Tag: menu planning

Menu planning Thursday – 10 June 2010

DIANE IN DENMARK

New concept this week! 🙂  I’m just going to list the dishes we’ll be having and not get caught up in exactly which days we’re eating what because things are c.r.a.z.y right now with school and Scout end of term activities, DH working like the proverbial madman, various parties (yeehaw!) and me preparing for my (double yeehaw!) birthday 😉

So in no particular order here’s what we’ll be eating at Casa Copenhagen this week:

On the night DH is working late

Bacon and sweetcorn scrambled eggs (made by DS10) with homemade wholemeal toast. Brownies for dessert (made by DD8).

Thanks to Lesley and Emma for the inspiration for this one! xo

Toad in the Hole. A quaint English dish which I have never eaten.

On the night ‘Mum’ is out to a friend’s very girly birthday party, yeehaw!

Takeaway pizza. And no doubt some icecream from the freezer.

Pasta Beef Satay from the Saving Dinner: The Menus, Recipes, and Shopping Lists to Bring Your Family Back to the Table cookbook. Salad to go with it.

Tore this recipe out of a magazine while I was decluttering papers as part of my latest Scaredy Cat Challenge

Chicken curry with coriander. Basmati brown rice made in my ricecooker. Will cook extra rice so I have enough left over for the Cantonese Stir Fry. Veggie sticks on the side.

Yet another recipe to try from yet another magazine cutting…

Classic Cantonese Stir Fry (using leftover rice from the curry) with prawns and peas.

Last – but not least – Leftover Night 🙂

And because I seem to have whetted a few appetites (boom boom!) with yesterday’s youtube clip, here’s the next in the series. Because you can never have too much Millie, can you?! 😉

Hope you have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday! 🙂

Menu planning Thursday – 3 June 2010

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If you’ve been following my latest Scaredy Cat Challenge –Freeze! – you’ll know that I’m ONLY using meat/veggies from the freezer in an attempt to clear the backlog…

Thanks to my sweetie ‘flyfriend’ Teri, I’ve also dusted off my old Jamie Oliver cookbooks for inspiration this week 🙂

THURSDAY

We’re probably having dinner out tonight or a takeaway (wow, mark it on the calender!), so no dinner prep for Mum today 🙂

FRIDAY

Never made the crockpot barbecue ribs (dump in the crock, douse with barbecue sauce, switch on and go off…) that I planned a couple of weeks back, so today is The Day. Will serve with fresh green salad and baked potatoes – cooked in my second crockpot! 😉

SATURDAY

Cod steaks wrapped in bacon – a variation on Jamie Oliver’s ‘salmon in prosciutto’ recipe from his book Det er mere bar’ mad (The Return of the Naked Chef) Serving with rösti potatoes and fresh peas.

SUNDAY

DS10 and DD8 are making dinner tonight – chicken burgers on wholemeal buns. Hopefully we’ll be cooking them on the barbecue if the weather holds. Dessert will be something from a Jamie Oliver book – the kids what they’d like to make.

MONDAY

Minced Beef Wellingtons (another Jamie Oliver recipe, found in Easy Living magazine). Basically you mix up little patties of minced beef and wrap in pastry. Salad to go with them.

TUESDAY

Scout night for the kids. Danish meatball and dumpling soup. Straight from the freezer packet. And homemade bread straight from my breadmachine 😉

WEDNESDAY

Out to three (count ’em) school functions today. Afternoon and evening. Going to be a bit of a tough logistical nut to crack, so I think I’ll be making a picnic dinner for us… 😉

Have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday! 🙂

Scaredy Cat Challenge – Freeze! Part Three

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What’s a Scaredy Cat Challenge? To be honest, anything you like! 😉 A project you’ve been putting off. Lifestyle changes you’d like to make. A new hobby you’d like to try. You decide. We’re here to cheer you on and hold your hand! Need inspiration? Go take a peek at what my fabulous blog pals are up to – we’re all doing different things…together! In strict alphabetical order they are Asfora, Candace, Emma, Lee, Lesley, Lizand Sheryl. Always room for one more! 🙂

