Menu plan : Week 12 - Pizza through Bobotie to Celeriac

The Sunday morning ritual of scratching one's head and juggling with ingredients is over for another week and, with two dinners left to go from last week's Menu Plan, I've placed the order for my online shopping.  Now all that's left to do is cross my fingers that a) it all works out how it's supposed to; b) everyone's in a fit state to eat the dishes and c) I'll be in a fit state to make them.

Point b) became an issue last week when hubby damaged a tooth/gum and it became very difficult for him to chew anything particularly chewy.  Even a cream cheese sandwich was too much on the day after it happened, poor soul.  Having planned out the menus for the week, needing to cater for a sore mouth, or an upset tummy, can be quite tricky.  I think For the future, I'll have to make sure we keep a tin or two of "gentle on the tummy" and "easy eating" soups in the cupboard!

So, Maestro, what's on the menu list this week then?

Well, we'll kick off the week with son & heir's favourite - pizza.  This is largely because I will be in and out during the day and can't guarantee to be here for the online order to be delivered.  I've organised it to arrive after son has come home from school, as I know we'll be here and available then - and the dear chap can help put it all away.  Once we've done all that, I know I won't be in any fit state to cook - so Pizza is the order of the day.

I'm rather looking forward to Wednesday.  I'm going to be doing a Beef & Cauliflower Curry with naan bread, adapted from my curry recipe that I used for hubby's birthday.  It will be utilising my current favourite of beef shin - and using the other half of the cauliflower that I bought in for last Sunday's roast.   Hence, effectively, all I'll be buying to make this one will be the beef shin and some naan bread.  Everything else is in the larder or the fridge!

Thursday is another new recipe, being a Chicken & Chorizo Jambalaya.  We made a Jambalaya shortly after Christmas, but for all that it was tasty and quite nice, it didn't really hit the spot.  So, we're having another go - this time with a different recipe.  I've already got the chicken in the freezer, so that's another one that has worked out to be relatively cheap.

Friday brings one of my favourite meals - Bobotie.  Now I've only ever made this once before (and really enjoyed it then), but I can recall how a seemingly odd collection of ingredients managed to magically amalgamate into a really delicious whole.  Again, I already have the lamb mince in the freezer from a BOGOF offer previously.  I'll be serving this one with savoy cabbage and some carrots.

Saturday, and hubby has promised us a meal of Sausages with red cabbage & apple, together with mustard mash.  Yum!  Once again, I've already got the sausages in the freezer, from this week's trip to Sainsbury's for their sausages - which are streets ahead of Asda's miserable, hard, tasteless efforts.

Sausages always make me think of "The Perishers" and Marlon cooking sausages while Boot looks on

I shall be breaking with tradition this coming Sunday and not indulging in a roast.  I think it does us good every now and again, to kick over the traces and go for something different.  I hate to think I'm getting into a rut along the lines of "fish on Fridays".  So, on this Sunday we shall be travelling to the Orient (oh, I wish!) with Beef & Butternut Squash (using brisket, this time) together with home made fried rice.

Celeriac - looks like an alien!

So that just leaves us Monday, which shall be our meat-free day.  (Sssshhh, don't tell the boys - who are strict carnivores!).  We're having a Celeriac & Cheese Slice - which is basically celeriac mash, mixed with cheese (two types) & spring onions, wrapped in pastry and cooked.  There's only one thing that would go with this, in my opinion - baked beans.


What does that translate as, then?  Three types of bread product, two different cuts of beef, two different rice dishes, one curry dish, one chicken dish, one lamb dish, one pork dish.  Looking at the vegetable side of things, there's five dishes which involve fresh vegetables of one sort or another, plus the baked beans - which are a superfood, you know! I think there's balance in there - somewhere.


If you're looking for inspiration via other people's Menu Plans, then look no further than Mrs M's blog and her "Menu Planning Monday" feature.  I wonder if Menu Planning Sundays qualify? ...


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Home made Pizza

The final articles

In days gone by, when we still lived in Kent, I would make pizza from scratch on a regular basis.  However, with the advent of frozen pizza becoming £3.00 for 3 in Asda, I just couldn't compete with that kind of price and home made pizza became too expensive to produce.

Recently though, the frozen pizzas have become sickly and more than a little bit yuk, which has put us off from buying them and leaving us pizza-less.  With a 12 year old boy in the house, this is something of a critical situation to be in.

So, hubby decided to have another go at making them from scratch.

Three pizza bases, ready for action
They look alright to me!

I won't go into the pizza bread base, as I know that hubby wasn't terribly pleased with it, although both son and myself had no problem with it and declared the whole thing just gorgeous.  However, I know there's no point in giving you the recipe until he's completely happy with it.

Ooooh, you saucy things!

He made the tomato sauce himself, comprising a tin of tomatoes to which he added a teensy bit, like a quarter of a teaspoon, of dried mixed herbs, dried oregano, salt & pepper to season, a teaspoon of tomato ketchup and a couple of drops of Worcestershire Sauce.  He then simmered it until it had reduced to the consistency of a thick passata and allowed it to cool.

Of course, everyone had different ideas about what they wanted on their pizzas.  Son was the easy one, as he just wanted pepperoni, plus mozzarella and cheddar cheeses.  However to make it a bit more meaty, we'd bought a Pepperami which hubby had sliced up for adding to the pizzas.

Mine (left) and hubby's (right)
all ready for the oven.

Hubby had pepperoni, pepperami, green pepper, mushroom, green olive, mozzarella and cheddar.  I had all that, plus a leetle bit of black pudding, sprinkled here and there.

Gosh, but they were good.  :)

I don't mind having Pizza more often, if they're going to wind up being THIS good.