Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 9

This week's meal plan...

Monday – I’m at a work event in evening so home late, but not out all evening, so we can have pizzas from the freezer (update - I was even later than I thought so had something from the train station for my dinner!)

 

Tuesday – pancake day. My vegetarian mother-in-law is coming to dinner, and as usual I’m working from home today. She loved the macaroni cheese I made once before so this time I am going to make macaroni cheese with garlic bread crust from this recipe -with a couple of sausages for my husband as he doesn’t think pasta by itself is really a meal!

Dessert: pancakes: I'm going to try this Nigella recipe as I already have Frangelico at home and it sounds delicious!

 

Wednesday- stir-fry with chicken and mooli for me, chicken chargrill for him
 

Thursday – tagliatelle with prawns for me, meatballs for him (using up the chopped tomatoes and white wine I have open)

 

Friday - something with chips from the freezer

 

Saturday

Lunch- Greggs baked bean pasty with potato waffles for him, and for me tuna spaghetti

Dinner- chicken and potatoes in a creamy garlic sauce from this recipe

 

Sunday

Lunch- going to see my sister and niece

Dinner- not sure what time we will be back - probably something from the freezer

 

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Chicken and Chorizo Filo Parcels

Isn't it always the case that when you use ready-made pastry, you have some left over that find its way into the fridge or even the freezer? Not long ago I decided I needed to use up some filo pastry and had a look on the Jus-Rol (the pastry brand) website for inspiration. I thought these chicken, manchego and chorizo briouats.

 

I made them a little differently, as I always do; I left out the lentils as I don't like them, and rather than sun-dried tomato paste or even tomato puree (which would have been a good alternative) I used some chopped sun-dried tomatoes, and added some sweet potato puree I had previously made, and a little plain yogurt to create some moisture. I'm also not quite sure why the recipe on the link above mentions puff pastry and think this might be a mistake!

Making the parcels very small and tight isn't that easy and mine were rather bigger than expected; we ate them as a main course with potato wedges but I think they would be brilliant as part of a buffet. The chicken and chorizo are a great flavour combination and the sweet potato puree really adds something slightly sweet and creamy, though if you don't want to go to the effort of making this specifically, just use the cheese and the yogurt. Manchego is a Spanish's sheep's cheese which I couldn't get hold of for this recipe so I used cheddar which I thought worked fine. I also took the opportunity to use up some left over roast chicken, which I shredded.

Here's what I did:

Serves 6
6 Filo pastry sheets
2 tbsp. oil for brushing
50g chorizo, diced
1 onion, diced
dash of oil or low-fat cooking spray
25g sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
4 tbsp. plain yogurt
either 4 cooked chicken breast fillets or about 400g cooked shredded chicken
salt, pepper
75g grated cheese
4 tbsp. sweet potato puree (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Heat the oil or cooking spray in a frying pan and fry the onion and chorizo over a low to medium heat for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

Transfer to a bowl and mix with the shredded chicken, cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Season. Stir in the yogurt and sweet potato puree.

Lay out a sheet of filo pastry and cut into three long thin strips. Brush with oil then add a spoonful of chicken mixture at one end.

Fold over the pastry to form a triangle, then flip the triangle up and to the right and then to the left and repeat until you have folded the filling all the way along the strip of pastry. Brush with more oil and place on a baking sheet.

Repeat until you have used up all the filling and the pastry.

Bake the parcels in the oven for 10-12 minutes. You may need to do this in a couple of batches. Serve warm with salad, couscous or potato wedges or as part of a buffet offering.

I'm sharing this with the No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary - it's a good way of using up filo pastry and cooked chicken.

I'm also sending it to Cook Once, Eat Twice, hosted by Corina at Searching for Spice, as you can cook some chicken one day (eg a roast) and use it in this recipe another day.

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Eight Great Pancake Recipes: Sweet, Savoury, Gluten-Free, Vegan

 

 

It's almost Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as Pancake Day - so here are 8 easy and delicious pancake recipes, from sweet to savoury and even vegan, gluten-free and sugar-free!

