I'm not really a workaholic, but I'm quite enjoying my job and it has been a bit crazy busy lately. I'm working on a big new project with a slightly obsessive colleague so days have been long. To the extent that husband is sending me melancholy text messages with sad faces stating that he can see that I'm still in the office. We have this app on our iPhones where we can see where the other one is.

No, it's not creepy. It's cute.

So there was some serious leftover business for husband during the week. I did make him a hasty sauteed reindeer thingy chucking in way too much truffle oil. The oil has a strong smell, but it's yummy when used moderately. A half teaspoon will do, so you might want to use an actual teaspoon, not necessarily pour the stuff directly from bottle to pan. Just sayin. You should have seen husband's nostrils flaring. They actually make a sound. He's got a keen sense of smell. I remember from my "trying to sneak a smoke without him knowing - not a chance" days.

Or the time I came back from a work trip to France having had a lovely artichoke and garlic (a lot of raw garlic) salad the night before, merci beaucoup. He slept on the sofa for two nights.

I managed to make my lovely moose stroganoff one night and I did make up for things at weekend. I baked delicious Finnish potato flatbreads for our lazy and leisurely late Saturday brunch and pan-fried gorgeous reindeer calf (yes - they probably are too cute to eat, it's like eating labrador puppies, who does that, who) tenderloin with potato and parsnip pure and wild chanterelle cream sauce for Sunday dinner. It's been quite the game galore I realise, partly because I'm going to Finland soon for more wildlife for my freezer and partly because I didn't have time to do much shopping.

Unfortunately this week I'll be away again for a few nights, so husband is left to his own devices but with my devices in tupperware boxes to help him through.

I soon realised this is not the way to plate reindeer tenderloin. It could be seen either as phallic or poopy/toilet humour-like (remember Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo from Southpark). These interpretations are not an appropriate way to showcase this beautiful tender cut of delicately flavoured reindeer so I decided to go for the sliced approach - above.

Meal plan for the week:

Trafditional Finnish potato flatbreads

Sauteed reindeer - taste of the fells

Last week cooking didn't really happen a lot. I made a pretty good Ghormeh Sabzi stew, but next time I will go back to the lamb. I thought beef would be just as nice as there is a lot of taste in the stew anyway and I thought it would be healthier, but this recipe really is a lot nicer with lamb.

This week I will try to do a bit better, unfortunately I am away a bit so the start of the week is going to be weekend's leftovers for husband.  I made a really nice seafood pasta with three kinds of salmon, fresh, lightly smoked and proper smoked, prawns, asparagus. white wine, lemon and sour cream Sunday night, so the leftovers will see husband through till Wednesday when I'm back home. I just texted him that I had a nice piatti pesce and salmon and poached egg with asparagus on sourdough bread for dinner and he texted back that he had macaroni salad. That's apparently what he calls my beautiful seafood tagliatelle. With sour cream. Lemon. And fresh herbs.

Macaroni salad.

Meal plan for the week:




Sharing with Mrs M and Org Junkie

Smoked reindeer, reindeer salami, roast veg and 4 cheese pizza

Last week went 100% to plan, maybe partly because I wrote the plan midweek.

I'm going to stop reporting the expenditure. I don't see the fun in that really.

So - lots of good food was had, a tasty chicken and chorizo paella, delicate redfish in white wine and an incredibly yummy reindeer pizza on Saturday night.

White wine baked redfish with lemon and dill

Husband helped with the pizza, he used to run a pizza restaurant, so he was making the dough and showing (off) how to knead the dough into portion sized tight balls that apparently should feel like an 18 year old's boob. The last time I felt one is more than a quarter century ago, so not so helpful. I should hope it has been a while for husband too. After he was done with the dough, he pointed at the mess on the worktop and said "You can clean now" and went to watch football in his superhero pyjama pants.

I made a tasty tomato sauce with lots of fresh herbs and smoked garlic - a new acquaintance. It smells lovely, but I'm not sure how much the taste comes through in something like this where in the end results there are so many strong tastes. I will be trying it in salads and dips where it might shine more. I also roasted some peppers, onion and mushroom for the pizza.

