Meal Planning Monday - the into 2015 edition!

Er, yes, I do have a blog. Yada yada, I've been off, Christmas happened. I meal planned but it didn't make it here.

So, this week, the kids are off and so am I. Husband is not - he's working every day except Thursday. We've (mostly) got rid of the Christmas leftovers after I made an awesome soup on Sunday with leftover veggies. This week is reasonably back to normal but we are continuing the tradition we started last year with having a fondue at New Year. This time, we're doing it New Year's Eve.

The rest of the week is fairly normal for a week of school holiday - nothing to dash to, a few trips to the gym. No fancy day trips or anything. And you won't find me shopping, the thought of all the traffic and stuff sends me cold.

Monday - Slow cooker chicken with cashews and noodles
Tuesday - Savoury bread and butter pudding (again in slow cooker)
Wednesday - Swiss fondue
Thursday - Slow cooker casserole and dumplings
Friday - Lamb baked sweet potato
Saturday - Vegetarian chilli
Sunday - Steak and chips

Don't forget to go visit Mrs M for more Meal Planning loveliness. Assuming I remember to link up, I'll be there too.

Meal Planning Monday - the no-shop/low-shop edition!

As you may have seen me mention last week, the fridge and freezers in our house seem to be overflowing with food so I'm going to try to avoid doing a big shop this week and use some of the things lurking away in them. The meal plan I've chosen therefore is based on leftovers (as we had roast pork yesterday), one meal carried over from last week after last week's plan got rejigged  as Monkey went out for tea on a different day and didn't want to miss the chicken pilau, and meals based on meats or veg that we already have. Out of the whole plan, the only thing I am going to have to buy is courgettes and possibly some mushrooms - Monkey wanted to have curry this weekend and asked for it to be courgette, mushroom and potato (I know!). And for the first time in ages, we have different meals for the children and the grown ups - just because I have two portion meals in the freezer!

Don't expect any culinary novelties - I didn't want anything requiring special ingredients. Here we are.

Monday - Shredded pork with homemade barbeque sauce sandwiches with bubble and squeak cakes
Tuesday - Slow cooker chicken and mango pilau
Wednesday - Bangers and mash
Thursday - Lasagne with garlic bread
Friday - Breaded chicken steak with oven chips for the kids, casserole for the grown ups
Saturday - Courgette, mushroom and potato curry (based on this recipe)
Sunday - keeping free

This might make a bit of a dent in my freezer capacity but there will still be plenty in there. And I'll have saved a few pennies for Christmas!

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!