Recipe binder: Toffee Popcorn

As promised in last week's meal planning post, here is how I make toffee popcorn for my other half, as I personally have a very strong dislike of popcorn.

Make popcorn using popcorn kernels:

• Melt some butter in a pan (use one with a lid)
• Add the kernels
• Cover until they pop - wait until the popping has stopped completely before removing the lid!
• Leave to one side and make the toffee coating...

Make toffee sauce/coating (per 75g of un-popped popcorn):

You will need;

40g brown sugar

2-3 tbsp golden syrup

40g butter

• Melt the butter and golden syrup together
• Add the sugar and mix until the sugar is dissolved
• Pour over the popped popcorn, ensuring all the popcorn is coated

This will keep for a long time in an airtight box - the latest batch will be a week on Wednesday and apparently still tastes great!

Meal Planning Monday; 25th June 2012

Good morning. This week looks set to be pretty hectic with organisation and I'm joined two (possibly three) days this week by members of the house being off work so I'll probably end up getting mega stressed because they're in the way of my house work routine!

This week pretty much consists of freezer meals for that reason because I'll be super busy and we've got my godmother coming to stay for the weekend. Not sure which meals will be which day so I'll be leaving that bit for this week.

• Quiche and potato salad
• Fajitas - veg for him, with sausages for me
• Jacket potatoes with Philadelphia, bacon and grated cheese
• Honey and mustard chicken with mushrooms, carrots and sweetcorn served with rice

Friday will probably end up being a take away when my godmother gets here and we're all eating out Saturday night so I get a few days off cooking, hurrah!

This will be linked up to At Home With Mrs M! when this week's meal planning post goes up so have a visit over there to see what everyone else is up to this week and gather some inspiration (or just have a nosey)

Meal Planning Monday; 18 June 2012

Back to Monday again! Last week's plan went pretty well, we've got rid of a fair amount of meals from the freezer even though there were a few days where we didn't have dinner in. Made a big fish pie and froze it in portions again this week, check me out being super organised!

This week will be pretty busy; I'm going to see my best friend have her dress fitted on Tuesday and potentially going to my dad's Wednesday for a belated father's day so I'm having one meal out this week, while OH has got to have separate meals as he goes out Wednesdays.

Managed to save a load of money doing the food shop this week but I'm not really sure how that happened when I indulged in a few special offers of things I wouldn't usually get, whoops!

Monday: I've got a basic cooking class where I think we're making something Greek so that for dinner or a meal out the freezer (pasta bake/risotto for him, fish pie for me)

Tuesday: I'll make a quiche in the day and leave it in the fridge for OH to have if he's hungry when he gets in and I'll have mine when I get in from the dress fitting. I'll do potato salad with this.

Wednesday: I'm out for dinner, and Piers will have mushroom soup from the stock in the freezer

Thursday: Cheesy mushroom pasta or macaroni cheese

Friday: Home made pizza with mushrooms, sausage (and pineapple for OH on his bit)

Saturday: Lazy dinner of vegetable patties for him and fish fingers for me, served with home made potato slices and some form of veg

OH will have salad for lunch with a mixture of the following as additional;

-Yoghurt
-Yoghurt covered fruit
-Apple
-Banana
-Grapes
-Blackberries
-Toffee popcorn (recipe to come)

And that's another week! This will be linked up to At Home With Mrs M so feel free to pop over and have a nosy at the other meal plans as they go up.

Recipe Binder: turkey escalopes

As part of my meal plan this week I'd said I'd have Cajun burgers one night. However, when it came to it I really couldn't be bothered to make up the spice mix so I plumped for the simpler turkey escalopes.

This is a brilliant cheap, quick and easy recipe for a dinner when you want something nice but don't want to be making a million different bits for one dinner...

I used:

2 turkey breasts
1 egg
Breadcrumbs as needed (Mine were pre-bought but if you're feeling up to it you can make your own)

• Beat the egg in a small box/bowl (I used a long Tupperware box)
• Pour breadcrumbs into another box
• Take the first turkey breast and roll it around in the egg until completely covered
• Then roll it around in the breadcrumbs until completely covered
• Repeat with as many turkey breasts you have, adding breadcrumbs as needed (less waste)
• Place on a foil lined tray and cook, gas mark 6 for 30 minutes until cooked through
• Serve with potatoes (I had home made chips)

Whew, how simple was that!

Meal Planning Monday; 11 June 2012

Ah it's Monday! My mum was off last week so it went really quickly because we spent most of the week on errands (y'know after the mega bank holiday where we all lazed about and watched various Jubilee television). I hate it when time whizzes past me, I ended up missing my first baby massage and basic cooking lessons this morning because my brain wasn't in gear and the calender wasn't turned over. I only remembered when the lovely receptionist from the children's centre called me to make sure I was okay!

