Can you guess what day this is?  You are right!  It is Meals of the Week Day!  The day when I gather together and share with you all the meals that I have cooked or eaten over the past week. 

You have all said that you enjoy these posts, and I actually find this very helpful myself, for a few reasons. One if helps me to look back on how I have been eating and perhaps make some changes in future weeks, and two, it helps me to plan my meals for the week ahead.

The temptation when one lives by themselves is to not cook, or to eat out of cans, bottles and boxes.  Frozen dinners, ready meals, etc. I don't want to be that person.  Already prepared food is quite expensive for one thing, and it is usually filled with salt, fat, sugar and a lot of other things I don't really want to be eating.

When I lived in the UK, eating small was a lot easier actually.  The UK is the King of the Ready Meal!  They have it down to an art and some of them are really quite good.  Marks and Spencer is the best at it. I used to love LOVE shopping there. Their ready meals were fabulous and did I live in the UK, I would probably eat more of them. 

I discovered this American couple on YouTube this week. The Magic Geekdom.  They had a whole video dedicated to shopping in M&S.  Do check it out if you are interested. They were huge fans. they made me feel quite homesick, and they were in the Chester M&S also, the one I used to shop at.

In any case, ready meals here in Canada cannot compare to M&S. I cook for myself all the time.  I might cheat every now and then and buy a rotisserie chicken, but who doesn't!

In any case these are the meals that I cooked for myself, or was treated to over the past week. I ate out twice and had dinner at my sister's on my Brother in Law's birthday, so not everything was cooked at home. I have provided recipes for those alternatives in the place of the restaurant food that are equal to or better then most of the restaurant food I had.

SUNDAY May 28th, Grilled BBQ Chicken

Usually on Sundays I go to my sister's for Sunday dinner. This week I had everyone here so that my sister could have the treat of going out golfing with her husband Dan.  Because I had church in the morning, I kept it really simple with some Grilled BBQ Chicken.

I also made a  Herbed Potato Salad. I had some baby potatoes that we had bought at Costco the other week that I wanted to use up and had everything in house ready to do it.  Its a very simple salad I think. Must easier than the mayonnaise type. It has a vinaigrette and herb dressing that you toss the warm potatoes into.  They soak up all the lovely flavors.  Light and delicious.

We also enjoyed a mixed salad and some garlic bread sticks from the store. (DON'T!  Essentially they were hotdog buns coated in garlic butter. Not that great.  Very bready.)  For dessert my sister had brought over a Sugar Free Apple pie.  Yummy!

 

 

TUESDAY, May 30th - Ham and Cheese Bow Ties

I decided to make myself a delicious casserole using some cooked ham that I had in my freezer, leftover from Easter. I had cubed it and froze it in one cup sized packages. Just the right size for the smaller family to use in casseroles like this one.

Cooked bow tie pasta is tossed together with the cooked ham in a rich and creamy, cheesy, garlicky sauce. Its delicious served with some steamed vegetables on the side.

WEDNESDAY, May 31st -  Dinner out with Dad and his friends

THURSDAY, June 1st. - True Newf Poutine, copycat

On Thursday my sister and I took my daughter and her husband out to lunch. We went to Jonny's Cookhouse in Berwick. Eileen and Tim had never been there so it was a real treat for them. My sister and I had been craving the True Newf Poutine for a while, so that is what we had. Hot chips topped with cheese curds, gravy and Newfoundland stuffing. Its delicious and this copycat recipe is even more so! I could eat that stuffing with a spoon.

 

 

FRIDAY, June 2nd - Pizza at my sister's

Friday was my brother in law Dan's birthday so my sister had us all over for homemade Pizza, salad and cake.  My sister makes a great homemade pizza.  The cake was a double chocolate that she makes which has pureed dates in the batter and a chocolate cream cheese frosting. Very yummy.

I have taken the liberty here of linking to my homemade School Cafeteria Pizza. This is one of the best pizzas to make at home. The crust is a pourable crust. Easy peasy.  I like to use my homemade pizza sauce which took me years to hone to perfection. We enjoy it topped with pepperoni, bacon, peppers, sausage, olives, etc.  Delicious!!

Of course the best part was being together as a family to celebrate a special occasion!

SATURDAY, June 3rd - Easy Chili Mac & Cheese

 

My mother never made cornbread for us when we were growing up and I don't know why.  Its such a simple and delicious bread to serve along side of soups, stews or salads.  It also goes phenomenally with baked beans and we sure ate enough of those!

The first time I ever had it was when I was visiting my in-laws on Prince Edward Island for the first time.  My then husband and I had been  married for a couple of years by then, and we had even dated as teenagers, but I had never met his parents.

 

 

Oh well.  Not a good start to my relationship with the in-laws to say the least! I was forever known as the girl who ruined the corncake.

I think corn muffins are a bit more forgiving than my mother in law's corncake was.  She had me bake it in gem pans so they were even drier.  Not my greatest success.

 

These lovely muffins are anything but dry, I can promise you!  They are light and delicious with a beautiful crumb.  Buttery and lightly sweetened with a bit of sugar and some honey, and just a nice amount of crunch from the cornmeal.

 

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE HONEY CORNBREAD MUFFINS (small batch)

Simple every day baking cupboard ingredients. 

