Meal Planning Monday - the mid-January edition!

Er, yep, I'm late.

This week is busy - kids now have activities after school every night except Friday but thankfully, two days are after school activities so I don't have to pick them up til later. Cricket nets start again this week and I'm off to London Wednesday for the day. And at the weekend, assuming the weather is OK, we've been invited to a party in Huddersfield

So this is this week.

Monday - Sausage and mash
Tuesday - Slow cooker mac n cheese
Wednesday - Beans on toast
Thursday - Curried parsnip and pear soup
Friday - Chilli con carne
Saturday - Chicken chow mein
Sunday - Out out.

And although I missed blogging last week's plan, I just had to share this recipe with you. It's awesome (and no chicken!).

Don't forget Mrs M has the Meal Planning Monday linky over on her blog so do take a look.

Meal Planning Monday - the birthday / marathon edition!

So, this week is a strange combination and there is not a lot of fancy cooking going on here. Tomorrow is my husband's birthday and then, on Sunday, he's running the Greater Manchester Marathon so he has requested carby things at the end of the week. We've decided we're going out to eat after that, and on his birthday, we're going out for lunch so evening meal will be snacks for us and something quick and easy for the children. In other words, don't expect this to be the most inspiring menu plan I've ever done. I have most things in at the moment so don't really need to do a big shop this week. Always a bonus when you've had birthday presents to buy (not going to reveal what they are in case someone reads this post - and he does occasionally, to check what's for tea!).

Monday -  home made burgers and wedges
Tuesday - beans on toast or something for the children
Wednesday - Jacket spuds filled with quorn chilli or bolognese
Thursday - Sandwiches
Friday - Slow cooker risotto of some sort
Saturday - Squash, ricotta and sage pasta bake
Sunday - marathon day, keeping free.

It will be back to normal next week. Well, kind of - I'm not actually sure there is a normal in this house! Don't forget to check out the other entries to Meal Planning Monday over at  Mrs M's place. And how about you tell me what delights you're having this week. It has to be more inspirational than my plan.

Have a great week, all.

Meal Planning Monday - the nearly March edition

You may remember last week, I tried out the BBC Good Food weekly meal plan for £22. Quite frankly, I was rubbish at remembering to take photos of everything. In fact, I remembered a sum total of once. And that was the recipe on the first day when I managed to do everything wrong, including opening a tin of cannellini beans instead of chickpeas so ended up with both in it, burned flaked almonds whilst toasting them once and coming close a second time, then dolloping yogurt on the top which turned out to be mouldy. Luckily, it made industrial quantities, so I could start again with fresh yogurt and the children loved their new meals. Husband was not so keen on that one but he loved the onion and tomato bake, which I must admit was easy and tasty. We also loved the potato, pepper and chorizo stew with fried eggs. The soup was OK but turned out a bit salty for me, and the jerk beefburgers were good but the relish was too much really. It was quite nice but honestly? I could have done without it and just put cheese on top instead. But overall, for a week's worth of meals, they were pretty good. Five inexpensive meals from fresh ingredients is pretty good going. 

A special week this week as we have a whole extra day to enjoy! And of course, the start of March, which in this house, will mean one thing. Monkey's birthday. But more of that next week. 

The meals this week again come from Good Food - as I was looking through, I spotted several recipes I wanted to try and as I was doing an Ocado order last week which had to be a larger minimum spend, I added in extra items so most of it was bought and frozen then. I did a quickish shop yesterday to pick up the fresh stuff I needed so I'm completely organised and and ready to start my week. Today's was going to be herby lamb burgers but Monkey has been asking to have the lamb pilau again, so I'm going to do it using lamb mince. 

Here are the meals, with links

Monday - Lamb, coconut and mango pilau (possibly done slow cooker style)

Tuesday - Springtime spaghetti and meatballs

Wednesday - Leek, cheese and potato pasties

Thursday - sandwiches again

Friday - Better than baked beans with spicy wedges

Saturday - Crispy topped Cumberland pie

Sunday - keeping free

That's our menu this week, what is yours? And don't forget, Mrs M hosts the linky on her blog, so do take a look at all the other meal planning entries. 

