Meal Plan w/c Monday 6th January 2014

Monday – chops, watercress with red onion and balsamic vinegar and rice

Tuesday – baked fish with veg/new potatoes (JO p 168)  

Wednesday – griddled chicken & warm tomato salad (JO p 240_

Thursday – pasta pesto (JO p 172)

Friday – fajitas

Saturday – out

Sunday – baked camembert, bread, salad

Happy New Year 2014!

Eek… it’s been a while… Christmas took over… slow cooker has broken… must find the bits to order a new lid… and I got Jamie Oliver’s 15 Minute Meals for Christmas!  So meals have gone from 6 hours to 15 minutes!

Pasta Amatriciana (sort of!)

Tags

garlic, Pancetta, Pasta, Tomato

Taken from the book Leftovers by Stella Newman

pastafriends.blogspot.co.uk

Makes enough sauce for two…

100g linguine

70g cubed pancetta

butter

olive oil

onion

clove of garlic

chilli flakes

sugar

salt

tin of tomatoes

40ml single cream

percorino or parmasan

 

Heat the butter and olive oil in a pan over a medium heat

Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes

Add the pancetta and garlic and cook for a further 10 minutes

Add the tomatoes, chilli, salt and sugar.  Stir and leave on low for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile cook the pasta

Two minutes before the pasta is ready add the single cream to the tomatoe sauce, taste for seasoning and bring back to simmer.

Drain the pasta, pour the sauce over and grate some cheese on top.

Meal Plan w/c 29th October 2013

Tags

meal plan, slow cooker

Shopping day again… a funny week this week because it’s half term and there are two family birthdays, lots of eating out and a party!  Also, we ate out on Sunday so the coq au vin needs cooking during the week…

Tues: us – Teriaki salmon & seafood, rice, sweetcorn   kids – pasta and pesto

Wedn:  all – Coq au vin (s/c), mash, broccoli, peas, carrots

Thurs: Vikki’s birthday us – chicken and veg stir fry  kids – cottage pie & beans

Fri: Ben’s birthday out for lunch all – homemade pizza, houmous, pitta bread, carrots, garlic bread

Sat: us – eating out!  Kids – fish cakes, potatoes, carrots

Sun: Ben’s party 

 

Garlic pork and potato

Tags

garlic, pork, potatoes

The before photo!

Recipe:

Pork chops chopped up
Tinned tomatoes
Garlic
Salt and pepper
Dried herbs
Sliced potatoes
Butter

Mix together the tomatoes, crushed garlic and herbs and season.
Layer the sliced potatoes over the top.
Season the top of the potatoes and add and a little butter.
Cover with foil and cook for about an hour until the potatoes are cooked.

Meal Plan w/c 22nd October 2013

Tags

meal plan

Shopping day again…

Tues: us – Garlic pork & potato casserole with cabbage   kids – pasta and pesto

Wedn:  us – stir fry   kids – sausage, mash, beans

Thurs: all – bbq chicken (s/c) baked potatoes corn on the cob carrots

Fri: us – seafood stew (s/c)  kids – burgers

Sat: all – tapas… garlic bread, pizza, cooked meat, cheese, houmous, carrots,  etc

Sun: all – Coq au vin (s/c), mash, broccoli, peas, carrots

Half term…

Mon: all – Fish and chips on the way home!

Italian Fish and Seafood Stew Slow Cooker Recipe

Tags

crockpot, fish, seafood, slow cooker

http://marisworld.co.uk/index.php/2012/10/19/italian-fish-stew-slow-cooker-recipe/

Ingredients

2tbsps olive oil

100g smoked pancetta or diced lardons

3 cloves of gralic crushed

1 tsp chilli powder (more if you like a kick)

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

200g white fish – I added two pieces of salmon to my stew as well, I removed the scaly skin first though 

1 bag of frozen mixed seafood

1 x 200g pack of jumbo prawns

200ml white wine

2tbsps fresh torn basil leaves

salt and pepper to season

I had about 200g of fresh home grown tomatoes from the garden which I threw in too

 

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan and fry off the pancetta to colour, add the chopped garlic to soften. Add the tin of chopped tomatoes and chilli powder and heat through for a few minutes before adding to the slow cooker set on low.Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan and fry the fish off for about 1 minute on each side. Add to the slow cooker.

Pour in the white wine, add the defrosted seafood and prawns, add most of the basil holding back a little for decoration and season well. I added my home grown tomatoes chopped up too

Cook for 2 hours on high setting or 4 hours on low

Serve in bowls with a basil leaf with crusty bread to accompany and mop up

*********************************

I forgot to get pancetta so used a chunk of chorizo we had left!

I didn’t do any of the prep… just stuck everything straight in the slow cooker!

Slow Cooker Salmon and Rice

Tags

crockpot, recipe, salmon, slow cooker

This recipe can be found here:

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/23033/slow-cooker-salmon.aspx

For one person…

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 4 mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 red pepper, chopped
• 1 teaspoon margarine or butter
• 120ml vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• 40g rice

• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 salmon fillet

1. Sweat the mushrooms, onion and red pepper in a pan for a couple of minutes in the butter. Put these ingredients into the slow cooker along with the vegetable stock and chilli powder and cook for 30 minutes on high.
2. Add the rice to the slow cooker, stir and cook for further 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the soy sauce, lime juice and garlic in a small bowl and lay the salmon in the sauce, top side down, and leave for 15 minutes.
3. Once marinated for 15 minutes, pour the sauce into the slow cooker and lay the salmon on top to steam. Cook for a further 1 hour.

This was lovely… the salmon especially!  I made a few changes to the recipe above… I don’t know if it’s just my slow cooker, but I checked it 45 minutes into the last hour and only just caught the rice before it completely turned to mush!

I didn’t have any peppers, used only half a teaspoon of  hot chilli powder (less would have been better for me), chicken stock instead of veg stock, lemon juice instead of lime.

My slow cooker didn’t need to be on high at all, so next time will use the same timings but on low.  I marinated the salmon from the start.  We only had basmati rice, will try long grain next.  Oh, and I doubled the quantities of rice and stock for one person.

BBQ Chicken and Garlic Potatoes

Tags

BBQ chicken, chicken pieces, crockpot, slow cooker

BBQ Chicken

Chicken pieces, bbq sauce

The recipe for BBQ chicken is an easy one… get some chicken pieces, squirt some bbq sauce on them and leave in the slow cooker for 5-6 hours!

If cooking with something else then wrap the chicken in foil.

If the bbq sauce is a bit runny when the chicken is cooked, put the sauce in a pan on the hob and boil until thicker.

Garlic Potatoes

Potatoes, garlic cloves, butter, salt and pepper

Slice the potatoes thinly, dot with butter and season, wrap in foil with the garlic (unpeeled).  Put in the slow cooker for 5-6 hours.

Meal Plan w/c 15th October 2013

Tags

meal plan, slow cooker

Tuesdays are shopping days…

Tues: us – Fish, rice, baked tomatoes    kids – pasta & pesto

Wed: us – bbq chicken s/c, potatoes s/c & sweet corn    kids + 3 – sausage, mash, beans

Thurs: me – Salmon s/c, rice s/c & salad   kids – turkey, new potatoes, carrots & broc

Fri: us – seafood casserole, crusty bread  kids – hoops/scrambled egg on toast

Sat: all – pizza & chicken drumsticks

Sun: all – roast pork, mash, cabbage, gravy, carrots & broc

Mon: us – lasagne & coleslaw   kids + 1 – fish fingers, waffles, beans