Meal Planning Monday, 28 May 2012

So last week didn't go too great, we ended up having a few more meals from the freezer, a Chinese take away and jackets instead of soup. Once again the mushroom burgers were not made as it was too hot for me to be bothered to cook properly and we ended up with sausages and potato salad in the garden.


This week should be better as I'm determined to be more disciplined!


Sunday: Raphael and other half are at his parents so he'll eat there. I had minted lamb koftas with rice 
Monday - Mac and cheese with some bacon, sweetcorn and perhaps mushrooms
Tuesday - Fajitas (veggie for him, sausage for me) and home made potato slices
Wednesday - Toad in the hole with mash or home made chips and veg
Thursday - Quiche and potato salad
Friday - Home made pizza
Saturday - Omlette for him, honey and mustard turkey and jacket potato for me
Sunday - Determined to finally make a fish pie after buying fish weeks ago. They've been sat in the freezer since as I haven't had the time, but I'm hoping to take advantage of having a few hours free if other half takes Raphael to the grandparents again.


Other half's lunches are:


Rolls with some combo of cheese, cucumber, tomato and coleslaw in them. Yoghurt coated fruit, blackberries, blueberries and a yoghurt.

Childhood memory lane

So, like most of the UK, Sainsburys have gone all giddy at the Jubilee and slashed tons of products prices (products they deem to be British, I guess) including...

this beauty! Strawberry Ribena is half price in Sainsburys at the moment and I had to restrain myself to buying just one. I've always loved Ribena (has to be strong though...and cold; nothing worse than weak/warm Ribena). My mum used to bribe me with it when I went for my jabs as a little girl - "if you don't cry I'll buy you some Ribena" - and it always worked. Happy times!

Another product I came across recently that I enjoyed as a child is known as 'foil cups'. These are essentially chocolate ganache (think the inside of Lindt Lindor chocolates) in coloured foil cups. These used to be penny sweets my dad bought me as a treat, but are now more commonly 10p or more each (which adds up when you want a decent amount). However, I found you can bulk buy online for a much better deal courtesy of Ebay. Beautiful!

What food/drink reminds you of your childhood?

Meal Planning Monday: 21 May 2012

We didn't do too badly last week, we skipped mushroom burgers and ended up with a stuffed peppers for my other half and I just had chips as I wasn't that hungry. Friday didn't happen either as he went to the pub with his parents and I couldn't be bothered to cook by the time he got back so we had Dominos (naughty!) and Saturday we ended up having dinner at a friends house.


I also managed to make my mum's birthday cake and have been told by mum and other half that it's gorgeous, which is lovely as I don't like lemon cake so haven't been able to sample it myself!


On to this week...


Sunday: buffet at my brother's house for my niece's 4th birthday 
Monday - I'm determined to do mushroom burgers this week so those with home made chips and veg
Tuesday - Soup - I caved and bought some chicken and veg, and creamy veg soup during the weekly shop as they were on special offer and they looked too good to refuse!
Wednesday - Left over turkey in honey and mustard sauce from last week (which was delicious and contained sweetcorn, mushrooms and carrots) served with rice to differ from the mash we had with it last time
Thursday - Veggie crumble for him (from frozen as I made double last week) and sausage, home made chips and peas for me
Friday - Either jack potatoes or lazy home made pizza (pre-bought base but do everything else) with potato salad in a bid to avoid the Dominos temptation!
Saturday - Cheesy pasta with mushrooms


His lunches this week are salad with:


salad leaves
olives/cashew nuts
tomatoes
cucumber
creamy olive oil sauce


and:
yoghurt
banana/fruit pieces in yoghurt
strawberries and grapes


I bought a new cookbook this weekend so I'm hoping to get some recipes from that to bring a bit more variety to next week's meal plan. I'll let you know how it goes!