Peanut butter cake? Oh yes!

A short post to show you the cake I made for my second meeting of the local Clandestine Cake Club group that I'd attended. The theme was "Full of beans" in honour of the coffee shop we were meeting in. And yes, I chose peanut butter cake. As a get out, it had chocolate on the top but peanuts are actually legumes, or beans so I thought it would pass.

The recipe was not mine - I got it from BBC Good Food and you can find it here. I didn't want to reproduce the recipe as I followed it pretty religiously and I didn't put my own spin on it. The cake itself was pretty simple (mix all wet ingredients until creamy, fold in flour, bake) and the filling was simple too -once I'd found a caramel sauce in place of dulce de leche that I couldn't find anywhere. The topping required melting chocolate which was fine and the only thing I'd do different is make the sugary covering on the peanuts a bit wetter as the shiny caramel bit never really materialised but still. Oh, and I'd watch the timings - I took it out two minutes early and the very outside of some of it was a tad dry and just about to burn.

The cake went down really well. I got lots of nice compliments from other people and only got about a quarter to take home (people take bits of cakes they like home to have another time because you get very yfull very quickly). Missy Woo tried it and declared she didn't like it but what was left was gone quickly. I'd definitely make it again for a cake that is slightly different, but I guess it's rubbish if you've got to be careful about allergies.

And for good measure, here are all the cakes in all their glory laid out ready to be eaten! You really have to pace yourself to try everything and you don't want to miss anything because sometimes, the simplest looking cakes are the best ones!

Recipe - Sausage, Bean & Cheese Pasties

I haven't done a recipe in a while so it's time I posted another. I also spied that English Mum was holding another bake-off and this time, you can win a whole fridge freezer. As I need one before our current one dies a death, I thought I'd give it a go.

These pasties are fast becoming a family favourite. What do I mean "becoming"? They already are! Monkey asks for them. They are great food to eat on the run, and work hot or cold. Although they are a bit time-consuming (but not difficult) to make, they can easily be reheated so I tend to make them in advance. And they can be frozen too, which is entirely appropriate given the prize for the bake-off!

Pasties are obviously the original easy to eat anywhere food. These ones are different though - instead of the crust being pastry, it's made from bread dough so really, I guess, they may be technically more like a calzone. But we're not Italian and the filling is definitely British so pasty, it most definitely is. When I first saw the recipe for this, I was intrigued and had to try them out. I'm really glad I did. The result is much lower in fat than a conventional pasty - the original recipe says there are about 350 calories per portion when a standard pasty is more like 500 calories.

This is also quite an economical recipe as none of the ingredients are expensive. Don't get really cheap sausages or they'll just be greasy - I bought some Waitrose essential pork sausages for less than £1 and when cooked, they lost hardly any fat, so they are a decent but inexpensive option. I've tweaked the original recipe somewhat and provide you options for making the dough. In addition, I think the filling only needs one tin of baked beans as I'm always left with quite a lot of filling (or I'm stingy with it but I don't think so) but feel free to add a second tin if you really think it needs it.

Finally, if you wanted to spice these up a bit, I think a dash of Worcester sauce, Tabasco, chilli powder or curry powder would all work well. I reckon also you could vary the cheese for a bit of variety.

These pasties were our tea tonight - Thursday after school is a whirl of activities with Missy Woo having ballet, and Monkey having football so these are great as we can eat in shifts and if I've got my act together, I don't have to do any cooking.

Sausage, Bean & Cheese Pasties
Makes 12

Ingredients

500g/1b 2oz pack bread mix or dough made from 500g/1b 2oz flour
8 sausages or 500g/1lb 2oz sausagemeat
1 420g/15oz can of baked beans
140g/5oz cheddar, grated (we like mature)
1 egg, beaten

1. First, make your dough. Either make up the bread mix according to the packet instructions or use your favourite bread recipe and leave to rise. Alternatively, make the dough in the breadmaker using the dough options. 