And then husband resumed his duties shaping the two perfect little boobs into thin pizza bases flamboyantly throwing them up in the air. I was standing by handing him instruments like an operating theatre technician admiring the skill of the surgeon - "Cutter" - "Meat tenderiser" (!?!) - "Flour" - "Pan" but remarkably no "Rolling pin" which I had ready on my instruments tray.

We must play this actually, I'll wear my little plastic nurses uniform and husband will wear something other than superhero pyjama pants.

We then topped the pizzas with my lovely sauce and veg, slices of smoked reindeer and reindeer salami, mozzarella, cheddar, Monterey Jack and edam finishing them off with thin slices of tomato and olives. They were awesome - we are going to do some this Saturday with kids, they sounded a bit jealous on the phone when husband told them what we were doing. And I'm totally going to embarrass them with their Dad's boob story. Sexual education is important, how the hell are they otherwise supposed to know what an 18 year old's boob is supposed to feel like.

On Sunday I did a cooking afternoon with a friend who wants to get more confident in the kitchen - we did some hummus. a blue cheese dressing, chicken two ways and an apple cake. I think there might be separate blog post in it when I get a moment.

Hummus

Chicken with lemon, feta and herbs, roast potatoes with Greek herbs

Apple cake with sour cream and clotted cream and honeycomb ice-cream. Cake home-made, Ice-cream shop-bought.

This week's plan is not super inspired, but hey ho.




Sharing with Mrs M and Org Junkie

Last week was a good one foodwise, mostly on plan. Also new personal best in spending; £115 for food, only excuse is an expensive lamb leg, otherwise I am a bit baffled as to how it came to that much.

I've been doing even more fish than normal in the recent weeks and we've had quite a few fully vegetarian days also. I am going to continue on this great path. Husband did point out that although he is absolutely loving all this and appreciating my culinary support of his cardiovascular health, he is also a man after all and will need a certain amount of meat. Manhood is a meaty business.

Here are some of the week's culinary escapades:

Creamy Finnish salmon and prawn soup

Moroccan chickpea, lentil and butternut squash stew

Mediterranean fish stew

Greek lamb kleftiko It looked more appetising after 6 hours in the oven

Pear and brandy cake with almonds

Pink raspberry cake at the Buckingham Palace cafe

This week started off quite busy and Monday night I resorted to leftover moose burgers from the freezer. Last night I did a sweet potato and chilli soup. Wednesday a friend is visiting so I will do a bit of a Spanish theme, it's a work day and I am picking her from the airport on the way home from the office, probably driving to at least two wrong terminals before eventually finding the right one, so I will keep it reasonably simple.

Sweet potato and chilli soup

Sunday another friend is coming over for a cookery experience. Cooking has not really been top of her agenda and she would like to learn more. So we are going to have a fun afternoon learning to cook chicken a couple of ways and some other things. I'm still working on the ideas, we might even bake a cake. But we also just want to sit around the table, eat and gossip.

Weekly meal plan

Monday             Moose burgers and salad
Tuesday             Sweet potato and chilli soup
Wednesday        Chicken, chorizo and seafood paella
Thursday           Leftover paella
#fishfriday        Best of what the John Lewis foodhall fish counter has to offer
Saturday            Seriously this time I am bloody well gonna make the Pizza
Sunday              Chicken two ways

Sharing with Mrs M's meal planning Monday and Organising Junkie.

"I wish it was always Monday morning and never Friday evening", one of our teachers used to say.  She thought it was funny. We hated her.

But Monday it is. Last week's plan didn't happen completely, but some of the planned meals were done. I did the minestrone soup which was very nice. I also did the oven-baked falafel but I wish I hadn't. They were terrible. The taste was ok, but they were just horribly dry. And Saturday's Sicilian rice and lemon chicken was on the plan and fantastic.

