Well, its Sunday and you know what that means. A recap of all the meals I cooked or ate over the previous week. My Meals of the Week. I am really enjoying gathering these meals together each week. It helps me to plan my meals for the week ahead and helps me to keep a note of exactly what and how I am eating.
It is all to tempting when you are a person who lives all on your own to eat out of cans, takeaways or frozen meals. My mother lived on her own from the age of 53 until she passed away at the age of 87. She always cooked for herself. She never ate out unless it was with other people. Occasionally she would treat herself to a TV dinner buying them when they were on special. She liked the turkey one. No surprise there as I love turkey also, just not in a TV dinner.
Mom always enjoyed feeding herself healthy meals for the most part. She also enjoyed a glass of red wine every night and a small dish of ice cream. Oh how I miss her.
I am taking a leaf from her book, and making sure that I eat a decent meal every day of the week, and I am enjoying bringing you along for the ride. Hopefully you will be inspired to do the same and maybe even get some new ideas from what I am cooking for your own meals!
Here is what I cooked myself over the past week. (Where I have eaten out, I have provided a similar option so that you can cook it yourself.) Let me know what you think!
SUNDAY, May 14th - Mother's Day
This was Mother's day and I was treated to a dinner out by my daughter Eileen and Son In Law Tim. Tim's mother was also there. We went to Angie's, which is a restaurant very close to me, and we both had the turkey dinner, small eaters size.
Of course it was not like my own Homemade Turkey Dinner (this one is sized for two people), but it was very good. Eileen had the meatloaf and Tim had his usual fish and chips. For dessert Jean (Tim's mom) and I split a slice of Turtle Cheesecake. Oh my but it was some good!
MONDAY, May 15th - Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Crispy Baked Potato Wedges
I just wanted something simple for my supper on Monday so I made myself a tasty Grilled Cheese Sandwich and some crispy baked potato wedges, and some coleslaw on the side.
I set aside half of the potato wedges to serve on another day and enjoyed the ones I did on the day very much. That is the good thing about them. You can reheat them very easily. It was a delicious dinner for sure!
TUESDAY, May 16th - 5-Minute Steak Dinner for One
I had been to the grocery store and was lucky enough one day a couple of weeks ago and scored two nice strip loin steaks marked down as they were on their sell-by date. I froze them.
On Tuesday I thawed one of them out to make a recipe that I had seen on Food 52 for a delicious steak dinner for one, which had a fabulous sounding sauce to serve with it. Of course it had green beans in the recipe as well, and I just heated up the leftover potato wedges from the day before. DELICIOUS!
WEDNESDAY May 17th - Dinner out with Dad
Wednesday nights I usually go out for dinner with my father and his friends. Dad wanted to treat me this week as I had taken him to the Doctors up country on Monday for his check up.
Dad and I both had the fish and chips. Hazel had the clams and chips. Dad had apple pie with whipped cream for dessert, Hazel had her usual Chocolate Fudge Sundae and I had a small bowl of ice cream. I usually get the kiddies cone without the cone. It is soft serve ice cream. The fish and chips were okay this week, the fish was a bit over cooked, but they were very busy with a large birthday party in attendance.
If you are wanting a delicious way to cook fish that is always perfectly cooked and never day, why not try out my recipe for Baked Haddock with a Buttery Cracker Topping. This is quite simply one of the most delicious ways to cook fish and it always turned out perfectly.
THURSDAY, May 18th - Cacio e Pepe
On Thursday I was in the mood for pasta and so I made myself some Cacio e Pepe. It was a dish that I had wanted to try out for a very long time. I downsized it to feed two people. I had the leftovers for breakfast on Friday.
Does anyone else out there enjoy leftovers for breakfast? I love having leftover pizza or mac and cheese for breakfast. Cacio e Pepe is a simple pasta dish that uses only the pasta, some of the pasta cooking water, some cheese, olive oil and plenty of pepper. I have seen some people add butter also. It is simple and its delicious. I enjoyed this along with a tossed salad. (I was wishing I had garlic bread, lol)
FRIDAY, May 19th - Tuna Burger
On Friday I really felt like having a Tuna Burger. I have been making Tuna Burgers since I was a teenager. They are really simple to make and incredibly delicious. I always enjoy them with a bit of cheese melted on top, served in a toasted bun with some lettuce and tomato. Lemon Mayonnaise is also very nice spread on the bun, or even tartar sauce.
You could serve these with potato chips on the side if you wished, or salad, even coleslaw. I always find them to be very filling so am happy with just the burger.
SATURDAY, May 20th - Chicken Tikka Masala
When I lived in the UK, Saturday nights were usually the nights that people enjoyed a nice curry supper or a Chinese. This week I was craving curry and so I made a small batch of my favorite Chicken Tikka Masala. My sister stopped by after I had cooked it and she said, it smells fantastic in here, what are you cooking? This recipe is from one of my favorite chef's Tamasin Day-Lewis and is a simple to make and incredibly tasty version of the UK's favorite curry. Not too spicy, creamy and delicious!
