Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 6

Monday
Lunch The baked potato soup I made last week then froze
Dinner Greggs sausage and bean melt with mashed potato for him and leftover lemon chicken which I froze last week for me

Tuesday I'm working from home
Lunch coronation chicken jacket potato from Slimming World 100 extra easy days
Dinner lamb and potato cakes with pitta bread, beef meatballs for him

Wednesday
Lunch The baked potato soup I made last week then froze
Dinner chicken chargrills for him, leftover homemade lasagne from the freezer for me

Thursday
Lunch  I'm possibly on a course and not in the office so will have to buy something
Dinner sweet potato and goat's cheese lattice pie for me (bought in the supermarket from the reduced section, thought it looked interesting!) and chicken pie for him

Friday
Lunch I'm possibly on a course and not in the office so will have to buy something
Dinner Out with an old friend I haven't seen in many years

Saturday
Lunch bacon and cheese omelette for him, tuna nicoise with leftover pitta for me based on this recipe
Dinner beef medallion steaks

Sunday
Lunch ham and leek hash with creamy onion sauce from Slimming World Little Book of Sauces for me, bacon sandwich for him
Dinner chicken with garlic and herb sauce for him, lamb grillsteak for me that I meant to do last week but didn't, with roast potatoes

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Chocolate Crumble

I love apple crumble but as my husband doesn't eat apple I almost never make it - because I feel like I'd have to make him an equivalent dessert at the same time and I can never think of anything similar! My problem  was solved when I found this Tesco recipe for chocolate crumble - it has a gooey chocolate base with a delicious crumble topping.

I feel that I should echo Tesco's comment that "This pudding is very rich and indulgent so it shouldn't be eaten too often. But it's perfect for those special occasions!"

To serve 4, you need:
for the filling:
200g plain chocolate, chopped
150ml whipping cream
1 tbsp. cornflour

for the topping:
100g caster sugar
icing sugar for dusting
100g unsalted butter
150g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 190C. Bring the cream to the boil in a saucepan then remove from the heat, and stir in the chopped chocolate until it has melted. Whisk in the cornflour until smooth.

Pour into an oven proof baking or casserole dish and leave to cool for ten minutes.

Meanwhile rub the butter and flour between your fingertips to make 'breadcrumbs' then mix in the sugar. Alternatively put the butter, sugar and flour in a food processor and pulse. Spoon the crumble on top of the chocolate filling and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes and dust with icing sugar before serving.

 

 

I'm sharing this with We Should Cocoa, hosted by Choclette at Tin and Thyme.

 

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Restaurant Review: Isolabella, Holborn, London

Holborn is an area that I don't know very well - I used to go to a choir rehearsal in a church not far away, and occasionally got something to eat at Subway on the way, but it's not somewhere I ever really go out - or an area you ever really see in restaurant guides. It's sort of half way between the City and the West End (though don't quote me on exact distances), is the nearest tube to the British Museum (though for me the British Museum is in Bloomsbury, not Holborn) - and is apparently part of the Borough of Camden but couldn't be further from the image I have of Camden, which is basicall the market.

I'm sure that like many places once you scratch below the surface you will find all sorts of things to do. One thing that Holborn does seem to have is a large number of Italian restaurants all in one space and with a few exceptions I don't mean chain restaurants. Just before Christmas I went to one of these with a friend - Isolabella.

She chose the restaurant, from looking through places on Opentable with special offers, and I have to admit I was a bit dubious initially when she suggested Holborn. But I trust my friend's taste in restaurants - we have had some great meals out together including the only tasting menu I've ever tried. And once again, she came up trumps.

The restaurant wasn't particularly busy but service wasn't very fast, which isn't usually a problem as we do like to have a good natter! The menu is extensive with pizza, pasta, meat and fish. I do like to have a lot of choice but sometimes wonder about restaurants that have huge menus if they are able to cook everything to the same high standard  - they have 16 desserts for instance which is a lot to be made fresh every day so I wondered whether they get them from a catering supplier or if they do actually make them on site.

The food that I had though was very good - beef ravioli in a tomato sauce (a good-sized portion) and for dessert, apple tart with vanilla ice cream. I think it would have been a little pricey for what it was at £14.50 for the main (especially given it's pasta in tomato sauce, albeit with minced beef) and £6.50 for the dessert (I've had better apple pies for less) - but with the 50% off discount it was definitely worth doing!

 

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 5

My parents are visiting this weekend and I'm taking them to Ripley's Believe It Or Not - as the weather is meant to be bad and it's indoor, and I think they would like it. What's your favourite thing to do in London when it's wet or cold?

