Yellow Split Pea Soup

I have been doing a larder audit and trying to use up what we already have. We had a lovely pack of dried yellow split peas and so I made a rough attempt at a Scandinavian pea soup is, although without the ham so H-G could eat it as well.

I rinsed the peas to get rid of any grit. Then put them into unsalted water and brought them to a boil. Once boiling I simmered for about an hour.

Drained the peas. Sauteed brown onion, 4 cloves of garlic, some carrots and sweet potato (that were hagning around) and added the peas. Added vegetable stock and cooked until everything was soft. Then I just blended the soup. Served the following day with natural yoghurt and some little garlic and herb bruschettas that I bought from Aldi.

This was delicious. It also made a really lovely and nourishing Sunday brunch.

Quick supper

Potao salad; rattatoiulle; lettuce, almond and rasion salad with blue cheese dressing and carroway seed bread for Husband-Gusto

turkey schnitzel and tomato salad for Baby-G

turkey schnitzel, green salad with raisons and almonds and potato salad for me.

Children lunches

Chicken nuggets from the freezer, veg and rice. Plus a tiny bit of homemade guacamole which went uneaten.

The most popular lunch of the weekend with Baby-G! Bread and butter; spaghetti with grated cheese; Ikea meatballs from the freezer and sliced fresh red pepper.

I started to make Husband G and I scrambled eggs on toast for lunch but this then morphed as we had some half used fajita seasoning powder and the rest of the red pepper to use up.

I cooked onions, pepper and seasoning mix in a pan. The once the vegetables were soft I added the scrambled egg.

Cook and serve with toast and guacamole

A very good and satisfying lunch.

Family meals- chicken pasta bake.

Pre-oven platter.

Sautted onions, grated carrot and grated courgette in olive oil. Add diced chicken and cook through. I forgot to take a picture of the resulting bubbly cheesy gorgeousness. But it was a very successful meal.

The carrot and courgette was just because I had some leftover. To this I added cooked macaroni and a jarred pasta sauce. Topped with pre-grated mozzarella (which keeps wonderfully in the freezer I discovered) and then cooked in the oven until bubbling. The advantage is that Baby-G ate it and asked for seconds. Next to miraculous.

Scones- Afternoon tea

Well, I had to have any excuse to use my new teacup and saucer. 🙂

This is from the Spode Woodland range and was a treat to myself.

On a whim I made scones. I have never done so, and I did not have the lovely fluted scone cutters that make the iconic shape, but I used instead an egg ring.

I made plain; sultana scones and then added some fresh blueberries to some just because they were there.

Baby-G ate his plain. Husband-G ate his with butter and jam. I ate mine with butter and rhubarb jam. We did not have any cream but it did not matter.

This was the recipe I followed. It came out perfectly.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/tea_time_scones_77839

Family meals.

I am once again working my way through cupboard and freezer ingredients in the bid to use everything up. This tends to be a twice annual event where I pay really careful attention to utilising everything we have bought and placed in the larder. My yen to do so seems to be naturally triggered by the end of winter and the end of summer. This year in particular I have made great headway in reducing food waste and I am really very pleased with myself.

Using up some of the older veg in the fridge as the base for a beef stew. The cherry tomatoes were really very ripe and thus rejected by Baby-G and so adding them to the stew was perfect.

Lunch of a cheese burger on brioche with onions and egg. B-G’s was minus the egg.

These were for B-G’s dinner along with sweet potato/ regular potato mash and asparagus. I had the beef casserole and vegetables. H-G just the vegetables.

I have ceased buying things I can make myself such as cakes and bread and intend to try my hand at scones this weekend. I am also actively trying to worry less about Baby-G’s fussy eating. I top him up with fortified milks and vitamin tablets but my main aim is to keep his tummy full and to not be too concerned that there is a fairly limited list of 10 or so fruits and vegetables that he will eat.

Easy lunch

I love an easy healthy lunch. We are lucky to be able to get microwave pouches of whole grains and legumes like lentils etc.

Microwave for a minute. Add chopped vegetables from whatever you have in the fridge. I like to add chilli flakes and lots of fresh coriander and mint. Plus always feta cheese, and lemon juice and a dash of olive oil.

Lunch in a flash.

Sunday

A day of preparing really simple meals that people in the Gusto household actually eat.

1. Lunch of IKEA meatballs with mash, cranberry sauce and Bisto gravy.
2. Starter of grated carrot salad with pumpkin seeds, green olives and a dash of blue cheese dressing
3. Main of cheese tortellini with broccoli
4. tinned fruit salad with some broken up daim chocolate from IKEA.

Even Baby-G ate his full and complete share. It’s always a good day when Baby-G eats a proper set of food.

Butternut squash and honeyed walnut tart.

This was a dish that came about when I had a session of rummaging through the fridge to see what needed to be used up.

I had shortcrust pastry leftover from christmas. (Originally an onion tart). And butternut squash that I had forgotten about almost entirely and some boursin cheese and walnuts.

First I diced the squash into small pieces and roasted them in the oven until tender. I blind baked the pastry for about 8 minutes. Then sliced the boursin cheese ontothe pastry and topped with the squash. Cooked in the oven at about 180 degrees for 20 minutes. While this was cooking I put a small amount of olive oil in a pan and on a very low heat cooked the walnuts. Once they get a bit black they taste very bitter so the aim was to warm them through without burning. Towards the end of the cooking time I added a teaspoon of honey and coated the walnuts innthe honey olive oil mixture. When the tart was cooked I topped it with the walnuts and honey mixture and then added a further drizzle of honey over the entire tart.

This was (according to Husband-G) absolutely delicious. It was incredibly rich though so he ate about 75% of it and left the remainder for the next day. I was really pleased with this. It was really simple and certainly fancy enough for a dinner party vegetarian main or as a small tartlet starter.

Afternoon tea- cake

Strawberry tart with creme anglaise.

Winter candles

Apple and coconut cake. This is seriously the best cake I have ever made. Very moist and a glorious flavour.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-3428622/Mary-Berry-Foolproof-Cooking-one-Gluten-free-apple-coconut-cake.html