Menu Plan Monday February 21st

Monday: Shepherd's Pie

Tuesday: Tortellini Soup. I used this recipe, but modified it for our needs (and made it metric). I used spinach and ricotta tortellini and it was DELICIOUS! It's definitely going on our regular dinner rotation. The kids asked if we could have it again for dinner tonight, that's how good it was.

Wednesday: Chicken and Bacon Fettuccine

Thursday: Take away. Thursday is our crazy day. I've been struggling to get dinner on the table on time the last few weeks since school started up agian, so this week I'm not going to bother. Take away it is. (Although, I'm sure my Mummy guilt will kick in and I'll try to make something quick and easy, OR I'll obsess about it all week).

Friday: Orange Chicken. I'm using my own modified version of this recipe. I made this for the first time last Sunday and it was delicious, but way too sweet for us. I'll post my modifications next week.

Saturday: Beef and Broccoli. I bought some light soy to see how that changes the flavour. The original recipe called for 2 tablespoons each of dark and light soy. I've been using 3 tablespoons of dark with 1 tablespoon of water. Very delicious, but I'm curious about the original recipe.

Sunday: Chicken Massaman.

Fettuccine with Chicken and Bacon - Updated Recipe

I think I've finally found the perfect combination for my Spaghetti with Bacon and Garlic Sauce recipe. It's still very similar, but I've made a few additions, I've also changed the name.

Chicken and Bacon Fettuccine

Ingredients

500g dry fettuccine

2 chicken breast fillets

250g bacon (I cut most of the fat off)

2 teaspoons minced garlic

4-5 spring onions

1 can (375mls) low fat evaporated milk

sea salt and black pepper

chili flakes, to taste (I only use a pinch)

Directions

Set a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. Add salt to the water onces it's boiling, if desired.

Slice chicken breasts in half horizontally, so you're left with two breast-shaped pieces, this helps them cook more quickly. Season chicken breasts well with sea salt and ground black pepper. Fry until golden brown in a small amount of olive oil. Set aside when just cooked.

Add a tiny bit more olive oil to the pan if needed and gently saute garlic, add bacon that has been sliced into 1/2" squares and saute until cooked. Add evaporated milk and scrape the bottom of the pan. Leave on a medium/high heat to start reducing the sauce. Add in chopped spring onions and sliced chicken breasts and allow the sauce to reduce a little. Add a pinch of chili flakes. If the sauce gets too thick, add water until the desired consistency. Once at the desired consistency, turn the heat off.

Add pasta to the boiling water and follow the directions on the packet. My fettuccine takes 11 minutes, but I always set the timer for two minutes less than that to check if it's done. Once done, drain pasta and return to the pot. Add the chicken and bacon sauce to the pasta and mix gently with a pasta spoon.

Beef and Broccoli

I used to love Chinese food. Beef and broccoli was always my favourite. A few years ago, actually it was probably more than a few, I went off it. It didn't taste as delicious as I remembered it, no matter which restaurant we visited. I don't know if it was my changing tastes after pregnancy, all I know is that I didn't like it any more.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago and the kids begged us to go "inside the Chinese restaurant to eat". The kids and Daddy love Chinese. I gave in and we went inside the restaurant to eat. I found my love of Chinese food again. It still wasn't as nice as I remembered it to be, but it was pretty good.

I decided I needed to find a really good recipe so I could make it myself. If you've been reading my blog you'll know that this year, I'm hoping to get back on track with my cooking and have way, WAY less take away than we did last year. So far this week, I've cooked every night and I'm really proud of myself. I've felt a little off the last couple of days and I still managed to suck it up and cook.

I originally found this recipe in the Chinese Food section of about.com, but have made a couple of changes.

It is a little fiddly, and takes about 30-40 minutes to prepare, but it is so worth it. Tonight was the second time I've made this and I found that it seemed to go more quickly this time. I'm guessing the prep time will get shorter each time.

Beef and Broccoli

Ingredients

400g sirloin steak

Marinade:

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon cornflour

Sauce:

4 tablespoons oyster sauce

3 tablespoon premium soy sauce (dark)

3 tablespoon water

Thickener:

2 teaspoon cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoon water 

To Cook Vegetables: 

2 garlic cloves

1 onion, sliced into wedges

1 head fresh broccoli
220g frozen Asian vegetables   

1 cup water
¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
½ teaspoon sugar, or to taste

Other:
4½ tablespoons canola or vegetable oil 

Directions

Cut the beef across the grain into thin slices. Add the marinade ingredients, adding the cornflour last (use your fingers to rub it in). Marinate the beef for 30 minutes.

While the beef is marinating, prepare the sauce and vegetables: for the sauce, mix together the oyster sauce, light soy, dark soy, and water in a small bowl and set aside. In another small bowl, mix the cornflour and water thickener and set aside.