I enjoyed with some steamed basmati rice and some mango chutney on the side. I was wishing for some Peshwari Naan bread. Oh how I miss Peshwari Naan. It is my favorite of all the Naan Breads. It has a filling of coconut, raisins and almonds. I will have to try the recipe linked and see how it compares. Watch this space.
And those were my meals of the week for this past week. As you can see I ate very well. I even managed to eat fish twice!
I organized my larder on Thursday. It was in a right mess. If you can't see what you have you can't use it. I moved all of my cans and jars out to the attached garage to my house. It stays a pretty level temperature in there. Not too hot. Not too cold. And its dark. Now I can see everything and I am sure to use it up. I think I have a bazillion cans of tomatoes and creamed corn. DUH! I won't need to buy any of that for a while!
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We are having one set of the Missionary Elders for supper tonight (Friday as I write this). As you know I always love to spoil the missionaries. I know how hard they work.
Its been a bit hot for cooking and so I decided to make them an easy meal of BBQ ham sandwiches, macaroni salad, coleslaw, potato chips and then this fabulous refrigerated White Chocolate Cheesecake for dessert!
The filling is super simple and super easy to make. You simply beat cream cheese and sugar together with a bit of vanilla.
Melted white chocolate gets beaten into this. I used milky bar chocolate buttons because they melt really easy, but you can use any good white chocolate, broken into bits.
You let the melted chocolate cool a bit. Not too much because you don't want it to be hard at all. You want it to be at the right consistency to stir it into the cream cheese, but at the same time not hot enough to melt the cream cheese.
Once you have the filling all done, take the crust out of the fridge and spoon the filling on top of the crust. I use a back of a spoon to press it down compactly, taking special precautions to press it well against the sides and then filling in the middle.
You don't want there to be any gaps or air spaces in the filling. Patience is your friend here and will reward you well when it comes time to serve.
After you have it all in the pan, you can decorate the top of the cheesecake as you wish. I used more chocolate buttons and placed them decoratively around the top of the cake. Then I sprinkled some milk chocolate flakes in between these to give the cake some definition, and provide some contrast.
They had beef brisket on special offer the other day I was in the shops. I couldn't resist picking up a piece, even though it's been quite hot this week.
I had in mind to make these tasty slow braised brisket sandwiches which we like. The meat is a real doddle to cook.
Roasted on high for an hour . . . to really get it going . . . and then you turn it down real low and let it cook . . . slowly . . . until the meat is fork tender . . .
This is a really delicious way to do beef brisket. It's juicy and tender and beautiful served, coarsely shredded on warmed crisp baguettes . . .
You spread the baguettes first with some delicious Garlic Horseradish Mayo, which you make yourself.
Altogether these ingredients make one of the most delicious and easiest sandwiches you could ever want to eat. A real man and family pleaser!! If it's too hot to have the oven on, you can do them in the slow cooker. Just increase the times accordingly.
I guarantee if you make these for your family they are sure to become a much requested family favourite!
For the Horseradish and Garlic Mayo:
To serve:
Place the onions, shallots and garlic into the bottom of a small roasting tin which has a tight lid. Place the un-rolled and trimmed brisket on top. Whisk together the stock, vinegar, sugar, salt, and rosemary. Pour this into the roaster. Tuck in the broken bay leaf. Cover tightly and roast in the heated oven for 1 hour. At the end of that time, reduce the heat to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Continue to cook the brisket for an additional 3 to 4 hours until the beef is fork tender. Remove from the oven, but don't turn the oven off.
Whisk together the ingredients for the mayo and set aside.
Morning Glory Muffins (small batch)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (70g) plain all purpose flour (
- 1/2 cup (70g) whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup (95g) granulated sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup (25g) grated raw carrot
- 1/4 cup (30g) shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup (30g) chopped toasted walnuts (or a mix of walnuts and sunflower seeds)
- 1/2 cup (70g) grated fresh apple
- 1/2 cup (225g) crushed pineapple, well drained
- 1/4 cup (35g) raisins
- 1/3 cup (80ml) vegetable oil
- 1/8 cup (30ml) milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 large free range egg yolk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Butter six muffin cups really well. Set aside.
- Whisk together all of the dry ingredients in a bowl, including the sugar. Stir in the carrot, coconut, walnuts, apple, raisins and pineapple.
- Beat together the oil, milk, vanilla and egg yolk. Add to the dry ingredients and mix together just to moisten and so no dry streaks remain.
- Spoon into the prepared muffin cups, dividing the mixture equally between them.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown, risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the pan for five minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack. Serve warm with or without butter.
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