Monday Meal Plan

So I didn't post the meal plan last week..sorry.. life got in the way, well shift patterns at least and there wasn't a chance- as it is its now 22:18 and I am doing the meal plan post long day shift and a laced hot chocolate (needed today) as it was the original plan changed somewhat, planned dishes changed around and well, it just was busy! I did make a couple of pretty decent dishes and will try and blog them soon! On the highlight of my week - I finally got a decent mobile phone, after many months of putting up with a temporary distinctly un-smart-phone and you can find me on Instagram under the alter ego of 'polkadotanne'!

Sadly of course I didn't weigh anything to give you an exact recipe but I made this bread and butter pudding last Thursday when my dad came over - it lasted about 5 minutes! I used a loaf of fruit n nut bread I bought reduced as the base, made the egg custard with ground ginger and then let the oven work its magic- delicious!

This week is the usual jumble of shifts but my mums birthday is coming up at the weekend and I am trying to decide what cake to bake for her! I was sent some lovely Dr Oetker baking goodies but I still have not decided oops! Sunday will involve roast lamb - my mum loves it but rarely treats herself to it and I like to spoil her when I can!

Monday - we had fish fingers, mixed veg and new potatoes

Tuesday - Sausage and bean casserole 

Wednesday - Sweet potato bean burgers with green beans and spicy rice

Thursday - Sweet chilli chicken noodles

Friday - Tuna pancakes

Linky

Mango Crunch Fool

I seem to go through stages of liking yoghurt, which may seem a bit odd but I guess maybe I am a little bit odd?! Fortunately at the moment its the 'on' stage and it reminded me that I really do enjoy Total's plain yoghurt, its thick and creamy and perfect for both sweet and savoury dishes. I like that its natural and not full of sugar too! 

Total yoghurt are running a competition via Pinterest at the moment - and this recipe is my entry - you can see my Total board here. I know you want to see my delicious recipe on their tubs so please share this!

A few months back I managed to pick some gorgeous Sundae dishes for a mere 50p each in the local hospice shop and to be honest I will make any excuse to use them as they look so pretty! When I was deciding what to make with my yoghurt I stumbled accross a tin of sliced mangoes and thought a Fool would be perfect. Luckily the recipe worked perfectly first time and I didn't make a fool of myself, haha!

The amarettini biscuits are great for jazzing up quick puddings but if you can't find them just ust standard amaretti biscuits, just less of them! 

Makes two sundaes - would probably fill 3 ramekin dishes

Ingredients 

8 amarettini biscuits

120g Total yoghurt

1 tin of mango slices

½ tbsp icing sugar

You will need a liquidiser/ blender or just get menacing with a fork!

1) Drain the mangoes and place in the liquidiser . Blitz in short burst – no more than a few seconds to a loose pulp. 

2) Add the yoghurt and icing sugar then gently blitz once to just combine.

3) Crush the biscuits – I used a pestle and mortar but a bashing with a rolling pin would work too - you want a loose crumb - not too much dust!

4) Layer the crumbs into your desired serving dish in between the fool mixture - keep a little bit for the topping

5) Once assembled, chill for 30 minutes and then serve:

The fools were delicious - a nice light, fruity end to our dinner and I've since been out to buy another tin of mangoes to make again! Erm and lots more Total Yoghurt...! I'm amazed how much B likes it too considering it doesn't involve chocolate! It really is that good.

As these puddings are so quick and easy to make and take well under 30 minutes to make, I've entered these into Dead Easy Desserts over at Maison Cupcake

Thanks to Total for my yoghurt voucher and little box of goodies!

Spicy Kabanosy Fusilli

Apologies this week for not doing my meal planning post - I didn't manage to squeeze it between my shift pattern but I will be back next week! So far we have eaten jacket potatoes and a lush Spinaci pizza that Dr Oetker gave me a voucher for! I now have a few days off from work to catch up and rest my weary bones which is always welcome! I had planned to type up a curry recipe I recently made ..but I am struggling to find it! Ooops! Anyway this fusilli dish was pretty tasty so its not a complete waste!

Despite myself having Polish roots, we are not a very Polish family infact I know very little about Polish cuisine at all but I do like buying random ingredients and some of the Polish sausages are very tasty, this one being no exception. This is not meant to be reflective of Polish cuisine, its more a of a fridge raid kind of dinner! I really must try harder to learn more about it..

Rather than a traditional pasta bake, this is quicker as it only needs a couple of minutes under a got grill to crispen up the top - a tasty dinner in less than 20 minutes is always a winner! Slightly spicy with smoky sausage and cheesy top? What more do you need at the end of a long day at work?!

