Here we are, another Sunday, another delicious Meals of the Week Post. On Sunday's I like to share with my readers all of the delicious main meals that I have cooked and or eaten over the past seven days! That's a whole lot of tasty going on.
For the most part, I am a person who likes to cook for myself. I also like to try to keep my meals fairly healthy, balanced and economical. I do eat out at least once a week with my father and his friend. That is normally a real treat. Generally speaking however, I cook for myself on a regular basis.
Nothing is overly complicated. I lie to cook easy things, unless I am having company. If I am having company I might pull out the stops a bit, but to be honest I had enough of fancy cooking when I cooked at the Manor. In my day to day regular life I like to keep things fairly simple.
That doesn't mean that what I cook is not delicious however! I always try to use the best and the freshest ingredients. I only ever very rarely will eat anything frozen or out of a can. Occasionally I will use a tin of soup to make a casserole or some such.
I love to cook and I love to eat. There is a huge temptation when you live all on your own to become somewhat lazy when it comes to eating, or to get into a rut when it comes to meals. I want to keep as exciting and delicious as possible, with a good measure of healthy thrown into the mix!
Here is what I enjoyed for my main meals along with some menu suggestions over the past seven days!
SUNDAY, May 19th - Dinner out with the family
It was my turn to treat the family to a dinner out this week and so I decided to take us all to the Farmer's Family Diner in Aylesford, which is about 40 minutes from where I live. Their food is all family style and for the most part really good. I especially like their Roast Dinners. They are a bit expensive as compared to our usual place, but if the food is good it is worth it. There was five of us as my father's friend Hazel joined us.
Hazel and I each had the turkey dinner. I am sharing my Instant Pot Turkey Thighs recipe in its place. Its a fabulous recipe and way to cook turkey things without heating up the whole kitchen. Tender and delicious as well, plus there are plenty of juices to make a tasty gravy.
Mine and Hazel's dinner was really good. It came with plenty of turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, turnips, peas, carrots, a roll and cranberry sauce. Dad had, what else . . . a hot dog and chips. He was happy with that. Dan had a Hamburger Steak dinner, with chips and gravy and it came with vegetables also. Cindy had fish and chips, but she wasn't entirely happy with them. But we did enjoy all being there together which is the main thing!
MONDAY, May 20th - Proper Welsh Rarebit and salad
I wasn't overly hungry on Monday. It was a fairly warm day and I was busy here around the house and so I made myself some Welsh Rarebit for my tea! (Which is what they call supper in the U.K.) I had not had Welsh Rarebit in a very long time. I had some proper British Cheddar in the house as well.
Welsh Rarebit is a rich, but simple cheese sauce. which is traditionally spooned over hot buttered toast. You can also pop the sauce slathered toast beneath a hot grill to gild it a bit, which is my preferred way to eat it!! It is simple and delicious. You want to use a nice cheese and a good bread. This was beautiful with a tossed salad on the side. You could add some oven chips as well for the heartier eaters!
Again, I wanted something simple. I had been with my sister to my dad's for most of the day as we are getting him ready to move into my sister's place. There is a lot of clearing out that needs doing. We hope to have him moved in by the 15th of June.
I had frozen myself a couple of dinners of Flat Meatballs and Gravy and before I went out Tuesday morning, I took one of them out and popped it into the refrigerator to thaw for my supper when I got home later in the day.
They are more like little flat patties of ground beef, mixed with finely minced onion, garlic and some other seasonings, which are browned and then baked in the oven with a lovely gravy that uses cream of mushroom soup and grated onion. I am not a tinned soup snob. It has it's uses and this is a fabulous way to use it! These meatballs are real family pleasers. I like to enjoy them with some rice or mashed potatoes and a vegetable on the side.
WEDNESDAY, May 22nd - Dinner out with Dad
Every Wednesday night (or most Wednesday's at any rate) my sister and I go and meet our father and his friend Hazel at The Big Scoop Family Restaurant and Take Out. They had a double cheeseburger special on this week and that is what Hazel and Cindy had. I just wanted a bacon cheeseburger as I can't really eat two burger patties, and I decided to splurge and have "Frings" with it on the side, an order of half onion rings and half fries.
We would have been much better off staying home and enjoying one of my Juicy Turkey Burgers! Those never disappoint and that is what you see in the top photograph here. Always juicy and flavorful. I like to enjoy them with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. They are really delicious!
We will not be going to the Big Scoop this week. In fact I think Cindy and I are going to sit this week out while dad and Hazel go to Greenwood for Chinese food. We don't like the Chinese Food restaurant either, but dad's favorite waitress from the Big Scoop has quit and is now working there so he really wants to see her.
Another day out working at Dad's place today so quick and easy was the order of the day. I am a lover of Thai flavors an Thai curries. I love curry full stop anyways. This is a quick and easy curry that is like a stir fry in many respects. It goes together very quickly. Diced chicken, frozen mixed vegetables (you decide which ones you want), a few seasonings, some coconut milk, dinner is well on the way. A squeeze of lime, some chopped peanuts and steamed rice on the side and you have a beautiful meal.
I cut it way back to make only one serving just for me. The original recipe makes a family sized curry. If you would like the measures to make only one or two servings, just ask.
I really fancied some fish for my supper on Friday and so I took a salmon filet out of my freezer and thawed it out. This is a sheet pan supper that is a perfect entree for diabetics, in that it is low carb, high in fiber and big on flavor! If you are watching the carbs this is the meal for you.
The salmon is flavored with a delicious herby garlic butter. Perfectly baked and flavored. Moist and delicious salmon with crispy tender broccoli, all baked together on one baking sheet.
You could enjoy this with a baked potato on the side if you wanted to, or some steamed rice. I like it with a bit of mashed Sweet potatoes, which gives me a trifecta of delicious super foods on my plate! Healthy and delicious!
I heated up my air fryer last night and made myself some Airy Fryer French Bread Pizza! Because there is just me, I actually used a halved large ciabatta bun. Totally from scratch, using simple ordinary pizza ingredients. It cooks simply and easily to perfection in the air fryer.
I used to call my air fryer the cremator before I got used to using it. I used to burn everything in it. It just took a bit of getting used to. A learning curve for sure, but now I use it all the time. For the smaller family, they are really wonderful!
These pizzas are quite lovely. They are simple and quick to make and oh so tasty. I enjoyed with a simple side salad with a simple ranch dressing. You could also serve the dressing as a dip with some crisp vegetable sticks. Salad or crispy vegetables, both go very well with these tasty French Bread Pizzas!!
And there you have it! My main meals that I enjoyed over the past seven days. I did enjoy a few other bits for breakfast and such. I made my homemade granola this week and I enjoyed having that for breakfast with some creamy yogurt and date syrup (my favorite way to enjoy it) and typically I had salads or fruit or both for my lunch!! I really love fruit smoothies!
I hope something here has sparked some interest in you for wanting to cook for yourself also!
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I don't have an air fryer, but I see lots of good recipes for one. Your Dad is the hot dog and fries king! I made delicious meatballs at a zoom cooking class, would try them again for sure, usually I don't eat prepared meatballs, but these I could control what went into them. Have a lovely week.
ReplyDeleteI like to use mine as much as possible. I like it so much that I bought one for my sister to use and she uses hers all the time as well. For the smaller family an air fryer is a great piece of kit to have! I like to make my own meatballs too, as I don't really trust what they put into store-prepared meatballs. You just never know! I hope you are having a lovely weekend! xo
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