My own current Scaredy Cat Challenge is getting my (three) freezers under control. By the end of last week I had put everything into one freezer and made an inventory. I’ve only been using the meat etc that is in there for my menu planning, so stocks are going down, albeit slowly 😉

Here’s what’s in there, as of today, Sunday:

MEAT (all of these are servings for four people)

1 marinated chicken fillets

1 steaks

1 ribs

1 minced beef (cooked, ready for crockpot)

2 minced beef

1 minced chicken

1 large ham

1 chicken legs

1 cod fillets

1 quorn fillets

2 veggie starters

½ fish fingers

READY-TO-EAT (again, these are servings for four people)

2 suppe (meatballs/dumplings for Danish soup)

1 Biksemad (Danish beef/potato hash)

1 asparagus soup

1 asparagus/chicken filling for pastry tarts

1 ready-made crispy chicken fillets

1 ready-made crispy fish fillets

1 pizza

1 chopped chunky bacon

3 sliced bacon

2 liverpâté

VEGGIES/FRUITS

1½ sliced potatoes

2 potato rösti

½ oven chips

1 sweetcorn

1 mini onions

1 mixed veg for crockpot meals

½ peas

1 green beans

½ spinach

ginger

leftover bananas for use in smoothies/cakes

DESSERTS/PASTRY/BREAD

1 box mixed icecreams

½ B+J Phishfood icecream

½ B+J Cookie Dough icecream

1 puff pastry

1 baguette

2 packs pitabread

1 ryebread

1 morning rolls for weekend

5 Kærgården (Danish butter)

MEDICINE SHELF

½ bottle Krone snaps

Various dregs of Christmas snaps, Linie Aquavit and Porse snaps

I’m going to try and get rid of (i.e. eat) as much as possible this next week. And then the plan is to carefully (very carefully) only restock the main freezer in the kitchen. Then I can unplug the basement freezer. My safety net will be the little mini freezer (which is part of the fridge in the basement) for impulse buys. But there won’t be any more of them, will there? 😉

And what will all this achieve? Less money spent on electricity. Fewer trips up and down stairs – perhaps alleviating my newly-discovered asthma? 😉 Easier menu planning and less food waste. We shall see! 🙂

Have you got a Scaredy Cat Challenge of your own? Something you’ve been putting off? Join us – we shall hold hands and be scared together! Use the MckLinky below…

Have a super Sunday! 🙂

Menu planning Thursday – 27 May 2010

DIANE IN DENMARK

Another week – another menu!

THURSDAY

We didn’t have the homemade Danish fishcakes from last week’s menu, so – voilà – here they are again! Serving with little gem lettuce, ‘remoulade‘ relish, lemon/raisin/almond couscous.

FRIDAY

Friends coming over for dinner. Smoked salmon/prawns on hot potato with dill dressing. (Yes, this one keeps popping up at the moment – a real summery starter.)

Followed by beef steaks, béarnaise sauce, green salad, baby potatoes. No dessert, just a huge bowl of sweets while we’re watching Disney Show! 🙂

SATURDAY

Eurovision Song Contest night 😉 Homemade pepperoni pizza. Will make a nice dessert with the kids. Then sit back and let the voting begin!

SUNDAY

A new tradition in the house…’Pasta with Leftovers’ night 😉

MONDAY

Something quick as I’m out with girls to Open Mike Night at Comedy Zoo! Quiche with bacon and cheddar cheese. I usually use this recipe from Recipezaar.

TUESDAY

Scout night for both kids at different times. One of our stand-by meals: Danish biksemad. Cubes of potato and meat fried with onions, topped with an egg and served with cubed beetroot. Plenty of ketchup 😉

WEDNESDAY

Roasted chicken legs, jasmine rice made in the ricecooker and fresh carrot/cucumber sticks.

