Getting back in harness : Menu Plan w/b 6 Sept 11

I think that title - "Getting back in harness" - is entirely appropriate, as that's exactly what it feels like.  Having been away from interesting and new recipes for a couple of weeks, it feels good to get back to some new ideas.

Here's what's on the menu for this week :

Tues : Son - Pizza. Parents - Borscht & crusty bread.

Wed : Cornish pasties & baked beans.

Thurs : Macaroni cheese.

Fri : Lemon & yoghurt baked chicken with savoury rice.

Sat : Slow-cooker Beef Stew & cobbles, with tenderstem broccoli.

Sun : Roast bacon, roast butternut squash & beetroot with celery gratin.

Mon : Tuna pasta bake.

How does that lot look, then?

Tuesday's pizza day was in full effect yesterday, which enabled us to have Borscht for the first time.  I'd never made it before, much less tasted it before, so it was all a bit of a voyage of discovery.  However, it was a completely delicious discovery, which hubby declared was his "best soup evar!".

Anyway, I've done a blog post in which I talk all about it and give the recipe, so I won't witter on here about it.  Watch the blog, as it's the next one to be published!

Tonight is another go at making the Cornish Pasties that got bounced in favour of an indian takeaway, last week.  I'm in a much better place to be making them today, so I think everything worked out just fine in that regard.  I was going to be serving salad with them, but it's been so cold and miserable outside just lately, we decided to opt for good old Baked Beans instead.

Now, Thursday is an Important Day.  Hubby is cooking a Macaroni cheese, which is something he's never attempted before.  He's following a recipe, rather than just winging it, so we've no reason to believe that it'll go anything other than perfectly.  We've got some lovely streaky bacon and have invested in a small pack of Gruyere cheese (incidentally, have you SEEN the price of that stuff? Are the cows made of gold, or what?) so we're all set for a goodie!

I thought that, on Friday, it would be nice to have a fairly easy dinner.  So I'm making the Lemon & yoghurt baked chicken as described on "Everyday Mom's Meals" blog.  All I've got to do here, is remember to defrost the chicken on Thursday, so that it can marinade overnight!  I'm serving it with savoury rice, which I have to admit, I've bought a couple of packets of the stuff.  So shoot me!

When I lived on my own - when I had the horses - savoury rice was one of my staple meals.  I could mix it up, then pop it in the microwave and take the dogs for a walk while it cooked.  With a couple of sausages that had been baking in the oven, it made a superbly quick and remarkably satisfying meal which was very well received at 9pm after two visits to the horses and a day at work!  So this is a bit of a trip down memory lane for me.

I'm really looking forward to Saturday's beef stew.  I've been yearning for a lovely thick warming stew made with Shin of beef, for ages.  To help hubby out, who has had E-NUFF potatoes for a while, I'll be baking some cobbles (scone-like objects) to go with the stew and I'll add some tenderstem broccoli on the side.  Should be gorgeous!

Sunday's dinner formed in my brain a bit back-to-front.  It all began with my wanting a celery gratin (celery hearts in cheese sauce with breadcrumbs on, baked in the oven).  So then I had to think of a roast meat that would go well with it - hence the bacon turned up. 

Being a Sunday dinner, it required a bit more than just the bacon and celery, so I finally decided upon a butternut squash, roasted in the oven, along with the leftover beetroot that didn't get used in the Borscht and some potatoes to make Son & heir happy.  A bit of an odd way of assembling a meal, but I think it works!  Well, I suppose we'll find out, eh?

Monday, as ever, is a storecupboard dinner day.  There was a time that I hated Tuna Pasta Bake and would have been very happy not to have ever seen one again.  Then (and I am a tad embarrassed to admit this), came Homepride's Tuna Pasta Bake sauce in a jar.  I seriously suspect they've put something terribly addictive in this sauce, as I absolutely love it and would be very happy to carry on eating the bake until either the cows came home or until time immemorial.  Considering how negative I am towards sauces such as this, it really is remarkable just how much I love the stuff.

All of which makes a potentially fairly tedious day's meals a much happier prospect.

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