Meal Planning 2013 - Week 52

I'm really pleased that I lost 2.5 pounds last week given it is so close to Christmas! I am going to make more of an effort with Slimming World next year but this week I will be staying with family and friends so won't have as much control over meals.



Monday I've got the day off today though my boyfriend is at work. Today I'm going to make the dessert that I'm taking to my parents on Christmas day (assuming I can fit everything in my boyfriend's car, which has a tiny boot and no back seats!)

Breakfast cereal


Lunch broccoli and stilton soup

Dinner seeing my boyfriend's parents - I think we are having takeaway at his mum's house




Tuesday -Christmas Eve

Breakfast cereal or yogurt


Lunch either leftover soup from yesterday or a baked potato

Dinner We are going to see my boyfriend's family this afternoon, I don't know if we will still be there for dinner or not. If we are back home I will cook fishfingers and chips as it's quick and easy.



Wednesday - Christmas Day

Breakfast With my boyfriend at our house - but we won't have much time as we need to leave to drive to my parents by 9am, and I'd like to open some presents before we go!

Lunch With my parents - turkey and all the trimmings


Dinner with my parents - probably a turkey sandwich and some sausage rolls




Thursday

Boxing Day- still at my parents' so don't know what I will be having


Friday

- still at my parents' so don't know what I will be having




Saturday

- at my parents then with friends for the rest of the day so don't know what we are having


Sunday

- I will be leaving my friend's house at some point and coming back to London so the only meal I can really plan is dinner and it will need to be something quick and easy that my boyfriend also likes, e.g. fishfingers and chips

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Meal Planning 2013 - week 51

I put on a little weight last week which really doesn't surprise me. Since my last weigh in I had: lunch and drinks with friends on Sunday; dinner and drinks with a friend on Monday; lunch and drinks with work colleagues on Wednesday; the work Christmas party (with a free bar) on Thursday, and a takeaway with my boyfriend on Friday! Though the way it has turned out means I have no social events or plans at all this week, so I am going to try hard to shift the weight I just put on.



Monday

Breakfast skipped breakfast as I left early and had a Slimming World hi-fi bar later


Lunch leftover pasta from Sunday


Dinner My other half is out this evening so I can cook something he won't like; I'm thinking salmon with lemon rice.



Tuesday

Breakfast yogurt

Lunch burrito with leftover gammon and rice

Dinner spaghetti bolognese




Wednesday

Breakfast yogurt or toast


Lunch leftover spaghetti bolognese

Dinner Slimming World stuffed lemon chicken - All in One book p30




Thursday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch sandwich


Dinner fish in breadcrumbs and chips for me, chicken in breadcrumbs for the OH




Friday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch baked potato or sandwich


Dinner My boyfriend also has the day off today but I am at work. I have promised my boyfriend a takeaway pizza at some point before Christmas (it was actually behind one of the windows of his homemade advent calendar!) so tonight seems a good a night as any.



Saturday

Brunch It's our Christmas party at Slimming World and they are cooking us bacon sandwiches

Lunch I'll also do a bacon sandwich for my boyfriend


Dinner individual roasted poussin for me, chicken breast for the other half, with roast potatoes.



Sunday

Breakfast waffles


Lunch baked potatoes with beans/cheese/tuna


Dinner Slimming World lamb shank casserole for me, sausage casserole and mash for the other half

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Best Blog Award- Capricorn Challenge

I was thrilled to be chosen as "best food blog" for the month of October by Capricorn Goat's Cheese. I had a lovely email from Ethel the Goat telling me they had picked me and that my prize was a year's supply of goat's cheese! The reason that I am only mentioning this now is because I was waiting until my prize arrived to discover how much they reckon a year's supply is! Rather than fill my fridge with a ton of cheese at once, they very kindly sent me 24 vouchers for a 100g packet of Capricorn goat's cheese. So that's 2.4kg of cheese altogether - a decent amount for a year, I think!

Having said that, I doubt I will keep the vouchers all to myself. You will undoubtedly see some recipes using goat's cheese on my blog over the coming year however! I'd be interested to know if anyone has any suggestions or a favourite recipe using goat's cheese; if so please let me know in the comment box below!

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"X- Rated" Cookies (Bonking Biscuits!)

If you are easily offended then look away now... these are a little bit naughty! And I don't mean in terms of calories.... I have done my best to make the photographs 'artistic' and indeed not too revealing. I was given these cookie cutters last year by a friend and wanted to hang on to them until Alphabakes came up with the letter X - there are not many things I can bake beginning with X so I think these X-rated cookies are just the thing!

Here you can see the top of the box from the cookie cutters

I used a straightforward biscuit recipe and added some allspice as I thought it was quite appropriate that I made these biscuits spicy! Allspice apparently combines the flavours of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.



You need:

100g butter, softened

100g caster sugar

200g plain flour

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla flavouring

2 tsp ground allspice



Cream the butter and sugar and mix in the flour

I used this Madagascan vanilla from Dr. Oetker, which had a really good flavour. Add the vanilla, egg and allspice and mix well.

Roll out the dough and cut into shapes with the cookie cutters.You can see here I am being quite careful with my photography!

Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for about 10 minutes until browned but still slightly soft.

Transfer to a rack to cool.

I would recommend decorating these with royal icing or a tube of writing icing. I didn't have much time and was only making these for me and my boyfriend so I used an edible ink pen to draw on faces and arms (and nothing else - just arms, ok?!). I have to say I think these cookie cutters would be good for hen nights and parties! They are also quite large and make very substantial cookies, I broke most of them in half and just ate a piece at a time.

