep. So that was last week. I'm hoping this week will be better. Either that or I'm going to bed and refusing to get up again until the spring. And don't you think I won't!

Is there any point in telling you how cold I am right now? Dear Lord it's freezing. Unsurprisingly this change in the weather *scary hands* Ahem. Excuse me. ... has heralded the return of porridge. I'm stewing off some apples with spices for a topping as I type.  Oh yes, I'm multitasking (Bake off is on in the background, I'm listening to Kate of The Small things talk about hair as well as writing)

Meal planning...

Breakfasts - porridge. Made with water, a splash of skimmed milk towards the end and topped with stewed apples. From one of my trees. Oh yes, I have not one but TWO apple trees.

Lunches - soup again. I've not made any this week so it's tinned *blush*

Dinners:

Monday - Acorn squash, stuffed with mince and topped with cheese

Tuesday - Cottage pie

Wednesday - Leftovers (I'm desperately hoping to drag the beef out a long way this week - I may add lentils)

Thursday -Pantry pasta

Friday - We're out at a friend's wedding for the evening

Saturday - Chicken marsala with green veggies

I baked at the weekend - a plum sponge cake - post will be written after this one. That's us fed pretty much. Pop on by to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to.

Meal Planning Monday: The Bank Holiday edition

Well it's a Bank Holiday and clearly this is late, owing to much decluttering this weekend in both mine and M's houses in advance of certain big moving adventures set to happen in the not too distant future. I shant tell you when, but will let you notice when the backdrop to the pictures changes (for the better? I hope so).

That said, M and I had a lovely day together on Saturday, pottering, shopping and dinner. Between being on my feet all day and last week's three Couch to 5km runs I should be feeling super fit and healthy. In actual fact I'm coughing and full of sinusitis. Yes, again. This means food this week needs to be full of nutrients as well as quick and easy.

Breakfasts: I'm trying to go back on the small doses of dairy this week so have some yoghurts to have with a banana and cup of tea.

Lunches: Houmous with veg sticks and lots of fruit - if it gets colder again then it'll be Butternut squash soup that I made last week and froze

Snacks: Another batch of oaty bars have been baked for this week (blogpost to come)

Baby starter will be fed Tuesday and baked on or around Thursday

Dinners:

Monday: Cottage pie, with steamed purple sprouting broccoli

Tuesday: Leftover cottage pie, more broccoli and cabbage

Wednesday: Butternut squash, chorizo and cannelini bean chilli (again, leftovers that were frozen)

Thursday: M is at Welsh and I'm at Brownies so soup for me

Friday: It's the end of the week, and in clearing down M's freezer I found some chicken kievs (which were the hight of sophistication when I was growing up and requested as my birthday tea for many of my formative years) so those, with lots of veggies and wedges for M

Saturday: At present we have no plans, but I think I'll cook up a big pan of chilli con carne to have with rice or cornbread. It keeps the freezer stocked with dinners, and works out really cheaply as I double the kidney beans. I've just had a look-see and noticed that I haven't blogged the recipe I use, so will do so next weekend.

So that's this week in the Pantry - what does this Bank Holiday week hold in store for you? Don't forget to pop over to At Home with Mrs M and see what the other linkers are up to.

Meal Planning Monday: April showers got me down

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

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

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

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

So, this week:

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

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

Dinners:

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

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

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

Thursday: Butternut squash, chorizo and cannellini bean chilli

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

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

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

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

Meal Planning Monday: baking central

It's Monday evening and I've just sat down to write my meal planning Monday post. Which isn't a good start really. That said, I knew at 7am this morning what I would be having for dinners this week so it's not too much of a crisis.

It's another truncated week in the pantry, but to make up for that I seem to have squeezed as much baking as possible into this evening - not only a brilliant stress reliever (sleepless night last night and very busy at work) but also productive too.

I do have a veg box coming tomorrow, but whilst most of the fruit will be comandeered to come with me to Poole, the veg will be left in the fridge, awaiting a more domestic week next week.

Also this weekend I received a fantastic box of freefrom goodies from Sainsburys, Mark is taste testing the coffee and walnut slices in his packed lunches, and as yet his only comment is that they're 'too small' which is clear praise. Next week I'm going to try the bagels (and will be treating myself to some smoked salmon and cream cheese to really enjoy them as they're meant to be).

