I've been inspired by the exciting Mrs M's blog to link up my menu plans on a Monday (or as soon after as I can manage) so even though I write my plan on a Friday or Saturday to shop over the weekend (in person or online) I am going to try to get the plan on the blog every week, even if I don't manage to get any recipes up inbetween, though I will try and use Blogger on my SmartPhone for recipe posts in the week if I can. Any requests gratefully received...
So here is this week, and it's been going to plan so far too:
Saturday: Roast gammon (was half price in Morrisons) with halogen oven roast potatoes and roast beetroot with creme fraiche, parsley sauce and a bag of steamed mixed veg.
Sunday: oxtail stew & rice
Monday: jacket potatoes (microwave then halogen crisped) with egg mayo, cheese and baked beans
Tuesday: ethically sourced British veal, with mushrooms, spring onions and paprika in a cream sauce with Spaetzle & brocolli.
Wednesday: left over gammon, toast, carrots batons, olives, fruits.
Thursday: decent quality chipolata sausages with Smash (we didn't actually end up having this last week)
Friday: cubes of salmon marinated in orange juice, sherry, soya sauce and sesame oil and grilled on skewers. With rice and stir fried green.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Menu plan madness
I'd forgotten how hard it can be to get to a computer with an in-arms baby around; 2 older kids with homework, and cuddling, and playing, and it gets even trickier.
My meal plans have really changed as I have only a small window of time to cook in the day with a nursling in my arms, and it's important to me to savour every moment of every stage, and to respond to his needs as much and as quickly as possible. We won't die from a few months of speedy meals. I'm also using lots of pre-prepped veg once or twice a month as I get Healthy Start vouchers for fruit and veg, which I can't use with my organic box or with online shopping, so I use the vouchers to reduce my prep time in the kitchen, but still give the kids a variety or fruit and veg every day. My weekly plans reflect the shifts of Papa, and whether GodPapa is around to hold the baby or chat to him in his chair or similar.
For example, Wednesdays are often toast and toppings, because I'm relying on the girls to keep Baby entertained while I put things out, and they usually clear the table while I feed him during and after they eat. On weekends I try to indulge my cooking creativity a bit more when there are more people around to keep him entertained for longer, tho if it's a feed he wants, obviously, no one else can substitute!
On Tuesdays I should also have time to cook, but Papa and I like to spend the day together and often have errands to run and shopping to do, or even cleaning and organising of the house to do together, so we actually often end up with a fast meal, or even taking the kids to eat out! I'm talking Ikea, or the chip shop, not McD's, or KFC, nor posh restaurants either!
This week, we had a lovely impromptu visit from a lovely friend on Sunday, and I stretched the meal to make sure there was enough, but otherwise, here is the meal plan as I wrote it on Saturday:
Saturday: Pizzas from the supermarket, with salad and garlic bread.
With multi buy deals and varying toppings, this was a nice, inexspensive compromise between take away and home made.
Sunday: jeera chicken in a hurry (not marinaded, but cooked in the spices and with yoghurt added at the end), pulao rice (with peas), creamy spinach and sweetcorn, and Littl'Un's fave raw cauli/broc salad.
Monday: cheat's mac & cheese, using creme fraiche instead of making a white sauce, and this was using up ends of cheeses from Christmas cheese platters too.
Tuesday: Swedish meatballs, spaghetti and cream sauce and veg. (Tho we may sneak to Ikea for similar instead!)
Wednesday: toast!
Thursday: sausages and Smash and mixed veg (from the freezer). I'm not ashamed!
Friday: Jamie Oliver fish cakes (which were on offer) for me and GodPapa, tuna mayo rolls for the kids.
Saturday: roast gammon which was half price in Morrisons, which will give us plenty for left overs too. :D
My meal plans have really changed as I have only a small window of time to cook in the day with a nursling in my arms, and it's important to me to savour every moment of every stage, and to respond to his needs as much and as quickly as possible. We won't die from a few months of speedy meals. I'm also using lots of pre-prepped veg once or twice a month as I get Healthy Start vouchers for fruit and veg, which I can't use with my organic box or with online shopping, so I use the vouchers to reduce my prep time in the kitchen, but still give the kids a variety or fruit and veg every day. My weekly plans reflect the shifts of Papa, and whether GodPapa is around to hold the baby or chat to him in his chair or similar.
