Recipe binder: cheesy cottage pie

This has been on my meal plan posts for a couple of weeks now and I promised a recipe for it so here you go...

Cheesy cottage pie

What you need:

• 400-500g beef mince
• 3-4 potatoes (depending on size, if they're big go with three, but be prepared for more)
• Beef/meat gravy
• Butter
• Cheese of your choice

What you do:

• Peel and chop potatoes into small pieces (so they cook through quicker)
• Make up gravy (I like mine thick) and boil potatoes
• Brown the mince and then add in the gravy
• Allow to cook for a few minutes so that...
• ...you can make up the mash! (I use just butter but you can use milk/cream if you wish)
• Take mince off the hob and spoon into a casserole dish
• Top with the mash, run fork over mash (this helps it go crispy)
• Cook for 20 minutes gas mark 6
• Remove from the oven and top with grated cheese
• Cook for a further 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted and/or the potato topping has going crispy
• Serve with veg or just eat by itself

Meal Planning Monday; 15th April 2013

Goodness me is that sun I see out of my window this morning! Last week was quite nice and relaxed with very little to do except enjoy the sunshine and have Bubbah weighed. Hubby got promoted from agency worker to a proper permanent employee of his company (hurray) which means, among other things that he now actually gets a pension. So we ended up having a cinema date and Indian take away over the weekend to celebrate (we saw A Place Beyond The Pines which was, it has to be said, rather depressing as much as Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper are both lovely to look at and good actors) said promotion.

This week we're starting to get back into the swing of things. I start a cookery course this Wednesday (cooking around the world) so Bubbah will be in crèche for a few hours. I'm also taking him to get his feet measured again as I suspect he needs new shoes already despite getting new ones less than two months ago. Hopefully it will be sunny and we can enjoy warmth when we go out rather than being pelted with rain. Bubbah has some sunglasses at the ready, just in case...

This week's meal plan is pretty simple and batch cooking friendly:

• Pizza with garlic bread
• Toad in the hole (I may make mini ones)
• Mac n cheese
• Tuna pasta bake or caluiflower and broccoli cheese depending on preference
• Salmon linguine with home made pesto
• Risotto

Baking this week will be:

• blueberry fairy cakes
• caramel muffins (a hummingbird bakery recipe I've been desperate to try)
• possibly some shortbread

I'll be linked up to Mrs M so for what everyone else is cooking this week head on over there and have a read through for inspiration.

Meal Planning Monday; 8th April 2013

Ooops! I completely forgot to link up last week's meal plan to Mrs M but I promise you I kept to it, more or less!

It's been somewhat uneventful here, I've been hibernating as school holiday business drives me insane and makes me loathe to leave the house any more than necessary. Bubbah had a play date mid-week and that's been pretty much it. Oh, except Saturday where we went into Welwyn Garden and visited the market that was on there. We also had lunch at Ask where Bubbah quite happily acquainted himself with spaghetti carbonara...

Clearly it doesn't take much to impress me because one visit to the fruit and veg stall later and I was enthusing to my bemused husband about how amazing it was. To be fair, I got a huge punnet (400g) of strawberries, a punnet of raspberries, grapes and 100g of mushrooms for £4. Please tell me I'm not the only one impressed with that! To compare; 400g of strawberries from a supermarket is usually between £2 and £4 depending on brand/offers.

This week is quite plan light as well, although Bubbah has a doctor's appointment this afternoon courtesy of a horrid cough (think smoker's cough for example of the noise) that's stubbornly refusing to shift itself and keeping him (and me!) up all night.

Our meal plan is full of big cooks that will fill up the freezer quite happily...

• veg lasagne for hubby (who insisted that I make it again after having it last week)
• Quiche lorraine for me after picking up some really good quality bacon from the butchers at the Welwyn market
•  Cottage pie - I made this last week instead of lasagne for myself and it was SO tasty I decided to repeat it.

My cottage pie complete with cheesy coating

• Pizza and garlic bread, possibly with curly fries
• Pigs in blankets with curly fries or home made chips depending on my mood
• Mac n cheese
• Chilli sin carne (no meat chilli) for hubby
• Spinach and tomato quiche - made up in advance for all of hubby's lunches

This time I'm linked up to Mrs M, I promise!

Meal Planning Monday; 1st April 2013

Goodness me, a bank holiday AND April Fool's day all in one! A lovely Easter weekend has been had with lots of family time and time with friends too (I didn't have to cook three days in a row; it was wonderful!) Hubby and I even managed to squeeze in a date night too for the first time in about three weeks and saw GI Joe: Retaliation where I was one of three women in the cinema! Great film and one I'd recommend. Bubbah got hold of a pair of our 3d glasses too...

Last week I had a meal plan, I just didn't post it. I forgot my laptop when I came back from staying at my mum's and had to go and get it and then, well, life happened I guess and I barely had time to sit down!


This week our plan is pretty simple...

• fajitas with sausages for me and lots of veg in general served with home made potato slices
• risotto
• lasagne
• chicken tikka with home made naan bread
• sausage casserole
• mac n cheese

Nice and simple with some old favourites! How was everyone's Easter weekend? As usual I'm linked up to Mrs M so head on over there and see what everyone's got planned for their eats this week.

Meal Planning Monday; 18th March 2013

Goodness me if this year flies by any quicker I think it's going to be Christmas sooner than we think! I seriously keep thinking it's February, or even January! However my calender firmly insists that we're in March. Which promptly leads me to complain about the lack of lovely sun coming back. It's Spring; I want pretty daffodils and sunny days please, not freezing wind and drenching rain every time I step outside the front door!