Wash and drain the broccoli. Cut the stalk diagonally into thin slices. Cut the florets into 3 or 4 pieces. Crush the garlic. Cut the onion into wedges.

Heat the wok and add 2 tablespoons oil. When the oil is medium-hot add the beef. Blanch the beef by letting it lay flat for 30 - 40 seconds, and then stirring to separate the pieces. Remove the beef when it changes color and is nearly cooked (the entire process takes 1 - 2 minutes), and drain on paper towels.

Add 1½  tablespoons oil to the wok. When the oil is hot, add the crushed garlic and onion and stir fry briefly until aromatic and softened.

Add the broccoli and frozen Asian vegetables, sprinkle the salt and sugar over, and stir fry briefly, turning down the heat if necessary to make sure it doesn't burn. Add 1 cup water, and cook the broccoli and vegetables, covered, for 4 - 6 minutes, until broccoli turns a bright green and vegetables are tender but still crisp. Remove from the wok and drain.  

Add 1 tablespoon oil and add the broccoli and the beef. Pour the sauce and cornflour mixture in the middle of the wok and stir quickly to thicken. Mix everything together and serve hot over steamed rice.

Menu Plan Monday 7th Feb

Monday : Fish fillets with parsley sauce and veggies

Tuesday : Chicken Massaman with basmati rice

Wednesday : Beef Tacos

Thursday : Vegetable soup with scones

Friday : Beef and broccoli with basmati rice

Saturday : Chicken and Bacon Fettuccine 

Sunday : Irish Stew

Menu Plan Monday January 3rd

Here's what we'll be eating this week if all goes according to plan, and it often doesn't!

Monday : Chicken Massaman Curry with Rice

Tuesday : BBQ - lamb chops, sausages and beef burgers with salad. (No, I won't be eating all that meat, but the five of us can't agree on which meat to have, so we eat take out pick from those).

Wednesday : Fettuccine with Chicken and Bacon

Thursday : Leftover Chicken Massaman Curry with Rice

Friday : Beef Tacos

Saturday : Cajun Chicken Salad.

Sunday : Fish fillets, corn on the cob, veggies and mashed potatoes.

No links this week, three of them are my own recipes that I don't have photos of at the moment. If I get a chance, I'll post photos and recipes during the week.

My plan with starting this new blog was to motivate myself to cook more. I have definitely been doing that and I'm having fun cooking again, which is an added bonus.

Menu Plan Monday 6th - 12th Dec

I've definitely been cooking more, which was the motiviation behind this blog. So, that's a great thing! 

Last week's menu plan didn't come off perfectly, as I mentioned in a previous post, but it was pretty close.

I didn't get a chance to sit down and actually plan anything again this week. I'm bad with the planning. That's something I need to work on, but here's what I came up with for this week. Let's see how we go..

Monday: Spaghetti with napolitana sauce and garlic bread

Tuesday: Chicken Massaman with basmati rice

Wednesday: Beef tacos

Thursday: Slow cooker chicken casserole with rice 

Friday: Take away/takeout night.

Saturday: Cajun Chicken Salad

Sunday: Impossible Quiche and leftover salad.

I hope I can stick to this pretty stricty this week. I'll let you know how I go. Wish me luck!

Spaghetti with Bacon and Garlic Sauce.

My first attempt at menu planning was apparently a failure. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday all went according to plan. Thursday and Saturday, not so much. While menu planning on Monday, I forgot that Thursday night was going to be a busy one. My youngest son had a special night at school and I had a meeting later that night. We ended up taking our other two kids to McDonalds for dinner, they wanted to play on the playground. 

Tonight, Saturday, also didn't go according to plan. Totally my fault. I had a bag of chicken fillets in the fridge that I bought on Tuesday and then forgot about, they ended up behind something else. So chicken was out for tonight. 

I came up with the following, which I'm guessing is sort of like a carbonara sauce, only not. I don't like carbonara, not sure why. I love bacon (who doesn't?!), eggs and cheese, but all together on pasta? No. 

I'm sure it's not all that original. 

Spaghetti with Bacon and Garlic sauce

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 heaped teaspoon minced garlic

250g bacon with most of the fat removed, chopped into 1/2" squares

3 spring onions (green onions)

200mls cream (I had thickened cream in the fridge)

pinch of chili flakes

Directions:

Heat oil in fry pan and saute garlic. Add bacon, and fry off, but not until crispy. Add chopped spring onions, white and green parts and continue to fry for a minute or two. Reduce heat and add half of the cream and mix well. Add cream little by little until you get the desired consistency, you may not need all the cream. Simmer on low for about five minutes, stirring regularly. You may want to add more cream. Add a pinch of chili flakes.

Serve over freshly cooked spaghetti, or the pasta of your choice.

