IT'S THE WEEKEND - HOORAH! (Recipe included)

So how did my pre-planned meals go?  Well the mixed bean chilli was ok, but wasn't chilli enough for me!  I need to remember that my slow cooker is a big one and so I need to put more in than I think; in fact when I think I've put enough in, put in at least an extra teaspoon.

I ended up discovering a half chorizo sausage in the fridge on Wednesday so I finely chopped that and fried it off before adding the pre-cooked tomato/pepper mixture that I'd prepped on Monday and then once heated through, added two tins of tuna, mixed in cooked pasta and covered in grated cheese before shoving in the oven to make a pasta bake.  That disappeared pretty quick!

Thursday I fancied a curry; too be honest I often fancy curry! Managed to get a 800g deboned leg of lamb from Aldi which didn't cost that much and put that, whole, into the slow cooker on a bed of peppers and onions.  Mixed a load of spices together (see below's recipe) and rubbed that into the top of the meat and around the side and poured on a tin of coconut milk and left it to cook on low for 8 hours! Unfortunately, I was at work when it was ready and it had been pretty much devoured by the time I got home meaning I only have the below 'before' photo and not an 'after' one.  Those large white chunks are coconut milk solids and not, as they look, huge lumps of feta cheese 😄

However, this is what it should and partially did look like; courtesy of the cookbook that I based the recipe on although our meat was shredded and not in chunks:

One thing I did do this week was spend a happy 45mins in front of Netflix grating fresh ginger into a jar!  I then covered with sunflower oil, so that I now have a jar in the fridge all ready to go for whenever a recipe requires it.  I also want to do this with the ton of garlic I currently have.

Freshly grated Ginger in Sunflower Oil ready for use

And I've recently discovered fresh turmeric!  It's a root not dissimilar in looks to ginger and I use it in exactly the same way except I don't peel it, I just grate it straight in.  The first time I used it I did peel it and then walked around for a few days with fingers that looked like I had a severe nicotine addition, so have now learnt my lesson and will never peel again! The flavour is far better and less earthy than dried turmeric.  It also means that I have a dish free in my indian spice tin; bonus!

Turmeric!!

No cooking on Friday as partner takes over for weekend and I was working anyway doing an extra shift.  Shamelessly treated myself to chinese takeaway chicken curry and chips on way home and snuggled on the sofa by myself to munch my way through it in peace.

Today me and son were at local Comic and Screen Festival and as partner got called into work today we've been really naughty and had pizza tonight!  So I have not exactly eaten that healthily over past couple of days.  Hey ho!  Back to proper food tomorrow.

What do you call a group of Ghostbusters?  A Gaggle?

BEST SLOW COOKER CURRY EVER!
3 red peppers (or any colour you prefer except green) cut into chunks
2 onions, cut into chunks
800g lamb (I used whole, but you could use ready diced)
1 tablespoon cumin powder
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1.5 teaspoon turmeric powder (or 2in 'finger' grated fresh)
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
3 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1.5inch thumb of fresh ginger, grated
1 level teaspoon of chilli flakes (change up or down depending on heat required)
1 400ml can of coconut milk

Place the onions and peppers into the bottom of the slow cooker and sprinkle the chopped garlic, grated ginger and grated turmeric, if using, on top.
Then place the lamb on top of the veg.
Mix the powdered spices and the dried chilli together in a bowl and rub into the top of the meat or sprinkle on top if using diced meat.
Pour on the coconut milk.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours depending on the size/type of meat; stir half way through to incorporate the melted coconut solids.
If you have it, chop up some fresh coriander and stir in once cooked.
Serve with rice!

SPRING HAS MOST DEFINITELY SPRUNG: FRUIT FLIES ARE BACK!!

Well, it's here, finally here!  After tempting us with warmer weather and a few buds and then reverting to dull, overcast days with temperamental rain, I think that Spring has arrived.  Hoorah!! Just wish that my mojo had returned 100% as well though as it hasn't!  Last week was full of quick dinners, freezer dinners and shop bought dinners; not really good, but every now and then it really doesn't matter so I'm not beating myself up about it!

Also had a rather bad experience at work that seems to have escalated completely out of hand and tonight I'll face whatever excess fallout there may be although, might I add, I am not to blame for any of it and did what I could but, as is quite normal for some members of the public, it wasn't good enough and as I'm front line staff, I got the brunt/blame from said parent.  Must admit as far as I'm aware I have been backed up by the powers that be although I haven't received a phone call to say as much and if it wasn't for a colleague I wouldn't know the outcome until tonight.  But I'm digressing and having a moan which isn't what this blog is about, although life does obviously affect moods, abilities and time allowances.

Yesterday I had a quick jaunt around the back garden and a proper clean up and sort of the front yard.

Told you Spring had sprung!

Camelia in flower!

Ready for my close up 😂

I've had to reconfigure pots out there as the Camelia keeps being blown down by the wind and as they don't like a lot of water...... Think I might need to re-pot, but it's now wedged up against another pot so hopefully....

Back garden is also looking good and bulbs/blossom is now blooming:

Muscari bulbs

Blue Lungwort - Bees adore it

Plum Blossom

We've also seen our first flog in our pond.

