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.jpg "Meals of the Week, April 21st - 27th, 2024")
True to form the week has flown past and here we are at another Sunday, another Meals of the Week Post. I have been doing this for about a year now and these weekly round ups have become something that I really enjoy doing each week.
I am determined to cook myself decent meals even though I find myself living on my own. I don't ever want to be that person who indulges in overly processed premade meals and takeaways. Although these past few weeks I have eaten out twice a week. (NOT normal.) Usually I do eat out once a week with my dad and I try to choose a healthy option most of the time when I do.
In any case I have provided a suitable alternative that compares well with what I have eaten when I was out. I do think that home cooked food, whilst more labor intensive for sure, is always better for you and better tasting in most cases!
Sharing these recipes with you has inspired me to cook regularly as well. I love sharing my recipes with you and I really do hope that you are inspired to want to cook them and to cook regularly for yourself as well! Together we can all eat healthier, well managed and complete meals that don't necessarily require a whole lot of work to put together!
I try to keep things as healthy and low cost as I can. In these days of rising food costs, every little bit helps!
In any case, here are the delicious main meals that I enjoyed over the past seven days. I hope that you will get some ideas about how you can cook some of them for yourself, save some money and eat as well as I do!
SUNDAY, April 21st - Dinner at Cindy's
On Sunday's I usually have dinner at my sisters with my father and my sister's husband Dan. She usually cooks a roast of some sort. This week it was chicken. I love LOVE roast chicken. I could eat roast chicken every week. You always get a delicious roast dinner on the day and then with the leftovers you can get a few more meals, depending on the size of the chicken and the size of your family.
I am sharing my recipe for Another Roast Chicken. In this recipe the chicken is spatchcocked (split and flattened) and roasted over a bed of vegetables. I tell you exactly how to spatchcock a chicken with pictures.
Also if you are wanting tasty ideas on how to use any chicken leftovers, here is a post I did on How to Make Your Roast Chicken Pay for Itself. You may find this very helpful. Sometimes we may avoid paying the cost of a roast chicken because it seems a bit much, but this article shows you how to really get the most out of that cost that you can!
MONDAY, April 22nd - Tender Beef & Noodles
I had some of the beef from this recipe frozen in the freezer. It makes two servings and I usually freeze one for a later date. What you have here is a delicious dish of tender, fall apart, melt in the mouth beef in a delicious gravy, served along with some hot buttered noodles.
You can either cook this in a slow cooker/crock pot or in a small Dutch oven on top of the stove. Its a very simple recipe with loads of flavor. I usually will cook a simple vegetable on the side like string beans or carrots.
TUESDAY, April 23rd. - Chicken and Garlic Potatoes Casserole
My sister had given me a quantity of cooked chicken to take home with me and so on Tuesday I made myself this delicious chicken casserole. The original recipe makes six servings, but I cut it way back to serve only one as I only had enough chicken for one.
This is a simple and delicious chicken casserole which makes good use of leftover chicken and store cupboard ingredients. It is like a pot pie, with a lush gravy, but instead is topped with a potato crust of thinly sliced buttery garlic potatoes.
Wednesday, April 24th - Dinner out with Dad
I usually go out for dinner with my father and his friend Hazel on Wednesday nights. We got to a local eatery which is called The Big Scoop Family Restaurant and Takeaway. They are a pretty popular place and have a very large menu. They specialize in burgers. I am not one to eat a burger very often, but I did avail myself of their Oklahoma Double Onion Smashie this week, although I opted to have it with just one beef patty. (I can't eat two!)
In it's place I am sharing my Onion Pan Burgers recipe which is just about the same thing except you can cook them at home! An all beef patty is cooked and smashed into sliced onions and cooked to perfection. The onions get embedded in the patty flavoring it. Of course there are plenty of onions in the pan so the bun also gets to steam on top of the remaining onions. A slice of cheese is melted on top. This is burger perfection in my opinion!