For example, Wednesdays are often toast and toppings, because I'm relying on the girls to keep Baby entertained while I put things out, and they usually clear the table while I feed him during and after they eat. On weekends I try to indulge my cooking creativity a bit more when there are more people around to keep him entertained for longer, tho if it's a feed he wants, obviously, no one else can substitute!
On Tuesdays I should also have time to cook, but Papa and I like to spend the day together and often have errands to run and shopping to do, or even cleaning and organising of the house to do together, so we actually often end up with a fast meal, or even taking the kids to eat out! I'm talking Ikea, or the chip shop, not McD's, or KFC, nor posh restaurants either!
This week, we had a lovely impromptu visit from a lovely friend on Sunday, and I stretched the meal to make sure there was enough, but otherwise, here is the meal plan as I wrote it on Saturday:
Saturday: Pizzas from the supermarket, with salad and garlic bread.
With multi buy deals and varying toppings, this was a nice, inexspensive compromise between take away and home made.
Sunday: jeera chicken in a hurry (not marinaded, but cooked in the spices and with yoghurt added at the end), pulao rice (with peas), creamy spinach and sweetcorn, and Littl'Un's fave raw cauli/broc salad.
Monday: cheat's mac & cheese, using creme fraiche instead of making a white sauce, and this was using up ends of cheeses from Christmas cheese platters too.
Tuesday: Swedish meatballs, spaghetti and cream sauce and veg. (Tho we may sneak to Ikea for similar instead!)
Wednesday: toast!
Thursday: sausages and Smash and mixed veg (from the freezer). I'm not ashamed!
Friday: Jamie Oliver fish cakes (which were on offer) for me and GodPapa, tuna mayo rolls for the kids.
Saturday: roast gammon which was half price in Morrisons, which will give us plenty for left overs too. :D
Saturday, 12 November 2011
something different with tuna
Littl'Un has been unwell this week, and this has resulted in us having even less time on our hands, also we had more leftovers last week when she was obviously going down with whatever bug it was as she was eating far less, and we had a couple of unplanned outings where food was provided, so we didn't eat all the meals we planned, so we actually had more food than I really knew what to do with! By Thursday, I did a very quick pasta for Big'Un, Papa and myself, using a Glorious! pasta sauce pot which had been on offer and stashed in the 'fridge for just such an occasion. But then I realised we had tuna pasta planned for Friday, which just made me feel a tad bored. Then I remembered we had not used the baby news I'd had planned for a different meal, and I had 3/4 of an organic cabbage in the crisper, so I decided to try something different and perhaps a little unorthodox. I boiled the baby news, and steamed the shredded cabbage above them, (ok, so far so normal). Meanwhile, I opened a couple of tins of tuna and smushed them down in a bowl with some crushed wet garlic, finely chopped organic cucumber, mayo and green tabasco. A grinding each of black pepper and sea salt and this was done.
A good dollop of this tuna concoction on a plate with the spuds and greens, the creamy dressing mingling with the simply cooked side dishes, and I was really satisfied, and that's saying something, as breastfeeding Tiny creates a HUNGER I can barely ever sate, and I don't want to fall into real diabetes by constantly snacking on sweet/richer foods between meals. Actually, I'm snacking between snacks, but we'd best not get into that now.
Another thing I've decided, as I'm receiving Healthy Start vouchers, which are not accepted by my milk man, nor by Ocado nor Abel & Cole, I shall treat myself to bags of pre-prepared veg when I can which Papa can pick up on his workdays, which will save even more time, and make sure we all eat more veg in our 5 a day, rather than snacking on fruit, which is how we've been winging it recently. I do love my Abel & Cole box, but preparing veg takes more time than I always have, so we too often go without, or have frozen or a bagged salad, and then only get the Abe & Cole when there are more people on the weekend who can help out. It may be more expensive and less healthful than organic unprepared, but it's definitely more healthful than not enough! And as the government is giving me £3 a week to help me eat more veg, it would be churlish not to!
