Making a little go a long way - or trying to! Meal Plan for week beginning 30 August 11

There are a couple of things going on with our income this week that mean it would be good if we could try to just tighten our belts a little.  Hence, I'm afraid you won't be finding expensive cuts of meat, or fancy fish (well, apart from Scampi - but that's our one indulgence for this week!) on the menu list.

However, you will find a great deal of involvement with the wonderful thing that is mince.  Beef mince, turkey mince, pork mince - it's all there, in various incarnations.  That and the wonderful bacon we get from our local butcher.  It's not only cheaper than the supermarkets and so unbelievably good, but you get almost twice the amount in rasher size, too!

So.  Here's how this week of semi-frugality is shaping up :

Tuesday : Son - Lasagne, Adults - Pork Noodle Stir-fry

Wednesday : Tenderstem broccoli & bacon quiche, lemony new potatoes and salad

Thursday : Scampi and salad

Friday : Pasta with bacon, peas and mint

Saturday : Turkey meatball & sweetcorn curry, rice & naan bread

Sunday : Cornish Pasties and salad

Monday : Chilli con carne with rice.

I'm still not quite back firing on all four cylinders as I was prior to contracting Shingles, plus my right knee seems to have a life of its own in that it suddenly decides to not have anything to do with what we're trying to achieve.  It has brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion, just lately.  I have resolved to deep breathe and carry on, once it has decided to let me.  Oh the trials of arthritis!  As such, I've kept my recipes to things that are easily achieved and don't require much time spent in the kitchen - or much walking to and fro.

We opted to utilise "Pizza Tuesday" at the beginning of the week and indulged in a Stir Fry.  We had already put aside a Lasagne in the freezer for Son & heir for just such an occasion, which when he came to the kitchen to ask what was for dinner, he was heartily relieved to learn was headed in his direction.  He'd been looking very dubiously at the stir fry out of the corner of his eye, with a distinct air of consternation in the enquiry.

The Pork Noodle Stir Fry wasn't a resounding success, regrettably, as hubby found the sprinkling of fresh mint to be a challenging flavour too many.  Everything else he was relatively happy with - even the dressing of lime juice, soy sauce, wine vinegar and honey.  The recipe used pork mince and I took a short cut and bought a fresh stir fry mix (with bamboo shoots and water chestnuts - yum!) to take the place of the vegetables.  I was enjoying the meal to begin with, but found I quickly got bored with the flavours.  So, we won't be indulging in this one again - not when there are much nicer stir fry recipes out there!

This evening, we've just had a lovely Tenderstem Broccoli & Bacon Quiche (see the original recipe here on the Tenderstem website) accompanied with Lemony new potatoes and salad.

You know, hubby said it and I completely agree with him - Tenderstem Broccoli is almost as nice as Asparagus.  I won't go into raptures here over it, as I'm intending to do a blog post specifically for both the quiche and the potato recipe, as they went together so well.  Plus, if ever the Tenderstem website disappears at least I'll have the recipe on my blog!

I'll be at work on Thursday and we had been wracking our brains to try to think of something easy for hubby to cook that evening.  Suddenly a shaft of inspiration came down from on high (or from somewhere, anyway!) and hubby exclaimed "scampi!".  So, scampi it is - with salad and lovely crusty bloomer bread.  Yummy!

Last Sunday I had been reading other folks' blogs and came across "Senses in the kitchen".  Detailed thereon, was an intriguing and deliciously simple recipe for Pasta with Bacon, Peas and mint.  You can find the recipe here if you're curious.  Now I won't deny that following on from hubby's problem with the mint in the stir fry, I'm not as confident as I was.  However, this is a much simpler mix of flavours which are all compatible, so I've got my fingers firmly crossed!  As for son & heir, well, he's a different matter - there is no saying whether he'll like it or not, so I'll carry on and hope for the best.

Saturday's Turkey Meatball & Sweetcorn Curry has been trying to be made for the last couple of weeks, without success.  Turkey mince is so economical and the meatballs stay together most beautifully when they are cooked, so they are perfect ammunition for a curry.  I suspect I'll add a few curry spices to the meatballs, just to get them headed in the right direction.  As for the inclusion of sweetcorn - well, there's so much of it about and it is so deliciously sweet, it seemed a perfect accompaniment to the gentle flavour of the meatballs.

The Cornish Pasties are a request from hubby.  Again, they are relatively easy to make - I'll have to get hubby to do the rolling out of the pastry this time, as it nearly did for me the last time!  With the addition of the mandolin which makes slicing so easy, it should be a fairly easy job.  Fingers crossed!  (If I've any left, having used the mandolin!).

Last, but far from least, we've booked in a Chilli Con Carne for Monday.  The advantages of having a chilli on a Monday are that we won't be needing to try to keep any vegetables fresh for use in it (other than an onion!) and hubby can make chilli with one hand tied behind his back - and a cracking good chilli, at that.

We'll have it with your standard boiled rice, but Son & heir and myself like to sprinkle our chilli with grated cheddar cheese and, um, weasels.  Yes, you read that right - weasels.  When Son & heir was just a little 'un, he couldn't pronounce sultanas - and for some unknown reason, they wound up being "weasels".  So - chilli with weasels and cheese, anyone?

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