Here I am again with another Meals of the Week post, this one for the first week of May.  Temperatures were not overly warm this week, so I am still enjoying a bit of comfort food. A few days were absolutely frigid actually.  That is what this time of year is like. Very transitional.

We will soon be complaining about the heat and eating nothing but salads, but in the meantime, I am enjoying some lovely comfort food and simple dishes that are not only simple to make, but inexpensive for the  most part as well as being delicious.

I have challenged myself as a single person living on my own to eat as best as I can. I don't want to be that person who eats out of packets and cans. I want to eat good food, honest food, and food that isn't filled with salt and preservatives, so I want to cook my own meals from scratch, as long as I am competent and capable enough to do so!

Challenging myself to do so is inspiring to me and I hope it will be inspiring to you also!  Maybe you will also want to cook good, economical, and tasty meals for yourself also.

This is only my suppers. I do also eat breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is usually toast or cereal, sometimes yogurt granola and fruit.  Lunch is a sandwich most of the time, sometimes cheese and crackers and fruit, or sometimes  a delicious salad. I do so enjoy my salads!

So here we go, my meals from the past week. Enjoy!

SUNDAY, April 30th - Pot Roast

Most Sundays I go to my sisters for Sunday Dinner. This week was no different. She had cooked a pot roast again. They have had beef roasts on special at the shops these last few weeks. Usually she does hers in the oven with potatoes, carrots, parsnips, etc. This photograph here is from Another Pot Roast recipe that I cooked  at home in the UK  a few years back. 

For this I used a Rolled Beef Brisket, which I cooked with loads of onions to make a rich onion gravy. When it comes to pot roasting, you really don't get much better than a nice Brisket. On this occasion we enjoyed it with mashed potatoes, mashed swede (turnips) and carrots.

I had brought over some of Grandmother's Five Cup Salad for us to enjoy for dessert, and enjoy it we did!

MONDAY  May 1st - Cranberry Baked Ham Steak 

I had picked up a Ham Steak for a really good price at the shops, so I cut it down into four serving sized pieces and I froze three pieces. The fourth I cooked this way.  Its a really simple thing to do. You just spread the steak with some mustard (I used Dijon), add a layer of cranberry sauce and bake it in the oven. 

It turns out really delicious. Tender and juicy, with a bit of heat from the mustard and a bit of sweet from the cranberry sauce. I enjoyed this with some boiled potatoes and tender stem cauliflower.  Delicious! 

TUESDAY, May 2nd - Skillet Parmesan Chicken for two

This is one of my favorite skillet meals. This tasty Skillet Chicken Parmesan has all of the flavors and tastes of the original, but it is down sized to feed only two people and cooks all in one skillet. Yes, everything, including the pasta.

I think when pasta gets cooked in the rich tomato sauce like this does, it has even more flavor. Add to that tender pieces of chicken, cheese and crispy crumbs on top of the chicken and you are spelling, Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!  No fuss, no muss, and all in one pan.  Count me in! 

All you need on the side is a nice mixed salad. If you are a hearty eater or your partner is, you might want to add a crusty roll or some garlic bread.

WEDNESDAY, May 3rd - Tomato & Rice Soup (small batch)

Normally on Wednesday nights I go out for supper with my father and his friends. This week they decided to go for a Chinese meal and I didn't want to drive all the way to the next town for that, plus I am a bit short this month having paid my taxes, and so I stayed home and made myself a delicious batch of Tomato & Rice Soup.

This is one of my favorite soups.  I love tomato soup. Making it from scratch is a life changer, and when you add some rice and other bits to it, it really is delicious.  I enjoyed this simply with some crackers and was a very happy camper.  It is very hearty and very tasty. I froze the second serving for another time.

THURSDAY, May 4th - Sheet Pan Sausage and Peppers

Sheet Pan Sausage and Peppers is another quick and easy meal that is cooked all on one baking sheet and is perfectly sized for just two people. I love the smokiness from the sausage and the way the peppers and onions caramelize.  Caramelized vegetables are one of my favorite things.

Sometimes I will have this with rice, and sometimes with potatoes, but on this occasion I served it simply spooned into a crusty roll. Kind of like a sausage and pepper sandwich.  Need I say it, delicious!  I ate the rest of my salad from the other day on the side.

FRIDAY, May 5th - Tuna Patties for Two 

Fish for Friday. Old habits die hard. I have enjoyed fish on Fridays for years and years.  In the UK it we used to treat ourselves to fish and chips on Fridays. Oh my but they were some good!! Fish bars all over the UK usually have lineups out into the streets with people wanting their fish and chips fix  on Friday nights! 