A good dollop of this tuna concoction on a plate with the spuds and greens, the creamy dressing mingling with the simply cooked side dishes, and I was really satisfied, and that's saying something, as breastfeeding Tiny creates a HUNGER I can barely ever sate, and I don't want to fall into real diabetes by constantly snacking on sweet/richer foods between meals. Actually, I'm snacking between snacks, but we'd best not get into that now.
Another thing I've decided, as I'm receiving Healthy Start vouchers, which are not accepted by my milk man, nor by Ocado nor Abel & Cole, I shall treat myself to bags of pre-prepared veg when I can which Papa can pick up on his workdays, which will save even more time, and make sure we all eat more veg in our 5 a day, rather than snacking on fruit, which is how we've been winging it recently. I do love my Abel & Cole box, but preparing veg takes more time than I always have, so we too often go without, or have frozen or a bagged salad, and then only get the Abe & Cole when there are more people on the weekend who can help out. It may be more expensive and less healthful than organic unprepared, but it's definitely more healthful than not enough! And as the government is giving me £3 a week to help me eat more veg, it would be churlish not to!
Saturday, 5 November 2011
a new daal
When I am feeling unwell, I often revert to the comfort foods of my childhood. One of these is "khichdi" which is a lentil/rice dish, which is said to be the origins of the British breakfast dish, kedgeree. Different regions in India cook this dish differently, often based upon the more commonly used lentil in the region. As my mother is Bengali and my father is Sindhi, opposite sides of the original country, the 2 types of khichdi I grew up eating are very different.
Bengali khichdi for me is yellow and quite substantial and has onions and potatoes and ginger cooked in, and is something I eat with fried egg, plenty of butter and enjoy on a wet day especially. This uses the yellow split mung daal.
Sindhi khichdi is a breakfast dish or lunch dish which we would eat with roasted poppadum, butter and home made lemon pickle. This uses the split but still husked green mung daal, the lentil which when whole is sprouted to make beansprouts as eaten in chinese cuisine. It is also much simpler and less of a meal on it's own than the yellow Bengali one.
So, a while back, I bought a pack of each lentil, but found I more tend to make the yellow khichdi, and as my usual daal dinner is made with masoor red lentils, which I know everyone likes, the bag of split green mung was sitting neglected.
Well, my mother has always told me that breastfeeding women should avoid red lentils as they are used in India to dry up a milk supply, and since I do not wish to risk my milk supply (there is a similar prohibition of sage and parsley in western cultures) I realised I had to find a new daal to cook regularly, and seeing the neglected pack, I decided to google for a recipe, and was delighted to find a Sindhi recipe! As the Sindhis are a displaced people, and I don't have a lot of knowledge of Sindhi culture, I was happy to learn this dish. My only amusing problem is I didn't at all understand one reference in the Indian recipe, which is to cook the lentils in the pressure cooker for a number of whistles, instead of for a set amount of time. I tried doing a similar time as I do for masoor, and it was perfect, but some subsequent research showed that there is a different type of pressure cooker used in India which is more affordable than the western available ones, and it uses a variable pressure regulator which whistles, as opposed to a constant pressure regulator which just hisses. Therefore, the cooking times don't translate directly, but on average it works out to about 3 minutes per "whistle" if you happen to stumble across one of these recipes.
As a bag of lentils is very cheap especially a large bag from an Indian shop, this is definitely a frugal meal, and was very delicious, and everyone was remarked upon how it tastes exactly like my dad's secret poppadom recipe, in daal form!
Saayi Daal
1 cup split green mung lentils
2 tomatoes
2 or more green chillies
1" piece of ginger
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
water
for the tadka:
4 cloves of garlic
5-6 curry leaves
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp oil
Wash and soak lentils for about half an hour. You will find some of the skins of the lentils come off, you may discard or use them as you prefer.