Monday
Lunch: sandwich
Dinner: spaghetti Bolognese with Quorn mince for me, beef for him

Tuesday - I'm working from home
Lunch: leftover spaghetti bolognese
Dinner: Slow Cooker lemon chilli chicken

Wednesday
Lunch: baked potato soup from this recipe
Dinner: My husband is out, I will have a Weight Watchers ready meal as they have some new ones I want to try

Thursday
Lunch: rest of the homemade soup
Dinner: chicken with garlic and herb sauce for him, lamb grillsteak for me

Friday - my parents are coming to stay and will be here when we get home in the evening
Lunch: out with a work colleague
Dinner: chicken kievs and chips, Mars ice cream bar for dessert

Saturday
Lunch: sausages, bacon, toast, baked beans etc
Dinner: out with my parents and mother-in-law

Sunday
Lunch: eggs benedict
Dinner: pork medallions, with chilli, lemon and crème fraiche from this recipe

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Dino-Mite Dinosaur Birthday Card

I made this card for an 8-year old girl who is mad about dinosaurs at the moment. Ages ago I bought a pack of silver dinosaur outline stickers for another birthday card and have found it hard to use them up - as they are small silver stickers, sometimes solid and sometimes outlines, they don't work on a lot of backgrounds but putting them on a plain card doesn't look very good either.

I decided to do the best I could with them, and started by sticking the dinosaur outline sticker onto a small square or rectangle of pink paper. I edged that with a silver outline edging sticker and did the same with two smaller dinosaur stickers.

Using a thin rectangular card blank I turned it on its side, covered it in textured pink paper and stuck a strip of pink patterned paper down the middle. I then mounted the dinosaur pieces onto this to make it look a bit more interesting.

Finally I added a slogan I'd seen somewhere: have a dino-mite birthday! I typed it on the computer in pink and printed it out on pink paper. It doesn't have enough space around it to look professional so if I made this again I would use a wider card, but I still quite like it.

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WeightWatchers Chicken Basque

This a great one-pot meal which can feed a whole family. It's actually a WeightWatchers recipe as it's fairly low in fat if you use skinless boneless chicken breasts or thighs - I used thighs for this recipe so it's good value as well. If you left the chorizo out it would be lower in fat but wouldn't taste as good!

According to the recipe which I found in an old WeightWatchers magazine, this has 9 and a half points per person. It involved scattering olives and orange slices over the top at the end which I didn't do, so I have left these out of the recipe.

To serve 4, you need:
8 skinless boneless chicken thighs
low fat cooking spray
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, cut into thin wedges
2 red peppers, de-seeded and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
75g chorizo sausage, skinned and sliced
50g semi-dried tomatoes (I used sun-dried, drained of oil on kitchen paper)
175g brown basmati rice
1 chicken stock cube, mixed with 225ml water
125ml dry white wine
1 tbsp. tomato puree
1/2 tsp paprika
2 tsp chopped fresh parsley

 

Season the chicken. Use an oven proof dish that can also go on the hob if you have one, and spray with low fat cooking spray. Brown the chicken on both sides - alternatively you can do this in a frying pan. Heat the olive oil in the casserole dish or frying pan and brown the onion and peppers, then after about 5 minutes add the garlic, chorizo and tomatoes.

Preheat the oven to 180C. If you're using a frying pan, at this point transfer the ingredients into the casserole dish. Stir in the rice until it's coated in oil then add the stock, wine, tomato puree and paprika. Put the chicken on top, making sure the rice is still covered by liquid, and put the lid on top.

Bake in the oven for about an hour until the rice has cooked and the liquid absorbed and the chicken is cooked through. Sprinkle with parsley to serve.

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Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Chicken

It's Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rooster is about to begin so what better meal to cook for your family or friends than sweet and sour chicken? The great thing about this recipe is that because you make it in a slow cooker, it's really easy. Put it on and forget about it until you are ready to eat - at least if you use microwave pouches of rice like I do, you really don't need to do a lot!

The recipe comes from the Betty Crocker website - which I associate more with cakes than savoury dishes. I don't think it needs the cornstarch you add at the end though as I found most of the liquid had evaporated in the slow cooker by the time it had finished cooking.

To serve 2, you need:
200g tin pineapple, chopped (juice from the tin reserved)
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
half an onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
4 skinless boneless chicken thighs, diced
3 tbsp. soy sauce
3 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 red pepper, seeds removed and chopped
1/2 green pepper, seeds removed and chopped
1/4 cup water
rice or noodles to serve    

Put the pineapple, carrots, onion, garlic and ginger in the slow cooker. Top with the chicken.

Mix the pineapple juice, soy sauce and sugar and pour over the chicken.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 2-3 hours. For the last 30 minutes add the pineapple and peppers. Serve with rice or noodles.

 

 

 

 

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