Here I am with another Meals of the Week Post. Each Sunday I like to share the recipes and menus for all of the main meals that I have enjoyed over the past seven days! This is something that I enjoy doing and it is something which my readers also seem to enjoy!
I am determined that I am going to eat healthy and balanced meals despite now living on my own for the first time in my life. I have gone from cooking for my parents and siblings to cooking for a family, a variety of husbands and now at the age of 70 I find myself having to adapt again to the smallest family I have ever cooked for, one person!
As cooks I think we go through different stages in our lives. I started cooking for my parents and siblings when I was a young teenager and my mother went out to work fulltime. I probably wasn't very good then. I mostly just reheated things my mother had already prepared, but I gained experience and I learned.
One of my first jobs away from home was as a pastry chef in a big hotel. I learned a lot at that job, let me tell you, but it was fun, and it was exciting. I was responsible for all of the appetizers, salads and desserts.
I have gone through the years, cooking at home, cooking for my large family, cooking for a couple of empty nesters, cooking for an American family and their guests on a Manor Estate (fancy schmancy) and now here I am cooking for just me most of the time.
I love to cook. I love to eat and I have vowed to never be that person who subsists on takeaways, frozen dinners or tin cans. I try each week to cook myself fairly healthy, well-balanced meals that I know I am going to enjoy. I also try to keep things within my budget as much as possible and to cut down waste wherever I can. Hence smaller meals and portions.
Most Sundays I do eat with my sister, brother-in-law and father, so I will either go to their place for dinner or they will come here. And usually on Wednesday nights I enjoy a supper with my dad. Sometimes we will eat out or sometimes he will come here and let me treat him to one of my home-cooked meals. You just cannot beat a delicious home-cooked meal.
I usually eat my big meal of the day at noon, unless I am eating with others. Breakfast lately has been a delicious Protein Shake (trying to get in more vitamins and protein) and later in the day for my "supper" I will have a salad, or a sandwich, some toast, or maybe some cereal. I just don't want to eat anything that is going to lay heavy on my stomach when I go to bed, so light evening meals/suppers are the order of the day.
I am trying my hardest not to pick at things through the day. I sometimes tend to be a grazer and so having my big meal at noon, or early in the afternoon serves me well.
I hope you will enjoy looking through the options I enjoyed over the past seven days and that you will be inspired to want to cook at least a few of them for yourself!
SUNDAY, November 9th - Sunday Dinner with the family
On Sunday I was blessed to be able to enjoy a delicious meal at my sister's place with the family. Cindy, Dan, Dad and myself. Most weeks she will cook a pot roast but she surprised us all this week with a dish she called Chicken Murphy. It was delicious! Like a big stir fry with chunks of browned potatoes, chicken thighs, Italian sausage, peppers and onions, in a delicious sauce.
It was so good that I shared it on my blog. (I happened to take lots of photos of it.) I have shared a small batch recipe for it, but even so it would feed four people generously. From the research I have done it is meant to be served on top of pasta, but we just enjoyed it as it was with buttered crusty bread. It was hearty and filling enough without any pasta! A brilliant and tasty combination of flavors and textures. I highly recommend. If you wanted to you could serve a salad on the side.
MONDAY, November 10th - Herbed Turkey Burgers
I admit I love turkey burgers much more than any other kind of burger. I just am not a super fan of beef burgers. On Monday I treated myself to a homemade turkey burger. I have lots of turkey burger recipes on my page, because I love them so much. This version is particularly moist and delicious with plenty of fresh herbs. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Those herbs are beautiful partners and all go very well with turkey. There is also some sauteed red onion and garlic in the mix. I also include a small pat of butter in the middle to help keep them nice and moist.
These are fabulous enjoyed on toasted buns with all of your favorite burger toppings. I had mine with some lettuce, sliced tomato, mayonnaise, chopped onion and a slice of cheese melted on top. I also did a few oven chips in the air fryer to enjoy on the side. This was a really delicious and filling meal, plus I had four burgers that I froze uncooked, ready to thaw out and cook another time.