Put the lentils, chopped tomatoes, chopped chillies, chopped or grated ginger, salt and turmeric into a pressure cooker and add about 3 cups of water.
Bring up to pressure adn cook for 7-9 minutes. Alternatively, cook in a saucepan for 20-25 minutes.
Mash lightly if needed.
Meanwhile, heat the spoonful of oil in a small pan, add crushed garlic, curry leaves and cumin seeds - in that order. Let the cumin brown, then immediately pour into pan of daal.
Cook for a further 5 mins in pressure cooker or simmer for 15 more mins in pan to allow the flavours to mingle.
Serve with boiled rice.
Bengali khichdi for me is yellow and quite substantial and has onions and potatoes and ginger cooked in, and is something I eat with fried egg, plenty of butter and enjoy on a wet day especially. This uses the yellow split mung daal.
Sindhi khichdi is a breakfast dish or lunch dish which we would eat with roasted poppadum, butter and home made lemon pickle. This uses the split but still husked green mung daal, the lentil which when whole is sprouted to make beansprouts as eaten in chinese cuisine. It is also much simpler and less of a meal on it's own than the yellow Bengali one.
So, a while back, I bought a pack of each lentil, but found I more tend to make the yellow khichdi, and as my usual daal dinner is made with masoor red lentils, which I know everyone likes, the bag of split green mung was sitting neglected.
Well, my mother has always told me that breastfeeding women should avoid red lentils as they are used in India to dry up a milk supply, and since I do not wish to risk my milk supply (there is a similar prohibition of sage and parsley in western cultures) I realised I had to find a new daal to cook regularly, and seeing the neglected pack, I decided to google for a recipe, and was delighted to find a Sindhi recipe! As the Sindhis are a displaced people, and I don't have a lot of knowledge of Sindhi culture, I was happy to learn this dish. My only amusing problem is I didn't at all understand one reference in the Indian recipe, which is to cook the lentils in the pressure cooker for a number of whistles, instead of for a set amount of time. I tried doing a similar time as I do for masoor, and it was perfect, but some subsequent research showed that there is a different type of pressure cooker used in India which is more affordable than the western available ones, and it uses a variable pressure regulator which whistles, as opposed to a constant pressure regulator which just hisses. Therefore, the cooking times don't translate directly, but on average it works out to about 3 minutes per "whistle" if you happen to stumble across one of these recipes.
As a bag of lentils is very cheap especially a large bag from an Indian shop, this is definitely a frugal meal, and was very delicious, and everyone was remarked upon how it tastes exactly like my dad's secret poppadom recipe, in daal form!
Saayi Daal
1 cup split green mung lentils
2 tomatoes
2 or more green chillies
1" piece of ginger
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
water
for the tadka:
4 cloves of garlic
5-6 curry leaves
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp oil
Wash and soak lentils for about half an hour. You will find some of the skins of the lentils come off, you may discard or use them as you prefer.
Put the lentils, chopped tomatoes, chopped chillies, chopped or grated ginger, salt and turmeric into a pressure cooker and add about 3 cups of water.
Bring up to pressure adn cook for 7-9 minutes. Alternatively, cook in a saucepan for 20-25 minutes.
Mash lightly if needed.
Meanwhile, heat the spoonful of oil in a small pan, add crushed garlic, curry leaves and cumin seeds - in that order. Let the cumin brown, then immediately pour into pan of daal.
Cook for a further 5 mins in pressure cooker or simmer for 15 more mins in pan to allow the flavours to mingle.
Serve with boiled rice.
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Mini meatballs & halogen oven love
In Sainsbury's one day this summer, the promotion was tied into a recipe in their Everyday Easy booklet, and there were little meatballs on cocktail sticks made by mixing mince with a premade tagine sauce. The demonstrator was cooking these in an halogen oven, and I was really impressed with the gadget, even more so than with the meatballs, and they really were yummy.