For my sardine dish I couldn't find fresh sardines on the day, so I went with mackerel. Not the same thing! A heart-healthy but almost unbearably smelly option for fish lovers. Husband suggested maybe not making it too often as we woke up the next morning and the house still smelled like the Dubai Fishmarket. Which is a quite a strong smell I'm sure you can imagine in that heat. Might be one for outdoor cooking. I remember actually going through a similar thought cycle last time I cooked mackerel a long time ago. This time maybe I need to write it down somewhere like a blog or something.

I changed Friday's trout and squid pasta because I felt like plaiting with strips to trout and bass plaits. And Sunday we had something on the go so I moved the Finnish fish soup to today.

Food bill came to £78. Improvement. Below some of the food of the week.

Italian minestrone soup with homemade seeded bun - hearty!

Wholemeal pittas - plump!

Oven baked falafel - awful!

Baked mackerel with potatoes, sweet potato and carrot - smelly!

Rainbow trout and sea bass plaits - elegant!

Riso al forno alla Siciliana - yummy!

This week's dinner plan

Monday                      Creamy Finnish salmon and prawn soup
Tuesday                      Left-overs of above, or roasted butternut soup
Wednesday                Moroccan chickpea, butternut and lentil stew
Thursday                    Chicken korma and basmati rice
#fishfriday                 Mediterranean fish stew
Saturday                     Lamb kleftiko
Sunday                       Leftovers or pizza


Sharing the plan




and Organising Junkie - menu plan Monday

Last week was my French week and I loved it. I didn't stick to all of it, I missed the tuna nicoise salad, because the supermarket didn't have fresh tuna on the day and I skipped the French onion soup, because there were leftovers to be had. But I did some pretty lovely French meals. The one I enjoyed cooking and eating the most was the Bouillabaisse and I can't wait to do it again. Coq au Vin was lovely and I got some bread baking done as well in the form of a Provencal olive and rosemary fougasse.

Bouillabaisse - French fish soup

Coq au Vin - French red wine chicken stew

Fougasse

Saturday we celebrated step-son's 18th birthday. I could have freaked out about the fact that I have a grown-up step child, but seeing that I could easily and quite legally be a grandmother, great-grandmother if it was the Tudor times, I chose to remain philosophical and bake a cake.

Three layered angelfood cake with vanilla cream and fresh berries

And yesterday we finished our French week with a ratatouille and pissaladiere, a Provencal anchovy and olive pizza type tart. The winner of the week's last French meal was surprisingly the humble ratatouille, it was gorgeous.

Ratatouille

Pissaladiere

Week's food bill came to £84 not taking into account the Saturday's meal out. Merde.

This week I'll focus on healthy and light meals with lots of vegetables and heart-healthy fish. I am trying to put off wintery comfort foods as long as I can, although I am really missing ragus, stews, slow cooked lamb and the like and the weather is getting definitely autumnal. But knowing that there are way too many winter months ahead to stew my way through I want to stretch the more summery menu as long as possible.

I lost the fight to ponchos and pashminas though. I love them, but have tried to not start wearing them too soon, but caved in last week. I scandalously even had a pair of boots on one day.

So this is what our early autumn meal plan looks like:

#meatfreemonday            Classic Italian Minestrone soup, home-made wholemeal seeded rolls
Tuesday                           Baked falafel and home-made wholemeal pitta bread
Wednesday                      Sardine with sweet potato, new potato and peas
Thursday                          Leftovers of the above
#fishfriday                        Lemon, trout and squid spelt pasta
Saturday                           Riso al Forno alla Siciliana, lemon and herb roast chicken
Sunday                             Mum's Finnish salmon soup

Hooking up with Mrs M and the Organizing junkie and all the other lovely meal planners and junkies (organizing junkies)!

