- 4 slices good quality thin sliced white bread
- 2 ounces (56g) cream cheese, at room temperature (or softened butter)
- 1/2 smallish English cucumber, very thinly sliced
- pinch salt and ground black pepper
- finely chopped mint, chives or dill (optional)
Notes
You can make these ahead of time. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I like to dampen a piece of paper towel, wringing as much water out of it as possible and lay it on top of the sandwiches before sealing the container. This helps to keep them nice and moist.
Cucumber Finger Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 4 slices good quality thin sliced white bread
- 2 ounces (56g) cream cheese, at room temperature (or softened butter)
- 1/2 smallish English cucumber, very thinly sliced
- pinch salt and ground black pepper
- finely chopped mint, chives or dill (optional)
Instructions
- Lay your slices of bread out on a cutting board. Spread each one with cream cheese (or butter), dividing it equally amongst the four slices.
- Lay the cucumber slices out on two of the bread slices on top of the cheese/butter, overlapping each other slightly. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and black pepper and herbs, if using. (I only recommend using one type of herb.)
- Top with the other two slices of bread, cream cheese side down. Press lightly to help them to stick together.
- Trim off all of the edges of each sandwich with a sharp serrated knife, wiping the knife clean with a piece of damp kitchen toweling between cuts. Keep the sandwiches square as much as possible.
- Cut each sandwich either into two fingers or two triangles to serve.
Notes
You can make these ahead of time. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I like to dampen a piece of paper towel, wringing as much water out of it as possible and lay it on top of the sandwiches before sealing the container. This helps to keep them nice and moist.
Remove the sandwiches from the refrigerator about half an hour prior to serving.
- 4 ounces (115g/scant cup) pasta, such as fusilli, shells, etc.
- a handful of cooked string beans, crispy tender
- 1/2 cup (4 ounces/115g) well seasoned grilled steak, cut into bite sized pieces
- 3 slices of crispy cooked bacon, crumbled
- 3 TBS grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 TBS good quality mayonnaise
- 2 TBS sour cream
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- seasoning to taste (Montreal Steak seasoning, salt and pepper)
Some other main dish salads that you might enjoy that I have prepared here in The English Kitchen are:
GRILLED CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD - Grilled chicken, seasoned with my own Montreal Chicken Seasoning, along with crisp Cos (romaine) lettuce leaves, Streaky bacon, Crisp garlic croutons, plenty of Parmesan Reggiano Cheese and a brilliantly flavorful Caesar dressing complete the picture for a nice light supper everyone will love!
LAYERED COBB SALAD - Not only delicious but very pretty to look at as well. It has all of the elements of the infamous Cobb Salad, stacked in a tasty tower . . . crisp iceberg lettuce, rich and indulgent creamy ripe avocado . . . ripe sweet tomatoes, sharp spring onions . . . crisp and salty bacon and rich and tangy blue cheese. All with a deliciously creamy dressing! Makes for a lovely luncheon dish on its own or an amazing side dish when you are entertaining.
Steak & Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 4 ounces (115g/scant cup) pasta, such as fusilli, shells, etc.
- a handful of cooked string beans, crispy tender
- 1/2 cup (4 ounces/115g) well seasoned grilled steak, cut into bite sized pieces
- 3 slices of crispy cooked bacon, crumbled
- 3 TBS grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 TBS good quality mayonnaise
- 2 TBS sour cream
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- seasoning to taste (Montreal Steak seasoning, salt and pepper)
Instructions
- Cook the pasta to al dente according to the package directions. Drain well, rinse under cold running water to cool off and drain again. Gently pat dry and pop into a bowl.
- Chop the beans into 1 inch pieces and cut the steak into bite sized pieces. Sprinkle the steak with some of the Montreal steak seasoning to taste. Put the beans and steak into the bowl with the pasta.
- Whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream and vinegar until smooth. Season lightly with some salt and pepper. Pour this over the steak, vegetables and pasta, tossing to coat everything.
