Meal Planning Monday 11th February

Last week went according to plan, with Mark creating a delicious "Gardeners Pie" on Saturday, a sort of vegetarian shepherd's pie with loads and loads of lovely veg, so we did get our vegetarian meal.

So many of you commented or tweeted about the kedgeree last week that I blogged about how to make my super-easy version - you can find the recipe here.

After planning this week's  meals I realised there are three globe artichokes in the fridge that came in the veg box and I've not factored them into any of our meals. I've tried artichokes several times, and never had them in a way that was anything better than indifferent. They seem to me to be far more trouble than they are worth, and you just end up with a grey unappealing lump or a mound of leaves with practically nothing worth eating on them. Or both. Even photos in recipe books seldom manage to make them look attractive. If any of you has a recipe for them that really works, I'd love to know!

Anyway, on with the meal plan:

Monday Curried Turkey Sausages. There's a bit of a story behind this. Our meat box this week contained turkey sausages, an item we are not keen on. We tried one on Saturday and they were OK. Just OK, no more than that. But I'd rather disguise them as something else. I have an old copy of Australian Family Circle. Very old, from 1980. And it has a recipe in it for curried sausages which I've been meaning to try ever since I bought the magazine. Today's the day! There's nothing the least bit authentic about the curry or the vegetable curry that goes with it, but it looks fun and tasty and after 33 years it's about time I gave it a whirl.

Tuesday. I don't know whether this dish has a name. It's a dish we used to enjoy in a couple of restaurants in Hong Kong, where rice is cooked in individual earthen pots with a layer of minced beef on top, and a few minutes before serving an egg is broken on top to cook in the steam. My earthen pots wore out, so both portions will be cooked together in a casserole dish. Stir fried red cabbage, Chinese leaves and salted peanuts to go with it. We don't usually have pudding but of course being Shrove Tuesday we'll be having pancakes.

Wednesday. Duck breasts. I've not completely decided what to do with them yet, I'll do a "fridge audit" on Wednesday afternoon and see what I can put together - Thursday is veg box day so I'll need to clear out all sorts of odds and ends tonight. I know there's some lovely cavalo nero from the garden that's waiting to be used. And by Wednesday we might be nearing the base of the Broccoli Mountain.

Thursday. We don't really do Valentine's day (for the reason, see next week) but I'll probably make a bit more effort than I usually would on a week night. The veg box is due to contain leeks and there's a Camembert in the fridge, so I'm hoping to make a dish called Flamiche which is in this month's Good Food magazine. If the leeks fail to materialise, I might make a tomato tart instead. There will be home made bread and salad with it whatever it turns out to be!

Friday. After reading some of last week's Meal Planning Monday posts I've been craving satay, so tonight we'll be having chicken satay with gado gado.

Saturday and Sunday. Mark will be cooking one day so the choice will be up to him. There's going to be a beef joint and some stewing beef in the meat box, so when it's my turn to cook I will do a beef pot roast or roast beef, depending on what the beef looks like, or if he's used the beef joint I'll do a really old fashioned beef stew from a 1930's recipe book of mine. There's one I love called jugged beef, but it has redcurrant jelly in it which I don't buy now I'm diabetic (I'd be tempted to use far too much of it) but I might be able to produce a similar taste with Sweet Freedom and a handful of cranberries, if I have some in the freezer.
Meal Planning Monday is hosted by At Home With Mrs M where you will find lots more ideas for the week's meals.