Family food
I’m putting this list together as a reference tool as I often forget the things we like to cook and eat as a family. The girls in this house will eat anything put in front of them but the Beale boys are a little more discerning…
We are quite new to menu planning and the necessity to put three or four meals on the table each day as before the move from London we were both working fulltime, kids were in day nursery 8am-6pm and we usually ate some sort of convenience food, a take away or out at a restaurant. Now we eat homecooked food each day.
At some point I’ll type the recipes that we use out.
* A light and easy Mexican meal:
- Large piece of steak cut into strips and marinated for a couple of hours in the fridge in natural yoghurt, lime juice (from a bottle hanging around in the fridge), Encona hot chilli sauce
- Boiled rice
- Tortilla wraps
- Chunky salad of orange pepper, cucumber, spinach leaves, ripe avocado
- Natural greek style yoghurt
- Salsa made from:
- Tomatoes
- Onions or Spring onions
- Balasamic vinegar chilli sauce
- Corriander (we should have this had but Upton shops don’t stock it so we are waiting to grow our own plants)
* Pork and Cider Casserole
- Brown a good portion of diced pork with a tiny bit of oil, add 2 thinly sliced onions & 1/2 bunch of celery (including the celery leaves), 3 chunky carrots and parsnips to sweat, pour over cider until it is all covered, bring to the boil and stick in the oven for an hour and a quarter.
- Serve with rice or jacket potatoes (rice is good as its quick and you can cook enough for everyone’s lunchboxes the next day)
Ham & Butter Beans (a Nigel Slater recipe)
500g dried butter beans
a little olive oil
thyme
a piece of boiling bacon - about 1.2kg
2 onions
4 cloves garlic
2 carrots
800g tinned tomatoes
smoked paprika
chorizo sausage boiling sausage
- Soak the beans for at least 8 hours in deep, cold water. Drain then boil them in unsalted water for about an hour, til they start to show signs of tenderness. Turn off the heat. Set the over at 180 deg C/Gas 4.
- Warm a couple of tablespoons of olive oil with one or two sprigs of thyme in a deep casserole. Cut the fat from the bacon in one thick piece and let the fat colour briefly on both sides in the oil. This lends a little of the pork flovour to the oil. A sit cooks, peel the onions and chop them roughly. Lift out the piece of fat and set it aside.
- Soften the onions in the flavoured oil, letting them colour lightly you go, peel the garlic cloves and add them whole to the pot. Scrub and roughly chop the carrots. Stir them through the onions and garlic, then tuck in a good three or four springs of thyme.
- Add the drained beans but keep the cooking liquid, the chopped tomatoes and gently mix them with the onions.
- Season with black pepper and a teaspoon of smoked paprika then tuck in the chorizo sausages and the piece of fat to enrich the sauce.
- Lower the bacon piece on top, pushing it down into the sauce as best you can. Pour in enough of the bean cooking liquid to cover the meat.
- Bring to the boil, cover and bake for about an hour and a half, till it is all meltingly tender.
Tuna and brown rice salad
Brown basmati rice
Small tin tuna in oil (works much better than the brine option for some reason)
1/2 tin of sweetcorn
Red, yellow, orange or green pepper
Celery
Spring onion
Carrot
Boil rice until cooked, drain and rinse under cold tap. Mix in tuna, sweetcorn, finely chopped salad veg altogether, season with black pepper. A very tasty, satisfying packed/picnic lunch alternative to sandwiches
* Roast lamb, chicken or pork dinner
* Meatloaf, mash, broccoli/cauliflower cheese and peas (any left over mash, caul cheese and peas can be made into cauli-cheese burgers when mixed together and coated in breadcrumbs)
* Home made pizza using the breadmachine for the dough
* Poached chicken and vegetables
* Lamb stew/Lancashire hotpot
* Veggie sausages in a roll with fried onions
* Noodles with clear chicken broth and thinly sliced veggies (pepper, chilli, onion, mushroom, brocolli)
* Chops (lamb or pork) with mash and seasonal vegetables
* Falafels in wholemeal pitta with natural yoghurt
* Baked potatoes with houmous; cheese and homemade coleslaw, cheese and baked beans
* Risotto
* Omlette with ham, onion, tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese
* Chilli con carne
* Tomato, bacon and cheese pasta
* Tortillas with cheese, pepper, onion etc inside heated on a frying pan
* Spinach and ricotta canneloni
* Macaroni cheese with tuna and sweetcorn; or smokey bacon/ham and mushroom
* French toast (a.k.a. eggy bread)