Meal Planning Monday - the Easter holidays edition!

Nickie checked in with me on Saturday to see if I was OK as I hadn't blogged since January. Oops. Life just got in the way really - I'm working extra hours, the children have things most days and I keep forgetting on Sunday to blog a meal plan. Monkey turned 10 (heck!), I hurt my back (it's better now) and I went on a school trip to the Manchester Arena to take part in a Young Voices concert with Missy Woo.

So, my plan is done for the week and as I don't have work this week, I'm making myself write a blog. I generally plan on a Sunday so I can shop on a Monday but since discovering Asda's midweek delivery pass is £2 a month, I've been shopping online and getting a Tuesday delivery. That doesn't stop me planning on a weekend - it's actually better to do it on the weekend so I can get the slot I want.

As I'm off this week, as is the husband and the children, you will notice that there are a lot of easy meals. I make no apologies. I need a break too! I could make pizzas for The Voice final next weekend, but hell, I can't be bothered.

So, this is what my plan looks like this week.

Monday - Thai pork and peanut curry (made with leftover roast pork from yesterday)
Tuesday - Chorizo and butternut squash chilli
Wednesday - Chicken kievs
Thursday - Burgers and fries
Friday - Salmon and butterbean mash
Saturday - Pizza!
Sunday - Steak pie, mash and veg

Obviously, there are two weeks of school holidays over Easter. However, next week, the children are going away with their grandparents staying in a caravan for 4 days so I am planning that we might eat out a few times, so if I don't blog a plan next week, that'll be why. It may also be to do with the fact that April is year end deadline month for me at work and I get very, VERY busy!

Don't forget that Mrs M hosts the Meal Planning Monday linky here.

See you next week (maybe!)

Meal Planning Monday - the leftover leftovers edition!

Yes, it's that kind of week. Stuff leftover here and there - stuff I didn't make last week, stuff leftover from Sunday dinner, stuff hidden in the freezer. It should mean it's a cheap week but I've said that before!

We have nothing special planned this week. I actually quite like that after the madness of the last few months! We're into a groove now with school work and stuff, the routine is generally worked out so we know what we're doing and it's generally ticking along.

This, then, is our week.

Monday - Beef stroganoff and rice (leftover roast beef)
Tuesday - Leftover something from the freezer (it's some kind of potato topped pie)
Wednesday - Chicken and mushroom pasta bake
Thursday - Sandwiches
Friday - Italian chickpea burgers (carried over from last week)
Saturday - Beef keema with carrots and potatoes
Sunday - Roast chicken

Yes, that's it. Short and sweet from me today. Don't forget to visit Mrs M's. Click on badge above for more meal planning mayhem. Or something.

Meal Planning Monday - the quick and easy May edition!

I wasn't really sure what to call this. I thought I'd cobbled it together but there are four new dishes on the plan that I've never cooked before. I was going to make it an empty the freezers/fridges edition but they're pretty empty to start with and only two of the meals have major elements already in. It's all designed to be quick and easy because work is mad and it's nearly new sale day on Saturday, meaning we will probably have takeaway on Saturday night. And Wednesday, I can justify because we're going out early evening and I have a houseful of volunteers coming round at 8pm to stuff bags for said sale.

The plan? Oh yes. I was rambling slightly.

Monday - Sweet potato, spinach and goats' cheese quesadillas (recipe is similar, not exactly the same)
Tuesday - Zesty haddock with crushed potatoes and peas
Wednesday - Egg, chips and beans
Thursday - Sandwiches
Friday - Chicken, pancetta and mushroom stew
Saturday - keeping free
Sunday - Greek lamb filo pie (made with beef mince!)

So it's looking quite good. How is your week shaping up?

Click on the badge above to get to Mrs M's Meal Planning Monday linky.

Cowboy Corned Beef 'n' Beans Pie!

Princes have asked me to come up with some recipes using corned beef as it's more frequently used for sandwiches. Obviously, the standard recipe is corned beef hash but as they already have that recipe on their site, I thought I'd think of something else and came up with a pie. If you look about, a lot of people call a potato topped pie a hash too but to me, a "proper" hash sees all the chopped ingredients (hash comes from the French "hacher" to chop) all fried together, and usually topped with some kind of egg.

The other thing that corned beef goes really well with baked beans. I thought I would combine all three elements here to make an easy, but yummy winter family dish which is pretty cheap to make too.

Cowboy Corned Beef 'n' Beans Pie
Serves 6

Ingredients

1kg white potatoes (starchy rather than waxy), peeled and cut into large chunks
1 tbsp oil
1 medium onion, chopped
340g can corned beef, cut into 1-2cm cubes
1 tbsp dijon mustard (or whichever mustard you prefer)
1 tbsp dark muscovado sugar or molasses
1 tbsp tomato ketchup or tomato puree
420g tin baked beans
400g tin chopped tomatoes
50g grated cheddar (optional)

1. Place the potato chunks into a large saucepan, cover with cold water, cover and bring to the boil, then simmer until they are soft enough to mash.

