Vegan soda bread

Adapting this recipe - we swapped the buttermilk for the same amount of unsweetened soy milk and 1 tbsp white vinegar and then let it stew for five minutes.  

Snow and pie

After an afternoon in the snow you need a rib sticker meal like this one: beef and veggie pastie with steamed cabbage.  

Leek and sweet potato soup and scones for lunch

Rather 'rustic' looking scones but they tasted great 

The scones are from this recipe, but with unsweetened soy milk substituted for the cow juice, and I used half the amount of sugar too.  

The soup is just this recipe, but with sweet potatoes substituted for white ones.  

Chocolate, orange and banana cereal bars

These are a variation of HFW's breakfast booster bars, recipe here.  I swapped the peanut butter for a banana and half the amount allotted for fruit/seeds for chocolate chips - delish.   

Treat of the week

Chocolate and raspberry muffins 

Dairy-free and egg-free menu plan

Here is the 'I'm in hospital, husband is in charge of domestic life but still trying to work from home and needs a few cheats with the food' edition of our weekly menu planner:

Friday - I baked a gammon before I left so they ate gammon, potato wedges, steamed carrots, corn and green beans

Saturday - husband made pizza bases and added leftover gammon, pizza sauce from the freezer, soy cheese and made a salad to accompany

Sunday - spag bol from the freezer

Monday -  fish from the freezer, potato and sweet potato wedges, peas 

Tuesday - both boys ate a big meal at school so supper for them was soy cheese pitta bread with salad and half a bag of crisps each! with fruit and an Alpro dessert each ... 

Wednesday - sausages from the freezer roasted with potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots and steamed broccoli 

Thursday - shepherd's pie mince from the freezer with jacket potatoes and baked beans 

Apple pie

Preparing dairy free and egg free freezer meals

I bought a stack of these on Amazon 

I used these veggies as a base

There were so many veggies, I blitzed them in the food processor rather than chop by hand

Added in 2 kg of steak mince

Two thirds went in a bolognese type affair on the hob, and the rest into a cottage pie type thing in the slow cooker

The bolognese needed basil but ours is not growing at this time of year 

So, a couple of hours of cooking got me 10 portions of bolognese, 5 portions of cottage pie mince and 12 portions of 'ubiquitous tomato sauce' that I use for pizzas or to stir into pasta.  

Tuna and corn and veggie pasta

We had pizza last night so I'd made a batch of pizza sauce with the usual onions, garlic, basil and a tin of tomatoes.  There was over half of it left (I forgot to freeze it) so I warmed it tonight, and stirred some tuna and corn through it as the pasta cooked, for the boys.  The husband and I ate ours without the corn but with the additions of half a jar of green olives and some anchovies.  

Chocolate crispy cakes - baking with the kids

My little man loved making these, and loved licking the spoon even more.  We served these the following day when friends came over for a play date, he was so proud to tell his friends that he had made them.  

Treat of the week

Blueberry bread, recipe from here: 

Dairy free and egg free menu plan

Friday - bacon, red onion, yellow pepper, courgette and tomato pasta, garlic bread 

Saturday - tuna and corn pizza for the boys, anchovy and olive pizza for the adults, plus lots of salad 

Sunday - sausage and veggie tray bake 

Monday - crumbed haddock, sweet potato and potato wedges, peas 

Then ... I have to go into hospital so The Husband will be taking over kitchen duties.  I've left some meals in the freezer, a full fridge and larder plus some ideas for healthy, quick and tasty after school evening meals.  My biggest contribution has been preparing and freezing a kilo of bolognese - steak mince, veggies and red lentils - and a kilo of savoury mince - steak mince, veggies and barley.  It's a bit beef-focussed but hopefully this will not matter for a few weeks and will be appreciated by the men ... husband can just cook some pasta, heat some wraps or tacos to go with the bolognese or cook some jacket potatoes or get some ready made puff pastry for pasties to go with the savoury mince.  If all else fails, the freezer contains 3-year-old-boy-friendly fish fingers!  

Granola - baking with the kids

During! 

After!

Oven on low, 130 degrees fan oven
Line two trays with baking parchment
Mix the wet ingredients - measure 4 tbsps sunflower oil with 6 tbsps honey into a saucepan, heat gently for a few minutes
Mix dry ingredients - 4 cups of the nicest oats you can find, 1/4 cup sesame seeds, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, 4 tbsps of sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Add wet ingredients to dry, also add 4 tsps of vanilla 
Cook for 30 mins, turning every 10 
Add some dried fruit after cooking
Serve with grated apple and a bit of Alpro vanilla yoghurt
Would also be nice with some warmed stewed apple, maybe I'll give that a try 

Stir-fry chicken, veggies and noodles

Such cute little chopsticks to get the little 'uns learning how to use them!  The food was pretty tasty - I stir fried a red onion, baby corn, carrots, courgette, red cabbage, frozen peas and some leftover chicken with finely chopped fresh garlic and ginger.  I would love to use egg noodles but instead plumped for the dairy and egg allergy safe Blue Dragon wholewheat noodles here.  I'd mixed 2 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of sugar, 2 tsp of cornflour with 8 tbsps of water ... I added this to the veggie/chicken mix towards the end of cooking and stirred until the sauce had thickened.  

PS ... they started the meal with their chopsticks but ended it using spoons and forks ... damn slippery peas! 

Shepherd's pie calzones

I used a half quantity of this pizza dough and rolled into four equal-sized ovals and filled with some savoury mince I had left in the freezer. 

Leftover veggie soup

This chilly weather has me in the mood for soup ... as it was the day before our online food delivery was scheduled the cupboards were somewhat bare.  I chopped the above veggies, sautéed in a little olive oil until softish, then added 1.5 litres of veggie stock, cooked for about 30 mins and blitzed with a hand blender.  

Treat of the week

Chocolate and banana muffins, recipe from here: 

Dairy free and egg free menu plan

So, I've been on a bit of a blogging break ... owing to a combination of school holidays and late-pregnancy-induced general laziness fatigue ...

This week we will be eating:

Friday - Minced beef and veggies (from my freezer) calzones 

Saturday - Roast chicken, roasted potatoes and butternut, steamed carrots, green beans, red cabbage and gravy 

Sunday - Leftover roast chicken stir fried with garlic, ginger, spring onions, baby corn, red pepper, carrots, courgettes in a sauce made with soy sauce and cornflour served with whole wheat noodles 

Monday - Leftover roast chicken pasties - with leeks, red lentils and peas

Tuesday - Sausage and veggie paella 

Wednesday - Prawn and corn rosti cakes with sweet potato wedges and salad 

Thursday - Oven baked bacon and pea risotto served with garlic bread, and a spinach, corn and cherry tomato salad