Menu and shopping list Saturday 27th November - Friday 3rd December

This week's spend £149.97

I am a bit late with this week's posting as I was away enjoying the delights of the UK and doing a spot of Christmas shopping.  I left husband and children in charge of the menu and shopping list.  They have done pretty well, producing a menu and filling the cupboards with food, although not necessarily the food I need to cook with.  So far I have had to hit the shops twice to buy the ingredients needed for the menu.  Still it gave my brain a rest of trying to come up with a menu that suits everyone.

Also this week I have a "guest writer", my husband!  He has a passion for baking bread, particularly rye bread.  This is another Finnish influence as I think that Finland's best kept secret is their bread.  It is gorgeous and there are so many varieties.  My husband started to take an interest in baking bread when I was studying at University a couple of years ago.  I took sandwiches every day, but discovered that I was getting terrible stomach aches in the afternoon, so he offered to make bread for me.  Since then he has been constantly experimenting with recipes in search of the perfect loaf and we rarely buy any loaves of bread any more.

This week's menu:

Saturday: Aubergine Pasta

Sunday: Steak. Christmas biscuits

Monday: Sardine Fish Cakes with lemon dip. Chocolate biscuit cakes.

Tuesday: Legume Noodle Soup and Naan Bread.

Wednesday: Pesto and Chicken Pasta

Thursday: Oven-baked Red Pepper Rissotto

Friday: Leek, Mushroom and Goat's Cheese Strudels with Foccaccia

Menu and shopping list Saturday 20th November - Friday 26th November

This week's spend is €154.77.

This week my husband offered to do the shopping as I was busy on Saturday morning.  This meant that my shopping list had to be written clearly for his benefit, although he still missed a few items due to my "atrocious" handwriting.  He did a great job, but my problem is that my shopping list has about 80% of the things I need on it and then the other 20% I remember when I get there.  Consequently I have been to Dunnes twice since the first shop. 

On the offers front I was taken in by Dunnes' Palmolive liquid soap offer.  It was 4 bottles for €4 which seems excellent value until you realise that both Aldi and Lidl do bigger bottles for €0.99.  I don't always feel the need to buy branded items but I fell into this trap.

I wanted to buy my chicken from Garetts butchers but I dropped by on Thursday to his Castletroy shop, but he had no whole chickens due until later that day.  On Saturday afternoon my husband dropped by the Dooradoyle shop for a chicken and they had none.  We were advised to email or phone ahead.  I think Garretts is a great butchers, but I suppose that since I am not in the market for all his beautiful, dressed meats I am not the typical customer.  I want meat to make stock from and to cook in stews, etc at home.  So Dunnes got our custom for their free-range chickens.  We looked out for chickens supplied by our friends, but they were not in this weekend.

It was Stir Sunday this weekend and I made our Christmas cake, plus 3 small ones in baked bean cans.  I should have made the Christmas pudding as well, but that will wait until another weekend.  Anyway all the family plus some friends who dropped by coffee had a stir and made a wish.

Menu

Saturday: Cauliflower Cheese and Mashed Potato

Sunday: Roast Chicken, Potatoes, Swede, Carrots and Leeks. Omena pullat (apple rolls). Christmas Cake

Monday: Chicken and Peas.

Tuesday: Sweet Potato Soup and Spelt Rolls.

Wednesday: Easy Vegetable Curry. Chicken pasties for lunch boxes

Thursday: Pork Meatballs and Mash, Banana Bread

Friday: American Bucatini and Salad

Menu and shopping list Saturday 13th November - Friday 19th November

This week's spend is €197.36.

I have finally caught up with myself and am posting my menu the week that I am actually cooking it and can update with pictures and information as I go.

Went shopping to Tesco on Saturday morning and guess what I had to beg again for a till to be opened for me.  The joys of shopping.  This week my husband tagged along and he picked up Tesco Finest All Butter Croissants, described by Raymond Blanc as "The best croissants I have tasted outside my own kitchens."  Really.....? They worked out cheaper than the Tesco loose ones, so we thought we would give them a go.  As soon as you picked one up it felt too heavy to be light and crisp as described by the manufacturer Bakehouse.co.uk.  They got a thumbs down in our house, the children commented that the normal Tesco loose ones were better.

Sunday was manic as we had 7 extra teenagers in the house to celebrate my middle daughter's birthday, a bit belated but no problem.  We made 8 home-made pizzas with one over -cooked garlic bread and some salad.  She requested the mocha cupcakes again so this time I made 30.

I used up my pork shoulder on Sunday and Monday, even though my middle daughter picked out all the meat from the lasagne I made from the leftovers on Monday.