Bon appétit! Have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday! 🙂

Scaredy Cat Challenge – Freeze! Part Two

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As I announced last week, my latest Scaredy Cat Challenge is to get my freezer under control. Truth to tell, at the moment I’m using three different freezers – yikes! On Monday morning (as soon as the schoolrun was done and before my NEWO run), I set my Flylady timer for 15 minutes.

I started this challenge by going through our big old freezer, drawer by drawer, and taking an inventory. Luckily most of the stuff was already in the correct drawer (meat, vegetables, freezer meals, bread, icecream/pastry) and I only had a small bag of stuff to chuck. Mostly bread – why do so many half loaves end up in the freezer food cemetery? 😉

On Tuesday morning I emptied the contents of the tiny fridge freezer into the big one. Added the items to my master list and chucked out some old bags of frozen fruit. And no, I’m not going to even think about the ‘best before’ dates on those bags – progress not perfection! That little freezer is now empty. But, um, might need defrosting…

On Wednesday morning I felt more challenged. It was time to decant the contents of our new kitchen freezer into the basement one. I think I felt overwhelmed because everything had just been pushed in – I hadn’t made any kind of system for the drawers in there. This is how it looked last Sunday…

But I took a deep breath, set my timer for only 5 minutes (five minutes wasn’t going to kill me, right?) and stuffed a couple of shelves’ worth into a plastic bag. Took the bag down to the big old freezer and worked as fast as I could. Each item was either a) put into the correct drawer and added to master list or b) put in the rubbish bin. Just three more 5 minute sessions and it was empty – yippee!

Well, perhaps not completely empty. I decided to leave the snaps bottles in there 😉

Did you see mymenu plan this week? I’ve only used meat etc that I already had in my (abundantly stocked)freezer. No more food is going back in there until further notice!

And what happens next with this particular Scaredy Cat Challenge? You’ll just have to wait until next Sunday for the next ex-ice-ting installment! 😉

Don’t forget to check out all the other fantastic challenges my virtual friends have embarked on…weightloss, decorating, sewing, exercise, anti-procrastination. You name it, we can do it. Holding hands and being scared. Together! 🙂

Would you like to do great things too? Add yourself with the MckLinky below.

Have a simply super Sunday! 🙂

Menu planning Thursday – 20 May 2010

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The heat is here – hurray! 🙂 After almost 8 months (my word, it’s been a loooong winter) of chilly temperatures we’re finally warming up again. And speaking of all things cold…have you seen my latest Scaredy Cat Challenge…Freeze? For my menu this week I’m only using things I have in the freezer – I’m doing a Flylady declutter 😉

THURSDAY

‘Warm’ salad: boiled eggs, baby potatoes, chunky real bacon,tomato, cucumber, spinach leaves, homemade croutons

FRIDAY

Another branch of DH’s family is coming to stay so – guess what – Parmesan Chicken it is! Jasmine rice (made in my ricecooker) and a simple green salad to go with it. Dessert is chocolate/banana cake…to use up all the frozen bananas I’ve somehow managed to stockpile…

SATURDAY

DH family is still with us. They’re out for a slap-up lunch they won’t be too hungry tonight. An old standby, Crockpot lasagne. Will serve with salad (and veggies sticks for the little ones).

SUNDAY

We might be alone! 😉 If the weather holds – please cross your fingers – we’ll be firing up the barbecue for the first time this year and grilling pork chops and sausages. With tomato/red onion/sweetcorn/cucumber relish. And bonfire ‘stick’ bread, made by the kids.

MONDAY

It’s yet another religious holiday in Denmark today – Pinse (Pentecost). Everyone is at home and I’m going to try something new today…Crockpot barbecued spare ribs. Got the idea from Flylady website…dump ribs in crock, pour over barbecue sauce, switch on, go off and enjoy the holiday! No doubt we’ll be having Ben + Jerry’s icecream for dessert 🙂

TUESDAY

Scout night for the kids. Homemade Danish fishcakes (fish is already minced and frozen, comes from the deli section at the supermarket). Will serve them with noodles and green beans.