I'm sending these X-rated cookies to Alphabakes, which Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker is hosting this month.

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Meal Planning 2013 - Week 50

Monday

Breakfast yogurt or cereal


Lunch I was meant to be doing a cookery class for lunch today but it got cancelled at the last minute so instead I will probably make a sandwich

Dinner I'm going to see Rick Stein Live at the Palladium with a foodie friend and we are going to an Italian restaurant for a quick dinner beforehand.



Tuesday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch sandwich or cous cous


Dinner Chicken kiev and chips for the Other Half, salmon for me - though I think I might take Tuesday off work as I have a lot to do at home in which case I will make something else that I can spend a little longer over.



Wednesday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch I've got my work Christmas lunch today, we are going to Brasserie Blanc

Dinner spaghetti and cheese-stuffed meatballs




Thursday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch sandwich


Dinner It's the work Christmas party tonight so I will be eating (and drinking) there. We're having a movies theme this year and I'm going as Cruella deVil, mainly because someone I know has a great costume I can borrow.



Friday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch sandwich


Dinner sausage and mash for the OH, stir fry for me




Saturday

Breakfast yogurt

Lunch chicken fajitas


Dinner slow cooked gammon




Sunday

Breakfast toast/cereal


Lunch sausages (Quorn for me), baked beans, potato cakes which I have in the freezer


Dinner sticky BBQ chicken with Slimming World chips, which I had on the meal plan a couple of weeks ago but didn't make.

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Baby Back Ribs, Pinoy Style

Baby Back Ribs, Pinoy Style. I would like to share my easy Pinoy version of Baby Back Ribs for this Holiday Seasons. Most would have thought that Baby Back Ribs served at classy steak restaurant would be difficult to make. My version is fairly easy and any novice cook can make it as long as you have an oven at home.

For this this recipe I used pork ribs rack which should be available in most large supermarket. For our dish today I bought it from my favourite supermarket, the South Supermarket in Filinvest Alabang, yes I am in Manila for my Holiday Vacation. For the Pinoy style marinade, to make it simple I used Mama Sita’s barbeque marinade plus some soy sauce, banana ketchup, kalamansi and chopped garlic.

Here is the recipe of my Baby Back Ribs, Pinoy Style.

Ingredients



1 pc. about 1.5 kilo pork rib rack, cut in half

1 small bottle Mama Sita’s barbeque marinade

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4-1/3 cup kalamansi juice

1/2 head garlic, chopped

1/2 cup banana ketchup

1/4 cup cooking oil

Cooking procedure



To marinate, place the pork ribs in a rectangular container with lid. Add in the garlic, kalamasi, Mama Sita’s barbeque marinade and 1/3 cup of banana ketchup. Using your hand mix thoroughly the marinade and ensure that the pork ribs are evenly coated with the marinade mixture. Replace the lid, place inside the refrigerator and let marinate for at least overnight.



To make the basting mixture mix banana ketchup and cooking oil in a small bowl.



To bake arrange the marinated pork ribs in a rectangular baking dish, cover with 2 sheets of aluminium foil. Place the baking dish in an oven pre-heated to 125°C to 150°C, bake for 1.5 hours. Then remove the aluminium and discard the oil that have accumulated on the baking dish.



To broil, baste with a thick coat, about half of the basting ketchup. Return to the oven and broil for 5 to 8 minutes. Carefully turn over the pork ribs and baste with the remaining basting ketchup, broil for 5 to 8 minutes. Serve hot with your favorite grilled side dish.

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Pinoy Lengua Estofado

Pinoy Lengua Estofado may not be as popular with Menudo, Kaldereta or Afritada but it is a special holiday dish to those who have acquired the taste and texture of the ox tongue. This version is the closes Pinoy version of Lengua Estofado that I could think of. Sure there are other Lengua Estofado versions that use fancy ingredients but those are reserved for future post.

My version of Legua Estofado is cooked using the traditional cooking method of the Pinoy estofado with plantain banana and sweet potato.

Here is the recipe of my Pinoy Lengua Estofado.





Ingrediets:



1 small size ox tongue, about 1 kilo size

1 medium size carrot, skinned, sliced diagonally

3-4 pcs. plantain banana, peeled, sliced diagonally

3-4 pcs. plantain banana, peeled, sliced longitudinally, fried

3-4 pcs. medium sized sweet potato, skinned, sliced crosswise, fried

1 whole garlic, cut crosswise

1 large sized onion, quartered

5-6 pcs bay leaf

1 tsp peppercorns

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

salt

cooking oil

Cooking procedure:



Wash the ox tongue thoroughly and place in a medium size sauce pan. Pour enough water up to 1 inch above the meat. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain and discard the first boiling liquid. Rinse the ox tongue peel out the white hard outer skin, use a small sharp knife as necessary, if having difficulty. Return the cleaned tongue to the pan and add in fresh water to about 2 inches above the meat. Add in the garlic, onion, peppercorn and half of the bay leaf. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 to 2 1/2 hours until tender add more water as necessary. Now remove the ox tongue from the pan and slice crosswise keep aside, now filter out and discard all the residue of the boiling liquid and reserved broth. Using the same sauce pan return the slice tongue. Add in 2 cups of the reserved broth, the vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, cooking oil and remaining bay leaf bring to a boil and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until the liquid is reduced to about half. Add in the carrot and raw banana continue to simmer for 8 to 10 minutes. Thicken sauce with cornstarch diluted wit 1/4 cup of water, cook a couple of minutes. Serve with the fried banana and sweet potato.

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