No fish bars here in Canada. A fish bar is a fish and chips takeaway. You can't eat inside, but you can get fish and chips, wrapped in unprinted newspaper, to take home for your supper. They also have things like meat pies, sausages, Kebabs, etc.

For my fish this week I made my favorite Tuna Patties. This is a real store cupboard favorite with me. You can  use tinned salmon if you prefer. Also very good.  Crisp and buttery on the outside, tender inside, these went down a real treat with a dollop of Homemade Tartar Sauce on top. This week I served them with steamed brown rice and vegetables, but a favorite way I like to enjoy them is with mac and cheese.

SATURDAY, May 6th - Beans on Toast

After getting up super early Saturday morning to watch the Coronation of King Charles III, I didn't really feel like making a big deal out of supper.  I was hungry however and so I fell back on an old favorite of mine, Beans on Toast. You can't get more British than good old Beans on Toast.

Beans on Toast was not something I had ever eaten prior to moving to the UK.  Beans on Saturday night with hotdogs was quite common, but never on toast. I fell in love with the concept. Comfort food. Simple, easy and delicious.

Of course I make a cheeky cheese and spring onion toast to enjoy my beans on. Sometimes I will add a layer of grainy mustard beneath the cheese. Very tasty! 

And those were my meals of the week, the sometimes cheeky, always tasty suppers that I enjoyed for the first week in May.  Next week promises to be every bit as interesting and exciting as I try out a week of eating totally from my store cupboard.

Yes, you heard that right. I am challenging myself to eat totally from my store cupboard. I have fresh milk, eggs, butter in the fridge and I am challenging myself to not go to the shops all week and see if it can be done!  Wish me luck!  I do so love a good challenge!

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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Something which I have started doing here in The English Kitchen over this past month is sharing my Meals of the Week with you at the beginning of every week. I share all of the main meals that I have cooked or shared with family over the previous week, along with links to recipes, etc.

For me, it is good to be able to look back and see how I have eaten, and maybe where I could do better.  Having this as a goal at the end of each week also inspires me to want to cook better meals for myself so that I can share them with you.

I like to think that is also helps in your meal planning, whether you are a family or a single person living on your own.  A bit of inspiration always goes a long way, especially when it comes to meal planning.

Sometimes when you are living on your own, such as I do, the temptation can be to want to open a can or heat up a tv dinner.  Occasionally I will do just that, but most of the time I like to cook from scratch. Not only are my homemade meals much healthier, but they are more often than not much lower in salt, fat and sugar.  Homemade is always best. 

I do enjoy two meals out a week. I am very fortunate in that I live near family and so most Sundays I will share a Sunday dinner with my sister, her husband and my father, and on Wednesday nights my father and his friends like to get together at a local eatery for a meal. I usually tag along and sometimes I even get my sister to come with us!!

My breakfasts and lunch's are normally quite simple although I did treat myself to some homemade Copycat Waffle House Waffles one day this week.  Most mornings I will enjoy some homemade granola along with some Greek yogurt, or toast.   

Lunches will sometimes be leftovers from the night before if there are any, or a sandwich, or sometimes a frozen mini pizza, or even a salad. I love salad lunches!! They are my favorite things to eat for lunch!

Here is what I ate over the previous week for my main meals. I hope that you will be inspired to want to try some of the recipes perhaps, or at the very least to want to cook some good food for yourself! Just because you are on your own there is no need to think you aren't worth the effort.

You totally are!

SUNDAY APRIL 23rd - Roast Beef Dinner at my sisters

Most Sundays I enjoy a family dinner at my sister's home with my sister, her husband and my father.  I really enjoy these family times that we get to spend with each other. Roast beef was on special last week and so my sister cooked a pot roast again. 

My sister makes the best gravy.  You can make great gravy from scratch, even if you don't have any drippings. You can find my recipe for that here. 

We had roasted carrots, potatoes and roasted tender stem cauliflower with it, or caulilini as it is also called. It is so delicious. Its not something either of us had tried until this year and now we can't get enough of it!

We had lemon pie for dessert, leftover from my place on Saturday night.  All of it was so yummy, but the best part of course was being together!!

MONDAY APRIL 24th - Loaded Baked Potato Casserole for two

I had some leftover baked potatoes that I had baked on Saturday night for the family dinner and so I used them to make a delicious smaller sized version of an old casserole that I really enjoy.  