2. In a medium pan or frying pan, heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook for around 5 minutes until softened and colouring at the edges. Add the corned beef, turn up the heat and cook for a further couple of minutes. Try not to stir and turn the beef too much as you want to try and get a colour to the beef. Add the mustard, sugar, and tomato ketchup or puree and give everything a quick stir, then add the beans and the tomatoes. Have a good scrape around the pan so that anything that has stuck to the bottom lifts off and adds flavour to the mix. Season to taste. Pour into a large ovenproof dish - I tend to use a deep lasagne dish.

3. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. When the potatoes are done, drain the potatoes and mash them with whatever you choose to mash with - I used a knob of butter and enough semi-skimmed milk to stop the mash being too stiff but at the same time, not too runny.  Top the corned beef mixture with the mash, ensuring that it is well covered.

4. Place in the oven and cook for about 30 mins, until the top goes slightly brown. If you are using cheese, scatter it over halfway through cooking and if you need to brown the cheddar, finish off for a couple of minutes under a hot grill. Serve - a good dash of ketchup, brown sauce or even barbecue sauce goes well with it. (Actually, if you want the whole pie to have more of a barbecue flavour, add some to the mixture in place of the ketchup in step 2.)

See my other post for my corned beef and lentil soup!

(Princes sent me 6 tins of corned beef and an apron so that I can create some recipes using their products. I have not been paid further for writing this post.)

Some quick ideas for using leftover turkey

Fed up of turkey sandwiches yet? We're probably coming to the limit of the time you can use leftover turkey but you're probably drowning in it, whilst not wanting to waste it. Of course, a good way to jazz up a turkey sandwich is to add some bacon, or some stuffing, or even some cheese - and toast the bread first to make it a turkey club sandwich. Yum!

Anyway, here are just a few things I make to use up what's left of the turkey. Thankfully, we don't have tons as we had a turkey crown but there is still way more meat on it than 4 people will ever eat in 10 meals, let alone one. If you are reheating the turkey in anyway, don't forget to make sure it's heated right through.

Coronation turkey - this is really quick and quite a flexible recipe. It goes really well in sandwiches but if you're bored of that, then use as a filling for jacket potatoes or just have with some green salad. Look away now if you don't like fruit with meat, this is not for you!

First, chop up some turkey meat into bite sized pieces. I don't weigh how much I've got, I just cut off enough to feed however many people are eating. Finely chop an onion and cook in 1-2tbsp oil for a couple of mins without browning it. Add some mild curry powder (about 1 tbsp) or some curry paste and cook for another minute, stirring. Then, add 1 tbsp tomato puree or ketchup, a hefty dash of lemon (or lime) juice, and about 125ml of chicken stock, from a cube or proper stock. The tomato is entirely optional, leave it out if you don't want the finished result to look quite orangey. Simmer this for about 10 mins until you have quite a thick sauce. In the meantime, chop up some dried apricots and add to the turkey. If you don't have them, use raisins or sultanas instead, or even some chopped fresh apple. Once the sauce is done, cool the sauce. If you're in a rush, run some cold water into your washing up bowl, plunge the pan into that and it will be cool in about 10 mins. Now add mayonnaise (low fat will be fine) and natural yogurt in roughly equal quantities. If you're making for 4, you'll probably need about 200-250ml of each but stir it into the cooled sauce and see if you like the consistency. Taste and season, pour over the turkey and fruit mix, stir in and serve. Add some flaked almonds if you really want and have some to hand.

Turkey tacos or fajitas - This is really quick and a nice way to serve up an informal meal with a bit of spice! First, slice up some turkey meat, some onion (red or white but red looks best), and 2-3 peppers of any sort (preferably a mixture of colours). You can also use sliced mushrooms, sliced baby sweetcorn or any leftover veg that you think might go. Heat some oil in a pan or wok and add the turkey, stirring for a few minutes, then add some chilli powder, ground coriander and ground cumin. Again, I tend to do this by eye, but usually about a teaspoon of each. Stir to cover the turkey and let the spices cook without burning, then add the veg. Cook for a few minutes until the veg are softened. Then heat tacos or some tortillas according to the instructions.  Put everything out on a table in dishes, adding some pots of other things you'd like to add - such as grated cheese, sour cream (though greek yogurt will do), perhaps some salsa or some guacamole. Everyone can help themselves and build their own fajita or taco.

