Meal Planning Monday

Well I really enjoyed last week's linkup with Mrs M and was pleased to get some comments! Sadly I didn't really get chance to pay much attention to meals and such as I was full of cold/lacking in energy and then we've been on a family break to the West Midlands since Friday, which is why I didn't plan the weekend meals as normal (food ranged from shockingly-bad-hotel-bar-meal to impressive West Midland Safari Park café lunch and, erm, lots of free chocolate at Cadbury World!!) Hopefully I'll pay more attention this week.

Monday: Pasta with Grilled Vegetable & Tomato Sauce (supermarket chiller cabinet) Again it's Meat Free Monday and this is one of our standards. It's the end of the month so sadly no parmesan or garlic bread to accompany the dish this time. But we will be trying a new pasta shape ;-)

Tuesday: Lamb Tagine with Cous Cous and Flatbread I'm trying out something new here, although I've made a similar dish in the past. A Nigel Slater recipe I have adds squash and carrots (which I have from the veg box as well as a red pepper) and there'll be a few dried apricots in there as well. Let's see how this one goes!

Wednesday: Wholewheat Spaghetti with Pesto Sauce (jar) and Roast Chicken. I was going to serve chicken and chips but then noticed we are having chips on Friday too, so I'll cook a chicken and stir pieces of it through with the pesto. For those of us who like our pasta and chicken plain (2ndSister, always) that will also be served.

Thursday: Roast Chicken Salad. I'll serve plain chicken with some crusty bread and whatever accompaniments we have available. At it's the end of the month, for example, we'll bulk the salad out with stuff from jars like sundried tomatoes and olives, & just get a few fresh bits from Abel and Cole (babyleaf salad, celery, cucumber and carrot.)

Friday: Frozen Scampi served with oven chips, frozen peas and ketchup

Saturday: Pizzas (supermarket bought) and salad

Sunday: Meatloaf as a Sunday lunch (another new thing I'm trying) & all the trimmings from the freezer

Hopefully we'll also have some Rocky Road for afters tonight which I never got around to making for our new neighbours until today....there should hopefully be enough for a Welcome gift for them and a piece each for us!

Meal Planning Monday

Well this is my first 'meal planning Monday', as hosted by Mrs M.

Strictly speaking, I don't tend to plan my menu on a Monday ~ I'll sketch out a fortnightly dinner plan when it seems time to, based around when my weekly vegetable, fruit, milk meat and fish order is delivered from Abel and Cole, and when my supermarket order, which I tend to schedule for the 1st and 15th of the month, is ready to plan. But come Monday, I sit down and check that whatever I had in mind for the week is still doable (for example I moved this week around based on the best before date on the accompaniments in the fridge), and whether I need to pick up any extras, or change things around due to extracurricular activities, or whatever.

As of this Monday, our weekly menu looks like:

Monday: Vegetable Soups, Crusty Loaf & Cheddar Cheese Slices. I generally do a Meat Free Monday - I used to be vegan then vegetarian, so we also try to eat free range animals and some sustainable fish. I'll be getting homemade butternut squash soup out of the freezer, and I managed to put together a minestrone yesterday despite being full of cold (with a few mushrooms and broccoli in there too as well as extra garlic)

Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Wraps. I roast a whole chicken every week, which does for at least 2 meals and often a lunch or leftovers besides. 'Wraps' is 2ndSister's favourite dinner ~ she liberally spreads a wrap with soured cream and grated cheese and relishes it. The rest of us might put in some meat, salsa, or whatever other accompaniments I make/buy (veg with chilli, guacamole, refried beans, salsa.)

Wednesday: Gammon steaks served with oven chips, egg, pineapple and tinned tomatoes. Nothing really to say about this! I count this as a 'processed' type of meal, even though we're using organic gammon & eggs. It's something quick, easy & warming to serve up. (Good in the snowy weather!)