All of the flavors that you love to enjoy with a baked potato are included in this easy, all-in-one bake.  Cubed potatoes, cheese, bacon, sour cream, spring onions.  Its so delicious. I could make a meal of this and nothing else. 

I had some leftover roast chicken in the freezer, so I just warmed some of that up along with some steamed green beans. This was a simple and tasty meal.

TUESDAY APRIL 25th - Steak & Eggs

I had gone to the store to pick up some buttermilk and spied a nice looking steak that was marked down because it was on its sell by date. 

I snapped it up and made myself some tasty Steak & Eggs for my supper.  It is a breakfast dish I know, but a pretty hearty one. I am a gal that enjoys having breakfast for my supper! 

This was really really good. I added a cheeky baked hashbrown patty on the side, otherwise it would have been a totally low carb dinner for those who are low-carbing it!

WEDNESDAY APRIL 26th - Fish and Chips with my dad and his friends

On Wednesday nights I always go out for supper with my dad and his lady friends.  We usually have fish and chips and this week was no different. We are a family that loves our fish and chips!  Not that healthy for you, I know, but always delicious. I usually get the hand cut chips and of course there is tartar sauce. No mushy peas here in Canada however.  I miss them.

I do have a lovely recipe for a Garlic Herbed Cod and Chips that you might enjoy.  Perfectly cooked cod loins with a tasty garlic and herb coating, roasted in the oven along side some home cut oven chips with the skins on. No frying in this one.

THURSDAY APRIL 27th - Street Cart Chicken and Rice

This is one of my favorite ways to cook chicken.  I froze 3 servings of the chicken and the rice in individual servings for another time (minus the lettuce and tomatoes.)  I also did not freeze the sauce.  This might look like a lot of work, but it really isn't.  I can promise you that it is worth every bit of effort and incredibly delicious.

You might not be able to freeze the sauce or the other bits, but things like this are great to have in the freezer. I just break it down into individual servings in small square freezer containers, ready to take out and heat up as and when. Its easy to add the fresh bits and the sauce on the day.

FRIDAY APRIL 28th - Macaroni Cheese & Tomato Bake

This is a recipe that I just love. I had not made it in a while because the original recipe serves four people. On this day I decided to cut the recipe in half and make just two servings.  

Oh, how delicious it is.  Macaroni is stirred together with a quick and easy tomato sauce and spread in the bottom of the baking dish. A lush layer of cheesy bechamel is spread over top and it is topped with buttery cracker crumbs prior to baking for a deliciously satisfying meal for two.  

All you need on the side is some crusty bread and perhaps a salad. That is how I enjoyed it at any rate!

SATURDAY APRIL 29th - Skillet Beans and Weiners

This is one of those quick and easy suppers that I just love.  I love hot dogs and beans anyways, and when they are combined together in a delicious and easy skillet supper like this one, I am one very happy camper.  Its not something that I eat very often, but something that I really enjoy when I do.  

We used to have beans and weiners a lot when I was a child on Saturday nights.  Sometimes my mom would buy a huge can of tinned spaghetti and we would have weiners with that. Not only were these economical meals, but they were delicious as well. Maybe not the healthiest, but when you are watching the pennies, sometimes you just have to do what you have to do!

A little bit of what you love to eat now and then never did anybody any harm.

I enjoyed with some crusty bread leftover from Friday night and some packaged scalloped potatoes.  This was a real treat.

 So here we are, right on the cusp of the lovely month of May. Temperatures are warming now and appetites are wanting lighter, fresher foods. Not so much comfort foods.  I am looking forward to the warmer sunnier days, salads and such.  How about you?

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 

Here I am with another meals of the week post, this one covering Sunday April 2nd to Saturday April 8th. I have to say I am most appreciative of the feedback that I get from these posts. It is clear that you are being inspired from what I am cooking and eating and that makes me very happy!

Whether you are a singleton, or a couple empty nesters, or even a couple who just live on their own, its always nice to have some idea of what other people in the same situation do when it comes to preparing meals.

My mother was on her own for about 30 years prior to my sister moving in with her and my mother cooked herself a supper every day. They might have been simple things, but they were always nutritious and balanced.  

She loved to shop at M&M.  She would buy their boxes of marinated chicken breasts and steaks and fish and quite often that is what she would have along with some type of starch and some vegetables, or even just a salad.  Not all that inspiring to a person who likes to and enjoys cooking, but she was very happy with them.