TUESDAY, November 11th - American Chop Suey
I am not sure why they call this Chop Suey as there is nothing even remotely Asian about it. It is quite simply a delicious ground beef casserole, made with macaroni, ground beef, onions, peppers, a jar of pasta sauce and some grated cheese. Garlic as well. I dare say that this freezes very well and also reheats beautifully. It's beautiful as written, but you can certainly put your own stamp on it if you want by adding vegetables to the mix such as celery, which would be lovely.
I had made this previously and frozen single sized servings of it in the freezer. I enjoyed one of these along with a tossed salad on the side. I was in a bit of a funk all day as it was my 25th Wedding Anniversary and we all know how that ended up. Blah. At least I had a delicious supper and my two furry family members to keep me company. It's a civic holiday on the 11th so you really can't go anywhere or do anything to take your mind off things.
WEDNESDAY, November 12th - Dinner out with Dad and Cindy
On Wednesday night I went out for supper with my father and sister. We went to the usual place. The Big Scoop. There are not really a lot of choices when it comes to eating out around here and it is as good a place as any.
This week I had the turkey club sandwich along with some onion rings on the side. Cindy had a burger and onion rings. Dad had a hamburger steak dinner, which came with potatoes, veggies, a roll and coleslaw. I gave him half of my onion rings as a whole club house sandwich is rather a large eat.
In its place I am sharing my recipe for The Ultra Club Sandwich, which boasts three layers of hot buttered toast mayonnaise, sliced of ripe tomato, crisp streaky bacon, sliced turkey and a slice of good cheddar. There is no cheddar in the one you get at the big scoop. On a good day I can only eat 1/2 of one of these. You could enjoy some oven chips or potato chips on the side, or even a tossed salad. Usually, I will enjoy half a sandwich and then some homemade sweet potato fries. That is enough!
THURSDAY, November 13th - Butterbean Soup
We woke up to our first snowfall of the year on Thursday, and it was very cold. It was a soup kind of a day for sure. I just made a hearty pot of Butterbean Soup. Simple ingredients put together in the most delicious way. A can of butterbeans, you can use any kind of bean you wish, but I like butterbeans as they have a mild velvety texture and flavor. They melt in the mouth. Carrots, onions, celery, stock and some seasonings. That's all it takes, and you have a really delicious soup. Any leftovers also freeze well.
I enjoyed my soup with some hot buttered toasted sourdough bread. It was more than enough to keep me satisfied. Hearty and belly warming. I did have a sugar free jelly with some whippy cream on top afterwards.
I adore these. They are hard tacos, filled with refried beans and a delicious lightly spiced chicken mixture and then cheese. These get baked to perfection, ready to top with your favorite taco toppings. I topped mine with the usual suspects today, lettuce, tomato, some spring onions and sour cream. I also splashed them liberally with Green Tabasco Sauce. I love that stuff.
If you wanted to you could serve these with some Tex Mex spiced rice and or a salad. I just enjoyed two of the tacos and was very happy!
And there you have it. All of my main meals that I enjoyed over the past seven days. I managed to keep everything within budget and none of it was boring in the least! I hope you will be tempted to give some of these tasty dishes a go!
This content, written and photography, is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
- 1 tin of fruit pie filling (choose whichever you enjoy)
- 1 cup (100g) dry cake mix (again choose your own flavor)
- 1/2 cup (114g) cold butter
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Butter a 9 by 5-inch baking dish really well. (I used my vintage pyrex baking dish.)
- Open your tin of fruit pie filling. Spread it out in the baking dish. (Today I used apple pie filling.)
- Measure out the cake mix and then sprinkle it evenly over the pie filling in the dish. (Today I used a spice cake mix.)
- Slice the butter into thin pats and lay it out evenly over the cake mix, covering it all.
- Bake, uncovered, in the preheated oven for 45 minutes to an hour. It will be golden brown and set when done. (It will be crisper around the edges where the filling bubbled up.)
- Allow to cool slightly and then serve warm with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream on top.
- Blueberry pie filling and lemon cake mix
- Cherry pie filling and cherry chip cake mix
- Pumpkin pie filling and spice cake mix
- Cherry pie filling and devil's food cake mix
- Peach pie filling and yellow cake mix
- Cherry Cranberry pie filling and yellow cake mix
Stick of Butter Dessert
A small batch recipe for a very simple and popular dessert. Three simple ingredients are all you need. You can vary the flavor depending on what you have in the house at any given time!
