Firstly, on Tuesday, son & heir was invited to stay at his friend's for tea so there didn't seem to be a lot of point in making what was a three person meal (I'd bought the fish already, you see) for the two of us. So hubby had a kebab and I had some chicken.
Canton Restaurant, Poole |
So, as a result, we'll ignore Tuesday and Wednesday and - where the menu plan is concerned - pretend they never happened.
Here's what's on the plan for the rest of the week :
Thurs : Smoked mackerel, mediterranean potato salad and a tomato salad
Fri : Roast vegetable & bacon pasta
Sat : BBQ Pork chops with roast vegetable giant couscous
Sun : Stromboli and rice salad
Mon : Sausage & mozzarella bake with garlic bread.
The two meals that have been swerved this week were to have been Chilli Dogs with hash browns & coleslaw, plus a Beef Curry. I'll just move them on to next week as we hadn't shopped for them yet anyway.
The two roast vegetable meals were, initially, separated by a day. Because of having to swap the meals around a bit, they've come together which isn't the best plan - but hopefully they'll be sufficiently different in character that we don't feel over-roast vegetabled!
Oy! Put that out! |
We've gone particularly Mediterranean this week. Maybe it's because we know it's the closest we'll get to the Mediterranean, as there's no chance of affording a holiday there and even if we could, if I could get there (which is unlikely) I wouldn't be able to do anything as I can't walk around. I don't qualify for a wheelchair from the NHS and can't afford to buy one, so we'll just have to eat holiday-style instead.
The roast vegetable and bacon pasta is really a simple matter of roasting some aubergine, red onion, courgette and tomato with garlic, grilling some bacon and combining the whole lot with some pasta, basil leaves and parmesan.
Son & heir has a friend coming over for the day that day, so it seemed a good dish to put before teenagers - having bacon and cheese - so long as they don't object too strongly to the aubergine and courgette!
I've been aware of giant couscous (Moghrabieh) for a while - since I bought my two Ottolenghi cook books which feature it in a couple of recipes. I found some in our local Asda (amazingly) some while ago and have had a lttle play with it, but this is really the first "proper" go with it.
Moghrabieh served with mixed veggies |
Hubby is making a Stromboli for Sunday's dinner - after the style of the Hairy Bakers' Stromboli as featured on their recent European Bakeation tour. It will be along the lines of a pizza filling, with a rich tomato sauce, pepperoni, onion, ham & mozzarella. We're currently thinking we'll have some rice salad to accompany it.
Photo c/o Vintage Victuals |
Our local Asda has some really gorgeous, intensely flavoured little peaches in at the moment - it's the beginning of the season here - that I can't help but think would be just perfect for a Peach Cobbler.
Monday's Sausage & Mozzarella Bake is a request from son & heir, who has liked this one ever since the first time I made it. It's a Jamie Oliver recipe and is so easy to make, it is perfect for a Monday.
As for extra bakes and makes, well, I'm expecting all sorts of things to come in over the next few weeks, where various people have asked me to try various products. I look forward to receiving these challenges, as the devising of new recipes is an opportunity for hubby and I to put our collective mighty brains together in something other than a family matter. Yes, occasionally we have a difference of opinion and yes, occasionally I'll offend hubby mightily by stamping all over his good ideas because I like my own good idea better - but eventually they all get an airing and the best ones reach the blog. So, it's all good.
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Ooooh will be keen to hear about the giant couscous - I've eaten it out and it was scrummy! The potato salad sounds very lovely as well - do post if it works out please... :-)
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The potato salad got the thumbs up from both myself and son & heir, so I'll be blogging it soon. :) I think the whole thing with the giant couscous is to ensure it is cooked before you start to do anything more with it. I suspect it could be very gluey, done wrong!
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