WELL THAT WASN'T A GOOD START WAS IT? (includes recipe)

Missed out on a post yesterday as was ill all day until about 3pm and then off to work at 4.30pm so no real time to write anything up.  Stonking headache, neck ache and felt sick.  Tucked myself up in bed with water, paracetamol and slept as much as I could which did, eventually, help!

Luckily I'd prepped the slow cooker dinner the night before and as we have so many timer switches which are used at Xmas for all the lights, I dragged one of those out and plugged the slow cooker in meaning I didn't have to worry about dinner at all. Whoop, whoop!  Satay Chicken and it was devoured with relish apparently. Unfortunately it does mean that there were no photos.  Hey ho!

Felt a lot better today and as beginning of the month and weather was a bit brighter I went out and done the main bulk of the shopping.

Iceland for frozen fish and a few veggies and some cheese, then Aldi for sarni stuff (popped in to see a mate for a cuppa whilst round there as she only lives over the road) and then Holland & Barrett (our other independent health food shop closed down 😢 ) for flours and peanut butter.

Tonight's dinner was a new recipe for polenta; polenta and mushroom 'tart'.  Kind of like a pizza with the polenta being the base and then the veggies and mozzarella on the top.  I like polenta, but I'm never sure on quanties and always end up making either too little or way too much.  Tonight was the latter.

Polenta 'tart' (those are tomatoes not carrots, haha)

The mushrooms were cooked with spring onions, loads of garlic and thyme and some frozen sliced green beans.  The polenta was made using stock and then lashings of cheese, butter and rosemary added.  Not the most healthiest of meals, but was filling and tasted a lot better than it looked.


POLENTA AND MUSHROOM 'TART/PIZZA'

butter, plus extra for greasing
1.27 litre vegetable stock
300g quick-cook polenta
Chunk of cheese, grated
2 rosemary sprigs, leaves finely chopped
punnet of chestnut mushrooms, halved
4-5 spring onions, chopped
couple of cloves of garlic finely chopped
small bunch thyme, leaves only
couple of handfuls of green beans
2 balls mozzarella, drained
6 cherry tomatoes, halved

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Grease a large baking tray or roasting tin.
Bring the stock to the boil in a large saucepan, then slowly pour in the polenta, whisking all the
time and let bubble for 8 mins, whisking continuously.
Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese, butter, rosemary and plenty of seasoning.
Spread the polenta over the tray and bake for 30 mins.

In a frying pan fry the mushrooms in a little olive oil along with the chopped spring onions and then add the finely chopped garlic, thyme and some seasoning.
Add the green beans and heat through.
Once the polenta has had it's 30mins, remove from the oven and place the mushroom mixture onto the polenta and dot with torn mozzarella and halved cherry tomatoes.

Return to the oven for another 15mins or until cheese is bubbling.
Allow to cool a little so that the polenta firms up a bit and it becomes easier to serve.

I didn't do that last bit and it was rather sloppy to serve, but then firmed up in the eating bowls.  Oh well, will learn for next time.

ENERGY LEVELS UP AND DOWN AND SUPPLIES RUNNING LOW

Had a brilliant start to the week; woke up at a reasonable time, garden was all frosty and beautiful and I felt I had some energy.  Garden was so pretty I rushed outside in pjs and bare feet just to get some photos. Needless to say that my tootsies were a bit ‘cold’ by the time I’d finished, so wrapped up in slipper socks and boot slippers under a blanket with first morning’s coffee.  Roasted off a whole pumpkin; cut it in half around the middle, rubbed with salt, pepper and oil and cooked in the oven for about an hour. Half of it was used for the pumpkin polenta and the other half will be made into a pumpkin and walnut loaf (I still have 1 very large and 2 medium pumpkins left from Halloween, but as I hadn’t cut them due to their decorative skin, they’ve kept perfectly fine in my chilly utility room).

Was a bit slower on the energy levels on Tuesday, but that was mainly due to having osteo the evening before.  Took an age for me to decide what to do for dinner as was slightly lacking in inspiration; yes it does happen to me!  So after ploughing through about half a dozen cookery books, not finding anything that totally grabbed my attention, I decided that a couple of recipes could work if I combined them and added my own flavours, so roasted roots with chickpeas, feta and Moroccan spice.

Still struggling for ideas on Wednesday; it’s the end of the month and the cupboards are getting a little bare and because I’m trying to eat as seasonable as possible I’m finding that I’m getting a little bored with the same old thing; time for spring!  Cleaned out the freezers (I have one large one that gets full quite quickly when we are harvesting, but remains half empty if I’m not filling it up with baked goods when garden isn’t over producing) and a small upright one in the kitchen which is used for open packets, breadcrumbs, leftover meals, etc.  Now I have two clean and tidy freezers and I know exactly what I have in them which should help a bit when planning meals.  I’ve also had a chat with partner and should be taking full control of food shopping again as of next week!  He took over the shopping nearly 10 years ago when I broke my leg and has been reluctant to let me take it back even though I’m constantly shopping as he only ever buys the basic boring stuff as he’s a meat and two veg kind of guy when it comes to cooking.  Ended up cooking six of the bubble and squeak patties I made before Xmas, grilled bacon, fried mushrooms and eggs and whizzing up my own version of baked beans (we didn’t have any; like a said, it’s the end of the month) using an inch of chopped chorizo, 2 finely chopped tomatoes (no tinned toms either), squirt of tomato paste and ketchup, splash of balsamic vinegar for sweetness and a tin of cannellini beans.  Actually I rather liked them and, although wouldn’t necessarily want to do them every time I used baked beans, I would definitely do them again.

Bubble & Squeak Patties

Thursday was mega busy with loads of online grocery shops, son’s trampolining group and then work, so slow cooker back in business with sweet and sour fish.  I’ve used the recipe for chicken before, but didn’t have any so thought ‘why not’ fish! As it was it worked!  Phew!

Biggest excitement of the week apart from Monday’s frosty garden was the fact that Alfred the spider isn’t dead as we first thought but very much alive and well! I hate spiders normally, but I’ve become quite attached and was slightly over excited by the fact that after spending 3 days curled up in the corner of the window with no new webs being built he was back in the middle of a brand new web and looking healthy again.  Hoorah!

Alfred the Spider (old picture)

Menu plan for the week is as follows:

Monday – Garlic chicken with pumpkin polenta and peas.

Tuesday – Oven roasted roots with chickpeas and feta

Wednesday – bubble & squeak patties, fried mushrooms, fried eggs, grilled bacon and home-made baked beans

Thursday – Sweet and sour fish