W3 Meal Plan…

So, I’ve decided I’m going to do a years worth of meal plans – call it a belated new years’ resolution. Roll on week three, or W3. It’s also my lazy way of getting out of coming up with a snappy name each week for my meal plans. So please forgive me, abbreviated W’X’ it will be.  Sexy, this weeks meal plan’s name is not, but it tastes damn hot!

Day one – Hot Punjabi Prawn Curry
Day two – Pork Chops in Ginger Sauce
Day three – Smoked Paprika Sausage Pot
Day four – Ricotta and Spinach Cannelloni (Vegetarian)
Day five – Coriander Salmon

Toddlertastic Crunchy Pasta Bakes

Flexible recipe suitable for all ages – dial down the salt for babies. Just blend!

Pasta bakes are great dishes for fussy eaters as you can blend in a myriad of unattractive vegetables in the sauce, and put the pretty ones on show! You can make lots of different versions of this recipe using a vegetable sauce, or white sauce (below).

Save time by making double quantities and freezing one (pre-baked) for next time. Use aluminum foil cooking dishes from the supermarket for your frozen future dinner – just remember to defrost in your fridge and not your microwave!

If doing the vegetable sauce, you make up a very thick blended veggie soup for the sauce. I use 1/2 leek, 1 parsnip, 1 potato, 1 handful of cauliflower florets, and 100 ml  cream. Start by gently frying veggies in saucepan, add boiling water, some herbs, simmer, then blend and add cream. You can also use my Secret Seven Soup if you like tomato sauces.

The Coup D’etat according to my kids is the crunchy topping. Which is….drumroll…. blitzed breadcrumbs, dash olive oil, Italian herbs and grated cheese sprinkled on top and crunchified in the oven. The crunchy topping shown above is yellow as it uses home-baked corn bread, get me!

As this is a “guess-ecipe” all measures are approximates.

For the white cheese sauce:
large knob of butter (approx 50g)
75g flour
900ml milk
1 bay leaf
tsp wholegrain mustard
seasoning (easy on salt)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
100g grated medium cheddar cheese (save tbsp for crunchy top)

Melt butter in saucepan, add flour, stir vigorously for 1 minute. Stirring with a whisk continuously so it doesn’t go lumpy, gradually add rest of the milk. Add herbs, mustard and seasoning. Stir regularly and gently bring to boil. When sauce has thickened to yoghurt like thickness, turn off heat, remove bay leaf and stir in most of the cheese. Use the rest of the cheese for the crunchy topping mix (described above).

Pasta – your choice of shape, we have macaroni and Animaletti! Boil up enough for 4 people. Add handful of frozen peas and corn 2 minutes from end.

Combine pasta, sauce, peas and corn (and any other cooked ‘visible’ chopped vegetables you’d like to) and put in oven dish. Sprinkle with my much-sought-after crunchy topping, and pop in top of hot oven (180-200 degrees celsius) for 10 minutes and serve.

Salmon Nicoise a la Elaine

Calling this a ‘recipe’ is a bit of a stretch as it tends to be more of a pile up of what’s in my fridge! All, and any raw salad vegetables go in, olives, sun dried tomatoes, dried fruits, nuts, and seeds – topped with a grilled salmon fillet and a hard boiled egg. The first time I made this dish I was pregnant with my daughter and  on a mission to eat the most nutritious meal imaginable. I also had gestational diabetes so wanted a filling meal, high in protein and nutrients, but low in carbs. It was perfect and I am sure all that fish did my brain-box daughter the world of good!

Sometimes I add boiled new potatoes, not always.

A salad within the salad I include is grated carrot, apple and raisins with Italian salad dressing stirred through.

The only consistent elements for this recipe are the fillet of salmon drizzled with oil, seasoned and grilled, and the hard boiled egg, halved and served with an anchovy fillet on top. I always try to buy wild salmon – it is darker and has more flavour than farmed salmon and I am sure the healthier and more natural alternative to farmed fish.

Enjoy creating your own Salad Nicoise Au Saumon!