THURSDAY, April 25th - Tomato Soup with Cheddar Cheese and Chive Scones
It was a beautiful sunny day on Thursday but the temperatures were absolutely perishing! Plus there was a harsh wind blowing and so I opted for a simple supper of Tomato Soup. I did make my soup from scratch. The link is there. I have shared it before. On this day I chose to accompany it with some delicious scones rather than a grilled cheese sandwich.
The Chives are going crazy in my back garden and I am trying to use them in as many ways as possible. These scones are lovely. Light and jam packed with plenty of strong sharp cheddar cheese and loads of chopped chives for a mild onion hit. These went really well with the tomato soup!
FRIDAY, April 26th - Crispy Mustard Chicken with Spring Potato Salad
I like to buy packs of chicken thighs and then I divide and freeze them in two-thigh sized packs. This week I made this delicious dinner for two of Crispy Mustard Chicken with a wonderfully flavored Potato Salad Vinaigrette.
The chicken is spread with Dijon mustard on the underside and then flat roasted in a heavy skillet, skin side down and weighted. This results in a lovely crisp skin. The mustard flavors the chicken from the inside out, mellow and not slap in the face. The flavor is beautiful and goes wonderfully with that lovely baby potato salad with its fresh herb flavors. Altogether this was quite scrumptious!
SATURDAY, April 27th - Chili Cheese Dog Hot Dish
I finished off the week with one of my all time favorite casseroles. Chili Cheese Dog Hot Dish. I adore hotdogs, which I know not everyone does. They really shine in this delicious, simple casserole which is a riff on Chili dogs. A delicious store-cupboard meal it goes together very simply.
The base is a mix of sliced hot dogs, a can of chili and a few other bits. This gets topped with grated cheese and some frozen tater tots. This gets baked until everything is bubbling away and then just before serving, and when the tater tops are crispy, you can sprinkle a bit more cheese on top and let it melt. Oh boy but this is some good.
If you are looking for simple and delicious, you really can't go wrong with this! I enjoyed it with a nice salad on the side.
And there you have it. My meals of the week for this last full week in April. I can't believe we are at the end of April. I have now been doing these meals of the week posts for a whole year! They are something that I have really enjoyed putting together and I think you have enjoyed them also! They will continue!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
I am sharing a lovely teatime recipe with you today for Golden Tea Cakes. They are also known as Golden Betty's. Probably because they bake up to a lovely golden color and contain the golden warmth of ginger.
The original recipe is a very old one, published in the Farmer's Weekly in the 1920's. I got my recipe via a cookery book entitled Farmhouse Fare. I purchased my copy via Thrift Books. That's where I get a lot of my older books.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE GOLDEN TEA CAKES
Unusual for a British tea cake, these do not require self raising flour. Just some very simple every day ordinary baking larder ingredients!
- 1/4 cup (57g) salted butter
- 1/2 cup less 1 TBS (85g) fine granulated sugar (caster sugar)
- 1 cup (115g) plain all purpose flour
- 2 tsp golden syrup (can use corn syrup)
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
- 2 TBS whole milk
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 1 cup (130g) icing sugar
- 1 -2 tsp water (as required)
- 6 glace or maraschino cherries, halved (Rinse and pat dry)
Golden Tea Cakes
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (57g) salted butter
- 1/2 cup less 1 TBS (85g) fine granulated sugar (caster sugar)
- 1 cup (115g) plain all purpose flour
- 2 tsp golden syrup (can use corn syrup)
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
- 2 TBS whole milk
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 1 cup (130g) icing sugar
- 1 -2 tsp water (as required)
- 6 glace or maraschino cherries, halved (Rinse and pat dry)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter 12 bun tins really well. (I use these.) Place them on a baking tray. Alternately you can use a medium muffin tin.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the golden syrup, ginger, and the egg.
- Sift the flour, soda and cream of tartar together. Add to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk, making 3 dry and 2 wet additions, beginning and ending with dry.
- Divide between the tins equally, filling them about half full.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle of one comes out clean.
- Cool completely before icing.
