Meals of the Week, March 17th - March 23rd, 2024

 

 

Hello and welcome to my Sunday Meals of the Week Post.  Every Sunday I like to share with you all of the delicious main meals which I have cooked for myself and or enjoyed over the past seven days.  This helps me to keep myself accountable and I hope in some way it will also inspire you to want to cook some of the things I have enjoyed.

As a person who finds themselves living on her own at this late stage in my life it has been a bit of a challenge.  I do not want to be a person who lives on takeaways or out of cans or frozen packets.  I have always enjoyed cooking and eating, and admittedly my waistline shows it.

Eating processed foods is not all that good for you. Every now and again I do find myself having to resort to something in that genre, but by and large I like to prepare everything myself.  That way I know exactly what is going into my food, and I can control things like sugar, fat and sodium.  Most processed foods are high in all three.

To that end I try to cook for myself every day, something from scratch. Cooking from scratch does not have to be complicated or expensive. You can eat really well and still stay within a budget. I think I do rather well on that score. 

I also try to cook for only one or two servings wherever possible. In many cases I will enjoy the second serving for lunch the next day, or freeze it for future use.   I am getting rather good at reducing things to only one serving however.

Not an easy feat when one is used to cooking for crowds. I raised five children and was used to cooking for seven people on the regular and then in my employment I also cooked or large groups of people regularly.  When I retired it went down to cooking for just two people and now  . . .  cooking just for me.

I do enjoy doing these posts. They help me to keep a record of what I am actually eating and inspire me to cook as well. I love sharing them with you and I know that many of you love reading about them and, in fact, have been inspired to cook some of these dishes for yourselves as well.

Here are the main meals that I enjoyed over the past seven days! I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did!

SUNDAY, March 17th - Sunday Dinner at Cindy's

As usual I went to my sisters for dinner. She had roasted a lovely chicken. She does it in her air fryer and it always turns out beautifully.  This was accompanied with plenty of roasted potatoes, carrots, broccoli and a lovely gravy.

Roast Chicken in the Air Fryer is not all that hard to do, and is the perfect way to cook a chicken which is on the smaller side.  The skin gets lovely and crispy, whilst the meat stays nice and moist. The air fryer we use has a nice tray in the bottom to collect all of the juices in for making a gravy.  I also have a nice recipe here for how to make gravy simply and easily without pan drippings. My sister makes the best gravy.

For dessert we had sugar free jelly with some whippy cream.

MONDAY, March 18th - Vegan F'sh Fillets with Ranch Dressed Crushed Potatoes

I have all of these vegan options in the freezer which I need to use. Not a recipe for those.  I use the gardein brand of F's Fillets and they are actually quite good. The star here though was those potatoes. I am in love with those potatoes.  Small potatoes are boiled until tender and then gently smashed and dressed with a lush ranch sauce that is oh so delicious.   So tasty I couldn't stop picking at them after dinner was finished.

I accompanied this with a tossed salad  of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, red onions and grated carrot.  All together this was a very delicious meal.

TUESDAY, March 19th - One Pan Spaghetti

On Tuesday I tried a recipe I had bookmarked on Pinterest and wanted to give a go for a while. I small batched it so that it made a much smaller amount that was more suitable to the size of my household! (I do that with most things as I hate waste.) 

This made for a really delicious and simple supper. The pasta cooks in the same pan along with the sauce.  As it cooks to al dente, it absorbs the flavors of the sauce and some of the starch from the pasta serves to thicken the sauce.  I sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on top and enjoyed it with some cheesy garlic bread. I also had made enough salad yesterday that I could enjoy some today as well.  (I reserved it undressed in a baggie in the refrigerator.)

WEDNESDAY, March 20th - Scrambled Eggs on Toast

Usually on Wednesday nights I have dinner out with my father and his friend Hazel. Sometimes my sister comes as well.  This week I stayed home. I am experiencing a lot of pain in my left knee due to arthritis and it is very painful for me to get in and out of the car.  Excruciating actually.  Anyways, I gave this week a skip. I did not decide until the last minute and so it was a bit late in the day to take anything out to cook.

I decided to enjoy some Scrambled Eggs on Toast. When I worked at the Manor, often when I would get home from work, and felt too tired to cook for myself, my husband would make me some scrambled eggs on toast. Such a simple thing and yet they always tasted exquisite.  Why is it that food always tastes so darned good when someone else cooks it!  In any case I enjoyed my scrambled eggs on toast along with some sliced fresh tomatoes.  I did not add any cheese or chives on this day.  Just scrambled eggs and I enjoyed them on a nice toasted slice of some toasted homemade Honey Wheat & Oat Bread.  A simple supper and perfect in it's simplicity.

THURSDAY, March 21st - Maple Baked Butterbeans

I had spent a large portion of the day on Thursday helping my sister at my father's place.  He is 90 years old and in the process of getting ready to move over to my sister's place.  We tidied up, helped him take a bath, made his bed, cooked him some lunch, etc. I am mostly the towel holder, implement sharer.  My sister does the lion's share of the work really, but it is a blessing and a privilege to be able to give back to this man who gave so much to us in our lives.

Anyways, I was a bit late getting home, again, to take anything out of the freezer. (Poor planning on my part.) In any case, I had some tinned butterbeans in the larder and remembered this dish that I used to make when I was in the U.K.  Chopped tinned tomatoes, tinned butterbeans (lime beans), pancetta, maple syrup and a few other bits.  It is a simple make and oh so delicious. I whipped up some Cheese Slaw to enjoy with it, along with a nice thick slice of my homemade bread from yesterday, buttered.

FRIDAY, March 22nd - Salmon & Broccoli Cakes  

I will put my hand up right now and admit to all and sundry that I am not fond of Nova Scotia Fish Cakes. They use salt cod to make them, or chicken haddie and it is not my favorite thing at all.  If I am going to enjoy a fish cake I prefer to make my own and these Salmon & Broccoli Fish Cakes are a real favorite of mine. They are a delicious fish cake made from poached salmon, broccoli and potato, with dill and lemon. You can also use tinned salmon to make them in a pinch. (Which I did on Friday.)

They are lovely served with a wedge of lemon for squeezing. I also enjoyed some salad on the side. You know salmon and broccoli are beautiful flavor partners.

SATURDAY, March 23rd - Chicken with Lemon & Capers

I decided to pull the stops out a bit on Saturday as I had been eating relatively simple all week and I made myself some Chicken with Lemon & Capers.  It is quite simply one of my all-time favorite chicken dishes and it is really very simple to make.

Chicken breasts are sliced horizontally into thinnish chicken fillets, dusted with some flour and seasonings and fried in butter. A simple sauce is created from the pan juices, lemon juice and bottled capers. I do so love capers.

This is so impressive, and yet it is quick and simple to make.  The sauce is rich and delicious.  Have all of your ingredients ready before you start and things will run as smoothly as clockwork. I enjoyed this with some brown rice this time and was in chicken heaven.  I also steamed some broccoli to enjoy on the side.

And there you have it, my main meals of the week for the past seven days. A nice mix of things that were all tasty, quick and easy to make and very satisfying.  I hope that there was something here that you might also want to cook for yourself!

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