Recently I saw an amazing offer on one of the halogen ovens most highly regarded by reviews, and so I decided to give it a go.
I can't say I'm sorry! I've used it a few times each week since I got it, and it means I can keep an eye on all 3 kids while I cook if I use it in the sitting room, or if I set it up in the kitchen, it cooks very quickly so I don't have to leave the kids for as long as if I'd used a different way of cooking.
Also, it gives a very particular texture of crisp crunchiness which I've never achieved in other methods of cooking, and it's very pleasing.
We picked up a yellow-stickered Ambrosia chocolate pudding with chocolate custard which needed to be heated in an oved for 15 minutes, and using the halogen gave a really beautiful crust while leaving a decent gooey custard still.
And of course it wasn't long before I tried the meatballs, though I didn't buy any marinade paste or sauce, I just mixed up some cumin, cinnamon, garam masala, Marigold, salt and pepper, left it to marinade, then rolled it into little balls, which I stabbed with presoaked cocktail sticks, and then cooked these on the rack for about 10 minutes.
Served with pitta breads, yoghurt & salad, it was a filling and tasty meal.
I've since made banana muffins, cheese muffins, potato wedges, sausages, toast, sweet potato chips and roasted root veg & roast new potatoes in it... All utterly delicious and definitely better than done with other methods.
Recently I saw an amazing offer on one of the halogen ovens most highly regarded by reviews, and so I decided to give it a go.
I can't say I'm sorry! I've used it a few times each week since I got it, and it means I can keep an eye on all 3 kids while I cook if I use it in the sitting room, or if I set it up in the kitchen, it cooks very quickly so I don't have to leave the kids for as long as if I'd used a different way of cooking.
Also, it gives a very particular texture of crisp crunchiness which I've never achieved in other methods of cooking, and it's very pleasing.
We picked up a yellow-stickered Ambrosia chocolate pudding with chocolate custard which needed to be heated in an oved for 15 minutes, and using the halogen gave a really beautiful crust while leaving a decent gooey custard still.
And of course it wasn't long before I tried the meatballs, though I didn't buy any marinade paste or sauce, I just mixed up some cumin, cinnamon, garam masala, Marigold, salt and pepper, left it to marinade, then rolled it into little balls, which I stabbed with presoaked cocktail sticks, and then cooked these on the rack for about 10 minutes.
Served with pitta breads, yoghurt & salad, it was a filling and tasty meal.
I've since made banana muffins, cheese muffins, potato wedges, sausages, toast, sweet potato chips and roasted root veg & roast new potatoes in it... All utterly delicious and definitely better than done with other methods.
Friday, 21 October 2011
Fruit Cobbler
I've recently really got into twitter, and I love following other foodies, and then I add their blogs to my gReader on my HTC 'phone to peruse when feeding the baby, or whenever I have time.
A blog I found recently is www.frugalfamily.co.uk which is really enjoyable and fun to read, and most notably has recipes I would actually try and amazingly, I can even remember where I saw that recipe that sounded interesting for once!
A few days ago I saw a really simple recipe for a kind of baked pudding they refer to as a cobbler. Now I've always thought of a cobbler as a dish with a sort of scone topping, and this is a kind of batter that becomes like a sort of dough or clafoutis, but it definitely works, and is really tasty.
However, due to other forgetfulness of mine, I decided to tweak it, and I changed it to half buttermilk and half milk in the batter, simply because I bought a big litre carton of buttermilk, because I saw one for the first time, not just a silly tiny pot of the cultured stuff, and at the time I had it in my head that I'd seen a really interesting sounding cake recipe or similar that needed 500ml of buttermilk and I had bookmarked it on my 'phone idly, while at the same time acknowledging to myself that I might never make this because one can't always find buttermilk, let alone in larger quantities.
Of course in the interim I accidentally cleared the data on my 'phone Internet browser, and have no idea what that recipe was now anyway! Typical me, I really do read too many recipes!
Anyway, so what I made today was as follows:
I buttered my pyrex 4 person dish.
