Meal Planning Monday

I'm skating in by the skin of my teeth today - only writing our meal plan, after our weekly Aldi trip at half eight at night. This weekend was our annual Brownie holiday and my first time as QM for the Brownies. Harry and I returned home late yesterday afternoon - my two sole requests being that I didn't cook and that we didn't eat sausages, but let's not dwell on that. Today's been a bit of a slow one as I've tried to locate my get up and go... it does seem to have been left in the Brownie holiday house.

As it's half term - Harry and I are a bit up in the air, lost of our baby groups are on half-term break so we're going to be hoping for some sunny days where we can wrap up and go to the park.

Breakfasts: I've been a bit porridge-d out this last week so have bought some puffed wheat cereal to try with almond milk and chopped bananas.

Lunches: I'm going to make a root veg soup tomorrow - possibly in the slow cooker so I can have something hot.

Suppers:

Monday - Gammon, chips, peas and sweetcorn (a quick and easy tea for our post shop evening)

Tuesday - Butternut squash and bacon pasta

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Chilli con carne - which I'll be doing with cauliflower rice

Friday - Leftover chilli as a burrito for M, and with a baked potato for me

Saturday - Sausage hotpot

Sunday - Leftover sausage hotpot

That's our week - lots of winter warmers, easy nights with leftovers and things that can go in the slow cooker. Winners all around.

As Saturday is Halloween - we'll be making sure we're prepared with our Teal Pumpkin, and some non foodie treats for any trick or treaters with allergies. Will you be joining me? Why not have a look at some of the details of the Teal Pumpkin Project here.

Baking this week is taking a back seat after making a ridiculous amount of sugar cookies, fairy cakes, and flapjacks with the Brownies I'm all baked out!

I'm popping off over to At Home with Mrs M, and I'm an Organising Junkie to link up with their Meal Planning Mondays. Why don't you head that way too to see what everyone else is up to.

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: Betwixt and between

I'm sure I've used that title before, so apologies. I'm seriously lacking in inspiration and motivation this week, having just returned from a Guide sleepover and now having two day trips; to Birmingham and Swindon before I can give into the fluey bug thing and rest. However this week will be ended by pack holiday with the Brownies so there really is no rest for the wicked. 

With such a busy week ahead I hope you can spare my blushes with this meal plan as I am sat here, pyjama-ed up at 5pm, waiting to order takeaway, and fall into bed. Contrary to expectations the 17 girls were asleep by half 10ish, us leaders on the other hand were shivering into the wee small hours as there was no heating in our room. Apparently M says I was still shivering in church this morning. Yes, that cold. 

Breakfasts: Porridge, I should stew some fruit to go with, but I can't move, much less deal with fruit. 

Lunches: Soup, the kind from tins most probably. If I can build up some getupandgo I will make Nigella's Split pea and frankfurter soup, but at the moment that's not looking entirely likely.

Dinners: 

Monday - M is at Welsh, so Pantry pasta I think. I always have the makings of this in the cupboard. Always.

Tuesday - I'm out at an Asda wine event, so am going to get M out some extra bolognaise I made on Friday. 

Wednesday - our night in together. Sausage hotpot. A student staple of mine, it was actually the first thing I 'taught' someone else to cook. I have some good quality pork sausages that I think will do well. I'm going to try doing it in the slow cooker and will report back. 

Thursday - with any luck, leftover hotpot. If we have no luck then freezer surprise. 

Friday - I suspect I'll be tucking into fish fingers, oven chips and baked beans with 20 very excited 7 year olds. Wish me luck. 

A non thrilling week in the Pantry for which I apologise profusely. Hopefully next week will be better - not least as I'm doing something special for Stir up Sunday *squee* Be sure to hop over to At Home with Mrs M and see what everyone else is up to. Happy meal planning all.