Weekly shop & meal plan......

 

£22.50

 

Aldi:

4 pint whole milk - 99p

Double strength squash - 99p

Merlot - £3.20

Tonic water x 2 - 78p

Mature cheddar - £1.75

20 x3ply Nicky toilet rolls - £3.50

2 x garlic baguette - 68p

Bread flour - 75p

Pack 3 peppers - 89p

2 x 1 kilo sugar - £1.18

Butter - 95p

Pocket tissues - 59p

Basmati rice - £1.19

Babywipes - 69p

 

Tesco:

Cornflakes x 2 - 62p

Pepsi max x 2 - £1.98

Maltesers - £2

 

 

So the maltesers are because were going to the cinema tonight with some free tickets! And the maltesers at the cinema are double the price so were taking our own. There are a lot of drinks in there which are unnecessary but help with sanity so totally worth it. I stocked up on sugar as 59p bag is cheaper than I've seen it in ages! Pocket tissues as we've hit cold season :(

 

Meal plan:

Mon - Roast chicken dinner

Tues - Leftover chicken chow mein

Weds - Sausage & chickpea pilaf

Thurs - Meatballs and spaghetti
Fri - Duck breast & veggies

Sat - sausage cobs
Sun - Out

 

The roast chicken will stretch 2 meals (possibly 3) and ill have the stoke for the freezer. Meatballs will be made from a pack of burgers. Friday night is date night so we have a special meal once the kids have gone to bed. I haven't fully planned the weekend yet but have a rough idea and plenty in the freezer to cover it. Lunch for us is usually sandwiches/leftovers/beans/egg on toast etc from whatever I have in or have made so I don't plan them out but I know I have enough in to hate it covered.

 



leftover sausage carbonara....

 

Nothing specific planned for dinner today. Its cold, wet outside, we've had a lazy day watching films. Comfort food was needed this evening, a root round the fridge produced this:

 

 

1 1/2 leftover cooked sausages which I sliced up, half a block of parmesan and a beaten egg leftover from baking.

I decided to make a some sausage carbonara (traditionally carbonara is made bacon.) So simple and easy it took about 15mins from fridge to plate in total. Most of that was boiling the pan of spaghetti.

 

Simply whisk up some egg (I used 2) with a bit of black pepper. Pour over drained spaghetti and stir through. The residual heat will cook the egg through.

 

 

Then add a good handful of parmesan and sliced sausage.

 

Done.

 

Serve with garlic bread and salad. You could add vegetables, I probably should have but it was a lovely Saturday night treat and filled 3 hungry tummies :)



pork and pepper pasties.....

I defrosted a pack of 'mystery meat' from the freezer. It turned out to be pork. Wanted to do something for Saturday lunch so decided to do some patsies.

 

500g strong white flour

125g lard

25g margarine

5g salt

175ml cold water

 

 

Lots of fat in this pastry I'm not going to lie.

Rub in the fat until to mix looks like breadcrumbs.

Add the water bit by bit until the mix comes together.

 

Tip out onto a surface and work for about a minute. While a standard pastry would be over-worked and tough, this is made with bread flour and is tougher, so it can take a bit more working.

 

This pastry is very tough and needs chilling before it can be worked. Leave it in the fridge covered for 3hrs.

 

I wanted to make large patsies so I cut the dough into 4, and rolled them into circles.

 

For the filling I used cubed pork, diced onion, grated garlic, red pepper, a bit of tomato passata and smoked paprika.

You don't want too much liquid.

 

Spoon the mix into the circles of pastry, fold over and crimp the edges. Try not to get any air trapped in and make sure they're sealed well.

 

I kept mine in the fridge for a day and baked them at lunchtime. Glaze with egg before baking. Completely forgot to take a picture of them once cooked sorry!

The pastry was very rich and 'shortcuts' like. I was trying to get them more dough like, resembling the ones we had in Cornwall. I'll keep trying different recipes until I find a favourite. Patsies are a fab way of using up leftovers and stretching a small amount a long way. How about:

 

- sausage and pesto

-sausage and bean/egg

-Bacon and cheese

-lamb and mint

-steak

-potato and cheese

-vegetable and cheese

-pork and apple

-steak and stilton

-beef and ale

-mince

-chicken curry

 

Loads more use your imagination. There were even Thai chicken curry ones in Cornwall!