Meal planning - heading towards healthy!

Can't see me ever achieving this!

This week's meal plan has, of necessity, something of a bias towards the healthy.  Only a bias, you understand - I've not gone completely mad and thrown out ALL the cream, or the cheese, or the pastry!

I decided that once my birthday was out of the way, I'd knuckle down to concentrating on making the meals a little lighter, healthier and better for us.

Now that doesn't mean that you won't find pastry, or cream, or cheese working their way in to the recipes, but what it does mean is that there will be rather less than there has been of late.

Also, (don't tell Son & heir) I'm going to be increasing the fruit and vegetable intake and trying to reduce the emphasis on meat.  I'll be trying to make the meat and vegetables work as a team, as opposed to the vegetables just taking up space on the meat's plate.

This first week, we're just going to be easing into the routine.  I can't just jump into it, because I've got foodstuffs in the cupboard and fridge that need using up.  I'm not going to throw away something that's perfectly good and that we paid good money for, just because I'm changing the emphasis of our meals.  However, hopefully, as we go along you'll notice a healthier trend (with the occasional "less than healthy" meal, just to create balance!).

So, here's how this week is looking :

Tuesday (Pizza night) : Son & heir is out, so hubby & I are having Tuna & lemon pasta.

Wednesday : Cheesey Parsnip Flan and salad.

Thursday : Smoked sausage, lime rice & succotash.

Friday : Devilled sausages and fruity quinoa salad.

Saturday : Beef & spinach pasta bake.

Sunday : Chicken & Sweetcorn Pie, roast potatoes, broccoli & carrots.

Monday : Crunchy fish (minus batter, for me), potato croquettes & peas.

I'm looking forward to that lot!

Well, today is Wednesday so we had the Tuna & lemon pasta last night.  It really is such an easy dish to prepare - and is almost a complete store cupboard recipe, except for the green beans.  The mixture of tuna, lemon zest, capers and chilli is just delicious - and keeps your taste buds interested!

Tonight's Cheesey Parsnip Flan and salad was a triumph, if I say so myself.  This was another recipe that was incredibly easy to produce.  I've tried to make all this week's recipes easy to make, in the belief that if I don't challenge myself too badly in the kitchen, I'll live to fight another day with a bit more energy than otherwise!

I'll be blogging both the Tuna pasta and the Flan immediately after this one, so I won't talk too much about them here, or I'll have nothing to say in their own dedicated blogs!  (That's how simple they are to produce!).

I'm intrigued by hubby's smoked sausage, lime rice and succotash idea for Thursday's dinner.  He's got a very definite idea in mind that he's trying to reproduce, he's been doing a lot of research via the internet on various recipes and it all sounds pretty good!

Friday's dinner is a meal of two halves, I'm afraid.  The devilled sausages are a pretty dead cert to be a Good Thing, but the quinoa salad is a completely new entity for all of us.  I'm dead keen to try quinoa and devised the recipe for this salad after doing extensive reading up on what other people have put into successful quinoa salads.  I'm hoping that the fruity aspect will go well with the curry/spicy aspect of the sausages.

I'm having a go at the Beef & Spinach Pasta Bake from www.foodwhine.com on Saturday.  Hubby has an extensive spinach patch developing at the bottom of the garden and it would be just fabulous to make a meal from it.  It's one of those recipes that is a cross between a pasta bake and a casserole, so I'm hoping the weather won't be roasting on Saturday, or you may find that this gets changed to a prawn salad!

Sunday sees the return of the home-made Chicken & sweetcorn pie.  I've been wanting to make a pie for ages and before we decided to upgrade the health value of our meals, had bought the double pack of frozen pastry.  Well I'm not about to let that go to waste - and making a pie gets rid of both packs at once, so it gets to stay on the menu!