 

 

First up, because it's not all about being indulgent, are these buckwheat pancakes. These are gluten-free and don't contain any refined sugar. Delicious with smoked salmon and goat's cheese.

These sugar-free coconut milk pancakes are also great for people cutting out sugar who still want to enjoy some pancakes. They are made from a combination of coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut flour, shredded coconut and buckwheat flour - great served with apple sauce.

Now for something a bit more indulgent. This crepe cake or thousand layer cake takes a bit of time to make, though there are not really a thousand layers of course. The layers are sweet pancakes sandwiched together with crème patissiere and you slice it like a cake.

Savoury pancakes are great as a main course. Don't be put off by these Spam and mushroom filled pancakes - you can use any kind of tinned or chopped ham, and they taste really good.

When it comes to breakfast, how about these buttermilk pancakes with sausage gravy? I first had sausage gravy in America - it's basically diced sausage in a white sauce which makes a great alternative to a fried breakfast.

Who remembers Findus crispy pancakes? I used to love them when I was a kid so figured out a way to make my own ham and cheese crispy pancakes! The pancakes are coated in breadcrumbs and fried until they turn golden brown; cut into them and the ham and cheese filling oozes out. I'd forgotten how good these were!

 

 

But there's no need to complicate things and sometimes you want something simple. These American-style banana pancakes work for breakfast or dessert. I don't even like bananas and thought these were really good! The buttermilk makes them extra fluffy.

 

 And finally, here's a recipe for vegan pancakes - just because you don't eat eggs or milk doesn't mean you can't enjoy pancake day! These are really good and there are all sorts of toppings you could try, from fruit to the traditional lemon and sugar.

 

 What's your favourite pancake topping and what are you planning to make for Pancake Day? Let me know in the comments!

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Scrabble Name Picture for a Londoner

I like giving homemade gifts and ever since I discovered Hobbycraft's box frames I haven't run out of ideas. I first made a picture spelling out a family's names in scrabble letters several years ago; now they are much more common and it's easy to buy packs of the wooden letters with flat backs which are easy for gluing (for instance Hobbycraft, Amazon and the Works sell them quite cheaply).

I wasn't planning to make another one any time soon until I found this piece of wrapping paper with a fab London design. I thought it would look great in a frame, and it made me think of my friend Alice who had a birthday coming up, as she lives in central London.

 The wrapping paper, from Scribbler, features London landmarks and various city skyscrapers which I recognise from around where I work. I decided the picture needed something to stand out against the background and so I found a design in the Silhouette store and used by Silhouette Cameo to cut out a few shapes from black card:

 

The umbrella was part of the set but I decided not to use it! I mounted them on top of the backing paper and put it in the frame.

My husband thought that the scrabble letters would be the finishing touch and I wasn't sure, as they would stand out better against a plain background, but personalising a gift definitely makes it more special. I hope Alice liked it!

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 8

Last week was a bit of a strange week. Our boiler broke down, and me, my husband and our cat moved in with his mum for a whole week! I don’t know what we would have done without her – luckily she had a spare room, likes cats and was generous enough to share her home with us. It took a week for the boiler to be repaired following a catalogue of disasters – we told our home insurer we’d had to move out as the house was uninhabitable since it was so cold, and that the engineer needed to ring when he was on his way (we were only five minutes away at my mother-in-law’s). Of course, the engineer didn’t ring and since we weren’t home, went away again, and wasn’t able to come back until the next day. Then the engineer came with the wrong parts – twice! – making me wonder if the boiler was ever going to be fixed. It was finally working so after a week we were able to move back into our own house - for one night until the boiler failed again! This time they fixed it the next day, but I'm starting to think we need a new boiler..