Serves 3/4

Ingredients

50g Kabanosy sausage, sliced

1/2 red onion, diced

1 clove crushed garlic

1 leek, sliced

3 Sundried tomatoes, shredded

1 tbsp tomato and basil puree

330g fusilli pasta

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp red chilli puree (I used Gourmet Garden's)

1 tin chopped tomatoes (save tin!)

1 tbsp dried breadcrumbs

50g grated cheddar

Heat a large frying pan soften the onion in the oil, add the garlic. leek and fry until lightly browned, stir in the sausage and tomato puree, stir well and add the tomatoes and chilli puree, bring to a rolling boil then simmer gently. Meanwhile boil the fusilli as per packet instructions.

Once the pasta has cooked, add 1/4 of the empty tomato tin filled with the pasta water into the sauce, this will help thicken it.

Drain the pasta and stir into the sauce, season to taste and transfer into a grill proof dish. Sprinkle over the breadcrumbs and cheese and grill for 4/5 minutes or until lightly browned

Serve in your favourite bowls and maybe a small wedge of garlic bread on the side!

Salted Caramel Sauce.. for Scones..for cake..or on a spoon..

This sauce was born during one of those ‘you know you are a food blogger moments’ as it was nearly bedtime, and my mind was pondering at the sad thought of pouring away the last of the double cream that I was quite sure was to have been used by the previous day and then thought turned to twitter…and a little googling and both came up with the glorious suggestion I made Salted caramel sauce! 

I’ve made caramel sauce before in the form of Rachel Allen’s heavenly toffee apple crumble and I have become extremely fond (read that as addicted) to salted caramel and decided to go ahead with making salted caramel sauce, and after telling B I was a little crazy as no I was not coming to bed, I was in fact making caramel sauce he just nodded and off I went downstairs in my pyjamas and set about dragging baskets out of the cupboards and making a lovely late night mess in the kitchen. During the process of stirring it, I managed to locate an empty jar under the sink for the sauce (that only faintly smelled of the sundried tomato chutney it previously held) and managed to successfully fill it perfectly to the top! Pure lucky coincidence!

I did have thoughts of melting it back down to make a cake filling but then some heavenly Rodda's clotted cream arrived…we made some scones…and ya know the cake can wait – for salted caramel and clotted cream scones came to me in a dream and turned into sweet reality! Obviously do not open it late at night under the cover of darkness with a spoon for you shall have sugary filled dreams but heck, better than a nightmare right?

The recipe is based on this one for a coffee version (to definitely be tried at a later date!) and we love it! Its unsurprisingly sweet with a subtle hint of salt that just works so amazingly well together. As the recipe is in cups I stuck mostly to it, the only odd measurement for me was tablespoons of butter - I just sort of gauged out the chilled butter!

Salt wise, I had a few different salts in the cupboard and initially thought I had picked up the tiny pot that remained of Maldon sea salt flakes but it turned out actually to be the salt crystals for refilling the grinder... Obviously I realised this after it went it but in all fairness it worked perfectly so just go with whatver you have! Saying that I bought some pretty rose pink tinted Himalayan salt this week so will try that next time!

5 tbsp unsalted butter

2/3 cup Double cream

1/2 cup Light brown soft sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt 

 2tsp vanilla extract

In a small heavy saucepan melt the butter, add sugar, salt and cream, bring to the boil whisking constantly, reduce the heat and simmer for 3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in the vanilla, and pour into a sterlised jar.

Apparently it will keep in the fridge up to a month, if of course it lasts that long......

..And so to make amazing scones - I used Rodda's recipe which works perfectly - its just our oven takes a little bit longer so they don't get as large but they still taste great! I noticed on their website the eggwash bit is missing - beat an egg with a little sugar to glaze them prior to baking. 

Top with clotted cream and a layer of the salted caramel sauce in whichever order you prefer!

Honey and Mustard Sausage Casserole

Winter still has us in its chilly grip but the daffodils are starting to bloom and Spring is in the air!  I love seeing their bright sunny little heads burst into flower and think of warmer times ahead! Me and cold weather do not mix! However salads are not really going to cut it for a while yet and a warming dish, like my sausage and mustard casserole is just the thing to keep you warm inside! Packed full with sausages, soft tender barley and beans it will keep you full for hours and your tummy snugly and content.