Saturday: Out to dinner at friend's.  Mocha Cupcakes.  Banana Fudge Cookies

Sunday: Slow Cooked Pork Shoulder, Homemade Pizzas.

Monday: Pork Lasagne, Mustikkapirakka (blueberry tart)

Tuesday: Leek, Potato and Carrot Bake.

Wednesday: Black Bean Chilli and Guacamole.

Thursday: Pink Fish Cakes and Vegetables.

Friday: Roast Chicken and Vegetables.

Menu and shopping list Saturday 6th November - Friday 12 th November

This week's spend was €169.22.

Let me start this week with a moan.  I am very lucky as I am located near a number of supermarkets and therefore have a choice of which multinational conglomerate I would like to handover my hard-earned cash to.  My supermarket of choice is generally Tesco, as I have mentioned before, since their reward system enables me to book a cheap trip home in the summer.  This week at 9.45am on a Saturday morning I had to beg to have a till opened for me.  Is it just me, but when I have a trolley with a week's worth of shopping I really would prefer to use a manned till rather than a self-service one?  I had to argue with a sales assistant, of which their were many, although none actually appeared to be doing anything, to open a till.  The only ones open were the self-service ones. I eventually got my way.
Another hobby of mine, outside of getting Tesco staff to actually do some work, is checking out the prices in Tesco while I am shopping.  My particular favourite are their so-called offers; for example 1 pack of Oreos cookies is €1.29 or you could buy 2 for the special price of €3.00.  What a bargain!

This week my husband and I were at a Flappers dinner party on the Saturday night, so the children were left to their own devices for dinner and raided the fridge.  We were asked to bring bread to contribute to the night's menu, and so 2 loaves of Riccardo's bread with thyme in one and rosemary and sun-dried tomatoes were baked and sliced for the evening.

Also, this Saturday I was bored in the afternoon.  The weather was awful and the children were all busy with friends so I made chilli jam.  It was a recipe I had cut out ages ago and wanted to try.  I never got it to the sticky consistency mentioned in the recipe but it tastes delicious and we have been eating it on everything.

This week's menu was "eat to the back of the freezer".  I often pick up meat that is on offer or reduced and chuck it in the freezer to use at a later date and, since we have quite a small freezer, it was getting a bit crowded.  I checked what was in there and then based my menu on that.

Menu

Saturday: Riccardo's bread, Chilli Jam

Sunday: Sausage and Bean Casserole with Mashed potatoes

Monday: Fruity Pork Chops and Couscous, Chocolate Marble Cake

Tuesday: Mulligatawny Soup and Naan, Potato Cakes

Wednesday: Sardine Fish Cakes with a Yoghurt dip

Thursday: Chilli con Carne wraps

Friday: Veggie Pasta and Garlic Wraps (we were due to host a dinner party, but this was cancelled)

I ordered a 2.5kg pork shoulder from Garetts Butchers, which was beautifully done for a dinner party on Friday, but unfortunately it was cancelled.  The pork shoulder had been ordered so I have pushed it onto next week's menu.

Shopping Receipts

Menu and shopping list Saturday 30th October - Friday 5th November

I did a bit more baking this week, which I always enjoy.  I saw some sad looking bananas in Dunnes going cheap and used those along with a few over-ripe ones in my fruit bowl to make 2 banana cakes.  I added chocolate chips to one and walnuts to the second.  I also used up some other fruit that had been sitting in my fruit bowl for a while, including a mango, some kiwi fruits and an orange.  These were added to frozen raspberries, a banana, some yoghurt and orange juice to make a smoothie.  I tried freezing it for a change.  The children liked it, but I didn't think it tasted as good.  Both the smoothie and the banana cake are a great way of making use of fruit that is past its best.
Friday was mad in our house.  Dinner was all on schedule until we had 2 extra for dinner and my oldest announced at 6 pm that she needed to be at the cinema for 6.45pm, 7pm at the latest.  So I had to rush dinner onto the table.  My crispy roast potatoes were slightly soggy as they needed another 15 mins to crisp up and I had to make fishfingers at the last minute as I wasn't sure how mackerel with a spicy topping was going to go down.  It was more successful than I expected, although all the fishfingers got eaten too!  Great fish at a great price (€10 for 5 mackerel) from Rene Cusack's in Limerick.  Plus they let my daughter and her friend stroke a live lobster.  Not sure what message that sends.