To cheer myself up I treated myself to some Next homeware (guilt pleasure, and Next does such lovely stuff) to a MASSIVE mug for my hot chocolates (no other hot drinks need apply)

I love yellow and it never fails to give me a burst of happiness. That coupled with the cute bird design and "hello sunshine" writing (I call Bubbah sunshine when he wakes up so I felt it appropriate for a mug to wake me up with a similar message) made me crave to own this mug.

The last week our meal plan has gone pretty well. The mince I bought I ended up making a massive batch of spag bol with as it was easier and I fancied it over rissoles  I even managed to wangle a roast dinner for myself and Bubbah at my mum's on Saturday, cooked by my sister in law as my brother and co. were visiting. Bubbah is fascinated by his cousins and will just stand there staring at them for ages in silence before suddenly emitting an ear piercing scream of excitement!


I have also spent this week introducing the concept of a fork to Bubbah, which he seems to have taken to quite quickly. I managed to get a Mr Happy set of cutlery for him to experiment with.

This week our meal plan is partly made up of regular meals and the reappearance of a few old favourites! In a spate of being organised I bought a specific meal planning/shopping list note book after getting tired of writing lists on random note pads we have lying around and then losing them and ending up with about five copies of the same list!


Our meal plan this week:

• Cheesy chicken pasta. An oldy but a goodie with lots of extra veg (peas, mushrooms and sweetcorn normally, but I am debating about adding carrots)
• Steak casserole for me; veg soup for hubby who will be on a fast day
• Home made pizza
• Quiche (Lorraine for me, spinach and tomato for hubby) although hubby will have his for lunch and have veg soup for his second fast day.
• Rissotto - I'm thinking mushroom made with veg stock but I could easily change my mind!
• Freezer meal - mac n cheese for hubby and either a spag bol/lamb casserole for me

And that's our meal plan this week! As always, I'm linked up to Mrs M so pop on over there to see what everyone else is up to this week.

Meal Planning Monday; 11th March 2013

Happy Monday everyone! I hope any mummy reader's had a lovely day yesterday and were thoroughly treated :) Bubbah treated me to an hour lie in and lovely cuddles before he bit my chin!

So moving went quite well, I managed to unpack everything bar a massive bag of DVDs and put it all away within the first half of the week (spending about an hour last Sunday making the living room area suitable for Bubbah to be unleashed into the next morning) and thankfully Bubbah settled in very well indeed; even sleeping through a couple of nights which is a extremely rare event!

Halfway through unpacking

We had a busy week last week with Bubbah's jabs (whereupon he screamed for ten minutes and could be heard in the waiting room), unpacking and general sort out and various visiting around to family, friends and playgroup. Bubbah and I have also managed to come down with a horrible cold.

Finally organised!

That said, our meal plan went pretty much, well, to plan! Toad in the hole was replaced by sausage casserole but that was the only swap about. I also managed to make some cupcakes  and it'll be interesting to see if they've lasted the weekend!


Our meal plan this week is more of the same with lots of lovely warming food that requires little effort and can build a bit of a stock pile in the freezer we share with hubby's parents. I'm also planning on baking MORE cakes at some point during the week, possibly Monday as I'm visiting my dad and staying for dinner to give my step-mum a mother's day card from Bubbah.


This week, our meal plan consists of;

• mac n cheese (again!) with various veg thrown in for a lovely health kick
• home made pizza with curly fries and garlic bread (and salad for hubby)
• chicken casserole or pasta bake, depending on mood
• some sort of mince dish, perhaps beef rissoles or spag bol for me and Bubbah
• dinner at dad's so hubby will have to dig out some mac n cheese from the freezer or join his parent's meal for the night
• steak casserole for me and Bubbah
• veg soup twice in the week for hubby's fast days

And that is our week! What's everyone else got planned? If you're stuck for inspiration head on over to Mrs M and see what everyone else has planned for their meal plans this week.

Meal Planning Monday;4th March 2013

Well hello March! February seems to have come and gone in a blink; I still feel like it should be late January/early February! I'm typing this up on a Sunday as tomorrow will be manic because...we have moved! Saturday saw us (aka me) packing up EVERYTHING two adults and one baby/toddler could ever need, which was a lot! It got to the point where a harassed hubby (who was loading up his dad's car Sunday lunchtime) kept questioning whether or not we needed all the things that had been packed (yes, yes we do).

Approximately half of the stuff we brought with us!

Our meal plan is pretty simple this week, full of meals I can pre-cook/prep when I have spare time or just whack into our slow cooker (my grandma's old one; a gift from my mum) which is HUGE and I'm very much looking forward to using.

Bubbah has his jabs on Tuesday which I'm not looking forward to as he goes extremely mopey and I'm imagining the move will upset Bubbah's sleep patterns enough so to throw jabs in will no doubt give me a horrible sleepless night up with him.

We're also out for lunch with a friend on Friday and I'll also be staying at my mum's with Bubbah which I'm very much looking forward to.

Our meal plan this week is as follows;

• mac n cheese with mushrooms - an oldie but a goodie!
• Stuffed peppers for hubby and beef casserole for me
• Vegetable soup twice this week for hubby
• Minted lamb pieces with any leftovers being made into rissoles with roasts/chips
• Lemon and herb breaded chicken with curly fries
• Toad in the hole with mash (I hope) and veg

And that's our week! Hope everyone else has a lovely week. As always I'll be linking up to Mrs M so head on over there to see what everyone else is cooking up this week.