I also feel I need to apologise I've been struggling lately to get my blog posts written up, sometimes its because I get downstairs and realise the note pad / camera/ pen are still upstairs, and as stairs are simply a menace to my knees to go back up, I abandon any blogging idea. Or at a later date and I can't find where I have written a recipe down. That on top of I simply the lack the energy to string more than a few sentences together to form a blog post someday's! As per this weeks meal planning post my health has been not too brilliant but I am trying to just pace myself, it just gets all a bit frustrating at times though but I will keeping trying! A lot of the food lately B has been eating as my appetite has been all over the place but hopefully when the new meds kick in I might feel a bit more level! I still love to look at food though so have been spending a lot of time tidying up my Pinterest boards - do head over and have a little drool whilst you are there!

So enough of my woes, this dish was originally developed using some Basics ingredients from Sainsbury's - I cook fairly budget friendly anyway but managed to switch several ingredients to basics ingredients very successfully and with no loss of flavour, definitely something I have carried forward into other dishes I make. I also used up some leftover potatoes and kidney beans from other meals so it was a tasty fridge raid casserole! 

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

2 Basics Vegetable stock cubes in 1200ml boiling water

6 cumberland sausages

1 large carrot, sliced

2 sticks celery, sliced

120g cooked new potatoes, cubed

115g cooked kidney beans

1 large white onion, diced

6 tsp Basics honey (if like mine its gone a little too set simply zap in the microwave without the lid to melt!)

1.5 tbsp wholegrain mustard

2 tbsp vegetable oil

150g pearl barley, soaked in water for at least two hours

Method:

In a large saute pan or casserole dish heat the oil and brown the sausages for about 10 minutes or until they have a nice golden colour. Transfer the sausages onto some kitchen paper, cut into 6 pieces each. 

Fry the onion for about 3 minutes in the remaining oil, then add the carrots and celery, stirring regularly until all the veg is just softening - about 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients, bring to a gentle boil then cover and simmer gently for 2 hours.

Ladle into deep bowls or pasta plates and tuck in! It also reheats beautifully the next day too!

As this used up some stray leftover potatoes and kidney beans and some rather tired celery I am sending this over to the No Waste Food Challenge, held by Cooking Around the World this month:

Many thanks to Sainsbury's for supplying some of the ingredients. Disclaimer: I received vouchers to cover my time and ingredients to develop this recipe

Meal Planning Monday - Hello March..

Erm hello March where did you spring from? January went on for what seemed like forever, and then February vanished in a blink of the eye! I got completely thrown by the shorter month as I had a few things all with best before dates of the 1st of March and on Saturday I was scanning through the fridge thinking oh we will have the smoked mackerel tomorrow it doesn't go up till the 1st. Hmm it is the 1st! Anyway we ate it on the 2nd and to no harmful effects! We used it in a tasty pasta bake topped with the last of some stale bashed crackers and a generous scattering of cheese!

Last week's plan was hit and miss - The Harissa pork kebabs. Butternut Squash Israeli couscous with sultanas and almonds were all very delicious but Wednesday's planned Chinese Pork didn't happen, and in turn Thursday's leftovers was not possible, so instead we made a Chorizo and sweet potato rice one pot, which whilst was very tasty but I barely nibbled at mine... anyway we made loads and it fed B well for the next few lunches!..

..The week had started relatively well - halfway through I got another 'all clear' from the oncologist, always a relief (three years now!) but I was feeling a bit under the weather and struggling to get out of bed towards the end of the week - following a long awaited consultation they are working on the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, which explains so much and yet feels like a burden too. However presuming it is that, once some more prodding and poking to be done to rule out anything else, at least now I can move forward and deal with it rather than assuming everything was in my head and I was going slowly mad..! I am forever grateful to my loving friends and family who help me see the wood for the trees on the bad days!

Anyway hopefully this week will be more positive, I've just finished night shifts and not quite sure if right now its day or night but I start new medication tonight with regards to the working diagnosis, so hopefully will feel a bit brighter once that properly kicks in and I actually sleep through the night without tossing and turning in pain..! Roll on bedtime!!

So this weeks plan is roughly as follows - some of the brain fog and exhaustion is still tickling my veins but this makes relative sense right now so hopefully will happen fairly on plan!

Quesadillas - spinach, mozzarella and parma ham with Sweet potato wedges 

Beef kofta masala with pilau rice. Vegetable curry

Green pesto and courgette spaghetti 

Baked chicken legs with Polish seasoning and kaska barley 

Spinach pizza with rocket, pine nut and sundried tomato salad 

MPM 03.03.14