Meal Planning Monday: 27 May

I can't believe we are almost in June! The weeks are whizzing by, 4thSister is becoming easier to care for and I am thinking about my new dishes again. Not feeling very inspired about what to introduce new next, to be honest, but this is why I dip into other people's menus for a nosey! I'm also struggling to concentrate on simple things, so remembering ideas I've had and things I've cooked is not happening. Cooking and baking is one of the activities keeping me going through the difficult post-partum time I'm having this time round - so therapeutic. I made rhubarb crumble and rhubarb crumble cake as we've had veg box rhubarb and another big load from my amazing friend Mary's allotment = such happiness!

Meat Free Monday ~ Pasta with courgettes and leeks in pesto sauce

Tuesday ~ Chinese Chicken (with pak choi, courgettes and spring onions from the veg box) 

Wednesday ~ Sausage, oven chips, beans, maybe egg (using up freezer stuff, end of the month!)

Thursday ~ Roast chicken salad

Fishy Friday ~ Frozen fish in batter, oven chips and mushy peas

Saturday ~ Wraps with chicken, cheese, guacamole, salsa & soured cream

Sunday ~ Gammon in Coca Cola from the freezer (leftovers served with new potatoes, cumberland sauce and other trimmings

Inspire and be inspired by other bloggers by visiting over at Mrs M's!

Catching up on the New Dishes

I've fallen woefully behind on the new dishes. So much so that I'm going to have to count new sweet, baked goods to get to 13 by the end of the June! I'll write about those separately but here are the last new dinners I tried - Nigella's cola baked gammon, and Abel & Cole's Aubergine Not-Meat Meatballs, along with 'Brinner' and a different way to cook lamb.

Gammon

Braising it in Coca-Cola gave the gammon a moistness and an extra sweetness, I think, although I couldn't taste a huge amount of difference really from it being cooked in stock with a bay leaf, as usual. I think the texture was key, though, soft and moist, as I said and it was definitely yummy. I can't remember who mentioned it, but someone in the blogosphere has tried this with Lilt (pineapple/grapefruit carbonated drink) so I might do that next time, as we do like pineapple with our gammon!

Brinner

Technically, Brinner isn't a dish per se, but so many people have been serving Breakfast for Dinner on their blogs that I decided to try it. First can I said it felt VERY weird! Although I guess it is basically a traditional English 'high tea'...but I served sausages, egg, beans, tomatoes and toast with hash browns, which gave it an American breakfast feel. So very yummy...but it freaked the kids out slightly to be having this sort of meal in the evening. Also, 3rdSister (my fussy eater) was unhappy as she's not keen on many of these foods - she requested a 'dippy' (soft boiled) or fried egg with hers next time, though, and we may try it again.

Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder

Again, not technically a new recipe as I'm sure I've done this in the slow cooker before. But I added a glass of wine, lamb stock, garlic, red onion and rosemary to the crockpot, and just stuck the lamb in on low for 8 hours, which I've never previously done without browning it. The result was fantastic - beautiful lamb that just fell succulently apart and tasted fantastic, and made a beautiful Sunday dinner. The only problem was that the rogan josh saag I made with the leftovers and was so overjoyed about consisted of beautifully disintegrated and soft pieces of lamb, which didn't curry in the traditional way, and tasted of a lamb dinner more than an Indian dish to my discerning husband. Next time, I'll use these types of leftovers in a shepherds pie (topped with leeks and cheese a la Delia, of course, and served with redcurrant jelly) as that texture would suit beautifully. I've often wanted to do cottage or shepherds pie like we used to do in the 20th century after a roast dinner, but don't have a mincer. Cooking slow cooked lamb in a sauce would work beautifully, I think (I'll keep you posted!)

Not Meat Meatballs


These weren't really a success, although I loved the idea. Again, it wasn't taste but texture that was key here. The taste was fine, although I really overdid the lemon juice - I could just eat plain grilled aubergine for days mind you and not complain. I think as well as it being much too lemony, the juice made the balls too wet, as I had to add extra breadcrumbs, and three of them still completely disintegrated.


My other problem was this recipe was its healthfulness - yes, made up of aubergine and onions but I fried these to begin with, in quite a lot of olive oil, and then the balls required shallow frying in oil until they were golden, and again, I could see a LOT of oil being soaked up. Mediterranean, yes, but I need to keep my fat content down due to gallstones and this isn't normally a way I would cook things. In the future I might grill the aubergine to lessen the amount of oil used, perhaps, although I am not planning to make these again...




....mainly because of the amount of faff involved in preparation & cooking. We didn't have them on the day I planned, as the day went mad and I didn't get any dinner cooking time. But I managed to make them for lunch one day last week to serve with leftover pesto pasta. And they were okay. Brown by the time I reheated them in the oven. I did miss them steeping in a tomato and basil sauce, like beef or pork meatballs - I would have loved to have lightly fried them and then finish them off in the slow cooker, but I know they would have fallen apart completely and not necessarily have cooked through properly. So, not a total disaster, but not something that will become part of our family repertoire. I will stick to aubergine parmigiana as a favourite from now on!

 My cakes have been much more successful - I'll post about them soon!

Leaving Home Without the Baby

Now, this isn't a post about how I left the house and forgot to take the baby, like my Great Aunty allegedly did with my little cousin when they went on holiday one time.

It's about the first time I left the house without my 8-week old baby, while she slept and FabDad was around to look after her.

It's been a long time in happening - I've been tending to 4thSister's needs pretty much exclusively, while he looks after the rest as much as he can!

I was hoping to take off for a run (well, a lollop) around the block but I've been full of cold, so that will have to wait. I did manage to pop to the local shop, however, for a quick impromptu 15 minute trip. (Emphasis on the word impromptu, mine.)

It felt weird - alien, like having a little bit of respite, wanting to hurry back, but appreciating the time free of responsibility. But that's not really the point.

I've been bitten a few times, out in the garden I think, by unidentifiable creatures. While FabDad was out I'd slathered a big white patch of Sudocrem on one side of my face where the latest bite was. When he saw me, he asked if I'd been applying suncream, as it understandably looked like I'd put something on and forgot to rub it in. I assured him I did it on purpose - after all, it wasn't like I was planning to leave the house anytime soon, right? Oops! You can get what's coming next!

This crazy mother whipped up her keys, phone and purse, popped to the shop, saw a few people who managed NOT to give me funny looks, and took a basket of bread, eggs, meat, wine and vodka pops to the counter. I mean, I'd probably have got away with it if I didn't have a load of booze at the checkout. (Which was gifts for people, I swear!) As it was, I probably looked like some bonkers alcoholic managing to make it out to the corner shop for supplies, forgetting I had a white splodge on half of my face in my drunkenness.

Rather than some new mother leaving the house without her baby for the first time.......sigh......