Sometimes, if the local McDonalds was having an offer on Big Macs or some such, she would pick up a few and freeze them to enjoy every now and then. Again, not something I would choose to do, but she loved Big Macs!

She also used to love the Hungry Man Frozen Dinners and would buy them when they were on offer as well. She was especially fond of the turkey and stuffing one. I confess that every so often I like to indulge in a frozen dinner, but it is always on impulse and I am always disappointed when I get them because they always fail to measure up to the photograph on the box.  

I have not yet resorted to buying Big Macs and freezing them! LOL  Except for the occasional meal out I do cook for myself every day.  I will sometimes cook a bit extra and freeze that in single serve portions ready to enjoy on a day when I can't be asked to cook, or I am in a rush and don't have time to cook.

In any case here is what I cooked/enjoyed over this past week. This is only a reflection of what I had for my main meals of the day. Lunches (my evening meal) and breakfasts are a lot simpler and usually don't require much effort. I usually eat my main meal (if I am eating at home) at lunch time.  

For my breakfast I will have a muffin, or a bowl of cereal, maybe some toast, and occasionally I will enjoy some cold pizza from the night before. In the evenings I will enjoy a sandwich, or a salad, or a bowl of soup.  Sometimes another bowl of cereal. It all depends on if I am hungry or not and how hungry I am.

And without further adieu, here we go!

SUNDAY APRIL 2ND - Air Fryer Roast Chicken

Sunday supper at my sisters. My sister did a lovely roast chicken in her air fryer, and we enjoyed that along with some oven roasted tender stem broccoli, potatoes and sweet potatoes.  It was a small chicken, which fit into the air fryer perfectly.  The chicken turns out with extra crispy skin and is lovely and moist, very tender and juicy.

My sister always cooks a lovely supper. 

MONDAY APRIL 3RD - Creamy Curried Sweet Potato Soup

I wasn't overly hungry when it came to supper time on Monday.  I cooked up a small batch of Curried Sweet Potato Soup. This was lovely.  I garnished it with an additional drizzle of coconut milk and some toasted coconut flakes. I enjoyed with some warmed up Naan Bread.  I make a lovely Yeast Free Naan from scratch that is really easy to make.  It goes wonderfully with soups like this or with curries.

TUESDAY APRIL 4TH - Cheesy Ranch Chicken & Bacon Foil Packs

I had a really busy day on Tuesday with hospital appointments up country, etc.  I prepped these delicious foil pack chicken dinners in the morning, ready to take out of the fridge and pop into the oven when I got home.  Foil pack dinners are a real favorite here because they take very little effort, are a simple meal in one and there is very little to clean up when done.  

You can make as many or as few as you like. If you don't want to cook in foil, you could also do in a small covered casserole dish. This one has both sweet and white potatoes on the bottom, also broccoli florets, tossed with a bit of oil and seasoned with ranch dressing mix, topped with chicken, which is also seasoned in the same way and then topped with cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon. Quite simply delicious! 

WEDNESDAY APRIL 5TH - Supper out with Dad and Cindy

I always go out for supper with my father and his friends on Wednesday Evenings.  This week my sister joined us. We go to a local eatery called The Big Scoop.  

The special this week was a Toasted Western Sandwich with fries.  I make a really great Oven Baked Western Sandwich with Oven Baked Hash Browns.  It is sized perfectly for just two people and always goes down a real treat. You can't beat cheap, easy and delicious meals like this one! 

THURSDAY APRIL 6TH - The Best Oven Baked Pork Chops Ever

You can't beat a pork chop supper!  I had picked up some nice thick bone-in chops for a bargain price because they were at their sell by date. Not a problem. Bring them home and freeze them right away for a tasty supper later on. I cooked one of them on Thursday. 

These were big chops. Large enough to feed two people.  Breaded and baked, dotted with butter, then drizzled with a delicious honey mustard glaze, this was really REALLY delicious. I served with the half of the box of scalloped potatoes that I had not cooked the week before and some yellow wax beans. Tender,  juicy and delicious!

FRIDAY APRIL 7TH - Tuna Melt Casserole

I had not  made this delicious Tuna Casserole in a very long time. I cut the recipe in half because here is only me.  Fat rigatoni pasta mixed with tuna and broccoli florets in a lush cheese sauce, topped with sliced tomatoes and more cheese and baked until bubbly and delicious!

I enjoyed this with a side salad and some crusty bread!