I tipped in 2 mugsful (small mugs, more like a cupsize) of a mix of frozen raspberries and frozen blueberries because that is what I happened to have to hand, but any frozen, canned or fresh fruit would work.
I then used the same mug/cup to measure 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar and half a cup of milk and half a cup of buttermilk into a bowl. I then added a quarter of a teaspoon of baking powder and mixed these all up, not worrying about a few lumps, and poured the batter over the fruit.
This was then baked at 180 degrees for 40 minutes, and served with some cream. We had the squirty fresh variety today much to the kids' amusement!
Very satisfying. And the first day in ages I haven't wanted to snack again later in the evening.
A blog I found recently is www.frugalfamily.co.uk which is really enjoyable and fun to read, and most notably has recipes I would actually try and amazingly, I can even remember where I saw that recipe that sounded interesting for once!
A few days ago I saw a really simple recipe for a kind of baked pudding they refer to as a cobbler. Now I've always thought of a cobbler as a dish with a sort of scone topping, and this is a kind of batter that becomes like a sort of dough or clafoutis, but it definitely works, and is really tasty.
However, due to other forgetfulness of mine, I decided to tweak it, and I changed it to half buttermilk and half milk in the batter, simply because I bought a big litre carton of buttermilk, because I saw one for the first time, not just a silly tiny pot of the cultured stuff, and at the time I had it in my head that I'd seen a really interesting sounding cake recipe or similar that needed 500ml of buttermilk and I had bookmarked it on my 'phone idly, while at the same time acknowledging to myself that I might never make this because one can't always find buttermilk, let alone in larger quantities.
Of course in the interim I accidentally cleared the data on my 'phone Internet browser, and have no idea what that recipe was now anyway! Typical me, I really do read too many recipes!
Anyway, so what I made today was as follows:
I buttered my pyrex 4 person dish.
I tipped in 2 mugsful (small mugs, more like a cupsize) of a mix of frozen raspberries and frozen blueberries because that is what I happened to have to hand, but any frozen, canned or fresh fruit would work.
I then used the same mug/cup to measure 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar and half a cup of milk and half a cup of buttermilk into a bowl. I then added a quarter of a teaspoon of baking powder and mixed these all up, not worrying about a few lumps, and poured the batter over the fruit.
This was then baked at 180 degrees for 40 minutes, and served with some cream. We had the squirty fresh variety today much to the kids' amusement!
Very satisfying. And the first day in ages I haven't wanted to snack again later in the evening.
"something chicken with rice"
Probably my favourite meal is generally going to be something with rice, probably with chicken, maybe a spicey or a creamy sauce and some greens to go with it all.
So with Papa's supermarket heavily promoting a half price chicken breast pack offer to celebrate their new more freedom food friendly ethos, we decided to treat outselves for once. I never buy breast as it can become dry and is normally too expensive, but it's what the kids and the ex love and it is admittedly easy to work with.
This time I fried up a chopped onion with a few chopped garlic cloves and then when soft and fragrant, I added a teaspoon of cumin, and one of cinnamon. Then I fried the cubed up chicken pieces in this and sprinkled on some Marigold and poured in a little QuickCup water once the pieces were browned and coated in the spices.
It was then bubbled on the hob til cooked through. Really simple and tasty served with rice and a big pointy cabbage shredded up and steamed and buttered.
So with Papa's supermarket heavily promoting a half price chicken breast pack offer to celebrate their new more freedom food friendly ethos, we decided to treat outselves for once. I never buy breast as it can become dry and is normally too expensive, but it's what the kids and the ex love and it is admittedly easy to work with.
This time I fried up a chopped onion with a few chopped garlic cloves and then when soft and fragrant, I added a teaspoon of cumin, and one of cinnamon. Then I fried the cubed up chicken pieces in this and sprinkled on some Marigold and poured in a little QuickCup water once the pieces were browned and coated in the spices.
It was then bubbled on the hob til cooked through. Really simple and tasty served with rice and a big pointy cabbage shredded up and steamed and buttered.
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