Meal Planning Monday: The Back to Work edition (take 2)

How does this post come around so regularly? Seriously I swear in my head it's only Tuesday! Anyway, last week's meal plan went well - with the exception of no steak, and extended leftovers (ever the romantic, that's me) on St Valentine's and a take-away curry that was infinitely dissapointing on my birthday - mind you, I caught a Jamie 30 minute meals today that will hopefully change my Indian meal experience (update to come soon). I changed the enchiladas to quesedillas which worked well, and did two lighter dinners for us both. 

This week, I am hoping to go back to work (yes, again - as you will have realised it didn't happen last time) and pending a check up at the doctors on Tuesday, will be resuming training detail on Wednesday. Whilst I need to check with my manager where she wants me, I'm kind of hoping I'm office based until the end of this week at least. 

M and I had a lovely dinner last night. For my birthday we went here for an amazing three course meal. I had a beautifully rare steak, with fantastic triple fried chips (a note to our waitress. Please don't remove chips from the table as soon as I put my fork down. I had my eye on them), pudding was wonderful - I went for a retro delight in the form of a lemon meringue pie, with the softest meringue I have ever eaten, which contrasted beautifully with the tart lemon inside. That, a gin and tonic, and two glasses of a fabulous sauvingon were a wonderful way to celebrate. Please don't mention my age as it sets of what Seth Rudetsky calls a 'marathon crying jag'. 

Breakfasts are porridge, I've really got back into this, and half a cup of oats really does keep me full until lunchtime and beyond. I've got more stewed fruit to use up as toppings, and some more apples to stew again. 

Lunches: Monday I have leftover Beetroot and horseradish borscht, and from then I've not really thought about it. The easy option, is of course sandwiches, but I'm trying to keep my carbs as low as possible as since coming out of hospital I feel like I've put on a fair bit of weight. My jeans still fit though, but I feel - swollen almost. I have some frozen carrots, parsnip and swede that lend themselves beautifully to soup, perhaps with a ginger hit to offset their inherent sweetness. 

Snacks: we've got the cake I made for my birthday (post coming up later this week) and some of the banana bread still to eat up, and these should keep us going throughout this week and possibly beyond. 

Monday: Sausages, Baked Potato (for M) and steamed savoy cabbage
Tuesday: Chicken and sweet leek pie (on request from M) more cabbage for me, and roasties for M
Wednesday: Leftovers, and M is in charge of vegetables. 
Thursday: Fish with soy and sherry, and greens
Friday: All being well, we're hoping to go away this weekend to the New Forest, so cooking is on hold. I'm hoping for a cream tea and an epic roast after some pottering. I'll come back with pictures. Promise! 

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

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*

Pie for Pi day

Typically tardy I know, but my intentions were there nonetheless.

Pi day wikipedia tells us, is a festival celebrating the number Pi. Being utterly appalling at maths, apart from where recipes are concerned - where it actually means something as opposed to being an abstract concept.  Pi day is the 14th March (3/14 if you're American) and to celebrate I, naturally, made pie.

I've been making this pie since Christmas when I saw it's inspiration on one of Jamie Oliver's programmes. Well I say I saw it at Christmas, I saw it towards the end of January when I was well enough to stay awake for more than ten minutes at a time. Since we had long finished the turkey by then I've used chicken thighs or leftover roast chicken each time. This is my rough recipe. I've done it with both puff and shortcrust pastry (I made the shortcrust, bought the puff) and serves 4 hungry people.

4 large leeks, finely sliced
Big knob butter
Salt
Pepper

Wash the leeks in a colander and whilst still damp put in a large pan with a lid that you've melted the butter in. I season with salt and pepper and then put the lid on and turn the heat right down. I let them cook like this for half an hour so they steam in the melted butter and water. It makes them sticky, sweet and impossibly creamy. So much so, my boyfriend who told me he hated leeks, really enjoys this.

500g Chicken thighs - skinned, de-boned and cut into peices
Olive oil
2 tblsps Plain flour
2 pints chicken stock (I've also used veg bouillon to no ill effect)
2 tablespoons creme fraiche
250g mushrooms (I cooked these in with the leeks actually)
More salt and pepper

The next stage is equally simple, if I'm using chicken thighs I cook them until they've started to brown in the olive oil with a little salt and pepper. If I'm using leftovers I just shred the cooked chicken into the leek pan (this is why I said a big pan!)
I then add the flour, and stir until it's mixed in (I know this sounds vague, but when it stops feeling grainy is the best way I can describe it)
Add the stock and stir again, the flour will dissolve into the stock and it will go cloudy and start to thicken, but slowly.
Add the creme fraiche and bring to a slow boil - at this point I taste and season again. I tend to let it boil for about 10 minutes or so, just gently.
Now, this is the slightly odd bit. You drain all of this in a big colander over a jug. There's no need to squish it down or anything, as it needs some moisture, but let the sauce drip out. This becomes your gravy.

Get your pie dish, and tip your filling in.
Then I edge the pie dish with a rim of pastry, which I brush with eggwash, and then stick a pastry lid onto that. Obviously when I've bought the pastry I've rolled it out to make sure it's big enough, and when I've made it I've done so in the food processor (yes I know I'm lazy) using half fat to flour and a tablespoon or so of water. Just blitz the Trex and flour to breadcrumbs then pulse in the water until the pastry goes into a ball. Chill this, wrapped in clingfilm in the fridge for at least half an hour, then roll out.
Once your pastry is on, cut some air holes in (use a pie bird if you have one. I lust after these) and again, egg wash.
Cook in a pre-heated oven at about 180/ Gas mark 6 for about half an hour to forty minutes.

When you're ready to serve, reheat the gravy until it boils, and serve with green veg. It's lush.



So that was my effort for Pi day. Chicken and sweet leek pie (with added mushrooms).