WEDNESDAY

Wholemeal pasta and any leftover meat and veggies that might be floating around… 😉 Fresh fruit salad for dessert (the kids will chop everything up), topped with fresh mint leaves from the garden.

Bon appétit! Hope you have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday! 🙂

Menu planning Thursday – 13 May 2010

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It’s a long holiday weekend here in Denmark for Kristi Himmel Fart (which translates directly as Christ’s Heaven Flight) or Ascension, as we so boringly call it in English 😉

THURSDAY

  • DH had to work late yesterday, so we moved the food forward to today…breaded pork chops, gratin dauphinois (my shortcut recipe is right here) and baby peas

FRIDAY

  • DH’s Danish brother and sis-in-law are coming to stay. Smoked salmon on hot sliced potato with dill dressing (chop up fresh dill and mix with creme fraîche and lemon juice), prawns and my cold-risen bread. Yes, a repeat of the starter I made for the Running Dinner last week. Because it was delicious! Main course is lamb steaks (just sear in frying pan and pop in oven), overnight salad and couscous. Dessert…hmm, don’t know yet!

SATURDAY

  • Ribbensteg (a pork roast which has crunchy crackling on the top), boiled new potatoes, gravy and cauliflower.

SUNDAY

  • Wholemeal pasta with real chunky bacon and green beans. Dessert will be made by DD8 and she’s chosen to make Danish fruit salad. Chopped fruit – we’re using green seedless grapes, bananas and apple – in a vanilla cream sauce. Topped just before serving with crushed makroner (Danish biscuits, a cross between a macaroon and a meringue). Yum! 🙂

MONDAY

  • School dinner club for DD8 at our house – 3 girls and 2 boys from her class. The kids will be making their own food – Mexican tortilla triangles, salad and plenty of veggie sticks. Dessert is banana splits: banana, vanilla icecream, waffle biscuits, chocolate sauce and whipped cream 🙂

TUESDAY

  • Rice mixed with spelt (cooked in my ricecooker), chicken fillets and carrots.

WEDNESDAY

  • DD8 starts swimming lessons tonight and DS10 is out at school dinner club. DH will be working late so DD8 and I are out to dinner, yay! 🙂

Bon appétit and hope you have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday! 🙂

Scaredy Cat Challenge – Ready for Flylady's visit!

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Have you taken a look at all the great Scaredy Cat Challenges my twisters (Twitter sisters) are doing?

Lesley, Lee, Candace, Asfora and Emma have already taken the plunge! There’s certainly girl power in numbers and I love that, even though they’re spread around the globe, they’re working right alongside of me 🙂

I’m now virtually ‘company ready’ for the Flylady‘s virtual visit. I’ve been out in the garden every day this week – go me! Monday I did lawnmothering – a dinky term I’ve coined. Remember that song….’twisters are mowing it for themselves’? 😉

I’ve been out doing virtual weeding with Asfora (who lives in Germany) at 8.30am, right after the schoolrun! Here’s the before photo…

Half an hour later, the grass has disappeared from the path and you can now actually see that there the first of the rhododendrons are in bloom…

I’ve done lots of weeding this week. I also dug out the trimmer on Friday (a once a month job) and managed 15 minutes worth before the rain started. Was annoyed – mainly because I could see how good the garden was beginning to look! But when we got home after school it was dry again so I went right out and finished the job. Imagine that – at 5pm – when I’m normally in the kitchen prepping dinner or making packed lunches. But dinner (lasagne – see this week’s menuplan here) was in the crockpot so there was nothing holding me back! 😉

This time I managed to finish the job. Trimmed the edges all around the garden fence, the borders of the lawn, around the playhouse and big trees and, finally, underneath the main deck.

So what’s the moral of this tale? That if I do just 15 minutes a day in the garden (plus 45 minutes lawnmothering once a week) the garden can actually look this good all the time… Go figure! 😉

Do you want the twisters to hold your hand too? Join up for our Scaredy Cat Challenge with the MckLinky below!