- To make the icing whisk the sugar and enough water together to make a thick spoonable drizzle icing. Spoon a portion on top of each cold cake. Top with a half cherry. Allow to set.
- Store in an airtight container.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
I tend to look through these magazines and then file them in a bookcase that is in the walk in closet in my bedroom. I often forget they are there. I have promised myself that I am going to make an effort to use them more often and so this morning I grabbed this one and picked a few things I wanted to make from it.
There was this one and another one. I couldn't find the ingredients for the other one and so ended up making this. I love chicken thighs and I love potato salad. I was not disappointed.
I was intrigued by the method used to cook the chicken. Bone in, skin on, chicken thighs are opened out, brushed on the underside with some Dijon mustard and cooked, skin side down in a skillet beneath the weight of a heavier skillet placed on top. You can put a brick or some large cans in the top skillet to weigh it down even more.
This results in a lovely crisp skin. Believe it or not the chicken cooks through perfectly in about 15 minutes, tops.
While it is cooking you make a simple potato salad, which has the most delicious herbed vinaigrette dressing. You can see a close-up of it below. Trust me when I tell you that it is fabulously tasty. I do so love a vinaigrette dressed potato salad, don't you?
The recipe is sized for two, but can very easily be doubled or even tripled to serve more people. The combination of the simple fresh flavors of the salad, along with that crispy skinned chicken was for lack of a better word, amazing!
- 3/4 pound (12 ounces/340g) yellow new potatoes (about a dozen)
- fine sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
- 2 medium, bone in, skin on, chicken thighs
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
- 1 TBS white wine vinegar
- 2 tsp prepared horseradish
- 1 spring onion, trimmed, washed and finely chopped
- 2 tsp finely chopped fresh dill
- 2 small radishes, trimmed and finely sliced
- 2 TBS fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
If you enjoy simple chicken dinners that don't take a lot of effort or time and that are perfectly sized for two people, you might also enjoy the following:
CREAMY GARLIC CHICKEN - Juicy and tender, flavor filled chicken breasts, nicely browned, cooked and served with a fabulously tasty creamy garlic gravy. Simple ingredients put together in the most delicious way. This goes really well with fluffy mashed potatoes.
PARMESAN CHICKEN BAKE - Three simple ingredients and some seasoning, put together simply and baked to perfection. The chicken is tender and juicy, and filled with flavor. Some extra cheese is sprinkled on top to give added crunch. This goes together and cooks quickly. All you need on the side is a few vegetables and perhaps some potatoes or rice.
Crispy Mustard Chicken with Spring Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 3/4 pound (12 ounces/340g) yellow new potatoes (about a dozen)
- fine sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
- 2 medium, bone in, skin on, chicken thighs
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
- 1 TBS white wine vinegar
- 2 tsp prepared horseradish
- 1 spring onion, trimmed, washed and finely chopped
- 2 tsp finely chopped fresh dill
- 2 small radishes, trimmed and finely sliced
- 2 TBS fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Scrub your potatoes and then put them into a saucepan. Cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, add 1/2 tsp salt and then reduce the heat and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes, until tender.
- Drain well. Rinse under cold running water to cool off and then drain again.
- While the potatoes are boiling, place the chicken into a cold, large, heavy bottomed skillet, skin side down. Brush the underside with the mustard, dividing it equally amongst the two pieces of chicken. Place a piece of aluminum foil on top.
- Place another skillet on top of the chicken and then weigh it down with 4 or 5 heavy cans.
- Cook the chicken over medium heat until the skin is nicely browned. This will take about 10 to 12 minutes.
- Remove the cans, the top skillet and the foil. Flip the chicken over and continue to cook, uncovered, until cooked through. This will take another 2 to 3 minutes more.
- While the chicken is cooking, whisk the oil and vinegar together in a bowl with the horseradish. Stir in the spring onions and dill.
- Halve or quarter the potatoes, depending on their size. Place them into the bowl. Toss together with the vinaigrette. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper as desired.
- Fold in the radishes and parsley and serve along with the cooked chicken.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
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