• 1/2 cup (85g) yellow cornmeal (coarse polenta in the UK)
• 1/2 cup (70g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup (50) granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (120ml) whole full fat milk
• 1 large free range egg
• 1/8 cup (30ml) melted butter
• 1/8 cup (30ml) liquid honey

You can buy cornmeal in the UK on Amazon.  However when I lived there I either bought it as Skyco (an American goods supplier) or I just used coarse polenta, which worked fine.

Do use full fat milk for a nice rich flavor and result, and yes, do use butter.  There is  no substitution for real butter. 

By liquid honey I mean liquid honey, runny honey. Not creamed or solid honey.

I use organic granulated sugar that I buy at a Costco supply store.  Its a bit cream colored and not bleached white. But you can use any kind of granulated sugar you wish. In the UK I would use natural caster sugar.

 

HOW TO MAKE HONEY CORNBREAD MUFFINS (small batch)

Muffins are really a simple make. Its basically just mixing dry and wet ingredients together.

Preheat your oven to 400*F/200*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a nonstick medium muffin tin really well. Set aside.

Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl.

Whisk the milk, egg, melted butter and liquid honey together in a beaker. Mix well to amalgamate.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet ingredients. Mix together just to combine. Divide the batter equally between the muffin cups.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes until well risen, golden brown at the edges and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before tipping out. Serve warm.

HINTS AND TIPS FOR THE BEST MUFFINS

Here are my hints and tips for making sure that your muffins turn out beautifully every time:

1. Mix wet and dry ingredients separately. To prevent the mix from being overworked, first mix the wet ingredients together in one bowl and mix the dry ingredients in another. Make a well in the dry ingredients, carefully pour in the wet ingredients, then stir the mix a couple of times to roughly combine. 

 2. Don't over mix your muffins. The most important rule of muffin making is to not over stir the mix. What you really want is to just moisten the ingredients. Do not stir or beat the batter until it is smooth and lump free. You want the final mix to be lumpy, and thick with a few floury streaks.

 3. Add your flavors last.  While spices should be added with all the other dry ingredients, additions like fruit and nuts should be added last. Give the batter one more light-handed stir once you've added them in just to combine.  

4. Line the pans. You can choose to either grease the muffin tin or line it with paper liners. If you choose to forgo the liners, make sure you grease the base and sides of the cups with oil spray or a little melted butter. If you're not going to eat the muffins for a while, do use paper liners as these will keep the muffins fresher for longer. 

 5. Don't overfill your pans. Aim to fill the cups ¾ full to get muffins with nice round tops and to prevent them from spilling out over the top of the cups.  Often if your tins are over filled the muffins will rise to the top and then collapse on themselves.

 6. For extra interest, add a flavorful sprinkle on top.  Once the muffin cups are all filled, you can choose to sprinkle the tops with more fruit, nuts or a crumble topping, even sanding sugar or cinnamon sugar, for even more taste and or crunch. As the muffins rise these toppings will cook into the tops of the muffin.  

7. Protect your baking pan.  If there isn't enough batter to fill all the cups, half fill the empty ones with water. This will help the muffins bake evenly and will help to protect your pan from buckling. 

8. Cooling them down. Once you remove the muffins from the oven, let them sit in their pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack. This is especially important for muffins that aren't in a paper liner, as it will help them from falling apart. However, remove them after five minutes otherwise you risk them going soggy as they cool in the pan. 

9. Freeze extras for later. Muffins freeze beautifully, so if you can't enjoy them all on the day they're baked, wrap them in plastic wrap  tightly,  and put them in the freezer for later. They will keep for about 3 months and reheat wonderfully in the microwave for about 30 seconds on high from frozen. 

 

I was awfully tempted to make honey butter to go with these muffins, but I just served them warm with butter and more honey. Delicious to say the least!

They would also be good with butter and jam or marmalade.  For breakfast. With a hot cup of tea.  But they also would go really well with a bowl of Corn Chowder or Beef Chili.

These were excellent cornbread muffins!  I highly recommend!

If you are a fan of the muffin, you might also enjoy the following:

OAT, APPLE AND SUNFLOWER SEED MUFFINS - Somewhat healthy, aside from the sugar and golden syrup . . . with plenty of oats, sunflower seeds and chopped apple. If you don't have light muscovado sugar, you can use soft light brown sugar, and in the place of golden syrup you can use light corn syrup, or even honey would work well. In one word, moreish.

ORANGE MUFFINS - Buttery, moist and stuffed with beautiful orange flavor from the outside in.  These are winners all round! I chose to stud mine with dried currants, but you may like raisins, or nuts, or blueberries, etc. You may even prefer the to be plain.  One thing is for sure, you will enjoy these moist and delicious muffins. 

Yield: 6 delicious muffins

Author: Marie Rayner

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Honey Cornbread Muffins

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 25 Min

These tender muffins are delicious and light. Perfect served with butter and honey for breakfast or as a side to your favorite soup, chili, or even a salad!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (85g) yellow cornmeal (coarse polenta in the UK)
• 1/2 cup (70g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup (50) granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (120ml) whole full fat milk
• 1 large free range egg
• 1/8 cup (30ml) melted butter
• 1/8 cup (30ml) liquid honey

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 400*F/200*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a nonstick medium muffin tin really well. Set aside.
2. Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl.
3. Whisk the milk, egg, melted butter and liquid honey together in a beaker. Mix well to amalgamate.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet ingredients. Mix together just to combine. Divide the batter equally between the muffin cups.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes until well risen, golden brown at the edges and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Leave to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before tipping out. Serve warm.

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