Have a super (Mothering) Sunday! 🙂

Menu plan Thursday – 6 May 2010

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Did you see last week’s menu plan “Letting the kids loose” when the kids planned and – gasp – cooked? We had some really good stuff and the Cheesey Corn Pancakes and Mexican Tortilla Triangles have already been marked as new family favourites. DD8 even stayed up late Friday night to make the triangles (wearing her pink pyjamas) for DH when he finally got home from the office 🙂

But DS10 declared yesterday “I’m tired of cooking everyday”. Ha, welcome to my world, buster! So it’s back to Mum’s own menu plan this week… 😉

THURSDAY

  • Doing a ‘hot’ salad tonight. Fried, hot potatoes, real chunky bacon, homemade croutons, pieces of boiled egg and fresh spinach leaves.

FRIDAY

  • Lasagne made in the crockpot. Krista introduced me to the idea of making it in the slow cooker and I wouldn’t make it any other way now. Here’s the link to her crockpot lasagne recipe.

SATURDAY

  • There’s a Running Dinner for the parents in DD8’s class tonight. I’ve got one of the groups coming here for the starter (6 adults), then we’re all at another house for main course, dessert and the par-tay! I’m making smoked salmon and prawns on warm potatoes with asparagus. Served with a dill sauce and my (ever popular…) cold-risen bread (which is a cinch to make, you just mix, stir and leave to rise).

SUNDAY

  • Leftover crockpot lasagne from Friday, served with salad. For dessert, homemade chocolate mousse. French style (none of that adding-cream-to-it nonsense). Going to teach the kids how to make it…a lesson for life! 😉

MONDAY

  • Chicken Parmesan with tagliatelle (noodles). Yum! Something I make often for family and guests. Recipe is from Leanne Ely’s Saving Dinner cookbook. Leanne is the Dinner Diva – and the Flylady‘s sidekick!

TUESDAY

  • Scout night for DD8 and DS10. We’ll be making Mexican Tortilla Triangles filled with ham, cheddar cheese and fresh tomato. Veggie sticks on the side. Danish koldskål (buttermilk) for dessert with kammerjunker (little biscuits).

WEDNESDAY

  • One of DH’s favourites…breaded pork chops with gratin dauphinois and baby peas. I can make it standing on my head – with eyes closed – but it is good!

Bon appétit or velbekomme as we say around these parts.

Have a lovely ‘Little Friday’! 🙂

Menu plan Thursday – Letting the kids loose!

DIANE IN DENMARK

Did you have a favourite cookbook as a child? This is my one, “A Young Cook’s Calendar” by Katie Stewart. It’s from 1978 and cost 45p at the time! There aren’t any photos in it (only drawings) but I loved reading about “walks at the weekend and tea by the fire” and “picnic food to carry to a special place”….ahh, so cosy! 🙂

I bought this mini BBC Good Food cookbook “101 recipes for kids” via Amazon the other day (I actually bought three from the same series – the dangers of trawling the internet after 9pm) and the kids jumped on it when it arrived in the post. They’ve been looking at all the pictures and drooling. “Can we have this? And this too? Ooo, this looks good!” So I said, “Okay, you plan the menu for this week – you can choose whatever you like as long as you make it!” 😉 

Last night DS10 made us Cheesey Corn Cakes (p.42) for dinner. They turned out so well, I think they look even better than the ones in the book! 😉

Anyway, without further ado, here’s what DS10 and DD8 are planning to cook the next 7 days…

THURSDAY

  • Mexican Tortilla Triangles – p.40 We’re making them with some leftover chicken and we’ll have them with salad

FRIDAY

  • Veggie burgers – p.104 on our own homemade wholewheat rolls

  • Speedy Banana Splits – p.196 Do you see the bananas in the fruit bowl, they need to be eaten! 😉

    • SATURDAY

  • Ham and cheese pizza – p.72

  • Chocolate Fondue and Toasted Marshmallows – p.180 Did someone say ‘oooooo’?

SUNDAY

  • Veggie Spaghetti Bolognese – p.60 It’s made with red lentils, will be interesting!