 

 

Monday

Lunch: pitta bread with tuna

chicken chargrills for him, leftover homemade lasagne from the freezer for me

 

Tuesday- I’m working from home

Lunch: macaroni cheese on toast

Dinner: slow cooker parmesan chicken and potatoes from this recipe:

 

Wednesday

Lunch:Salad

Out in the evening with friends

 

Thursday

Lunch: salad

Delia’s creole prawns with rice for me, chicken curry for him (will freeze the other half)

 

Friday

I’m working from home due to work as I need to be working from 6am and I normally have an hour and a half commute (the company I work for is announcing its financial results)

Lunch- cheese on toast

Dinner – Slimming World sausage casserole

 

Saturday

Lunch: bacon sandwich

Dinner beef medallion steaks

 

Sunday

Lunch TBA - might go and visit my sister and niece today

Dinner TBA

 

 This is a blog hop, join in!
 

An InLinkz Link-up

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Forever Friends Envelope Birthday Card

I found this card recently when I did a big clear out of my craft stash; I'd put it aside finished but didn't use it as I couldn't find the right occasion, and then mislaid it. When I found it, I didn't think it was very good, then realised what I actually felt was that it wasn't finished.

At that point the card just had the cupcake paper on the bottom half of the card and the Forever Friends bear clutching an envelope on the top. I added a thin gold border strip along the top of the cupcake paper and the words 'happy birthday' from a set of vertical outline stickers which I normally find quite hard to use - but they were just right for this project.

I was in two minds as to whether to add the little gold balloon from the same pack but did, next to the word 'happy'.

I also had a sheet of gold letters which again are quite hard to use - you have to be really careful when writing a word to make sure none of the letters are wonky, and I've seen some people selling items on Facebook where they have spelled out a name in individual letters and they are not straight, which looks dreadful.

Luckily this card was for my friend Al so I only had to add two letters, which I put on the front of the envelope that the bear is holding, along with a little star from the same sticker pack as the 'happy birthday' words. I think it looks much better now!

I'm sending this to Jo's Scrap Shack 'anything goes' challenge.

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Super-Moist Vegan Strawberry Cake

 

I’m not that good at taking a hint, I guess. I made this vegan strawberry cake for my friend Alice’s birthday in 2013,

 

Vegan Strawberry Rose Birthday Cake - Caroline Makes http://ift.tt/1dErdfS I made this birthday cake for my friend Alice, not that we needed more cake as we also went out for afternoon tea! But I wanted to try out a chocolate transfer sheet ...

 and since then she has mentioned a few times that it was one of the best cakes she has ever had. So when it came around to her birthday this year, I thought I had better make it again!

 

I didn’t want to decorate it in exactly the same way – I covered the cake with pink fondant last time – and I recalled from reading my blog post that it was an absolutely massive cake.

 

The recipe below converts the quantities from US to UK measurements, and halves the amount. This was plenty to make a two-layer cake, which I filled and topped with vegan buttercream and fresh strawberries.

 

I brought the cake with me when I went to see Alice for her birthday and we all enjoyed a slice. The cake was really light and moist and as I’ve said often before, if you have preconceptions about vegan cakes not being good, you really must try this!

 

Vegan Strawberry Cake

 

280g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
140g caster sugar
60ml vegetable oil
600g strawberries
60ml soya milk
For the frosting:
200g vegan margarine eg Pure
400g icing sugar, sifted

Preheat the oven to 180C.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add the oil and mix well. Puree 400g of the strawberries, keeping the rest for decoration, and mix the pureed strawberries into the cake batter along with the soya milk.

Grease an 8-inch cake tin with Cake Release or with vegan margarine. Pour the cake batter into the tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin and when cool turn out onto a board. Slice the cake through the middle so you have two layers.

Beat the vegan margarine with the icing sugar to make frosting. Spread half the frosting onto the bottom layer of cake and slice half the reserved strawberries. Arrange the strawberries on top of the frosting.

Repeat with the second layer of cake with the remaining frosting and strawberries and gently place the top layer of cake on top of the bottom one. Sprinkle with icing sugar if desired.

 

I'm sharing this with Love Cake, hosted by Ness at JibberJabberUK, and CookBlogShare, hosted by Hijacked by Twins.

 

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