Angel Jem's City Cottage

Yes, I know, it's already October, but I didn't grab any time last week for meal planning. So here, without further ado, are my menu plans for the rest of October. I'm awaiting Nigella and Nigel's new books, so no recipe book inspiration this month. 1 Chicken Stir fry 2 SFC and chips/ Peter to decide 3S Fish and chips 4S Char sui Pork and mash 5 Bolognese and pasta 6 Pork and 5 spice stir fry noodles 7 Sausages and potato wedges 8 Macaroni, ham and peas 9 Burgers/ Hung Shao Pork 10S Chilli, rice and wedges 11S Pork with hasselbacks, and brocciflower cheese 12 Pulled pork fajitas with cucumber and hoisin 13 Chicken and red pepper roast 14 meatballs and pasta 15 Toad in the Hole 16 HM pizza/ paella 17S Mince enchilladas 18S Roast, mash, brocciflower cheese 19 Pork belly stir fry with rice 20 Breakfast at night 21 Mince fajitas 22 Lasagne, garlic bread and broccoli 23 Fish and chips 24S Cottage pie 25S Boeuf bourguinonne ...

There are parts of the year that are fun, fun, fun, and parts that are both good and bad. I find September is balanced on a knife edge. I like the start of a new school year, the renewal of intentions, the creation of fresh new pages of plans and the planning for life ahead through to Christmas, but I also dread the start of new things; new classes, new people to relate to, new timetables and new pressures. Yes, I know, I'm classically conflicted. Very Dickensian; it's the best of times and the worst of times, the most exciting and the most nerve racking, the happiest and the saddest. So last week I sat and planned my month worth of meals. I do a month at a time to save me sucking the end of my pencil more than once a month. Here are the meals we will be eating this month Chez Nous. (I've included the days already gone by for archive reasons) 1;  Baked Aromatic Chicken 2; Lasagne and broccoli 3; Salmon with tomato pasta 4; Hotdogs and chips/ Peter to choose our m...

A quick and easy set of meals this week; it's holidays, I only want to faff with cooking if I can be bothered to, so meals in the summertime are either tremendously easy or unutterably complicated! We had a lovely meal last night of char sui pork, using a recipe from Gok Wan's Chinese cook book, Gok Cooks Chinese . Monday; Schnitzel and noodles. Aldi do breaded pork schnitzel, and we'll have them with a past in tomato sauce. Tuesday; James' birthday. I've asked him what he wants and had no answer so far; it may be Sainsbury's pizzas or Domino's best two for Tuesday. Wednesday; Hoisin Chicken and potato. The chicken recipe is again from Gok Cooks Chinese and uses the other half of the hoisin sauce we used on Sunday. Thursday; Pork belly with chorizo and baby potato roast. Friday; I don't know. I may just go and see what tickles my fancy at Aldi. Saturday; Fajitas with minced beef and plenty of salad. Sunday;  Sichuan Chicken. Can you tell I fo...

Ah ha! I got VERY organised and not only is all my planning done for June, but in pdf/png format as well! The M- numbers afterwards are the numbers of the recipes in my ditsy recipe file box. Some of them I need to read, others I know virtually by heart and don't actually look at much beyond a peek when I do my shopping list. And NLFS is Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer. After her appearance on Eurovision I just had to get her book out, and see what recipes I wanted to use.

Monday; Today. I had Hairy Biker's Cheat's Doner Kebabs planned, and then we went out for the day and I asked my eldest (17) what he wanted me to do with the mince and he said lasagne. I avoid lasagne like the plague (it's fussy, it takes ages, I never quite get the pasta cooked through) but we took a deep breath and went for it. It was lovely. Tuesday; Chicken bake. I have to joint a whole chicken because Mr AJ says it is the cheapest way to buy chicken at Aldi. I know it is, but, really, somedays the last thing I feel like doing is jointing a bloody chicken. I suppose I can always stick Mr AJ's face on it and get some anger therapy at the same time. Wednesday; Chow Mein. Noodles and bits with soy sauce. Yum. Thursday; Friday; We are out at a quiz night with a free hotpot supper provided. I am going to make cheese on toast as a tide-me-over beforehand. I think I might zhuzh mine up into welsh rarebit. Saturday; Pork. I shall slice the pork and coat it in b...

It's the second week of term and the countdown to half term has started already. Well, it is only a 5 week term, so that's a blink of the eye. Meals for this week are; Monday; Pork fajitas. I cooked the pork on Sunday and left it in the fridge to be ready for a quick and easy meal after 2 hours of tutoring and before bookclub which today is discussing The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins. Tuesday; Stir fried beef. We have some spring onions and some sugar snap peas to throw in with noodles and have a tasty chinese! Wednesday; Meatballs and mash. We love Aldi meatballs, or Frikadellen as they're called. They cook quickly and go with loads of options. Like mash, or chips, or pasta. Today is mash and peas and gravy. Lots of gravy. Thursday; Spaghetti Bolognese made in a jiffy with mince and a jar of pasta sauce. Somedays I am a lazy cook. Friday; The children are having fried chicken and chips, while we will have a fast paella from the Hairy Dieters later on. Sat...

Joining in with At Home With Mrs M, and I might even post a link there if I can grab the time later. It's a school week again. Boo hoo. Holidays are over for a few more weeks. So back on to the easy cook, quick meals after working all day or before going out at night. Monday; Spaghetti Bolognese. I'm tutoring until 6 and out for 7 for WI quiz night, so no time for anything fancy. Quick mince and a jar of sauce will have to do! Tuesday; Gammon and parsley sauce. I forgot to put parsley on the shopping list. Whoops. I'll pick some up after school choir, and get the meal on the table in the half hour available for us to eat as a family. Wednesday; Enchiladas. We eat a lot of fajitas, they're quick, easy and popular. I'm on a healthy eating campaign and this recipe comes from the Hairy Dieter's Eating For Life. Essentially it's fajitas assembled, smothered in salsa and a little cheese and baked. What's not to like? Thursday; Easy Chicken Bake. I ha...