So, after four hours of sleep, seven hours at work, 50mg sumatriptan, too many tastes of golden syrup, one evening, two parkins made and baked, one cottage pie, an exploding potato and Herman being fed - what does my meal plan look like?

Monday: leftover roast beef, baked potatoes, carrots, sweetcorn and broccoli

Tuesday: Cottage pie (made with the rest of the roast beef) and topped with some of our homegrown potatoes, cooked and mashed with their skins on, with brocolli and sweetcorn

We'll also be making Herman the leaven into cake tomorrow. Herman is a German friendship cake (much like the Amish friendship bread I made some time ago) leaven that was given to me as a thank you by my upstairs neighbour for her iced buns last week. We're going down the traditional apple route tomorrow, then will give away one and I'm going to experiment on the last batch and try and turn it into a sourdough leaven like Mabel.

Wednesday - Thursday I'll be working away.

Friday & Saturday we'll be visiting Mark's parents and I'll be lining up another first for the blog - Christmas pudding! I'm already excited!

So that's my week in the pantry, be sure to pop over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to

It's going to be a Happy New Year

As always for me, New Year was a quiet affair, it's a celebration that I don't really have much time for; parties make it feel anticlimactic, I can't bear the prospect of paying to get into pubs and then paying more for drinks and London itself is just bananas, and not having been part of a couple of late I am excluded from the nights in a lot of my peers indulge in. Anyway this year I decided to spend it with someone and just have a night in. I made us comfort food - cottage pie with lots of green vegetables, and bought some cava for midnight. It felt exactly right, relaxed, cosy and intimate.

I used the cottage/ shepherd's pie recipe I always revert to, which came from one of my Mum's Good Housekeeping recipe books from the 1970's. It was one of those books that was designed to help you use up your leftovers, and told you what you could freeze, and what could be made in a slow cooker and things. I have no clue where it is now, which is a shame as it would be really useful. Apart from the section on cooking things in aspic, I don't think anyone will ever want to revive that trend *shudders*

Anyway, so that was my new year, cottage pie, some winter Pimms (which I deserve commision on because I am encouraging so many people to try it!) and the heating on.

So, with a post title that finally bears some resemblance to lyrics from a musical (I'm hoping the launch of Glee will provide me with some new inspiration as of late I've been reduced to titles that actually resemble my recipe and not some vague allusion!)

Not making the Nigella cornbread stuffing had left me with a single orange and a pack of fresh cranberries. A morning spent googling for muffin recipes hadn't come up with anything much, and I wasn't sure where to go until a friend pointed me back to Nigella, and Domestic Goddess this time (I know I've been all about Feast of late). The Christmas Morning muffins were just what I had in mind, and took about 20 minutes to knock up.

Christmas Morning Muffins

200g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
75g demerara sugar
good grating fresh nutmeg
1 clementine or small orange - I would grate and add the zest aswell if making again
approximately 50ml milk
60g unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
150g dried cranberries
12-bun muffin tin with papers

for the topping:
2 teaspoons demerara sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 200ºC/gas mark 6.

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugar, and grate over a generous amount of fresh nutmeg.
2. Squeeze the orange or clementine juice into a measuring jug, then pour in milk on top till it comes up to the 150ml mark. Add the melted butter and the egg, and beat to combine.
3. Pour the jug of liquid ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir till the ingredients are more or less combined, remembering that a lumpy batter makes light muffins.
4. Last of all, lightly fold in the cranberries and fill the muffin cases or cups. The amount of cranberries specified here makes for heavily fruited muffins; if you want them sparser, use half the amount.
5. Mix together the demerara sugar and ground cinnamon and sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.
6. Stick them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes

Nigella says to split them open and spread them with butter and marmalade, but we just ate them as they were. The cranberries make for fantastic pockets of tartness in what would otherwise be a quite sweet, but very light muffin, which is quite nice with a coffee for a late breakfast.

Next time, I need to find a way to use up the huge bag of oatmeal I bought to make facepacks with the Guides, and also more exploits in bread with Mabel the leaven.