Last week went quite well to plan. I changed Sunday's meal though, not only because I realised that the authentic Paella Valenciana is made with rabbit and snails and I didn't particularly fancy either, but also because a friend was coming over for dinner and I wasn't sure how she'd feel about mussels and squid which I would have put in the paella instead of rabbit and snails, so I decided to make my foolproof duck legs Provençal These little babies never let me down. I served them with my puy lentil and camargue red rice side, garlic rosemary bread, duck fat roast potatoes and green salad. Dessert was several cups of cardamom tea and my mother's special Jack Daniel's whiskey bundt cake.


Money-wise I'm not sure if this meal planning thing is working that well. I didn't track my spending before, so maybe I was spending completely outrageous amounts. But last week I managed to get through £87 pounds on just the food, not including wine. I think it's quite a lot for two reasonably normal sized people. I bought a really nice emperor fish and a red grouper for #fishfriday as a friend came over for dinner and to drop her cat for a sleepover with us. The two fish came to £20 pounds, so that explains part of the cost. But still. Anyway the fish was lovely, this time I oven baked it and served with my awesome Greek rice, a Santorini salad, parmesan asparagus and roast vegetables.

An easy weeknight Tuscan Bean Soup

This week will be my French week. I was inspired by an old email my friend unearthed about a wine tour we did to Burgundy with a friend of hers, a Norwegian guy of a particularly unhumorous, stiff and overbearing constitution. Let's call him Canute. I could call him other names, but nothing appropriate before watershed. So the trip wasn't an all-round success. Partly because of Canute's epic lack of social skills and partly because of our immature response to it. He was completely unable to communicate with us as adults bellowing orders and refusing to listen to anything we said. The situation wasn't improved by us then behaving ever more immaturely as the result of his patronising. Vicious cycle if ever there was one!

Example: I was doing the map reading (my friend was sulking in the back seat, because Canute had already driven her crazy) and he was driving. He then complained about the way I was giving instructions. If you ask me, the problem was not my instructions, but the fact he either would not listen at them or it would take him two miles to compute an instruction which would mean that we'd miss every turning. I don't remember the exact wording of his complaint, but it can't have been good because I threw him in the head with the map.

Seriously, about 5 minutes into our road trip he told us off for eating potato crisps too loudly in the car. I can't believe I didn't punch him.

Apparently Canute was called "Prime Minister" by his friends as a kid. He told us himself. I think he thought it was meant as a compliment. It wasn't. It was meant as a "You're a giant self-righteous pain in the ass". We completely cracked up at someone being called prime minister at the age of six. Looking bemused and not seeing what was funny he corrected us "I was eight". As if that would make it ok. That cracked us up even more.

Anyway in honour of poor Canute, who I'm sure didn't enjoy being trailed by two constantly inebriated, rebellious, giggling blondes, I decided to do a French menu for the week. I have wanted to do this for some time now. The challenge is that I don't want to cause irreparable cardio-vascular damage and the meals can't take forever to cook. I do have a full time job so can't faff around in the kitchen all day every day. Also we don't eat pork or sausages (apart from the occasional sneaky chorizo) so that shrinks the choice considerably leaving out the Lyonnaise and Alsatian cuisines for instance completely, because everything including desserts has either sausages or pork or both in them like the famous Lyonnaise crème brûlée au saucissons et lardons. No, not really.

This will be the French menu for the week:

Lundi                      Bouillabaisse
Mardi                      Sunday's leftover duck and lentils
Mercredi                 Coq au vin (without the bacon)
Jeudi                       Soupe à l'oignon - French onion soupe
Samedi                   Eating out for step son's 18th birthday - probs not French as he's choosing
Dimanche               Ratatouille, pissaladiere

So I already made the bouillabaisse. And it was délicieuse, no bones about it, hah!


I am sharing my plan at Mrs M's and Organising junkie. Come and check out all the plans for food inspiration!

Last week I didn't cook a lot. It was a super busy week at work. Husband was also working late, so there was a skipped dinner and a couple of nights of leftovers during the week, so most of the plan was abandoned.

I did the super healthy salmon patties. They are quick, tasty and fulfilling and will appear on the menu again soon.


