A hot start to the week saw a few salads appear in my Real Food Meal Plan. As the weather cooled, dinner included a simple pasta dish, slow cooker butter chicken with rice, and fried rice from the leftovers.
Another week without the oven, although the temperature spiked in the high 30C’s for a few days so that wasn’t as big a tragedy as it could have been. This week also saw the start of The Princess’s winter sports, which meant she had to be in two places at once on Wednesday night. Thank goodness for the slow cooker and the automatic timer on the rice cooker, which meant we could walk in after a busy evening and sit straight down for dinner.
This week we ate:
Sunday
Cold chicken, anchovies and eggs from River Cottage Light & Easy. Served with a green salad.
As the saucepan was boiling anyway, I cooked many more eggs than this recipe required. This meant I had hard boiled eggs in the fridge for quick lunches and snacks through the week.
Monday
Pulled Pork with Coleslaw.
Mr Grumpy cooked a pork shoulder on Sunday, so I reheated some of the meat and whipped up some coleslaw. I am still working on the coleslaw recipe so don’t have one to recommend at the moment. Sorry!
Tuesday
Puttanesca Pasta from Save with Jamie.
Wednesday
Slow Cooker Kashmiri Butter Chicken from the Ultimate Slow Cooker. Served with brown rice.
As I already had the rice cooker on, I cooked extra rice for dinner tomorrow night.
Thursday
‘No. 88’ Special Fried Rice from Asian After Work: Simple Food for Everyday.
Freezer Cooking
Mr Grumpy cooked a 3kg pork shoulder in the BBQ on Sunday. We ate some of the pork for dinner on Monday night, and I froze the remainder for simple weekend lunches. The pork was vacuum packed into meal sized portions, and I squashed the pork as flat as possible for easy defrosting. When I need a quick meal, I slip the thin packet into lukewarm water, where it defrosts quite quickly. Ideally I would plan ahead and defrost the pork in advance, but I am never usually that organised.
I also keep burger buns in the freezer. For a really quick weekend lunch, I heat up the pork with some BBQ sauce, then stuff the pork into bread rolls with salad. Simple and delicious.
Bon Appetit!
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Your menu sounds wonderful! I’m glad you mentioned the vacuum sealer. I have one and haven’t thought of it in ages. I recently tried an amazing recipe for “Mexican Meat” in the crockpot which is then used in enchiladas. I’m going to make a big batch and vacuum seal in meal size portions. Thanks for the reminder.
I followed you here from Organizing Junkie. I’d love to have you visit me and check out my menu. Have a great week.
I use my vacuum sealer all the time Deanna. It is great for making extra space in the freezer. And it is perfect for things like enchilada fillings, taco meat, flatbread toppings etc, which makes it so much easier to rustle up a meal.