This week's menu:

Saturday: Chicken and Rice (used leftover chicken from the roast for this)

Sunday: Boiled Ham, Finnish Garlic Potatoes and Vegetables, Banana Bread, Curried Bean Mix for Wraps (packed lunches)

Monday: Leek and Potato Soup with Spelt Rolls

Tuesday: Macaroni Cheese with Peas and Bacon

Wednesday: Sheperds Pie, Fruity Biscuits

Thursday: Omlette, Riccardo's Bread and Salad

Friday:Mackerel with Spicy Topping , Roasted, Spicy Potatoes and Salad

Lemon and Courgette Cake

This cake received many compliments. It is quite a dense cake, but a great way to use up courgettes if you are a gardener or to make the most of cheap ones in the shops.

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter, left to soften
3 unwaxed lemons, if you can't get unwaxed just scrub ordinary ones under running water and dry.
3 eggs
2 courgettes (approx 300g), grated
1 tsp poppy seeds
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g caster sugar
100g self-raising flour
100g plain wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
85 g icing sugar
200g full-fat soft cheese
4 tbsp lemon curd, the recipe I took this from gives the lemon curd as an option, but I think it gives a great zing.

Method - please read this recipe carefully before starting, I didn't and had to grab the cakes out of the oven to mix in the lemon juice.

Heat oven to 180 °C/ GM 4

Grease and line 2 x 20cm baking tins.
Zest 2 lemons and squeeze juice into a bowl.
Beat 200g butter, not all the butter, caster sugar ,eggs, courgettes, poppy seeds, vanilla and lemon zest to a smooth batter.
Stir in 1 tbsp of lemon juice, the flours, baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt.
Divide mixture between the 2 tins.
Bake for 25 min.
Make the lemon drizzle by mixing 1 tbsp of lemon juice with 25g icing sugar.
To make the icing mix the remaining icing sugar and butter, add the soft cheese, lemon juice (approx 2 tbsp) and zest until smooth.
Cool cakes in their tins for 15 mins.
Turn out onto a wire rack, prick with a cocktail stick and pour over the drizzle.
Put one cake onto a serving plate and spread half of the icing followed by the lemon curd.  Sandwich the second cake on top and spread remaining icing and sprinkle with poppy seeds.
Serve.

Taken from BBC Good Food

Mozzarella Pasta Bake

Ingredients

2 balls of mozzarella cheese, I usually use one value brand and one more expensive one. There is usually about a euro in price difference and the more expensive brand tends to melt better and be less stringy.
50 g Parmesan cheese, I get mine from Lidl, as it seems to be the best value
Pasta, spaghetti or penne work well with this. I never know how much, approx 2 handfuls per person.
2 tins of chopped tomatoes or 1 tin of chopped tomatoes and 400g of passata (good value cartons of this in Lidl).
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
Fresh basil
Olive oil

Method

Heat oven to 180 °C

Put on a large pan of  salted water to boil, when "singing" (boiling fast) add the pasta.  Never put a lid on a pan for with pasta cooking in it.  Cook for between 8 - 10 mins, the pasta should be al dente (have a little bit of bite to it, not sloppy). Drain.
Gently fry garlic in oil.
Add tomatoes and warm through and add chopped basil.
Add warm tomatoes to cooked pasta.
Put half the pasta and sauce into an oven-proof dish.
Sprinkle half of the diced mozzarella and half of the grated Parmesan.
Top with remaining half of the pasta and finish with the rest of the cheese on top.
Bake for about 20 min, until bubbling and the cheese has turned golden.  You may need to finish under the grill.

Serve with a salad or vegetable sticks and baked, garlic wrap quarters.

Garlic Wraps

6 wraps
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp oil
salt.

Crush garlic.
Add it to the oil and a pinch of salt.
Cut wraps into quarters and brush both sides with oil.  I put them in a flat bottomed dish and use spoon to push them around in the oil to get them totally covered.
Place on a baking tray.
Put in a hot oven for approx 10 min.

This dish is easy to stretch for a crowd.  My daughter suddenly announced the arrival of 3 extra for dinner, so I added extra pasta and made sure that there were plenty of garlic wraps to fill them up.  Fortunately I have girls who don't seem to have the same appetites as teenage boys!

Curried Pasties

Great for dinners or lunch boxes.