Friday I didn't have time to go to fishmongers, so it was supermarket seabass fillets stuffed with cherry tomatoes, basil and spring onions and baked with some broccoli and asparagus on the side. They were lovely and again it was a very healthy meal. I made a side of Zoodles, because it is an important food trend to get amongst. They turned out reasonably ugly because I don't have a spiraller. And they need other kinds of fine tuning as well, so not worth a blog post just yet.

Saturday the weather was lovely so instead of my baked chicken with orzo and rice I barbecued the chicken legs and served with a lemony rice and orzo pilaf with was amazing. Try it or be sorry. Make sure you add lots of herbs though, that's what makes the dish.


And Sunday was our wedding anniversary, so I had booked Gordon Ramsay's Maze for dinner, which was spectacular. We don't often eat out, and when we do it's usually nothing fancy, so this was a real treat. And luckily we had a voucher because the bill came to an eye-watering £200+.

I don't think it's right to spend that amount of money in one meal for two people, it's just excessive and wrong. So if anyone has vouchers and feels wrong about it you can send them to me and I'll dispose of them in an ethical manner.

Our modest meal at Maze

This week we'll continue with husband's belly busting health kick which suffered a bit of a setback in the hands of Gordon Ramsay. So we'll be healthy and restrained all week, but in the weekend I will feed him well, say what you will.

Meal Plan for the week

Monday                Saturday's leftover chicken and rice
Tuesday                Tuscan bean soup
Wednesday           Pan fried trout fillets
Thursday              Chicken, leek and vegetable soup stew or leftover Tuscan Soup
#fishfriday            Grilled grouper          
Saturday               My awesome BBQ moose burgers
Sunday                 Paella Valencia

I am sharing my plan with Mrs M - come and see what else is cooking!

Last week was cupboard clearout and although I didn't get to cook all the meals in the plan because some lasted us a few nights, I did quite well. I only bought new food for Saturday and got through several cans of chickpeas and some other stuff. I don't know what I'm doing wrong though, I still managed to buy 5 massive bags of food worth over £70 even with all this cupboard clearing.

I think I have a problem.

Monday I did a nice veggie pasta with sundried tomato paste from the cupboard and vegetables from fridge. Tuesday and Wednesday we had hummus and chickpea burgers which were really nice. Next time I'll add some fresh herbs and chilli for even more taste, but I was surprised that carnivorous husband completely loved Tuesday's meal of leftover veggie pasta and chickpea burgers.

Sundried tomato pasta and chickpea and hummus burgers

Thursday I did the tinned moose and dry chanterelle tart with my Finnish wild mushroom salad, which we also had on Friday.

Wild mushroom salad

Saturday we had a Mexican night with the kids. I made beef with black beans, lime chicken, fried vegetables and we had them with tortillas, tacos, nachos, guacamole, sour cream, salsa and the works. Oh and thin cut mexican spiced oven chips.

Enough food for 4 people?

To my sadness the kids are eating less nowadays. I think they have probably reached their full height which is not a bad thing as they both are about 6'4", but that means their appetites although still good are not as epic as they used to be. Before they would have effortlessly demolished the almost 2kg of meat on the table, but now there were enough leftovers for Sunday and today.

They did eat all the peanut butter biscuits I made - there must have been about 40-50 of them.

I used the leftover chicken and veg for my Sesame chicken noodle recipe on Sunday. At least they scraped that pan clean. And there's enough beef and black beans to make us quesadillas tonight.

I'm going to stop writing pizza on my plan - as long as it's on the plan I never get to make it, it seems.

This week I'm going to continue using things that I have kept way too long in the cupboard, but will also try to make the week quite light. Husband was rubbing his belly the other night and said he'd like to get rid of it. I quite like his belly, secretly I would love to blow raspberries on it, but I don't think he'd find that sexy. It's not a big belly, and a skinny husband is an embarrassment to a wife. Ha! Joking.

We will be having lots of vegetables and fish, less meat and carbs although we'll start the week with meat and carbs.

