Meals of the Week - August 27th - September 2nd

 

Here I am, another Sunday, another Meals of the Week Post.  These past few weeks have been fraught with illness and so I started out this week feeling rather poorly. Thankfully as the week progressed I felt better and better.

Nothing I cooked this week was really complicated or involved, but really that is the way I cook most of the time anyways.  One day I relied on a meal I had in my freezer from an earlier time. Another day was a delicious casserole composed of leftovers. 

All in all everything was delicious, simple to prepare,  and healthy-ish for the most part.  All of it was quite family friendly, or at least I thought so anyways.  These are the kinds of meals that my family always enjoyed.

I tried to include a wide variety of dishes, proteins, methods. A great deal of it came from my store cupboard and freezer and what few bits I got my sister to drop off for me. (Mostly salad things.)

Other than these main meals I am sharing,  I was eating mostly applesauce and bananas, but, to be honest I haven't had much of an appetite anyways, so these meals really suited me to a "T."

Eating well doesn't have to be overly complicated or expensive.  A little bit of planning  and a well stocked freezer and larder can go a long way towards feeding yourself well. Let me know what you think below!

SUNDAY, August 27th - Pasta e Piselli

I was able to go to a walk in clinic on this day and so I was able to get a prescription for some anti-biotics. Still feeling very poorly, so not really like cooking a lot.  Normally on a Sunday I would go to my sister's for Sunday Dinner, but again, not really wanting to travel very far.  I made myself something very simple and comforting for my supper on this night. Pasta e Piselli.

Fabulously tasty, quick and easy to make it fit the bill perfectly.  Not quite chicken soup, but close enough, this recipe only calls for frozen peas, chopped onion, pasta, water and some cheese. You could call this Pasta and Peas. All of which I had in the house.

It went down a real treat with some hot buttered toast. Delicious and comforting.

MONDAY, August 28th - Grilled Chicken

I started getting some not so nice side effects to the antibiotics on this day and so I limited myself to very simple foods.  I had grilled chicken, plain steamed rice, applesauce, bananas. Not all at once, but throughout the day.

I basically did the grilled chicken part of this Grilled Chicken Breasts with Chimichurri Sauce recipe of mine, but without the sauce. Chimichurri sauce is deliciously created from fresh herbs, vinegar, seasonings, red pepper flakes and plenty of garlic, and there is not much it doesn't go with! I didn't think my body could handle that, but it handled the chicken very well.

If you do the recipe, this chicken goes very nicely with rice or potatoes, even pasta. You do need to marinate the chicken in the sauce prior to cooking.  This adds beautiful flavors and helps to tenderize the chicken nicely.

TUESDAY, August 29th - Bread & Cheese Omelet

I was starting to feel quite a bit better and so I made myself a Bread & Cheese Omelet  for my supper on this day.  It is something I really enjoy making myself for supper now and again. With this you get the pleasure of little cubes of fried bread, cheese, spring onions, and of course the eggs from the omelet. 

Fried bread is a real British breakfast treat. Slices of bread are fried in dripping (bacon fat, etc.) or even oil and then served along side of eggs rather than toast.  Its really delicious. 

With this omelet, you get a little taste of that. It might sound strange, but it is exceptionally delicious. A salad on the side goes very well. Simple suppers like this make a nice change on days when you are busy. You can whip them up very quickly and easily and everyone enjoys them!  For the heartier eater you could add some pan fried potatoes or hash browns.

 

WEDNESDAY, August 30th - Oven Braised Beef Stew

I had several servings of Oven Braised Beef Stew in my freezer and I took one out for my supper on this day. Normally on Wednesdays I go out to supper with my dad and his friend Hazel. This week I did not because of my cold/flu.  Although I was starting to feel better, I still did not feel like going out for a meal.

Its a good thing every now and then to make a full batch of something like a stew, which freezes beautifully.  I eat what I can on the day and then divide the remainder into freezer containers and pop it into the freezer to eat on days when I just can't be asked to cook.  You can thaw it on the defrost program on the microwave and then just simply reheat on high until it is well heated through.

This is a stew recipe that I particularly love. I have been making it for years. The meat gets browned off and then everything else is added, ready to pop the whole thing into the oven for a long slow braise. It really is delicious and went down a real treat on this particular day. Stews are a great way to make a small amount of meat go further as well.  

All you need on the side of this tasty stew is some crusty bread to sop up all of that tasty gravy.

THURSDAY, August 31st - Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

Simple is still the order of the day and on this day I enjoyed a cup of Tomato Soup along with a grilled Cheese sandwich.  The recipe shown here is for a Cheese Crusted Grilled Cheese.  It lifts a simple grilled cheese up to a deliciously higher level. This is a delectable toasty grilled cheese sandwich, not only with plenty of melting cheese in the middle of the buttery toasted bread  . . . 

but with plenty of melted and toasted cheese on the outside, coating it so that you be eating cheese from the outside in and from the inside out with a double cheese whammy!

Tomato soup and grilled cheese. It doesn't really get much more comforting than that tasty combination!

FRIDAY, September 1st - Chicken Rice Casserole

I had some cooked chicken breast that I needed to use up before it went off and so I baked myself a simple Chicken Rice Casserole. This was so easy to make and was quite delicious. Everything just gets banged into a casserole dish (carrots, onion, rice, chicken, stock), tightly covered and then baked until the rice has cooked through and absorbed all of the flavors.

This was really delicious and surprisingly healthy.  There is no fat or frying involved and if you use white chicken meat, you can cut the fat even further.

This was delicious with a salad on the side. I splurged and drizzled English Salad Cream over my salad.  I make my own. Its very easily done and is extremely delicious!

SATURDAY, September 2nd - Sausage and Vegetable Skillet Dinner

I went out shopping with my sister on Saturday morning and was able to pick up a few bits to replenish my veggie drawer and refrigerator.  This one dish supper is something that I have always enjoyed. Meals where I can cook everything altogether in one pan are some of my favorites and that is just what this is.

Banger sausage is browned along with some potatoes and cabbage an then braised some apple cider in a skillet along with some carrots.  Cooked properly you will end up with tender golden brown sausages.  Perfectly cooked vegetables, and potatoes which are nice and crispy edged. 

And it only takes about half an hours time to do. Delicious served along with some grainy mustard for dipping your sausage in! NO fuss, NO muss and only one pan to wash up at the end. Count me in!

And that was my meals of the week for this, the last week of August/beginning of September.  Looking  back on it, I managed to do alright!  I was surprised to look back on it and see just how well I did, despite not being all that well!

Thankfully I am pretty much all better now, so things can get back to normal!  Autumn is in the air and I am looking forward to more comfort food cookery in the coming days.

 Another thing I am wanting to do is to highlight some of my Vintage Cookbooks on here.  I am a huge lover of Vintage Cookery Books.  I was thinking of devoting one post a week to Vintage Menu Cookery.  A day when I cook an entire meal's menu from one of my Vintage Cookery Books. It could be a main meal, or a breakfast or a lunch.  Whichever it would be every aspect of the meal from starter to dessert.

 I am mulling it over in my mind and the more I think about it, the more I want to explore that avenue, perhaps one day a week.  What say you? Leave me your feedback in the comments section below!  Thanks!

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