I didn't get a chance to write my meal plan out as usual last week, so I had to wing it a little. I find it helps to have a few basic recipes up your sleeve for such occurrences, and a few meals this week centered around a simple piece of protein and whatever was growing in the garden.
This week we ate:
Sunday
Pork Ragu with pasta
Mr Grumpy cooked a large pork shoulder to test out his new grill a few weeks ago. Not having any immediate plans for it, the shredded meat went into the freezer, and I used one of the containers to make this ragu. Saute some finely chopped carrots and onions, add a few cloves of garlic, the shredded meat and a bottle of tomato passata. Let it bubble for 1 1/2 hours, although I heard this week it should simmer for a minimum of three hours to develop the flavours. I thought it was quite decent, even without the prolonged cooking.
Monday
Hearty Vegetable Soup with Barley & Lentils
Finely chop up many root vegetables, add barley and lentils, a few herbs, vegetable or chicken stock, and simmer until everything is well cooked. I had visions that the purple carrot I used would provide lovely flecks of colour in the soup. Instead the purple colour leached into the chicken stock and turned the whole soup a weird purpley-grey colour. Despite the unfortunate colour it tasted very good, so this one will make it onto the blog at some point (without the purple carrots).
Tuesday
Easy Weeknight Roast Chicken with Roast Potato Cubes, and Roast Brussel Sprouts with Bacon
I found some lovely red brussel sprouts at the vegetable market. I tossed the halved sprouts with shredded bacon and olive oil, and roasted them for 30 minutes at 180C. The Princess hated them, even with the bacon. Mr Grumpy & I thought they were fine.
Wednesday
Pan-fried Fish, served with Kohl Rabi chips and Creamy Silverbeet Gratin.
Kohl rabi is one vegetable that seems to grow very well in our garden, and is lovely roasted. Peel the tough exterior off the kohl rabi, and cut the vegetable into chips. Toss with olive oil and smoked sea salt, then roast for 20 - 30 minutes at 180C or until golden brown.
Thursday
Leftover Slow Cooked Indian Lamb, served with Turban Chopsticks Royal Festival Briyani, and spiced broccoli.
The lamb was straight out of the freezer, so I only had to prepare the rice and broccoli.
Freezer Cooking
Whilst two of our meals this week have come from the freezer, I have not managed to actually put anything into the freezer this week.
We are finding weekend lunches a bit difficult at the moment with The Princess's weekend sport. We arrive home right on lunchtime, and then scrabble to try and find food before a meltdown from the hungry child ensues (apparently meltdowns are not confined to toddler years unfortunately!). I have previously made the Chicken & Bacon Subs from this Easy Lunches Freezer Cooking Plan by Jessica over at Life as Mom, which went down very well with the family. They were very easy to pull together, easy to reheat, and it is certainly less of a burden to come home and just pop a frozen sub in the oven. This week I am going to dedicate some time to make a few more of the lunch recipes in this plan. I have my eye on the Pizzawiches. Check in with me next week to see how I went. Fingers crossed!
Bon Appetit!