Turkey and ham pie - brilliant if you have leftover gammon too but you can add any ham and again, you can adapt it to what you have left. It takes longer to make but it's quick to prepare, then you can relax whilst it bakes. Chop up as much turkey and ham leftovers as you want to use into bite sized pieces. Finely chop an onion and cook it in some butter for a few minutes, then add some sliced mushrooms and cook until  golden brown. Next, either make a white sauce (like Delia's all-in-one white sauce, which I use a lot) or if you have leftover cream, add that to the mushrooms and onions, bring to the boil and simmer gently until it thickens. Mix everything together - if you have other leftover veg, you could add that too - leeks, sweetcorn, carrots, broccoli are all good. Pour into a baking dish, and cover with pastry. If you have an oblong dish and ready rolled pastry sheets, it should be as simple as putting the pastry on top, sealing the edges and then making a small hole for the steam to escape in the middle. Brush with beaten egg then bake at 220C for about 20 minutes, then cook for a further 15-20 mins at 180C.

If you have any quick and easy yummy recipes for leftover turkey, add them in the comments below or blog about them and link away in the comments.

Either way, that turkey will be gone in no time!

Chicken Pie!

Pie is not often on the menu in our house due to my husband's wheat avoidance. He was reacting to wheat and has avoided it for around 8 years but recently, has eaten some things with wheat in and not suffered any reaction so he has been widening the range of foods he now eats.

I have really wanted to make a chicken pie for a while so last weekend, I bought some ready rolled pastry. I don't generally do pastry and most recipes just recommend buying it, so that's what I did. I hunted around for a decent recipe and found this on the BBC Good Food website, which is a source I use quite a lot for simple but nice recipes.

I liked this because it included vegetables so it meant everything cooked together. We actually just had mash with this - I was running out of time to do veg, the children were "helping" me, I decided to make it today quite late on and that required a quick trip to the supermarket. This would be great made with leftover roast chicken as you start with cooked chicken.

Crumbly Chicken & Vegetable Pie
Serves 4-6 (you'd have to be pretty hungry for it to serve 4)

Ingredients
1 onion
40g butter
100g button mushrooms
40g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
400ml milk, warmed
1 chicken stock cube or 400ml fresh chicken stock
pinch nutmeg
pinch mustard powder
1 bay leaf
250g cooked chicken
200g mix of vegetables - sweetcorn, peas, carrots, broccoli, peppers chopped or any veg you have
250g shortcrust pastry
1 egg beaten or milk, for glazing

1. Heat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 4. Peel the onion and chop as finely as possible. Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat. Add the chopped onion and leave to cook for about 5 mins, stirring occasionally. Finely slice the mushrooms and add to the pan.

2. When the mushrooms and onions are nearly cooked, add the flour to the pan and stir to make a roux. Crumble in the stock cube and stir well for 2 minutes to cook out the flour.

3. Slowly add the milk to the pan, stirring all the time. (I didn't warm the milk and it didn't seem to matter). Then add the stock, season and add the nutmeg and mustard powder. (It doesn't mention what to do if you're using the stock cube, so I just used more milk to get the right consistency) Add the bay leaf and bring to the boil, stirring all the time to stop it becoming lumpy.

4. When the sauce has thickened, place on a very low heat. Chop the chicken into even sized pieces and add to the sauce. Stir in the veg and pour into the pie dish. (I used a deep but small lasagne dish).

5. Put the pastry on a clean, floured surface. Dust a rolling pin with flour and roll out the pastry until just a bit bigger than the pie dish. Lift the pastry onto the dish. Trim the edges hanging over the edges. Press the outside edge of the pastry with your fingers or a fork.

6. Brush the top of the pie with beaten egg or milk. Make a small hole in the centre to allow steam to escape. Left over pastry can be used can be used to decorate the top. Place the pie in the oven for 25 mins. It will be done when the top is golden brown.

I made a few changes to this. We got a bay leaf from the garden as we have a tree but then it disappeared. So I added some chopped fresh tarragon as it is a favourite of mine. And because I had ready rolled shortcrust, I just unrolled it and put it on the top of the pie dish and it just about fitted. No faffing with rolling pins - result! (Why am I so bad at rolling out pastry and how do I get better at it? Answers on a postcard.) The veg I used were - peas, sweetcorn, carrots, and courgettes.

The children were very excited when I told them I was making pie. Missy Woo butchered the mushrooms and the courgettes for me. Then she had a go at peeling potatoes as did Monkey - and he got very good at it. That's one more job I don't have to do! And then they devoured the pie with enthusiasm. The carrots were quite crunchy so I think they need to be cut up quite small - or you could use leftover cooked ones. I loved the tarragon flavour, and no-one else complained about it and it was lovely and creamy.

It would definitely feed 6 people easily. This is most definitely NOT a small pie and the veg helps to bulk it out. I have to admit, I always thought that making a pie was more difficult than it was for some reason. I guess ones with a pastry base probably are but this was very simple. And everyone just loves pie, don't they?

I did take another pic of the pie cut open but on looking at it, it's not very good quality so you'll have to make do with just the pic of the finished pie as it came out of the oven. Yes, I know - my food blogging is very amateurish but I never said I was a professional, did I?! Trust me when I say this was good, and you should try it too.