MONDAY

  • Sticky Chicken Drumsticks – p. 74 We’ll serve it with sushi rice (made in my trusty ricecooker) and readymade Goma dressing (Japanese sesame sauce)

TUESDAY

  • Oven egg and chips – p.102 It’s Scout night tonight so we need a quick n’ easy dish.

WEDNESDAY

  • Cauli(flower) Macaroni cheese – p.68 This is actually my choice 🙂

DS10 said to me, “Mum, it doesn’t really matter if you change around the days we’re making this food…because everything is going to taste yum!” 😉

Child labour? DS10 hard at work making pancakes last Sunday morning…

Hope you have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday with lots of good things on your plate! 🙂

Cool as a Danish Cucumber Salad

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We’ve been out in the garden today – hanging up the hammock between our two big old apple trees (cooking and eating varieties) and just generally enjoying a spot of April sunshine…though it’s still ch-chilly out there.

If you saw my Thursday menu planning post, you’ll know that our dinner tonight is one of DS10’s favourites. He’s been away at school camp and returned yesterday, complete with a bag full of dirty washing, earth and stones… 😉 Dinner is Stegt Flæsk med Persillesovs. Which is pieces of thinly sliced belly pork – grilled in the oven until they are crispy (with a captital C) – and homemade parsley sauce. Boiled baby potatoes and probably some carrots too.

I’m also making Agurkesalat (Danish cucumber salad). This is a classic Danish dish. Takes no more than five minutes to put together and is really good served with roast chicken and ‘fatty’ meats. Very delicate looking but gives a nice sharp balance.

You’ll need:

  • a small cucumber
  • 1dl, 100mls or 1/2 a cup of cold water
  • 1dl, 100mls or 1/2 a cup of white vinegar (don’t use red or balsamic here)
  • about 3 tablespoons of sugar 
  • salt and pepper

Slice the cucumber as finely as you can. I use my mandolin…watch those fingers!

Put the cucumber slices in a dish. Now is a really good time to use one of those glass bowls you got as a wedding present, say, 12 years ago… 🙂

Mix up the marinade – water, vinegar, sugar, a dash of salt and a good grind of pepper.

Mix well until the sugar starts to dissolve.

Pour over the cucumber slices and leave to sit for an hour before serving (in the fridge or on the kitchen counter – it’s your choice). If you want a slightly softer salad, you can let it sit overnight in the fridge.

I often add a dash chili flakes just before serving…not so much for a ‘kick’ but just to make it look pretty 😉

And once again, before you can say ‘Bob’s your uncle!’, we’re done! Bon appétit or velbekomme, as we say around these parts.

Have a super sunny Saturday! 🙂

Menu planning – Thursday 22 April 2010

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DS10 is away at school camp…

…which means that

  • DD8 gets to choose the menu while he’s away (and sleep in his room)

  • we’ll have DS10’s favourite food when he’s back 😉

The menu this week is still fairly heavy because the spring weather is keeping us guessing. Yesterday we had hail, sleet and snow. Here’s a picture of the hail in our garden. The stone underneath the bench reads “Vi er i haven” (We’re in the garden). Hmm, fat chance visitors to the house will find us out there any time soon 😉 But, as usual, I digress!

 

So without further ado, here’s the men-u!

 

THURSDAY

  • Fish fingers from a box [cringe], at DD8’s special request. We normally make our own ‘fingers’ from real fish – which she loves – but she thinks the boxed ones are exotic as we’ve only had them three or four times! DH and I are having salmon wrapped in puff pastry. Also from a box… Will serve with spinach salad and brown rice (from the ricecooker) for a healthier meal 🙂

 

FRIDAY

  • Homemade pizza made with spelt flour. I usually make the dough by hand but might try it out in my new breadmachine! 🙂

 

SATURDAY

  • Stegt Flæsk med Persillesovs. Which is Danish for thin slices of belly pork grilled within an inch of their lives until crisp, fresh parsley sauce, baby potatoes. And probably steamed carrots (done in the ricecooker, on top of the potatoes).