Thursday: Roast chicken dinner. Depending on the weather, I'll do a weekly chicken salad or roast dinner. The roast includes pre-bought roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings from the freezer, another kind of potato, and a couple of veg (it will be cabbage this week because that's what's in the veg box), oh and of course gravy, cranberry sauce and mint sauce. I never get tired of a roast dinner. And although the Sisters don't eat every piece of it, it gives them a selection of different bits to choose from.

Friday- Eating out which is a rarity (especially as we usually have fish on a Friday and absolutely no dessert!)

Weekend - to be confirmed.

13 & 13 in 2013 - Paprika Pork and Tarragon Chicken

I'm starting a new Page on this blog, which I hope to regularly update with new recipes.

Our family can, like others out there, I suppose, get stuck in a rut when it comes to trying out new dinner ideas. I tend to have a rolling selection of meals that we eat from season to season, depending on the weather, activities, what veggies are available that week, and so on.

For 2013 I am determined to stick to trying a new dinner every fortnight, so a new thing at least every 2 weeks = 13 new dishes for the first half of the year, and 13 for the second. (So, ahem, this is nothing like yet exactly similar to Mrs M's idea which she had first, which you should also look at!)

Disclaimer: I'm having a baby in 9 weeks, so no idea how long this will last, but I said I was determined, didn't I?! Accordingly, I'll try and get as many new dishes in as possible before baby girl comes :-)


1) Paprika Pork ~ 8 Jan 2013

Preparation: I used a Good Food Magazine recipe for this, which is always a tried and trusted source. I had some diced pork in the freezer that I hadn't used in the usual way (Spanish Pork with onions, peppers and olives using a jar of £1 Chicken Tonight sauce, which we have as a 'tapas' dinner with cous cous, warm bread and whatever other bits and bobs happen to be hanging around or on offer.) I didn't use smoked paprika (and the paprika my husband bought me back from a stag trip to Budapest a weekend in Hungary is long gone, but it was still tasty and to me, anything with meat, onions, mushrooms and soured cream is generally a winner.

Verdict: The result was good, and we adults enjoyed it (although the children, who don't often go for foods in sauces, were reluctant. They did enjoy the rice and garlic and rosemary flatbread with which it was served, though.) I can't see me making it again, however, as 1) it didn't seem to make the most of the meat, which would have been much better simmered in a casserole for a longer time and b) surely paprika pork is just Beef Stroganoff is disguise?, and I would prefer to eat this type of dish with beef, whether stroganoff or goulash, just personal preference. The best thing about the dish was its simplicity, with veggies able to be pre-prepared, some cooking done with children milling about, and the soured cream added at the end, just prior to serving.

2) Tarragon Chicken ~ 16 Jan 2013

Preparation: I tweeted Lisa Faulker about where to buy Tarragon Vinegar for her mum's recipe, but ended up ordering some online where I could find it, when she didn't reply. (Does she not know Jamie Oliver follows me on Twitter? Silently, but my inanities make his timeline.) Again, this is saucey, so I'm not sure if the kids will touch it with a barge pole, so the rice & garlic bread option will resurface once more (I often serve 2ndSister protein filled carbs like brown rice, cous cous and wholewheat pasta, as she is almost phobic of protein in its neat form as far as I can tell.) I'd love to serve some creamy, herby chicken with mashed potato for pregnancy comfort food, another time....

Verdict: Well, I was correct about the children preferring plain chicken, and how the dish would have gone better (as its originator recommends) with potatoes. It went nicely enough spooned over pasta and served with garlic bread. The combination of the tarragon, tarragon vinegar and double cream made it overly sweet for our tastes, however, even though I'd added a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to try and cut through it. Due to my gallstones, we use a cream substitute in cooking (I avoid eating real cream in desserts!), and I think this may give a lighter, less sweet flavour when I cook this next time. Because I will be cooking it next time. However, I think I will approach it more as a country French casserole dish, rather than a pasta-sauce-with-chicken (I am also inspired here to revisit  a Chicken Alfredo recipe, so that we do get a pasta-sauce-with-chicken in our repertoire.)