Finally, after weeks of over-spending and impulse buying I stuck rigidly to my shopping list this week. I did go a little bit over what I intended but I bought Jane Eyre on DVD and grabbed some nappy wipes that were on offer (12 packs for £10 when they're usually £17) but we now have 26 packs of nappy wipes and close to 200 nappies so I think we're good for about two months in terms of baby stuff (oops!)

This week a lot of our meals are coming from the freezer because I seem to have turned it into a bit of a bakery...we have pancakes, rolls, croissants, baguettes and bagels in there taking up a load of space so I'm hoping to clear it out a little bit.

I've also cut practically all meat from OH's diet as he's thinking of going back onto his PKU diet so we're making changes to what he eats before he goes onto it properly as his appointment about doing so isn't for a few weeks yet.

So here's this week's plan!


Monday; separate meals because OH is potentially going to his parent's house to watch football with his dad (I hope he's recording it as they don't get in until 6 and for those who know/care it's on as I type this) so I wanted to be covered just in case. I'm having turkey Cajun burgers (recipe to come later in the week) in rolls with home made chips and either peas or spaghetti. If OH is home he'll be having pasta bake.

Tuesday; Risotto for him and sausage and chips for me

Wednesday; veggie crumble for him, quiche and potato salad for me

Thursday; cheesy mushroom pasta

Friday; home made sausage, mushroom and pineapple pizza with cheesy potato skins (recipe to come later)

Saturday; rice with honey and mustard veg for him, lamb koftas with the rice for me

His lunches this week will be:
Yoghurt
Apple
Banana
Fruit in yoghurt
Sandwich - cucumber & cheese, cheese & pickle, jam, honey or just cheese
Grapes leftover from last week so long as they're good

Recipe binder: Fish Pie

I know practically everyone has a recipe for fish pie but I've decided to join the band wagon and post mine. After weeks of putting it off and getting distracted I finally got around to making one last weekend. I've liked fish pie for ages now and wish I'd been making it for longer as I've probably wasted so much money buying them over cooking from scratch! This recipe is one I pinched from BBC Good Food and played around with, there aren't any real measurements for most of it (particularly the cheese sauce) because I just added as I needed and didn't really measure (naughty of me, I know!)

I bought a pack of white fish fillets for a few pound which stay in the freezer but you can usually buy whatever fish you want to throw in...

I used;
-4 white fish fillets
-Mashed potato (4 large potatoes...note large is important because I used small and had to make extra)
-Cheese sauce (butter melted, mixed with plain flour, milk poured in and cheese added. Stir until cheese is melted, adding more milk/cheese to desired taste/consistency)

Before cooking

• Cook the fish in the oven for 25 minutes, then cut up into small pieces
• While that's cooling, make up the mashed potato.
• Make up the cheese sauce
• In a oven dish (I used a small-ish oval one as the pie was only for me) layer the fish pieces
• Add the cheese sauce and mix in so all the fish pieces are covered
• Once mixed in, add the mash potato on top
• Add breadcrumbs if desired
• Pop in the oven for 30 minutes until the top is slightly crispy

Ta-dah!

This is a dish that can be batch cooked and frozen, saving valuable time later on in the week!

Meal Planning Monday, 4 June 2012

Rather late with this one thanks to the bank holiday, but both were easy meals so it doesn't matter hugely! Once again, I didn't end up making mushroom burgers but I did manage to get a home made pizza into the mix to avoid a Domino's splurge! I also got round to making a fish pie after wanting to make one from scratch for weeks and it was so worth it. I wish I'd done it sooner in all honesty.

This week feels rather lax thanks to the aforementioned extended bank holiday but here we go...

Monday: quick freezer meals; macaroni cheese for him and fish pie for me

Tuesday: I was visiting my dad with Raphael and had spaghetti bolognaise, OH had a take away after coming back from the cinema late with his dad and forgetting that I was out

Wednesday: Quiche Lorraine with salad for him and chips and peas for me. I'm making double and will either freeze or keep some extra in the fridge for lunches later in the week.

Thursday: Stuffed peppers for him (rice, mushrooms and onions) and fish pie for me

Friday: Lasagne using mince and tomato sauce from the freezer so all I have to do is make the cheese sauce and layer it up! I'll do a salad for him if there's any left over to bulk it out.

His lunches this week:

-Salad using leaves, tomatoes, cucumber and French dressing. May add peppers sliced up on Friday to use them up if I don't use them all on Thursday's dinner
-Grapes
-Mixed berries/yoghurt
-Dried fruit in yoghurt

I'm hoping to do some kind of biscuit/flapjack baking this week. I have a recipe for honeycomb that I'm tempted to use but I may just do a batch of simple shortbread if I'm feeling lazy.

I've been linking up to At Home With Mrs M for the last few weeks now but always keep forgetting to mention it! Her post can be found here along with lots of other yummy bloggers' meal plans