What's on your menu today

Scouse for us today, chunks of steak and carrots, celery, onions and potatoes with a pinch of cumin oxo and S&P slow cooked for 3 hours.

It's a cordon bleu meal for us tonight.

A small baked spud with a small cheese and ham salad and a glass of chardonnay.

I won't eat much - serves me right for having a toastie at lunch time

Pork steaks, sag's cousin, with apple sauce, roast spuds, carrots and sprouts.

Yesterday's leftover lamb, sliced and made into a hotpot type of dish with sliced potatoes and sliced onions. Finish with a layer of potatoes. Cover with any remaining gravy (extra stock if necessary) ensure all the contents are covered with liquid. Plenty of pepper, cover and cook on a low heat for several hours until the potatoes are soft and the liquid has evaporated enough to expose the top layer of potatoes and allowed them to brown. Leave the lid off for a time if this hasn't happened.

We're having that with stir fry brussels: Blanch the trimmed and halved (lengthwise) sprouts in boiling water for 2 - 3 minutes. Rinse with cold water to stop any further cooking.

Heat a small amount of oil in a wok or frying pan. Sprinkle in some sesame seeds and a finely chopped fresh red chili. When the sesame seeds start popping add the sprouts and stir fry over a high heat until brown bits appear on them. Cook to the degree of brown you like and serve with the lamb

A Sunday Roast

I'm into wraps at the moment - filled with anything that's healthy from the salad bowls and strips of meat, fish and cheese [not all together!] they are much tastier than they seem or look and the kilos keep coming down

I'm quite partial to wraps. Not had them for a while so this has inspired me to resurrect them.

A filling I like particularly is chili beef and chopped avocado.

Chili beef is made from low fat (5% fat) steak mince, half its weight of finely chopped onion, garlic to taste, finely chopped fresh red chili and pepper/salt. Fry the onion and garlic in a small amount of fat and allow to cool. Add to the mince and mix well (best use your hands for this) to disperse everything and break down any aggregates of meat. If it's still lumpy, add some water. When the meat is finely dispersed, return to the frying pan and fry, together with the chili, until browned and has some crispy bits on it. Add the S&P. Must be stirred whilst this is happening to prevent burning and sticking to the pan.

The next part can be done in one of two ways. If the avocado is VERY ripe it should be spreadable like butter - in which case do that, spread on the chili mince, roll up and enjoy. If the avocado is not quite as ripe, chop into small pieces, mix with the chili mince and spread on the bread (tortilla, burrito, etc.) If the avocado is under ripe throw it away - they never ripen properly at home, although there is a trick of placing them in a plastic bag with some bananas and keeping a few days. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I find it best to buy ripe and ready to eat ones.

If you think the wrap is a bit slimline add salad (lettuce, sliced tomato, spring onion - whatever you fancy) to bulk it out.

Today it's lamb shanks cooked in a mint and rosemary gravy, with roast spuds, carrots and sprouts.

I am having a Chicken Tika Naga takeaway with pilau rice, poppadoms, raita and onion relish
I am also roasting a chicken...... chicken salad for 'er indoors

Beef Olives and Curly fries for me tonight. I haven't decided yet wether to have mustard or Picalilli with them, although at the moment I'm thinking Picalilli.

Nice and simple today. There is some leftover chili mince from yesterday. Going to add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tin of red kidney beans, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, a touch of sugar if necessary and a squeeze of tomato puree from a tube. Cooked for about 30 minutes to blend flavours.

Having it with potato wedges - as before:

Potato wedges = oven baked whole potato (jacket potato) allowed to get quite cold then cut into six or eight lengthwise.Place in a plastic bag with a small amount of oil shake to distribute oil then bake a few minutes in a hot oven to brown. I've found that allowing to get quite cold lets the flesh hold together much better than carrying on with warm or hot pieces.

Nearly forgot. A nice, but unhealthy, addition to this is a dollop of sour cream.

We had to change our minds and have something light last night,anti biotics had made Er indoors feel sickly. We will have the lamb shanks cooked in mint and rosemary gravy today.

Stir-fried yesterday's roast chicken with mushrooms and satsumas in a lemon and ginger sauce with fried rice.

malcolm wrote:

Stir-fried yesterday's roast chicken with mushrooms and satsumas in a lemon and ginger sauce with fried rice.

Sounds very nice!