Notes: Like I said, I threw this meal together without planning it. We had bacon, eggs, cheese, fresh vegies, cream and some other ingredients that didn't appeal to me tonight. I had planned on adding the cheese, a soft cheddar, but after tasting the sauce after the addition of the chili flakes, I decided it was perfect as it was. When we sat down to eat it, it felt a little heavy, though. Next time I'm going to try this recipe with evaporated milk instead and see how that goes. At the very least, it felt like it needed some acid to cut down on the creaminess. Maybe lemon juice or white wine. All in all a lovely dish.

The kids all loved it and our nearly four year old daughter, who said "I don't want it, I'll just have a sandwich" then asked for a taste and ended up finishing her brother's bowl for him when he'd had enough. It's definitely a dish I'll be making again. It was delicious, quickly prepared and quick to cook. What could be better?

My First Attempt at Menu Planning

I'm trying out Menu Plan Monday for the very first time. I think it will help keep me motivated. I'm cheating a little bit because I had a migraine yesterday and shopped for the basics, hoping to put my menu together today, after the fact. Next week I'll sit down and plan before I shop.

Monday: Chicken Massaman with rice. I'll write up a recipe for this later. It's a Thai sweet and sour curry and it's just delicious. Even the kids love it. Again, no photos, because of said migraine. And, hubby helped cook it last night, making it extra delicious.

Tuesday: Fish with corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and vegies.

Wednesday: Roast chicken, cauliflower/brocolli and white sauce, roast potatoes, and peas and corn.

Thursday: Spaghetti and meatballs. I'm cheating with this one and using a store bought jar of sauce, but I am making my own meatballs. I need to make up a batch of my own spaghetti sauce in the next couple of weeks.

Friday: Friday is our weekly take away (take out) day. I doubt that will change, but sometimes I do insist on cooking that day.

Saturday: Chicken schnitzel with scalloped potatoes and vegies.

Sunday: Meatloaf with vegies.

I need to come up with some side dishes that don't involve potatoes. I'm not sure how well they'll go down with the family, though.

Like I said, this is my first attempt at menu planning and I know I could have done better if I allowed myself more time to think about it.

Impossible Quiche

 

I made Impossible Quiche for dinner a couple of weeks ago because I forgot to take meat out of the freezer - hate when that happens. 

What's Impossible Quiche, you ask? Well it's quiche that doesn't have a pastry crust, but it does have flour in the mix which puts a light crusting on the bottom of the mixture. I was shocked at how much my family, including my three young children, LOVED it. Not only did they ask for seconds, but they begged me to make it again "very soon, how about tomorrow?"

I looked in my fridge and pantry to see what I could whip up. I had eggs, milk, and cheese in the fridge. Some bacon in the freezer. Onion in the pantry. I immediately thought I'd whip up a quiche. Then I realised I didn't have any pastry and didn't really have time to make my own. I Googled "crustless quiche" and came up with Impossible Quiche. There were many recipes for similar things. I didn't have anything fancy like chorizo in the house, so I settled for a very basic Quiche Lorraine-style impossible quiche.

Going by the comments on the Taste.com.au site, I adjusted the recipe a bit. Here's what I came up with and it was delicious. I didn't even think to take a photo of  the finished product, but it's similar to the one the site up, only with different ingredients.

It was delicious, but not quite perfect. The first time I cooked it I used only 5 eggs and used a mixture of milk and cream, but it came out way too heavy. I'll definitely only use milk in this recipe from now on.

Late Thursday afternoon I forgot the meat again and this is how I modified the recipe again.

Impossible Quiche

Ingredients

6 large eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup SR flour

1 large onion

250g bacon, most of the fat cut off

grated cheese, I'm guessing it was about 1- 1 1/2 cups

salt and pepper to taste, I usually go fairly heavy on the salt with eggs

chopped parsley

1 Tbs olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 190C/375F

Heat oil in frypan. Finely dice onion and saute until translucent. Chop bacon and toss in same frypan as cooked onions and fry off for a few minutes. Transfer to a plate covered in paper towels to drain and cool.

In a bowl, whisk up the rest of the ingredients.

When bacon/onion mix is cool enough spoon half of it into the egg mixture and give it a whisk. Transfer this to your quiche pan/pie plate. Gently drop spoonfuls of the rest of the bacon/onion mix on top of the quiche.

 

Bake for 35mins.

Notes

The first time I tried the original recipe, all the bacon and onion sank to the bottom of the quiche. Not ideal. This time it was cooked through evenly in the quiche and perfect.

Now, the original recipe says to cook it for 45 minutes, both times my version has cooked well before that time. The first time I used one less egg and only 1 cup of liquid (half cream/half milk) and when I checked the oven at 25 minutes, it was well and truly done, if not a little overdone.

This past Thursday, my second attempt and the recipe above, I checked it at 25 minutes to see how we were going and decided to give it another 10. It came out much better. And tasted much nicer than my first attempt. It's definitely going to a dish I make often.