Another Sunday, another Meals of the week post. The post where I catch you up with all of the things which I have cooked for myself over the previous week. I may live on my own, but as you can see I eat very well.
From my perspective I don't think there is any reason that a person living on their own should be resigned to eating takeaways or things from a frozen packet or tin! I am determined to feed myself from scratch as much as possible and to do it in the tastiest way that I can. If I can also save a bit of change while I am doing it, so much the better!
I love doing posts like this however. I know that I, myself, on occasions need a bit of inspiration when it comes to meal planning and if I can help anyone to do that for themselves or their family that makes me very happy.
I happen to really enjoy looking back over the week and taking note of what I have eaten. In looking back this week I have to say that my most favorite meal of the whole week was the Country Baked Chicken that I enjoyed on Thursday. No surprise there, as I simply love LOVE chicken in any way shape or form!
In any case this is what I enjoyed for my main meals over this past week. I did have other things for my breakfast and lunch. Normally I keep them pretty simple. Salads or sandwiches, sometimes leftovers, cereal, toast, etc.
I hope you will be inspired by the main meals I have eaten!
SUNDAY, October 22nd - Sunday Dinner at Cindy's
On Sunday's I usually go to my sister's for Sunday Dinner. She usually cooks a roast of some sort and it is usually a beef roast. This week was no different. I thought, however, since many of you are smaller families, you might enjoy seeing my recipe for a CLASSIC POT ROAST FOR TWO.
This tasty recipe is specifically designed with the smaller family in mind and yields a pot roast that is perfectly sized, tender and juicy with a lovely gravy, as well as roasted potatoes and carrots that cook along side of the roast. I like to add something green to give the plate a snap of color. Yorkshire Puddings are always a nice addition as well. When cooking for the smaller family, I cut my recipe in half and it works perfectly.
You end up with a lovely meal on the day and then a few leftovers to use for sandwiches or a casserole the day afterwards.
MONDAY. October 23rd. - Creamy Italian Sausage with Bow Ties
My sister and I had had a day of making Sausages last week. We made Sweet Italian Sausage (which we froze half in links and half in bulk), Cumberland Sausage (a British favorite), and Apple Sausage (which we all love.) I decided to use some of the Sweet Italian that we had frozen in bulk to make Creamy Italian Sausage with Bow Ties.
This is a small batch recipe, which results in a rich and creamy tomato sauce filled with lots of lovely Italian sausage that gets tossed together in the pan with some farfalle pasta. (Bow Ties) I used a bow tie pasta which has lovely zig zag edges and ridges which really helped to grab the sauce. This was delicious with a salad on the side and some garlic bread.
TUESDAY, October 24th. - Vintage Menu Madness
On Tuesday I did my Vintage Menu Madness Meal. This week's menu had a Fisherman's theme with some lovely Pan Fried Fish, cooked to perfection in a skillet and served with lemon wedges. There was also crisp and tasty Cottage Fried Potatoes. I cooked some peas/corn on the side and served it with buttered sliced bread as per the menu.
There was also a really delicious Perfection Salad, which I have always loved. For dessert there was Singed Angels Wings, which is toasted angel food cake wedges served with ice cream and a toffee sauce! It was a really yummy meal!
WEDNESDAY, October 25th - Ground Beef and Barley Soup
Usually on Wednesdays I go out for supper with my father and his friend Hazel. The place we normally go was closed this week and so they went for a Chinese meal and I stayed home. I small batched a recipe for Ground Beef and Barley Soup, which was delicious! It made three servings so I had one to enjoy on Wednesday and then two to freeze (individually) for another time.
It never hurts to have a few servings of soup in the freezer ready to thaw out at a moments notice for when you want or need a quick supper. This freezes really well. It was deliciously loaded with lots of beef, barley, carrots, celery, onions, and a perfect blend of spices. I will be making this again! I served it with some crusty bread and I was totally satisfied. Oh yes, I had a cheeky bowl of vanilla ice cream for dessert.
THURSDAY, October 26th - Country Baked Chicken
I had an appointment on Thursday morning to get the oil changed on my my car and have it winterized. I wanted something fairly quick when I got home, and lets say I felt it was a chicken day. I had had enough red meat for the week! I made Country Baked Chicken and served it with some cheeky mashed potatoes for soaking up the gravy and some vegetables on the side.
In this recipe bone in skin on chicken breasts are crumbed and then oven roasted in a bit of stock, to tasty perfection. The meat always comes out tender and juicy. Chicken breasts can sometimes be dry, but they never are when you cook them this way, and the juices in the pan make a beautiful gravy.
I know that it can be difficult to find bone in, skin on chicken breasts these days. What I do is when whole chickens come on offer I will buy several of them and then cut them up into individual portions. I double bag them and freeze them, ready to use when and as I need them. The breasts I will freeze individually. I freeze the drumsticks in groups of two, and do the same thing with the thighs. I usually pop the wings and back into a baggie to be used to make a delicious chicken soup.
FRIDAY, October 27th - Colcannon Fish Cakes
I love fish cakes. You used to be able to buy them frozen, but they are something which we don't see very often these days. It doesn't matter because homemade ones are infinitely tastier. I like to use a mix of smoked and regular haddock if I can get it. This week I only had the regular.
This gets cooked and then flaked and mixed in with some mashed potatoes, cooked cabbage and a delicious combination of seasonings, lemon, cooked potato, grainy mustard, dill and spring onions. This mixture is shaped into patties, coated in egg and bread crumbs and then fried to crispy golden brown perfection!
Delicious served just as is with a salad on the side for the light eater. If you are a hearty eater you might want to add a cooked vegetable as well, but really, these are very tastily satisfying!!
SATURDAY, October 28th - Hot Dogs and Easy Boston Baked Beans
My sister and Dan wanted to have a golfing day and so I volunteered to have my father over for supper. He likes things to be very simple. I made Easy Boston Baked Beans which I served him with some grilled weiner/hotdogs in butter toasted top cut New England style buns and a cheeky pot of store potato salad. For dessert we had sugar free jello with whipped squirty cream on top.
He was very happy with all of this. He is always saying to me that he doesn't want anything fancy. He loves beans and weiners. I seldom get to cook for him myself and so I could not just open a tin of baked beans. I had to fancy them up a bit.
These are hands-down the most delicious baked beans and they only take half the time and work of the original all from scratch version. They are every bit as good as baked from scratch beans. Trust me on this.When I was growing up Saturday nights always meant my mother's home baked beans. She would start them the night before and bake them all day in her bean crock. We usually had them with weiners also, and on the rare occasion ham. I guess Baked Bean Saturday nights are a Maritime province tradition!
And those were my meals of the week for this week. I think you will agree that I, once again, ate very delicious indeed and I have to say everything was quite thrifty as well! I call it cheap and cheerful! Tomorrow I get to start another tasty week!
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