Homemade pizza on olive sourdough base, chicken soup, chicken curry

Oops, it's been a fortnight almost since I posted a food blog.  We've been away on hols of course, we did take most of our food with us, it was mostly healthy and Mediterranean related, but we did relax it a bit too.  However, now we're home and back to eating healthily.

Went shopping yesterday, stuck mainly to my list but did buy a couple of things that were on YS and too good to leave behind.  An olive sourdough bloomer, a ball of mozzarella, some quality smoked dry cure bacon and a pack of 6 chicken legs, all reduced to half price.  Not sure why, as we went in the morning and they don't normally reduce things to half price until later in the day - not that I was complaining.  The bread was a bit on the stale side, but as it was a flat loaf I decided to use it as the base for a pizza for dinner last night.  I topped it with chopped canned tomatoes mixed with tomato puree and dried basil, then a layer of sliced mushrooms and red onion.  Some of the dry cure bacon on top of that, finished off with bits of blue and goats cheese we'd brought back from hol with us, and a reduced price ball of mozzarella.  Had it with a green salad.  The pizza was really nice, I couldn't finish all of mine but husband finished it off as well as his own, despite not feeling well!  I always know when he's feeling REALLY unwell, as it's the only time he's off his food.

I cooked 3 of the chicken legs when the oven was on for the pizza, the other 3 I froze.  The dog is having one of the legs for her dinner (taken off the bone and chopped, of course).  I've made chicken, veg and barley soup for lunch, using one of the legs, with the other I'm making a curry for dinner, with chickpeas, mushrooms, chopped apricots, coconut milk and the last of a jar of tikka paste in the fridge.  Amazing how far you can stretch meat when you add lots of veg, grains and pulses to it.

3 types of bread, plate pasty and fruit sponge

Sorry for the lack of food posts recently....we have of course been eating, I just haven't had time to write about it.  

I've had a mammoth cooking morning.  My usual weekly sourdough made as soon as I got up, the dough's proving very well today, sometimes it takes all day but this one will be ready to go in the oven in an hour or so.  Husband's made a wholegrain loaf for himself, that's just waiting to go in the oven as soon as the other things I've made are out.  
We're having chilli tonight, previously made and out of the freezer.  To accompany it I've made cornbread - a different recipe to the one I usually use, this one has actual corn in it rather than just cornmeal.  I've also made a large plate pasty - easier and quicker than making 6 individual ones, I'll just cut it into 6 when cooked and freeze each portion individually wrapped.  

Husband was practically begging for a pudding - we hardly ever have puddings, he has fruit yogurts occasionally or, rarely, some stewed fruit with custard.  So, as he's done so well this week with building the patio (not yet finished, but it's quite a large area), I've made him a blueberry and apple sponge, using our own home grown blueberries from last year - there are still 2 or 3 bags of them in the freezer.  

And now I'm going to sit for the rest of the day with my microwave hottie on my poor aching back, and make lists for our holiday.

Bargains in the supermarket yesterday

Went to Morrisons yesterday to do a little bit of shopping, because husband was busy laying the patio in the morning we didn't get there until late afternoon, at which time the staff were doing final reductions on the fresh stuff.

They quite often put out large bags of sliced red onion and mushrooms which they use on their deli and in-store pizza counters, reducing them down to pennies towards the end of the day.  Yesterday they didn't have any, but what they did have was several plastic tubs of falafels, 500g tubs, reduced to 50p per tub.  I bought two.  On getting them home, I opened the tubs and counted them - a total of 46 falafels, I bagged them up into 5 separate tubs and froze 4 of them.  5 meals' worth of falafels for 20p each, bargain.  I also got a pack of fancy filled pasta, like ravioli but round, filled with butternut squash, girolles and sage, reduced from £2.50 to 40p, and 6 mini pork pies reduced to 20p - well, it's nice to have a treat occasionally!

So tonight we're having the pasta with some of the falafel, with a homemade tomato and leek sauce, I shall cut the falafel into quarters and heat them through in the sauce.  I'll toast some of my sourdough and top it with garlic butter and melted cheese to serve with it.  Might have to have a bit of chocolate afterwards, it's that kind of day.

Greek yogurt pizza dough, ginger cookies

The yogurt/flour pizza base was so easy and really nice, I'll be using that recipe all the time from now on.  I used wholemeal flour with baking powder added, a big shake of Italian herbs and enough Greek yogurt to make a dough.  Kneaded it a bit, just enough to get it smooth, then rolled it out and part baked it before adding the toppings.

Chinadogs, you mentioned the scallops - I froze them on the day we bought them as I knew I wouldn't be using them immediately, defrosting and using them a couple of days later.  But yes you could be right, as they were 'on date' they may well have been just past their best.  Whatever, I wasn't keen on the taste or even the texture, so I won't have them again.  