One of our peas - the formative years

We were running out of time (and inspiration, if I'm honest) when it came to deciding what hubby was going to cook on Monday.  Hence the "crunchy fish" (aka fish in batter), potato croquettes (hideous things!) and peas.  I'm quite determined to de-crunchy my fish and so reduce the fat content, but I can't guarantee that either of the boys will be doing the same thing!  In truth, they probably don't need to, as they are both normally active people - unlike me who is sedentary at best!  It would be just fabulous if our pea vines were to yield enough peas to cope with feeding the three of us, but we'll just have to wait and see where that's concerned.  We had a sneaky taster of a couple of fresh peas from the vines just yesterday and they are truly gorgeous - so sweet!  Yum!

.

T 

Chicken & Sweetcorn Pie

I am really quite proud of this pie, so please be gentle with me when you comment.  *chuckle*  Oh, and please do comment - on any of the posts on the blog.  I welcome all thoughts and questions!

Having re-discovered by pastry-making muse, I have been as keen as anything to practice the skill before it disappears again.  *chuckle*  Hence, I thought I'd have a go at my - then - nirvana of pastry creations - the "top and bottom" pie.  Having done that, I've now got a different nirvana - but enough of that.

So, with planning beforehand, I made the pastry on Saturday and kept it in the fridge until Sunday.  Being disabled, it helps to not have to go through the pastry preparation/washing up cycle as well as the pie creation cycle, all in one go.  However, I do think that it helps the pastry in some way to sit quietly in the fridge for a while.

I have to admit that I cheated on the pie filling and used a tin of Campbell's Condensed Chicken & White Wine soup for the sauce, but hopefully I'll be forgiven!

CHICKEN & SWEETCORN PIE

Ingredients

For the pastry :
280g plain flour
half a teaspoon of baking powder
quarter of a teaspoon of salt
85g salted butter
85g lard
small amount of water

For the filling :
400g chicken breast, skinless and cut into smallish dice
1 tbsp oil
1 shallot, diced small
1 garlic clove, chopped
half a pre-cooked cob of sweetcorn niblets
2 bay leaves
1 tin Campbell's condensed Chicken & White Wine soup
small amount of milk.

Method

1.  Firstly make the pastry.  I think it helps to make it the day before, but it's up to you.  Into a food processor, put the flour, salt, baking powder, butter and lard.  Blitz until the fat has all disappeared into the flour mixture.

2. Then add approx 2 tablespoons of cold water and blitz again, to bring together into a dough.  Add a little more water if your pastry refuses to come together.  Then either turn out onto some cling film and refrigerate, or cut into half and roll out one half for the base of the pie dish.  Place the other half back in the fridge to keep cool.

3.  Lay your pastry into the pie dish, allowing some to overhang - which prevents the pastry shrinking and means you will be left with a good edge upon which to stick the top layer of pastry.  Cover with baking parchment, then add baking beans and put into a pre-heated oven at around 190deg for 25-30 mins.

4.  In the meantime, add the oil and shallots to a deep frying pan and sweat off until the shallots are transparent.  For the last couple of minutes of cooking time, add the garlic and continue to cook.

5.  Add the chicken to the pan, increase the heat and cook until the outside of the chicken has a touch of golden colour.

6.  Add the sweetcorn niblets and the tin of soup.  Let the soup down with 2-3 tablespoons of milk until your preferred consistency is met.

7.  Once the pastry base is cooked, remove from the oven, remove the baking paper and beans and set aside to cool slightly.

8.  Once the filling is complete, add to the pastry base.

9.  Roll out your top layer of pastry, to a size that is just bigger than your pie dish.  Lightly brush the edges of the filled pie with milk, then lay the pastry top over the pie and pinch the edges to secure it.  Cut off any excess pastry, then cut a hole in the middle for any steam to escape.  Glaze with either some beaten egg or milk, sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and place into the oven at 190deg C (fan) for 30-45 minutes or until the pastry is looking suitably golden.  It is a good idea to put the pie onto a baking tray, just in case the sauce overflows.  It's far easier to remove it from a baking tray, than it is from the bottom of the oven!

Serve.  :)