Meal Planning Monday!!!



Yeay! It's a whole new month and a whole new load of meals!
I actually plan month by month, so I sat on Saturday and planned 4 weeks worth of meals. We tend to eat a lot of the same or similar meals each week, so that's not as hard as it sounds.
This month we celebrate Chinese New Year. It's the Year of the Sheep, which is ironic as I can't actually remember the last time we ate lamb. It really is the most expensive meat, probably because with the best will in the world you can't intensively rear sheep! However, in an homage to chinese food I am trying out recipes from this book, Gok Cooks Chinese.

I've read through the book and picked one or two recipes to try each week. If they're good, I'll be adding them to the regular repertoire. If they're not, well, I'll try again. The Gok recipes are marked below, complete with page number to aid my memory.
So, to business. Would you like to know what's cooking chez AngelJem this week? Yes?Here it is then.

Monday; Chilli Beef Noodles. Basically, this is a fast mince dish, with fried chilli powder and mince added to stir fried spring onions or leeks and broccoli with quick cook egg noodles. Served with a generous splash of soy sauce, it's easy and edible in 10 minutes.
Tuesday;  Beef stew. The problem I have with beef stew is that the Lads don't like scouse style stew, with the potatoes mixed in, whereas Princess and I do. Do I cook how I know they will like it (and eat it) or do I cook to suit myself on the grounds that the chef gets to decide what we eat and if you don't like it.... well, you know where the kitchen is.
Wednesday; Breakfast at night; is there anything more delicious than eggs, bacon, sausages, beans, hash browns, mushrooms, brown sauce, fried bread and black pudding with a few pieces of buttered bread served as the last bars of the Pointless music fade into the background? No? I thought not.
Thursday; Turkey pie. I still have a bag of shredded Christmas turkey in the freezer. On Thursday I shall make a white (ish) sauce, probably with mushrooms in, and either give it a savoury crumble topping or a mashed potato topping. Or, if I'm really energetic and enthusiastic I'll make a simple pastry topping. I have naturally cold hands, so I'm good at pastry.
Friday;  A meal for the children. haven't decided yet. For our romantic, lovey dovey candle lit dinner we are having Garlic Chicken (page 42 in Gok's book) with rice or noodles. I might just put chopsticks out first, for fun. I can use them well, Mr AJ.... well, no. Not at all!
Saturday; An adventurous day. Mr AJ and I are going out for a meal together with some friends and the (granted) teenage children are fending for themselves. Okay, that sounds daring, but don't get excited. It is entirely possible that I will end up cooking pizza for them before I go out.
Sunday; Roast duck dinner. Again, a piece of meat from Christmas sat in my freezer. I shall defrost it on Friday and serve it on Sunday with red cabbage and mini roast potatoes (or Nigella's roastinis which are just pan fried gnocchi! The quickest and easiest way to roast potato heaven, really!)


And a reminder; today is 2nd February, Candlemas Day in the Christian calendar. Go look at the weather; The old English saying is "If Candlemas be fair and bright, Come, Winter, have another flight. If Candlemas brings clouds and rains, Go, Winter and come not again." Apparently they used to have a sort of 'Groundhog Day' with hedgehogs........


I bet if it were hedgehogs, the man wouldn't be holding him quite so tightly!

Comments

  1. Awwww, how cute is that little hedgehog. It's sunny and bright here at the moment, it bodes well. Chinese is my least favourite food and Mick won't touch it at all so it's something we never eat. Lamb on the other hand is one of my favourites, but you're right, it's so expensive so we rarely buy it. Roast pork for us tonight with roasties, mash, carrots, broccoli, sprouts and Yorkshire puds.

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    1. I'll be over in about.... er, 1 1/2 hours?

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  2. Delicious sounding dinners. I do like Candlemass day, but find it sad that I have to put away my Crib scene and change out the candles! It is a good way to move on though isn't it and look forward to what the rest of the year will bring. xx

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    1. You keep your crib scene out til Candlemas? I've never been brave enough to do that... but it is good liturgical practice, because Christmastide doesn't finish until Feb 2nd, does it?


      Do you really keep your crib scene out until February?

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    2. Yes! I really do!! I actually meant to put it away yesterday evening, but only put it away this afternoon in actual fact. The candles are actually still out because there was a tiny bit of them left, and I don't have the heart to chuck them yet! That is probably bad liturgical practice, but hey ho! I never realised that it was the right thing to do until some years ago when I heard a sermon from a stand in vicar who talked about his little granddaughter and how they put her crib away after Christmas so that she didn't confuse it with her birthday which was sometime between Christmas and Candlemas. Since then I keep mine out! What about you? xx

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  3. I like the sound of the chilli beef noodles. Must update my recipe collection.

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    1. They are lovely, just fried mince with a spoonful of chilli powder, stir fried veg and fast noodles. I need something SOOOO fast on a Monday, and this is one of the best!

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  4. Yesterday was a lovely day, so that looks like the winter's here for a bit longer! Your menu looks good for this week. I also try to plan for the month ahead, though often it's no further than a week ahead with roast dinners and our favourite fishy meals penned in for later days. It makes life so much easier to know what you're going to be cooking every day without having to root in the freezer and listen to unhelpful suggestions from the sidelines like "Shall we just have pizza?". See, it's not just in your house! :-) xx

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    1. Why do you schedule your fishy meals? Do you have a fish delivery or something? And what fishy meals are your favourites?

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  5. Lovely sounding meals, I nearly bought Goks book the other day, I must go back to see if it's on offer.

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    1. I'm reading it, and ready to test it. If the meals are a success they'll go on our regular list, otherwise it will be out to the Charity shop for Gok!

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  6. How lovely to have a meal out to look forward to.
    I tend to cheat on Chinese New Year and buy some ready meal takeaway type arrangement from the supermarket.
    Lisa x

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    Replies
    1. Sainsbury's had a really good offer last year, about £20 worth of stuff for a tenner! We will have a takeaway sometime soon, probably for Valentine's Day

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