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. 

Carbonara - potentially contention causing

I love carbonara, it's a relatively new thing for me to eat and make as growing up I was anti most dairy products. Truth be told I'm still anti lots of dairy products as I can't eat them without shall we say, unpleasant side effects? However, occaisionally I think diet be damned and decide to make M's day with his favourite dish, carbonara.

Last time I made it, I had some fantastically fresh asparagus that I cooked briefly in with the pasta water, and then tossed through the sauce. Not conventional, or strictly a carbonara really but I really liked it, as sometimes it's nice to have a foil to the richness of such a dish.

Recipe wise, carbonara is epically straightforward, however when I posted these instagram pics I was met with a flurry of dissention - cream isn't an authentic addition, and the asparagus caused some of my twitter followers to have conniption fits. That said, it's how I like it; based on the Nigella recipe in Feast under the heading of dishes for romance - although I do make it by eye now. I should just add that I don't use the quantity of pasta Nigella suggests, not just with my waistline in mind - but 500g between two people? Really? There is no way I'd be up for anything post 250g of spaghetti, much less any romance! It'd be peppermint tea and a lie down in front of Episodes or The Big Bang Theory only!

I'm going to blog two recipes here, firstly my take on the Nigella one, and secondly my Dad's recipe, I make them both, interchangeably but, understandably Daddy's has sentimental value. I still have the print out of the email he sent me with it in - from 3rd May 2001.

125 - 200g pasta
1 packet of streaky bacon, chopped up
2 tsps olive oil
Sherry glass/ half a wine glass of vermouth
4 eggs
50 g (ish) parmesan
Lots of black pepper
60ml of double cream
Nutmeg, freshly grated

Cook the pasta as per pack instructions (unless it's wholemeal, normally 10 minutes in salted, boiling water)
Gently heat up the olive oil in a big pan
Add the bacon and cook down gently at first to render down the fat. Then turn the heat up and cook the bacon until it's crispy
Add the vermouth (you can substitute with white wine, but as I don't drink that much - honest - I keep vermouth in the house to use instead) and reduce down until it's syrupy
Beat the eggs, cream, parmesan and pepper together in a jug or bowl
About a minute or two before the pasta's ready, add a ladleful of the water to the bacon and vermouth
Drain the (now cooked) pasta and add to the pan with the bacon in
Toss the bacon through the pasta and add the egg mixture, continuing to toss it through
Add more pepper and some grated nutmeg, and serve promptly

I don't add anything side-dish wise to this, if I were to, it would be a green salad with a tart dressing to cut through the richness of the sauce. It only takes ten minutes (at most) to cook, and is perfect Friday night fare. I wouldn't do it for more than 4 people though, it's ideal for two, but many more than that and it would be unwieldy.

This time when I added the asparagus, it was to the pasta pan, about 3-4 minutes before it was ready, and then just drained it with the pasta.

Parental Pantry Carbonara (typed out verbatim)

Chop lots of smoked streaky bacon into small pieces - you can use pancetta if you want to be Italian, but not the chunks of pancetta
Slice a clove of two of fresh garlic, according to taste
Open a carton of double cream - half a pint
Grate a piece of fresh parmesan - about a cupful in all
Liberate 2/ three fresh eggies (I said verbatim)

Cook bacon nicely till just starting to crisp
Add the garlic just before it's ready
Pour over half a pint of double cream and warm through until hot - DO NOT BRING IT TO THE BOIL IT DOES NASTY THINGS (his capitals, it was pre shouty capitals)
Add fresh eggies and half the parmesan, stir until it thickens NEVER ALLOW TO BOIL

Whilst all of this is going on, cook spaghetti according to the packet
When complete mix spaghetti and sauce in bowls, coat spaghetti with rest of parmesan and black pepper

Enjoy

All my love

Daddy

*goes off to weep gently into tea over happy memories* If you make this one, make it with love. For me.

Meal Planning Monday: Another four day week?!

Hello there! Well this post is late, as it's Easter Monday and I kind of forgot to plan yesterday. Oops!

Another week in the pantry and it's veg box week so we're looking forward to new supplies. Owing to an earlier migraine M is in charge of shopping, and I'm sat here under dimmed lights typing slowly with one eye shut. It's an attractive look I'm sure you'll agree.

Fortunately it's another four day week, and I'm based in the office this week so hopefully it'll be fairly straightforward.

M's mum sent us home with several margarine tubs, one of Easter cake, one of millionaire's shortbread, and one of macaroon slices (note: macaroon NOT macaron). So there's no need to bake this week.

I watched a River Cottage programme on breakfasts last night, and was shamed by M into admitting my tendency to choose an extra half hour in bed over my planned yoghurt and fruit. As I'm trying to be more healthy generally (adding exercise: swimming, walking and running last week)I thought that I should probably address this. The River Cottage programme made lots of suggestions - this week I'm going to try porridge and see how that goes. I would really like a Bircher muesli recipe, but I have a long history of utter failure with that so porridge is more likely to be successful.

Lunches will be houmous and vegetable sticks for me.

Monday:  Spaghetti carbonara

Tuesday: I'm as yet undecided - possibly Butternut squash soup, with soda bread

Wednesday: Purple sprouting broccoli, chorizo and chicken pasta (this is a Riverford recipe that I've adapted slightly so I'll blog at some point if I remember to take piccies)

Thursday: Leftovers, either soup or pasta as I'm in Swindon all day so will be tired.

Friday: I've been turning over a pasta recipe with turkey/ chicken, feta, tomatoes and parsley in my head. I'm not sure what to call it or if it'll even work, but it's there, germinating as ideas go. I'll be sure to update if it's a success, and never mention it again if it's not.

I'm hoping to spend my Saturday with my very pregnant sister - not least as she's promised to let me play with her KitchenAid! Hurrah! M thinks he will take the opportunity to go back to his parents again, so I think I might just hoick something out of the freezer.

Sunday - for once we have no plans so I'd quite like to hibernate, but I'm sure that won't be on the cards. Maybe roast chicken on the food front though so that we can have a nice, easy leftovers week next week.

So that's this week in the Pantry - posts to come on slutty brownies, and individual (if late) simnel cakes - well you can always bookmark them for next year!

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