- Gently fold in 2/3 each of the bacon and the cheese. Sprinkle the remainder over top and serve immediately.
Here I am again with another Meals of the Week post! It seems that you all enjoy these posts and I have to say I am happy for that because I really enjoy putting them together. Somehow sharing what you have eaten makes you more accountable I think and helps to keep me on the right path! There's no getting lazy when you know you are going to be sharing some eating inspiration with others!
I do think that when you are a person who lives all on their own, or if you are an elderly person, the temptation is there to just not want to bother much with cooking and preparing meals. It is all to easy to just open a can or pop a frozen dinner into the oven or the microwave.
The truth is however those ready meals are more often than not loaded with fat, salt and preservatives and I happy to believe we are worth much more than that and worth the effort! They are okay once in a while if you really get into a spot, but a steady diet of them is not a very good thing for anyone!
With that in mind I aim to share my weekly menus with you each week so that, hopefully, you can be inspired to want to cook and plan some of the same for yourself!
A lot of time was spent with family this week, but I still managed to cook me up some incredible deliciousness. Here we go!
SUNDAY, July 9th - Dinner at my sisters
Most Sunday's I go to my sister's for supper. This week she had pot roast which my brother in law cooked on the BBQ. (Its been quite warm and humid.) My sister just puts everything into a deep tin foil pan, covers it tightly with aluminum foil and pops it onto the BBQ.
My Brother in law closes the lid the BBQ and it roasts as if it was in an oven. Just on a medium low heat and he rotates the pan every so often. It wasn't a large roast, just a medium to small one and there were potatoes, onions and carrots in the pan, plus beef broth.
Another way to beat the heat and cook a good pot roast is to use an Instant Pot. You can access my recipe for a delicious Instant Pot Pot Roast here. Its fabulously tasty and very simple to make.
MONDAY, July 10th - Cold Plate
On Monday, it was still pretty hot and humid. I had all sorts of cold salads left from my sister's Birthday Celebration on the Saturday so I put myself together a Cold Plate. Cold Plates are very popular here in the Maritime Provinces in the summer months. I shared a tutorial on the blog on how to put one together.
On this particular day I had some cold roast chicken, potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw, cucumber sticks, tomatoes and lettuce. It was delicious and because I already had the salads in, not a lot of trouble. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy as they say!
TUESDAY, July 11th - Tuna Melt Sliders
It was still pretty hot and humid. That's July here in Nova Scotia. Every once in a while we will get a big thunderstorm to help release some of it and cool things off. On this particular day I turned my oven on briefly to make some Tuna Melt Sliders.
This was a small batch recipe. My favorite tuna salad, combined with a layer of grated cheddar cheese in soft slider buns, which had been brushed with an onion Dijon butter prior to baking. They are only in the oven for about 15 minutes altogether so not long enough to really heat up the kitchen.
Just long enough to melt the cheese. The buns stay nice and soft with crisp tops and the cheese is all melty gooey. I enjoyed this with some crinkle crisps (potato chips) on the side.
WEDNESDAY, July 12th - Lunch at Jonny's Cook House
I had wanted to take my sister out for lunch on her actual birthday the week before but the place we wanted to go to was actually closed and so we rescheduled for this week. My cousin Sheri joined us with her little boy Sawyer. It is one of our favorite places to eat! The food is great! And they have a bazillion different flavors of Ice Cream.
We had fish and chips, because theirs is really good, but usually we have the True Newf Poutine. Since I developed a copy cat recipe for it (see link in previous sentence) we usually have fish and chips. That True Newf Poutine is fabulous. Hot crisp fries, cheese curds, hot gravy and a generous amount of Newfie style stuffing scattered over top! A real favorite around here!
THURSDAY, July 13th - Tater Tot Chicken Pot Pie
I used some leftover cooked chicken I had in the freezer to make a two person sized Tater Tot Chicken Pot Pie on Thursday. This has all of the delicious flavors of a normal pot pie, with a rich and creamy gravy filled with cubed chicken, onions, peas, corn, and carrots.