 

SUNDAY

 

MONDAY

  • I love to use my crockpot on Mondays because, after going out for a 5k run in the morning followed by my Flylady 1 hour weekly clean (take a look and don’t look back!!), it’s nice to be able to serve up something from the pot. Will make a chicken curry, no set recipe, just chicken breasts, coconut milk, curry paste etc. Nan bread, mango chutney from a jar and basmati rice cooked in…the rice cooker 😉 

TUESDAY

  • Scout night, so always quick n’ easy. And tonight it needs to be super easy because DH and I are out to see Ultravox! 🙂 Dinner will be Danish Biksemad: fried cubed potatoes, beef, onions, topped with a fried egg, served with ketchup or brown HP sauce and cubed beetroot. 

 

WEDNESDAY

  •  Pork chops, breaded and served with the usual suspects…gratin dauphinois (see my own shortcut recipe right here) and peas.

That’s it – hope you have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday! 🙂

Menu planning Thursday – 15 April 2010

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The weather is getting warmer – hooray! And, as the sun is shining in Wonderful Copenhagen today, let’s not hang about but get right down to what we’ll be chomping on this week…

THURSDAY

  • I used some real Danish bacon (the stuff you buy in a big block and chop up) last week and everybody said “oooo” and “aaaah”. So I’ve got more of it from the butchers and we’re having Wholemeal Pasta with a Creamy Mushroom and Chunky Bacon sauce. I’ll add some fresh spinach to the hot pasta just before serving. “Wilted” spinach…as they say in posh circles 😉

FRIDAY

  • Haven’t had Beef Tacos for weeks. Nice and easy for a cosy Friday night with the family. Veggie sticks on the side.

SATURDAY

  • New oven seems to be working fine [crosses fingers]. Going to make Whole Roast Chicken and put some baked potatoes in the oven at the same time. Green salad with it and maybe that Danish classic, pickled cucumber salad…

SUNDAY

  • DH is away on business so the kids and I will make Fiskedeller (Danish fish cakes, made with all fish, no potato or crackers) because DH is not mad about them but we are! 🙂 Will use my ricecooker to cook some quinoa to go along with them. And will steam some carrots on top of the quinoa. Easy peasy!

MONDAY

  • Going to use the leftover chicken/bones from Saturday night to make Chicken and Sweetcorn Chowder in my crockpot. Will serve with freshly baked bread made in my new breadmachine. Don’t you just love those labour-saving kitchen appliances?

TUESDAY

  • Scout night for both the kids, at different times. So quick n’ easy old favourite, my Hurdy Gurdy Swedish Sausage Stew. The recipe is right here.

WEDNESDAY

  • I can’t remember the last time I bought leeks (which is strange because they were a pantry staple before we had kids). Making a Leek and Bacon Quiche with the other half of that lovely, real Danish chunky bacon – mmmmm! 😉

Bon appétit! Have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday! 🙂

Scrambled Saturday

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Now, you all know how much I l.o.v.e my kitchen appliances. You met my new breadmachine yesterday, didn’t you?

Missus Smarty Pants, the style diva, is always talking about Cost Per Wear. Getting your money’s worth out of your clothes. Well today I’m going to show you how to get your money’s worth from your ricecooker.

Of course, you can use it for cooking rice. Basmati rice, jasmine rice, brown rice, brown rice, pearl barley, bulgur wheat, spelt and any other grains you can think of. (My menu plans – every Thursday here on the blog – are my witness.) I’ve even used it for cooking pasta (don’t tell the Italians!!) and boiling potatoes. And if you have a dinky steamer basket, you can steam veggies (maybe some chunked carrots) and fish (salmon fillets) on top of your rice and have an easy meal in 20 minutes flat.

A ricecooker is basically an electric cooking pot (a non-stick one…) with a lid. So you want to start thinking creatively. Here’s DS10’s favourite hot breakfast that he can prepare himself. Røræg (Danish scrambled eggs). Med ketchup. No need for me translate that, right? 😉

To make scrambled eggs (or an omelet) you’ll need:

  • eggs
  • milk
  • salt n’ pepper
  • and a ricecooker, obviously

Crack the eggs straight into the ricecooker pot.

