I’m a simple cook. I hate following complex recipes and quite frankly I’m crap at baking. I tend to take a brief look at a recipe and then make things up as I go along.

This is one of my favourite ‘easy and quick’ dinners at the moment.

Ingredients
Serves 2

Pork medallions
One leek
2 cloves garlic
Single cream
Brandy or white wine *Optional
1/2 pint of chicken stock
Olive oil
Tsp wholegrain mustard
Sea salt and pepper

1. Sear the pork medallions (season and coat in olive oil first) on either side until they’re caramelised. Remove to a sideplate.

2. Slice and fry leek and garlic in a little extra olive oil.

3. Add chicken stock, bring to the boil and then turn to a medium heat – add a splash of white wine or brandy (optional)

4. Remove pan from heat and stir in half a cup of single cream.

5. Put on a low heat and stir in a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard. Put the medallions back in the pan and cook until meat is piping through – be careful not to split sauce! (but if you do, remove the pan and add a bit more single cream and it should come back together).

6. Season sauce to taste and serve with new potatoes and vegetables.

Totally forgot to get a ‘plate picture’ as I was too busy filling my face!

For desert what about a nice apple pie and a wee bit of custard?

This is a slideshow of our food at the Port Aventura theme park in Spain. This will appeal to the hardened foodies (englishmum). See below for details of the dishes.

Slide 1: Ribs, chips and side salad at The Steakhouse self serve restaurant in the Far West. Tasty but expensive, a bit cold by the time we sat down to eat.

Slide 2: Ham and cheese breaded fritter from the children’s counter at the Gold River evening buffet.

Slide 3: The worst creme brullee I’ve ever tasted and a strawberry cheesecake.

Slide 4: More nasty creme brullee, fresh watermelon and ricotta and tomato tart that was surprisingly ok.

Slide 5: Pork knuckle, wild mushrooms, potato and parsley butter.

Slide 6: Chocolate brownie and ice cream, probably the nicest thing I ate!

Slide 7: Sweet and sour chicken and rice, ‘cream with nuts’ for desert. The desert was a cup of cream with chocolate and pecan nuts, needless to say I couldn’t finish it.

Slide 8: Tara and Alice at Venosfera the tapas bar we had a nice meal in in the mediterranean section of the park.

I’ve spoken about meal planning in the past, I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember and while some people consider it a symptom of OCD I find that it saves me time, effort, thought, stress and money everyday. I know some people that just have a rotating menu, that’s something I definitely couldn’t cope with, I prefer to collect recipes from magazines, recipe books, meals out and online, these ideas form the basis for my weekly meal plans which are all planned in advanced. Recently I’ve also been incorporating meals that utilise leftover ingredients more which is satisfying, I hate that guilty feeling that you get when you have to throw away food due to a lack of forward planning. To help minimize wastage I always leave at least one day free in case we eat out.

Whilst surfing I found this group that share there meal plans, I realise that this may be a step too far for some but I’ve decided to join and see how it goes, there seems to be a huge variety of recipes and I’m lookinh forward to finding some inspiration from places and cultures afar.

So here’s my meal plan for the week, I’m late publishing, hopefully I’ll rectify this next week.

Monday: Roast chicken, mash, parsnips and gravy

Tuesday: Slow roasted pork belly, mustard mash and apple sauce

The credit crunch and also my love of food and cooking has inspired me to experiment cooking with cheaper cuts. The pork belly was easy to cook and I did enjoy the meal but I found the meat very rich in comparison to say, a pork chop.


Wednesday: Rump steak, beer battered onion rings, mushrooms, chips and salad

Thursday: Out for dinner

Friday: Filled potato skins, ham, onion rings

Erin and I had fun using some leftovers to make the potato skins

Saturday: Ham, corn on the cob, chips

Sunday: Out for dinner

Find more meal plans and recipe ideas…

I love walnut bread, but at ?1.19 for a small loaf it’s pretty expensive and I therefore have to ensure that when I do splurge I use every morsel….and because it’s yummy and I can’t bear to leave a crumb!

1. Simply sliced and eaten with quality butter, I like Lurpack.

2. Toasted with a little quality cheese.

3. Blended and used as breadcrumbs to top pies/pasta bakes.

4. Chopped chunky and dipped in olive oil and balsamic (I like raspberry vinegar too.)

5. Sliced and used for an open sandwhich.

6. Cubed, doused in olive oil and baked. Use these croutons in a nice salad, I like chicken and bacon salad or a simple green salad with parmesan and pine nuts.

7. Cubed and doused in olive oil with a slug of balsamic, bake, then plop into a nice bowl of tomato soup.

There’s been a lot of coverage recently about an impending recession, the american mortgage crisis, and the rising price of food and fuel. Is there anyone who hasn’t given at least a quick thought to their monthly budget and looked for where they could trim some fat? I have, and I’ve also been wondering how I’m doing with my food budget compared to everyone else. This isn’t an opportunity for one upmanship, I’m actually more interested in finding those who are spending less, and how?

Please answer the following questions either on your own blog (and link here, so I can find you) or in the comments.

Here are the questions and my answers.

1.) Predominantly, where do you shop? Tesco

2.) How often do you shop? Weekly

3.) How much (on average) do you spend? ?60(this includes household products and nappies)

4.) How many people are you buying for? 2 adults, one infant

5.) Do you do any of the following – meal plan, make a list, have a budget? Yes to all

6.) If at all, how have you tried to lower your spending on food and household items? I started meal planning and buying online to keep my costs down, recently though I have had to increase my budget from ?50 to ?60 as I was really feeling the squeeze.

Thanks for taking part.

Erin’s up to three meals a day (with deserts). The transition has been relatively smooth with very little outright rejections. The only real no-no’s have been root veg, and plain rice crackers. We are still on the fence about avocado…

Here’s a wee list of the favourites so far…

Mashed Banana

Carrot, Apple and Celery Puree

Courgette, Apple and Celery Soup with Parsley

Organix Carrot Sticks

Rusks

Blueberry, Apple, Pear & Cinammon Puree

Vegetable Ratatouille with Rice

Fromage Frais (The outright winner and favourite!)

What are your favourites?

This is a picnic with a difference though because all the food has to have a summer theme.

Summer Picnic

Ideas for your picnic;

A yellow iced biscuit for the sun

A breadstick with a slice of cucumber makes a tree

A square of wholemeal bread with peanut butter is a sandpit

A bit of cress for bushes

Iced gems for flowers

A baby tomato for a ball

A gingerbread boy for you (that’s you kid…not you!)

1. On a chopping board or plate arrange your summer picnic picture, take a photo, and then eat it all up….don’t forget to wash it all down with some pond (water!).