This is put into a baking dish, topped with a layer of grated cheese and then frozen tater tots are put on top to cover. Baked in the oven the filling gets all lovely and bubbly and those tater tots get golden crispy brown delicious! So yummy. I enjoyed with a side salad for a wonderfully economical and tasty supper!
FRIDAY, July 14th - Delicious Instant Pot Beef Stew
My son arrived on Friday with his sweet wife and their three boys. They had requested that I make stew for supper. They love my stew. I doubled my Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipe and used potatoes instead of gnocchi this time around. They loved it! Tender chunks of lean beef and vegetables in a rich beef gravy. Delicious!
I also baked a loaf of my favorite Cheese Bread in the bread machine which went down a real treat with the stew!
For dessert we had Peachy Lemon Whip. This is a simple refrigerator dessert I have been making since my high school Home Economics days. Its simply delicious with a graham cracker crust bottom, a lush lemon whip over top and tinned peaches to cover.
SATURDAY, July 15th - Cheese Crusted Grilled Cheese
After feeding up my son and his family on pancakes, sausage and bacon for breakfast, they went on their way to camp. They will be back again once camp is over for a few days and we will have our real visit then. I am looking forward to hearing all about their camp!
I was exhausted though by the time supper rolled around so I made myself something simple. Just a cheese crusted grilled cheese sandwich and a mug of tomato soup. It was perfect. Not a lot to clean up afterwards and nice and filling. No fuss, no muss.
And there you have it my meals for the past week. I tried to keep my kitchen nice and cool this past week! I think I will be doing the same in the week to come! It was a very delicious week nonetheless and I got to share a lot of it with family, which was the best part of all!
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
- 1 tin (6 ounces/170g) tin of solid albacore tuna, drained very well
- 1 TBS minced red onion, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes, then drained very well
- 1 tsp minced flat leaf parsley,, or 1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes
- 2 TBS good quality full fat mayonnaise
- 1/2 TBS Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 TBS sweet pickle relish
- fine sea salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 4 slider style rolls
- additional mayonnaise to spread
- 1/2 cup (115g) grated sharp cheddar cheese (I used white cheddar)
- 1 TBS butter, melted
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp onion powder (not salt)
- parsley flakes
Tuna Melt Sliders
Ingredients
- 1 tin (6 ounces/170g) tin of solid albacore tuna, drained very well
- 1 TBS minced red onion, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes, then drained very well
- 1 tsp minced flat leaf parsley,, or 1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes
- 2 TBS good quality full fat mayonnaise
- 1/2 TBS Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 TBS sweet pickle relish
- fine sea salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 4 slider style rolls
- additional mayonnaise to spread
- 1/2 cup (115g) grated sharp cheddar cheese (I used white cheddar)
- 1 TBS butter, melted
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp onion powder (not salt)
- parsley flakes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a small baking dish, large enough to hold the buns in one layer.
- Flake the drained tuna into a bowl. Add the drained onion, the pickle relish, Dijon mustard, mayonnaise, lemon juice, parsley flakes and salt and pepper. Mix everything together well.
- Cut the rolls in half horizontally through the middle. I like to keep it as one sheet of four buns, still attached together.
- Place the bottom into the baking dish, cut side up, and spread with some mayonnaise. Pile the tuna filling on top, spreading it out to cover the bun halves completely. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese evenly over top. Spread the cut side of the tops of the rolls with some mayonnaise and place, cut side down, on top of the cheese, pressing down lightly.
- Whisk the melted butter, onion powder, and Dijon mustard together. Brush over top of the buns and sprinkle with a few parsley flakes.
- Cover tightly with a sheet of aluminum foil. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove the foil, return to the oven and bake for 5 minutes longer.
- Remove from the oven and leave to sit for 5 minutes and then serve, cut into single buns, with some potato chips on the side if desired.
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