Break the yolks up a bit with a wooden spoon (because the ricecooker pot is non-stick). And then add a spot of milk.

Freshly-ground salt n’ pepper. A dash of herbs, if you’re so inclined.

Clamp down the lid, plug in to the wall. Or kitchen worktop in our case 😉

Use either

  • a) the rapid cook function for scrambled eggs in 5 minutes
  • b) the normal cook function which will take about 15-20 minutes (great if you want to go shower and get dressed or…spend 15 minutes decluttering?)

Stir/break up the egg mixture with a wooden spoon a couple of times whilst cooking, or at least just before you serve.

Or you can be a real lazy bones – don’t stir it at all – and you’re non-efforts will be rewarded with an omelet! 🙂 When making an omelet for lunch, I like to add in some veggies like mushrooms, a handful of fresh spinach or some chopped red pepper. You can fry the veggies in the ricecooker pot in a little olive oil before you add the eggs. Yum! 🙂

Do you now understand why I love my ricecooker so much? Need an extra reason? Hmm, how about easy peasy clean-up thanks to that non-stick bowl?

Yes, I’ll also ‘come clean’… I love my ricecooker so much, I even took it with us on our summer holidays one year. All the way in the car from Denmark to the south of France and back. Oh, la, la… 😉

Hope you have an eggs-tra-special Saturday! 🙂

Menu planning Thursday – 8 April 2010

DIANE IN DENMARK2 Comments

This morning I said goodbye to my ‘old’ Siemens oven. ‘Old’ as in six month’s old. The oven which we got in November 2009 as part of our brand new kitchen. (You can read all about our 3 month remodel if you feel so inclined. I wrote blog posts about it every Monday in September, October and November 2009. The Flylady got me through it!). But, alas and alack, the huge Siemens oven (90cm or 3ft wide) turned out to have a faulty door that wouldn’t close…unless you used a very carefully placed (Ikea) mop.

The replacement oven arrived this morning and, as we speak, I’ve got it firing on all thrusts (Scotty, eat your heart out!), in order to get rid of the ‘brand new oven’ smell so it’s ready for use tonight…

And what is for dinner? Let’s not hang around any longer 😉

THURSDAY

  • Quiche (made with real, chunky bacon and red pepper). I use a shortcut recipe from recipezaar.com called Blender Quiche. Salad and beetroot to go with it. I always love beetroot and quiche together, probably because that’s how we had it when I was a child 🙂

FRIDAY

  • Danish family (2 adults, 2 kids) are coming to stay. Will be serving up my old standby…Chicken Parmesan. Chicken filets, breaded and fried. Put on top of tomato sauce, sprinkle with cheese, into a hot oven for about 30 minutes. Done and dusted! Will serve with tagliatelle pasta and a big green salad. Dessert will be chocolates, biscuits and my sweetie tweetie friend Krista’s twitter-famous brownies 😉 Her recipe is here. Try them!!!

SATURDAY

  • Tortilla wraps made with leftover chicken from yesterday. And if we’re lucky enough to have any leftover brownies, we shall eat them with vanilla icecream for dessert…

SUNDAY

  • Homemade pepperoni pizza. Veggie sticks for munching on. Koldskål for dessert (you can read about it in last week’s menu post, see under Tuesday.)

MONDAY

  • I love, love, love doing a crock dinner on Mondays. Today it’ll be Crockpot Lasagne. It always lasts us two days. Krista has (again!!!) a great recipe for it on her blog.

TUESDAY

  • Scout night for the kids, at different times. Leftover crockpot lasagne! 😉

WEDNESDAY

  • I’m out to a parents’ night at school, so dinner will be quick n’easy. Danish meatballs (from the freezer), rice made in my ricecooker and steamed veggies.

Bon appétit!

Have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday! 🙂