Meal Planning Monday, 14 May 2012

Monday - Turkey pasta bake with mushrooms and some veg using a honey and mustard sauce I found in the cupboard the other day. This will also have cheese and breadcrumbs on top to cater to the other half'
Tuesday - Mushroom burgers with home made chips and veg
Wednesday - Jacket potatoes with beans/spaghetti
Thursday - Veggie crumble for him, home made quiche Lorraine and potato salad for me
Friday - Toad in the hole with mash/home made chips and veg
Saturday - Stuffed peppers for him and spaghetti carbonara for me


His lunches will consist of:
M; Tomato & cucumber sandwich with a banana, nuts and yoghurt
T; leftover pasta bake with a banana
W; Cheese & tomato sandwich with banana and cucumber slices
TH; Cheese & cucumber sandwich with banana and cherry tomatoes
F; a few slices of quiche, banana and some cucumber slices


It's also my mum's birthday this week so I'm making her a lemon cake for a treat.

Alternative fillings for sandwich cakes

Source; I couldn't resist using this one, how amazing is that cake tin!?!

The normal sandwich cake (aka a Victoria Sponge) is traditionally filled with jam and cream. However, what if you want a change? What if you're baking for someone who doesn't like jam? Below are a few ideas that you can try next time you bake a sandwich cake...

1. Butter cream icing

You will need;

• 140g butter (softened)
• 280g icing sugar
• 1-2 tbsp milk
• Food colouring if you wish

Method;

• Beat the butter until completely soft, add half the icing sugar and beat until smooth.
• Add 1tbsp milk and the other half of icing sugar and beat until smooth, adding another tbsp milk if needed
• Add food colouring if using and stir in well until combined
• Spread onto cake

2. Nutella

This one is simple: grab a knife/spatula and spread on as thickly as wanted/required

3. Biscuit butter cream

You will need;

• Butter cream (see above for recipe)
• Biscuit of your choice (e.g. oreos) crushed up/broken into small pieces

Method;

• Mix up the butter cream as usual
• Stir in broken biscuit pieces until evenly distributed

4. Popping chocolate spread 

You will need;

• Chocolate spread
• Popping candy

NB - You can buy popping candy chocolate spread from supermarkets

Method;

• As with the nutella, grab a knife/spatula and spread!

Have you got any go-to alternatives for sandwich cake fillings? Let me know in the comments.

Recipe collecting

I was having a tidy up this morning while Raphael was asleep and found at least six recipe magazines I'd put aside to add to my recipe book. However, leafing through them I think I only found five new recipes!

As well as recipe magazines, I have BBC Good Food's 500 triple tested recipes book; bought in my second year at university when I came across it heavily reduced in WH Smiths. However, since then I tend to find recipes online and write them out in my recipe notepad.

I'm beginning to wonder if recipe books/magazines are dying out if we can all just find whatever recipe we want online with a quick google search...

What do you think, are recipe books/magazines still worth getting?

Meal Planning Monday 7 May 2012

A very delayed meal planning post this week as, courtesy of the bank holiday and a sick baby, things are running a bit behind schedule. Had a frantic moment this weekend when poor Raphael stopped keeping feeds down and ended up being taken to children's A&E to be rehydrated (while I anxiously hovered around trying to placate him as he screamed his little head off!) Turns out he's managed to catch a viral infection (lovely) so he hasn't been sleeping well and is ultra clingy.

As a result this week's been a bit of a "something quick" week where I don't have to spend ages prepping food:

Monday - Jacket potatoes with cheese and bacon @ other half's parents
Tuesday - Out for dinner (him), sausage, chips and peas (me, kindly cooked by my mum...bliss!)
Wednesday - Ratatouille (him), tuna pasta (me)
Thursday - Either fajitas after we ended up not having them last week, or lasagne from the freezer with some carrots/peas/sweetcorn to bulk it out and add some veg to the mix
Friday - Possibly out at a friend's for dinner but if not then I'll make a quiche
Saturday - Cheesy pasta with peas/sweetcorn

His lunches are salads this week consisting of;
Salad leaves
Cucumber
Tomatoes
Honey & mustard sauce

and one of the following;
Cashew nuts
Black olives
Pepper and sweetcorn
Sliced sausage marinated in steak sauce