Ingredients
- 1 tin of fruit pie filling (choose whichever you enjoy)
- 1 cup (100g) dry cake mix (again choose your own flavor)
- 1/2 cup (114g) cold butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Butter a 9 by 5-inch baking dish really well.
- Open your tin of fruit pie filling. Spread it out in the baking dish.
- Measure out the cake mix and then sprinkle it evenly over the pie filling in the dish.
- Slice the butter into thin pats and lay it out evenly over the cake mix, covering it all.
- Bake, uncovered, in the preheated oven for 45 minutes to an hour. It will be golden brown and set when done.
- Allow to cool slightly and then serve warm with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream on top.
This content, written and photography, is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
- 3/4 pound (340g) boiling potatoes, unpeeled
- 1 TBS butter, melted and cooled
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
- 2 slices of streaky bacon, cooked and chopped
- 1/3 cup (about 40g) smoked gouda, grated
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Scrub your potatoes really well. Place into a saucepan of slightly salted water to cover. Bring to the boil. (DO make sure your potatoes are really clean and do NOT peel them.)
- Boil for 15 minutes and then drain. Leave to cool until it is just comfortable to touch them. (You can run them under cold water to speed this process up, but it really doesn't take long for them to cook down. Just pop them onto a cutting board and leave them for about 10 minutes.)
- Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 5. Butter a small shallow casserole dish. (Mine is about 7 by 4 inches in size.)
- Cut each potato into 4 evenly sized wedges. Toss with the melted butter and then arrange in the baking dish. They will probably overlap somewhat. (I melted the butter in the residual heat of the saucepan that I had boiled the potatoes in and then rolled the wedges in the melted butter before placing into the baking dish.)
- Pour the cream overall. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. (Season after pouring the cream over so that it doesn't wash the seasoning off of the potatoes.)
- Top with the grated cheese and then the chopped cooked bacon. (I left the bacon in largish chunks.)
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cream is bubbling, the potatoes are tender, and the cheese has melted. (Use a fork or knife tip to test the potatoes. If they aren't quite cooked, and there is still some resistance, return to the oven and cook a while longer.)
- Serve warm.
- Read the recipe through a few times before beginning so that you know exactly what you have to do.
- Gather your ingredients before you begin. That way you won't leave anything out.
- Scrub your potatoes really well so as to remove any dirt or pesticides that might remain on the potatoes. You don't want to be eating that.
- Do leave the skin on your potatoes as it adds a lovely flavor and texture to the dish.
- I like to use bacon that is only partially cooked as it does continue to cook in the oven, and I find over-cooked bacon is pretty tasteless.
- Use a nicely flavored cheese to get the most out of this dish.
- Do test that the potatoes are tender with the tip of a sharp knife or the tines of a fork. They will insert easily into the potatoes when they are cooked through. If they are not, bake the dish for a little while longer. Timings are always dependent upon the size of your potato wedges. The larger the wedge, the longer they will take to cook through to tenderness.
You could, but the dish really benefits from the rich flavor and smokiness of the bacon. I suppose you could use cubed ham in its place if you really wanted to.
Potato Wedges with Cheese, Cream & Bacon
Tender potato wedges, buttered and doused in cream, topped with cheese and bacon and then baked to bubbling cheesy smokey perfection. This is a small batch recipe that can easily be doubled. It is a very quick and simple make.
Ingredients
- 3/4 pound (340g) boiling potatoes, unpeeled
- 1 TBS butter, melted and cooled
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
- 2 slices of streaky bacon, cooked and chopped
- 1/3 cup (about 40g) smoked gouda, grated
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Scrub your potatoes really well. Place into a saucepan of slightly salted water to cover. Bring to the boil.
- Boil for 15 minutes and then drain. Leave to cool until it is just comfortable to touch them.
- Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 5. Butter a small shallow casserole dish. (Mine is about 7 by 4 inches in size.)
- Cut each potato into 4 evenly sized wedges. Toss with the melted butter and then arrange in the baking dish. They will probably overlap somewhat.
- Pour the cream overall. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
- Top with the grated cheese and then the chopped cooked bacon.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cream is bubbling, the potatoes are tender and the cheese has melted.
- Serve warm.
This content, written and photography, is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
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