As to the kitchen; weekly banana bread is still happening although this week it'll be a bit late as I've run out of eggs!!  How did I run out of eggs? I'm never out of eggs!  But it would appear that I am, so tomorrow will be shopping and baking.

Yesterday, admittedly, I did an egg based dish (hence discovering that I had run out of eggs or at least didn't have as many as I thought).  Getting really bored with leftovers on a Monday especially when it's just roasted veg and a few greens.  Soup isn't something that other half considers as dinner so it would be a lunch item and I'm a little fed up with bubble & squeak although can't do that unless mashed potato involved and I'm not cooking spuds just to get mash! So a roasted vegetable frittata was the order of the day with a side salad of mixed peppery leaves, last of last week's tomatoes and half of this weeks cucumber with a mustard dressing.

Not a fab picture and the vultures had descending leaving me with this bit to photograph and eat!

Tonight is a mixed bean chilli in the slow cooker as I have work.  Cooked chickpeas from freezer and last of the dried black beans (soaked overnight and cooked this morning), along with last courgette, red pepper, onion, mushrooms, chilli flakes, ground coriander and cumin and a carton of tomatoes.

I also tray roasted off 2 courgettes, 1 red pepper, a tonne of various tomatos (before I used the last in the salad), red onions, garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and mixed herbs yesterday so I've got the basis of a pasta sauce tomorrow.  Might leave as it or might add some chicken or some tuna depends on what I fancy.  Means I'm not having to worry about dinner tomorrow either and I can concentrate on shopping, baking and hopefully a bit of veg planting!

As to the title of this blog; fruit flies are back big time.  My plastic council compost bin is full of them as it is every year so whenever I take off the lid there is a cloud of them erupting! Just have to remember not to breathe in, haha!  Does make pretty good compost though and the worms love it!  I love my worms and my frog and my crows and my other birds and the bees and, and, well you get my drift, but I DO NOT like fruit flies; they get everywhere!  Hey ho!

BUSY WEEK AND A TON OF BOXES AND TOMATOES

Oooops!  I missed a week.  Sorry about that but it was a pretty uneventful week on all fronts anyway.

This week a lovely pile of boxes arrived from my veggie delivery although as you can see from the contains I probably didn’t need that many boxes just as you never need the amount of carrier bags that they put things into when you get a supermarket delivery unless you shop with one that gives you the option to be carrier bag free.  Bonus for my delivery is that all the boxes and 90% of the packaging can be returned and reused, even the string.  Must admit I tend to keep the string as it’s handy for tying up plants in the garden and some of the plastic trays are useful as seed trays or pot holders, haha.

A pile of boxes and their contains

It’s been an odd week of ‘in and out’ the house, so dinners have been as quick and as simple as they can be with the exception of Monday when I felt like doing a full on curry using left over chicken from Sunday to make a korma and the left over pumpkin to make a dahl.  I still marinated the cooked chicken in the spices and yogurt and I replaced the lentils in the recipe for the smashed up pumpkin.  No-one died of food poisoning and there were clean plates all round.  And before you ask; no I did not make the poppadums!  They were bought and are gluten and grass free; I checked. 

Chicken Korma, Pumpkin Dahl and Poppadums

Tuesday’s slow cooker recipe was a huge tomato sauce as I appear to receive a ton of tomatoes this week and still had some left from last.  Red onion, courgettes (yes Abel & Cole had some), the last of last week’s mushrooms, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper, oregano and thyme were added and set on high for about 5 hours.  Then served with pasta and grated cheese on top!

Weds I went all Asian again and did stir fry fish with lime, leek, remaining cooked carrot and green beans from Sunday, Aldi mangetout and baby sweetcorn.  I sloshed in some fish sauce, rice wine, spattering of sugar, ground cloves, fennel, coriander and sesame seeds, then served with mushroom, egg fried rice.

Mushroom, egg fried rice with spring onion

Fish with Lime, Carrots, Green Beans, Mangetout and Baby Sweetcorn

Apologies for photos; it was a bit steamy, haha

Yes I know! I had rice! I only normally eat rice about once a fortnight, if that, as it bloats my stomach and I feel awful, but I needed something a bit more exotic this week and rice just happened to be in the cupboard and I’d run out of my noodles. L

Thursday, as always, was busy backwards and forwarding to trampoline centre with an extra lengthy session in the afternoon as son had group lesson followed straight away by private session.  So time was short and having prepped Tuesday night’s dinner on Monday night and sticking it in the fridge to shove in slow cooker in the morning, I did the same on Weds night by prepping layers of sliced potato, Jerusalem artichoke, celeriac, leek, chopped ham and grated cheese.  In the morning I poured over a combination of cream and milk and switched it on and walked away.  Next time I won’t add equal quantities of milk to cream as it did produce quite a lot of liquid.  However, it tasted fab!

Alfred on the move!

In other news; the bulbs I hastily planted a couple of weeks ago are growing rather well.  The potatoes that The Potato Council sent us are chitting away nicely on the window sill and Alfred, after moving about and deciding to stop on the ceiling right above the kettle and abseiling up and down with the inevitability of eventually landing on someone’s head and thus causing panic and death, was carefully removed into the garden to find a new home.  I’ll miss him, but hopefully he’ll find a comfy spot and a decent mate.