My week of meals w/c 7th April 2014

Weekday breakfasts consist of cereal, bread/ toast and eggs

Monday

L: ham, cheese, tomato and chutney (homemade, obvs) toastie

S: Ian and I had a spaghetti and wild garlic pesto 

Kids were at Lucy's for sups

Filo tarts for pudd 

Tuesday 

L: I had courgette, mint and feta soup from the freezer, kids had tomato soup with garlicky croutons, Ian forgot his soup and had something that sounds entirely rank from his drawer at work!!

S: We all had leftover sweet and sour chicken (see recipe) and I made special fried rice to go with it. I fried 3 spring onions, 3 mushrooms, 1 celery stick, half a tomato (all chopped) and a handful of frozen peas with some cooked long grain rice. I added a few chilli flakes and a sprinkling of Chinese 5 spice and some salt and pepper then I added beaten egg and, when it had started to cook, stirred it through the rice. 

I enjoyed it more the second time!

Wednesday

L: kids and I - leek and potato soup, Ian - wild garlic and mushroom soup

S: aubergine and chickpea lasagne with garlic pizza bread (see recipe)

I'm going to make a bolognese sauce with chickpeas to bulk it up instead of mince. 

Served with salad and garlic pizza bread. 

Update: It was delicious! Thumbs up!

Thursday

L: kids and I - omelette with chorizo, spring onion, chopped tomato and feta. If I have any green pepper left, I'll add that. 

Ian - sandwich

Jelly for pudding

S: Leftover aubergine and chickpea lasagne

Friday

L: Ian and I - soup from freezer 

S: bangers and mash with a warm tomato and caramelised onion chutney.  Kids at Lucy's 

Saturday

B: poached eggs on toast

L: homemade pizzas (my 8 and 10 year old nephews will also be here)

S: chicken (cooked chicken from freezer) in a tomato and olive sauce with couscous 

Sunday

B: scrambled eggs and smoked salmon (from freezer - great find!) on toast

L: beans/ spaghetti on toast 

S: wild garlic pasta 

I will only need to buy some more potatoes and I may need another pack of butter, this week. 

I had an anonymous food drop of some bread flour, yeast and tinned tomatoes from a true friend, thank you Gail :-) - I worked it out!, yesterday so won't be needing those this week! And my brother in law, thanks Dom :-), borrowed my rotovator and gave me a bottle of white as a thank you! Barter away, frugal foodies, barter away!

Basic tomato sauce for pizza

Ingredients 

4 fresh tomatoes 

Half tin chopped tomatoes 

1/2 tsp crushed chillies 

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp pesto (I used my wild garlic and hazelnut pesto)

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Handful wild garlic (or 2 cloves garlic)

Pinch salt 

Ground black pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

Method 

Put it all in the food processor and blitz! 

Coconut lamb, mint and feta pizza

This was an experiment. I had some leftover coconut milk (the really thick creamy part, not the watery milk) and some leftover roast lamb so I thought I'd get inventive!

I was excited to see that my mint had started growing again in the garden and I grow oregano and chives too so I used these too. I love the combo of lamb with oregano. Makes me think of Greece. 

Ingredients

Leftover lamb, cut into small pieces

1 heaped tbsp coconut cream (the thick bit from the coconut milk)

Garlic butter, melted

Olive oil

Dried oregano

Mix of finely grated hard cheeses. I used grana padano and Berwick Edge (from Doddington Dairy) 

Feta cheese

Marinade (below)

Basic pizza dough (see recipe on blog)

Basic tomato sauce (see recipe on blog)

For the marinade:

Chopped, fresh mint

Chopped, fresh oregano (if you don't have fresh, use dried)

Chopped chives 

Chopped wild garlic (normal garlic fine too)

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Method

Set the oven to gas mark 7/ 220c

Mix all the marinade ingredients together and add the lamb. Leave to marinate for as long as you'd like. Mine was in for a couple of hours, in the fridge. The smell is AMAZING! 

About 30 mins before using, I mixed the coconut in. 

When you're ready to assemble, lightly fork the base, brush the base with the garlic butter (I used wild garlic butter). Spoon the tomato sauce over it. 

Cover with lots of grated cheese. Add the lamb. Sprinkle some more cheese over and crumble feta over it. 

Sprinkle some dried oregano over and then drizzle with olive oil. 

Bake in a preheated oven for about 8 minutes. 

Healthy(er!!) homemade pizza (basic dough)

I say healthier as it's part wholemeal! I am seriously greedy and found it filled me quicker than a normal pizza. Hubby and kids found the same. Maybe nothing to do with it but that was my conclusion! 😀

This made 4 big pizzas. I like the base very thin but if you like it thicker, you'll obviously get smaller/ less pizzas. 

You can freeze any excess for future speedy pizzas!

Ingredients

300g plain flour

200g wholemeal bread flour

1 tbsp salt

1 heaped tsp sugar

7g fast action yeast

4 tbsp olive oil

325mls tepid water 

I also added some chopped wild garlic but this is optional. You could add dried oregano or chilli flakes too. 

Method 

I use a kenwood mixer with a dough hook to start off the kneading on all my bread doughs. But you can do it all by hand easily too. 

Combine all the ingredients together. I don't even bother putting the yeast in with the water first. I just chuck everything in the bowl and start mixing. 

Knead it until you have a smooth, springy dough. I do about 3 mins in the mixer then I stretch and knead the dough by hand for a further 2 or 3 minutes. 

If you weren't using a mixer, it would be approx 10 mins by hand. 

Leave to rise for about an hour and a half. 

Knock back the dough and give it a little knead. 

Leave for a further 30-45 mins to rise for a second time. 

Knock it back again and split into 4 pieces. 

You can freeze these at this point, if you'd like.

Roll out to the desired thickness. I do it until you are at the point that it can easily develop holes. I pick it up and stretch by hand too. If you get any holes, just stick them together again. It really doesn't matter. 

Now you're ready to add whichever delicious topping you'd like! 

See my recipes for tomato sauce and topping ideas.