2. Whilst that is rising or working in your breadmaker, make your filling. Skin the sausages and roll into about 6 to 8 small meatballs per sausage. Heat a large frying pan and brown the little meatballs, in batches if the pan is too crowded. Drain off any excess fat before returning all of them to then and adding the tin of beans. If you're going to add anything to spice it up, do so now. Stir to combine the filling thoroughly then take the pan off the heat to cool whilst you deal with the dough. 

3. When the dough is ready, heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and grease 2 or 3 large baking sheets well. I find I need to tip the dough out onto a workshop to relax the dough slightly for 10-15 mins before using but you may find different. I also think dough from a breadmaker needs a bit of knocking back as there seem to be lots of big bubbles by this stage. 

4. Divide the dough into 12 pieces. Keep the other pieces of dough covered with a tea towel or oiled cling film whilst you roll each piece out into a circle about 17cm/7 in in diameter. I find this a bit challenging so don't worry too much if they won't roll out to that size - the important thing is that they don't tear. 

5. Fill each circle (I fill as I go, you can roll them all out first if you like) with a scoop of the filling and a scattering of cheese. You'll need to put the filling to one side so that you can make the proper D shape that pasties are, but leaving the edge clear. Fold the rest of the dough over, pressing the edges together to seal and crimp together. I find that rolling the edges round makes the most effective seal. Transfer to the oiled baking sheet. You can keep them covered if you like but I find it makes no difference. 

6. Once all the pasties are made, brush with some beaten egg and place in the oven. Cook for 15-20 minutes until they are looking all golden and have risen nicely. Remove from oven and cool slightly on a wire rack. They can be eaten warm or cold. They also freeze well - cool well and freeze on a covered tray. Transfer to a freezer bag once fully frozen and seal. They defrost overnight in a fridge or 4-5 hours at room temperature. They can be reheated in a hot oven for about 10 minutes until piping hot.

(PS If you don't seal well, the cheese will leak out of crust as shown above!)

Recipe - Pork and Veg Casserole

It's ages since I blogged a recipe, so I thought I'd pass this one on. Don't be put off by the name - this is actually really nice and the children asked when they could have it again; always a good sign! It's really easy. I would imagine that you can double it easily - if you can find a big enough dish - for freezing into portions.

I found the original recipe in one of those little booklets they produce to go with BBC Good Food magazine. The booklet concerned was a part Weight Watchers promotion. I've adapted it slightly because the original recipe says to use low fat cooking spray but the research I've done suggests that most people don't know what a "spray" consists of and overestimate, so I just use oil instead. 1 tablespoon across 4 people makes about 30 calories difference per serving.

The casserole is baked in the oven , but it would work in the slow cooker too. If you want to slow cook it, just follow the recipe but place the ingredients in the slow cooker instead of the oven. It should take about 6-8 hours on low. Don't forget to use less stock than the conventional recipe!

I found kidneys beans in chilli sauce in Waitrose/Ocado by the way but if you can't find anything like that, one of those tins of spicy baked beans would do. Alternatively, a tin of baked beans with some added chilli powder would also do. You can serve this with rice, jacket potatoes or some mash.

Pork and Veg Casserole
Serves 4

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil
450g pork shoulder, cut into chunks
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 medium apple, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
2 medium carrots, sliced
200g swede, cubed
420g mixed beans in chilli sauce
400ml hot vegetable stock (300ml if cooking in slow cooker)

Method

1. Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole and cook the pork, adding a handful at a time. Cook over a high heat for 3-4 mins until the pork is browned.

2. Add the onion, garlic, apple, carrots and swede, and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring.

3. Add the beans in chilli sauce and hot stock, mix thoroughly. Bring to the boil, then put the lid on and put in the oven. Bake for 1 hour. Check the seasoning before serving.

Enjoy!