Ingredients

300g potatoes, chopped into cubes
100g peas
2tsp oil
1 onion, sliced
2-3 tsp of any curry paste, depending how spicy you like things
1 tsp black mustard seeds
juice of 1/2 lemon
fresh coriander
375g ready made puff pastry
1 egg

Method

Heat oven to 200 °C/ GM 6

Boil potatoes for 8 mins in water.
Add peas in the final minute
Fry onion.
Add curry paste and black mustard seeds.  I couldn't find black mustard seeds in either Dunnes or Tesco so I recommend going to an ethnic food shop.  They are usually much cheaper, so stock up on other spices while you there.
Stir in potatoes, lemon and chopped coriander.
I am lazy and use the sheets of ready-made puff pastry.  Roll out the sheets so they are a little larger and cut 4 rectangles.
Place filling to one side, not too much and fold over.
Use egg wash to seal the edges and brush over the top.
Place on baking tray with either silicone sheet or baking paper.
Bake for 20 min and serve with chutney.

Adapted from BBC Goodfood

Spelt rolls

These are soooo easy to make. The mixture looks like a cow pat and the baked results don't look much better, but they are so good to eat and are great for lunch boxes and, most importantly, they don't need kneading.

Makes 14-16 buns

7g yeast

1 tsp salt

1 tsp honey

250g plain flour

400g spelt flour

The night before baking (or at least 6 hours ahead), take a big bowl and mix the yeast into 600ml cold water, then add the salt and honey. Mix in the flours and give it a good stir using a wooden spoon as the dough is very soft. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and refrigerate overnight.

Heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7. Cover a baking tray with baking paper and, using 2 spoons, mould the buns and place them on the tray. Bake for 20 minutes. Test that they are ready by knocking the base of a bun with the tip of your finger; the sound is hollow when the buns are cooked.

Rest on a wire rack for 5 minutes before serving.

Taken from The Sunday Times: "A better way to eat"

Mocha Cup Cakes

I took this photo on my phone, as my middle daughter had taken ours on her school trip. I wanted to show the mess I normally bake in.

Even my children who hate coffee love these.

175g/6oz Self-raising flour
50g/2oz cocoa powder (choose a good one like Green and Blacks)
225g/8oz soft brown sugar or golden granulated sugar
175g/6oz melted butter
4 eggs, separated
60ml/2 fl oz cooled, strong coffee
3 tbsp water

Coffee Butter Icing

100g/3 1/2 oz softened butter
200g/7oz icing sugar, sifted
3 - 4 tbsp cooled strong coffee.

Makes 12

Heat oven to 190 °C/375 °F/GM5

Method

Sift flour and cocoa together into a bowl
Add sugar and mix
Beat in melted butter, egg yolks, coffee and water until smooth
In a separate, clean bowl whisk egg whites until you have soft peaks.
Fold egg whites into the cake mixture until there are no lumps
Put large spoonfuls of mixture into paper muffin cups
Bake for 15 min

Butter icing:

Using a wooden spoon soften butter in a bowl
Add sifted icing sugar
Stir adding coffee until mixture is smooth
Pipe onto cakes.




(Adapted from "Bake" by Rachel Allen)

Saturday 23rd to Friday 29th October

Mid-term break, which means hungry children hanging around expecting to be fed. In our house everyone fends for themselves at lunchtimes, making do with what they can find in the fridge and cupboards. However, I do have to make sure that there are the basics for them to work with. My lunch basics are wraps, pitta bread, baked beans bacon, peppers, onions, pasta, cheese, ham and mushrooms. They can usually cobble together something from that. I have to admit to buying in a couple of Pot Noodles as my youngest loves them. I think they definitely come under the heading of "naughty but nice" and are considered a treat, sadly. I even bought one of those Lloyd Grossman pasta sauces for one, mainly because it was on offer at 1 euro. Despite a love of synthetic foods like Pot Noodle, it got a thumbs down.

This week is a bit erratic, as my middle daughter was away on a school trip, but she was replaced by 2 visitors from the UK. It was also my middle daughter's birthday this week. I now have 2 teenagers, something I will have to get my head round. I made her favourite Chocolate Mocha cakes.

There are a couple of days without dishes as we were at a friend's for lunch on Sunday and our visitors treated us to dinner out one night too, so apologies for that. I took the opportunity to buy some luxuries such as smoked salmon, ready made hummus and a variety of cheeses as we had guests. Also, this week I held a coffee morning for a women's group that I belong to so I did some extra baking for that.

So here is the menu for this week:

Saturday: Curried Pasties with salad and poppadums

Sunday: Out

Monday: Chilli con Carne with rice. I used my slow cooker for this and made double so I had a portion for the freezer

Tuesday: Out

Wednesday: Sticky Pork Stir Fry and Vegetable Stir Fry with noodles

Thursday: Mozzarella cheese bake (I use a ball of value Mozzarella and one of the more expensive make)

Friday: Roast Chicken with roast potatoes, carrots, leeks, Yorkshire puddings and gravy.

Coffee morning: Lemon and courgette cake
Marmite and cheese twists