Joining in with At Home With Mrs M ! Monday; Roasted chicken, peppers in olive oil, mash Tuesday; Sausage and pasta Wednesday; Spicy Bean pot and wedges Thursday; Chilli Beef Noodles Friday; I Have No Idea Saturday; Probably a meal at Ma's Sunday; Roast Pork with gratin potato and yorkshire pudding. If Jo at Through the Keyhole can have yorkshire pudding whatever roast she does, I don't see why I can't either! I can't believe it's March already. I rushed my planning this weekend, so there are still gaps to fill when I may have to make it up on the hoof. And I can't believe it is already March in my life! Where has the year gone? I was planning March and thinking that by the end of the month the weather will be so much better, the food will be so much lighter and we will finally be coming out of hibernation! Although I can't wax lyrical about spring yet... after all, it's entirely possible we may get a big blast of snow for Easter yet!

Back to school :,( We are all back to school today. Is it raining? Or is it only raining in my heart? A week is not long enough. But there are only 6 weeks until our next holiday so we can survive. Meals this week are easy and quick; I'm getting over a bad cold that laid me low on Friday and Saturday so I'm cutting some slack. Monday; Party leftovers; chilli or ham or whatever is left. Tuesday; Cowboy Casserole Wednesday; Twice cooked pork Thursday; Meatballs, pasta and sauce. Friday; Fish and Chips Saturday; ?Pizza Hut? or Sainsbury's pizza Sunday; Welsh Lamb with potato gratin and leeks We have 2 out of 3 children away this next weekend, so Middle Son finally experiences life as an only child. He will either love it or hate it; for 14 years he has been part of a close family and, as far as I can remember, never been alone. I'm looking forward to it because he really needs some confidence building. We want to take him to a science centre, either E...

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? Ye...

Thank you for all the comments about last Monday's meals. I posted the Hung Shao Pork recipe on my food blog and I will post the cowboy casserole recipe as soon as I've made it another couple of times. I like to make sure it's a keeper first. This week meals are just plain old family food, mostly quick and easy to cook. Lots of comfort food in there, as well. It's still cold, so I hanker for a decent stew or thick soup. Monday; Pulled pork fajita for me, mince fajitas for the rest of the family. I'm off to a regional quiz for the WI, hoping to do well, and have a 10 minute turn around time between finishing tutoring at 6pm and first collection of passengers. DP or the Princess will cook the fajitas for the rest of the family and I will eat mine..... well, sometime. Tuesday;   Chicken and mash . Tuesday has recently become my free day. Who knew? And by free I mean only free from 2pm, not a whole day including the morning which I miss and long for again so muc...

Another day, another dollar. Joining in At Home with Mrs M . Monday; Quick noodle stir fry . Probably a beef stir fry with a soy sauce coating and plenty of quickly fried vegetables. Tuesday; Pasta Bolognese . I made a large pot and froze a portion for a night when coming in and going out were too close together to do anything exciting. Tonight's the night! Wish me luck at Number 2's parent consultation evening. I'm hoping for a reasonable report. Please. Wednesday; Chilli pot with potato wedges. I like to put some chorizo in as well as kidney beans. Nigella says to put dark chocolate in as well.... Thursday; Cowboy Casserole. That's sausages in a tomato sauce baked beneath a layer of cheesy mash to you and me. We eat sausages probably once a week, so I am always after a different way to serve them. This was an intriguing idea that I'm giving a go. If it's really good it might become a regular feature. Friday; Hung Shao Pork . Hung Sha...

Joining in At Home With Mrs M . Second week of January already! Who knew the time could go so fast? Monday; Meatballs and Mash . I'm out at the WI nearly every Monday for one reason or another, so it has to be quick and easy. Meatballs and mash with peas and gravy makes me think I've been to Ikea even if I haven't been near! Tuesday; Chilli Beef Noodles with stir fry cabbage . The mince gets browned off with a teaspoon of chilli powder, the noodles get fried with the beef in the wok and the cabbage gets a flash fry afterwards. Another fast meal tonight; school choir has started and any prep time I had has gone!! Wednesday; Corned Beef Hash . It's such a basic meal, economical and so easy to make. Thursday; Chicken Traybake. I used advice from Jamie Oliver and Nigella, but really this is a chuck it in and just let it get on with it meal. Chicken pieces, chorizo, red peppers, cherry tomatoes all baked together for an hour and served with fluffy basmati rice....

Joining in At Home with Mrs M . January meals are usually stripped back, I have to find a fresh balance against the excess of Christmas. Not a diet this year, but a plan to eat well and healthily and if I lose any weight as a result, that's just an advantage. Monday; Aldi meatballs and pasta. This works out as a really easy and economical meal, with meatballs at £1.89 for 20. Two packs does a hungry family of five, so with a 60p pack of pasta and a £1 pasta sauce it really does give us bang for the bucks. And less than 20 minutes to prepare! Tuesday; Fish Pie. I saw Jamie Oliver make a curried version on TV last week, but this is the first fish pie I have attempted so I'll keep it more traditional; white fish in a white sauce with creamy mash topping. I haven't finalised any recipe yet. I'm not working on Tuesday afternoon so I have a little time to play! Wednesday; Toad in the Hole. How traditional comfort food is this? And I know strictly speaking it...