This weeks meal plan

Monday          Beef and black bean quesadillas
Tuesday          Tuscan bean soup
Wednesday     Salmon fishcakes
Thursday        Leftovers from Tuesday / Wednesday
#FishFriday    BBQ or baked snapper or grouper
Saturday         Oregano chicken with lemon orzo and rice
Sunday           Anniversary dinner, we might be going out

Lemony smoked salmon and prawn pasta

Last week didn't go fully to plan and some dishes I didn't get to cook will appear in my plans later. The reindeer pizza is cursed somehow, I've had it on the plan several times, but something always happens to knock us off course. This time it was a surprise invite to a BBQ party - surprise to me but probably not to husband, who in all likelihood just forgot to tell me. But I don't mind a nice surprise. Our friends were celebrating their 9th wedding anniversary and had invited some friends and family over for a BBQ on Saturday.

There was lots of meat - this was just the beginning

Last time we went for a similar barbecue at theirs, we were so late (husband totally messed up) that when we arrived the host couple were saying their goodbyes to the other guests in front of the house. I suggested we just drive past and go back home. But husband doesn't think there is any shame in being slightly (!?)  late, it can happen to anyone (somehow though it mostly happens to him) so we said quick hellos and goodbyes to the other guests and followed the hosts to the back garden. We had a nice evening enjoying some reheated but still delicious BBQ food.

This time we were only half an hour late, but they live in Bromley which is practically abroad, so even I think 30 minutes is acceptable. We had a fun afternoon sitting in the garden. Weather was gorgeous, company was fun and food was great. We had lamb and chicken skewers and dreamy Patisserie Valerie cakes for dessert.



Of my own cooking the highlights of the week were a very tasty lemony smoked salmon and prawn pasta and BBQ lime and chilli tuna that I made for our own wedding anniversary on Friday.

This week I will do a cupboard clear. I am totally inspired by Emma at Supper in the Suburbs. I love buying food, so my cupboards are really full always and I like it that way. I don't have to think whether I have things when I plan a meal, there is always different types of pasta, rice, noodles, couscous, bulgur, lentils, all kinds of beans, chickpeas (lots of them), tomatoes, passata, olives, mushroom, coconut milk, olives, capers, tinned fish and even some meat (moose) and lots more.

I also like to think that if there was a disaster of some sort I could easily feed us for weeks, maybe even a few months from the cupboards and the freezer. Anxiety inherited from parents traumatized by post-war rationing.

But I decided some recycling is in order to get rid of some old stuff so I'll have room for new things.

From the cupboard I will use pasta, rice, olives, chanterelles, chickpeas, fava beans, moose meat, sundried tomato paste, tinned tomatoes and dried peas. And of course things like flour, spices, herbs, breadcrumbs etc. From the freezer I'll use filo pastry, peas, reindeer salami and broccoli. And in the fridge I already had cream, cheeses, bell peppers, tomatoes, chillies, onions, courgette, potatoes etc.

The main things I need to buy for the week are milk, bread and fresh fruit. I will also probably need some more fresh salad veggies towards the end of the week plus the meat for Saturday dinner which I'm not decided on yet. And I will need some cat food and treats for our little visitor. We are looking after a friend's cat while they are on holiday. She's very cute and I love feeding her. As a reward she curls up on my lap and purrs.

Our little guest

Meal plan for the week:

#meatfreemonday      Sundried tomato and vegetable pasta
Tuesday                     Chickpea and hummus burgers
Wednesday                Moose and chanterelle filo tart, Finnish wild mushroom salad
Thursday                   Traditional Finnish Thursday meal: Pea soup, Oven pancake
#fishfriday                 Smoked salmon "temptation" - Swedish inspired fish and potato bake
Saturday                    Haven't decided yet, kids are coming so something meaty probably
Sunday                      Reindeer salami pizza (moved from last week, will probs be moved again)

I am sharing my plan at Mrs M's and Organizing junkie (which I really am not, but here's to aspiring!)