The ginger biscuits I made this morning are lovely, here's the recipe should anyone want it:-

www.recipesfromanormalmum.com/2014/08/04/mommas-cornish-fairings/

In an effort to make them slightly healthier, I use wholemeal flour with baking powder, brown sugar and only 50g of it (brown sugar tastes sweeter anyhow, gives a nice caramelly taste and with the golden syrup in, the cookies are sweet enough).  I also double the amount of powdered ginger as we do like them to be very gingery.  The beauty of these cookies is that you can bake them just until they're golden for softer cookies, or a bit longer if you like them crunchy.  They're lovely either way.  It's also one of the easiest cookie recipes ever, few ingredients and all done in a saucepan.  

Fish finger sarnie, homemade pizza

Husband's asked for a fish finger sandwich for lunch today.  The bread is of course homemade - husbandmade - wholewheat with added pumpkin and sunflower seeds.  We'll have a slice of Gouda in it, sliced cucumber (must have some veg! haha) and salad cream for me - husband hates that, so he'll have mayo.  I don't know whether you get salad cream in the USA, if you don't it's a dressing kind of like mayo, except it's more runny and tastes more vinegary than mayo....which is probably why I like it and husband doesn't, he's not a fan of vinegar.

For dinner I'm going to make pizza.  I'm trying a pizza dough I've not made before....it's only 2 ingredients so shouldn't be hard to do!  It's self raising flour (I shall use wholewheat with added baking powder) and Greek yogurt, saw the recipe online somewhere.  I'll top the base with tomato and garlic puree and roasted Mediterranean veggies, with some goats cheese.  We'll have it with a Greek salad.

Tomorrow I'm doing a cottage pie for dinner, the beef mince base will have lots of added veg - frozen mixed diced veg, plus some grated carrot and courgette, and a carton of chopped tomatoes.  Instead of mashed potato for the topping, I'm going to slice some small new potatoes and steam them first, then layer them on top of the mince, drizzle with olive oil and crumble some feta over before baking.  

I'll make an individual one at the same time and freeze it - I'm going up to see my Mum next Wednesday, brother is taking me, so husband can defrost the pie then heat it up in the microwave for his dinner.  Mum has said she'd like to go out for lunch, if she's well enough, so if I have a full meal then I'll only want a slice of toast or some cheese & crackers when I get home.

Roasted monkfish, filo pasties, chicken curry

The scallops (which I won't be having again, although husband quite liked them) and monkfish were both bought reduced to half price as they were on date - as they're expensive that's the only way I'd be buying them.  The price of fish has really gone up lately, don't know whether it's to do with all this Brexit rubbish, or fishing quotas, or what.  Pity, as we do like fish and would eat more of it if it wasn't so expensive, particularly as we're eating so much less red meat now.

For dinner last night I roasted a tray of veggies - small new potatoes, Chantenay carrots, courgette (all from the cheap Lidl veg box), a sweet potato and an aubergine, with a big splash of olive oil, some smoked paprika and seasoning.  When nearly done I put the monkfish tails on top, brushed with oil, some fresh lemon slices (from the veg box) and salt & pepper and roasted for another 20 mins.  The fish was absolutely yum, really meaty and flavoursome.  We'll have it again IF it's reduced enough in price.

I had a box of filo pastry sheets and some leftover mashed potato, so made pasties.  Mixed some grated Cheddar, crumbled feta, chopped sun dried tomatoes and diced ham (remainder of the gammon joint we had the other day) into the mash, with parsley and sage.  Put a sausage shape of mash on each sheet of pastry, brushed with oil and rolled it up like a sausage roll and baked.  They've all gone in the freezer, to be taken out for packed lunches when we go for days out.

Husband asked for chicken curry tonight.  We have cooked roast chicken in the freezer, plenty of mushrooms, leeks of course, and half a jar of tikka paste in the fridge.  Think I'll put some chopped dried apricots in it too.  We'll have it with plain brown basmati rice, with some peas added.

Scallops...not a fan it seems

Went to get the dried split peas out last night - none left in the cupboard, so I made lentil and ham soup for lunch today instead.  I fried a couple of sliced leeks and a diced sweet potato in olive oil first.  Added the gammon stock, red lentils, lots of sage and black pepper and a squirt of tomato puree.  Had it with toasted wholemeal pitta croutons, plenty left for tomorrow.  Ironically, it's not been soup weather today after all....after some initial rain when we got up, it's been sunny ever since, although somewhat windy.

For dinner tonight we had scallops and king prawns, with leeks (again, good job we like them!) and mushrooms.  I fried the leeks and mushrooms first, then added one of those microwavable pouches of rice and grains - a mixture of brown and wild rice with pearl barley, red and golden quinoa.  In a separate pan I quickly flash fried the scallops and prawns, then served them on top of the rice mixture, with a splash of sweet chilli sauce and lime juice.  

Now, I love prawns and would happily eat them several times a week, scallops (which I think we've only had once before, several years ago) I assumed I'd like too.  Nope - odd as it might sound, they're just too 'seafoody' for my liking.  Some things you like, some you don't.

Bit of a fishy week....tomorrow we're having roasted veggies with monkfish - we've not had that before so I hope I like it!