Perfect Pasta, Peas and Parmesan

Pasta, Peas and Parmesan

Well, Saturday again. It’s the turn of a nice medium, hard boiled, organic, free range egg to give itself over to my breakfast delight – and it was worth it. Definitely a good egg! I also need to confess to a couple of slices of wholemeal toast with a dollop of marmalade – no butter, of course!

Lunch was tomato and pepper soup With added crushed cooked chick peas for extra goodness. This was served with a side salad of lettuce, radish, grated carrot and sultanas plus the usual teaspoonful of pumpkin and sunflower seeds with some chunky wholemeal bread. Surely I’m ready to do some hard manual labour now – or maybe I need to rest!

Tomato and Pepper Soup With Added Crushed Cooked Chick Peas

Dinner – a pasta peas and parmesan dish based on a recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. If you google macaroni peas (Petula obviously substituted the macaroni for pasta) by HF-W you will instantly find this recipe which was really good.

And something for a snack – Lemon cheesecake on a ginger biscuit base with a blueberry topping Not at all healthy but as per the top tips – be good for 90% of the time and the other 10% is less important. Also, it was leftover from my birthday treat 6 weeks ago and it was cluttering up the freezer – so really I was doing Petula a favour! This was actually a small slice of homemade cheesecake – the picture makes actually makes it look bigger.

Lemon Cheesecake with Blueberry Topping

This will be my last post for a few days as I will be off at a significant family event – back soon!

Luscious Lentil Cottage Pie

Luscious Lentil Cottage Pie

Today started off well with a nice bowl of hot porridge with sultanas, yoghurt, a pinch of cinnamon and a light drizzling of honey just to appease my sweet tooth. A great way to start the day off.

As Petula had some smoked mackerel left over from earlier in the week, she decided to whip up a smoked mackerel paté for lunch. This is a nice simple recipe made by mashing the fish in a bowl with some low fat natural yoghurt, some lemon juice and some freshly grated black pepper. This we had with a some watercress, sliced tomatoes and crispy sour dough toast.

Smoked Mackerel Paté

Petula likes to use lentils as the basis of our meals quite often as pulses are particularly healthy, and red lentils are easy to use as they only need a short cooking time.  This leads us nicely into our evening meal which today was individual luscious lentil cottage pies, a fabulous dish which was particularly moorish and great for a winter’s evening. The recipe for this cracking cottage pie is:

Lentil Cottage Pie

• Servings: 2
• Print

• 1 onion, chopped.
• 1 large carrot, diced.
• Green vegetables e.g. peas, shredded cabbage etc.
• 100g red lentils.
• Tomato puree or tomato ketchup, to taste.
• 1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs.
• 10 floz vegetable stock.
• Enough potatoes to make a mashed potato topping.
• Grated cheese e.g. cheddar.

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180°c.
• Cook the potatoes, mash with a little milk, and season with a little freshly ground black pepper.
• Meanwhile, in a saucepan, fry the onion and carrot in a little oil for 5 minutes.
• Add the red lentils, green vegetables, mixed herbs and stock and bring to the boil.
• Cover and simmer until tender, approximately 15-20 minutes.
• When cooked, stir in some tomato purée or tomato ketchup to taste, plus some freshly ground black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.
• Put the lentil mixture into 2 individual or 1 larger oven proof dish and top with the mashed potatoes, fluffing up with a fork.
• Sprinkle the grated cheese onto the top.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes in the oven.

Give it a go – you know it makes sense!

If you want to see more of Petula’s recipes then snick on over to her recipe page by Clicking Here.

A Saucy Stroganoff

Quorn and Mushroom Stroganoff

A quiet day at the castle. Nick and Petula take a slow breakfast, revelling in the relative quiet since the much celebrated departure of the builders. Petula is putting together today’s menu whilst I wander around the house admiring the new windows and bedroom carpet thinking about what to do next and finally deciding to wash the car – well it was overdue anyway. After all that hard work out in the cold I’m looking forward to lunch, and Petula has put together one of my favourites – broad beans topped with slices of grilled goats cheese – a classic, tasty dish.

Broad Beans with Grilled Goats Cheese

After a short break Petula and I decided to head off to the shops to buy a few bits and pieces and have a sneaky coffee at our favourite café. Dinner was a Quorn and mushroom stroganoff which was a great way to end the day – doesn’t it look really saucy in the picture! If you want to give the stroganoff a try you will find the Recipe Here. Go on, try it – you know you want to!

Mackerel and Leek Jacket Potato – Healthy and Thrifty!

Leek and Mackerel Jacket Potato

Just time for some wholemeal toast and a cup of coffee for breakfast before the carpet installers arrive. 08:30 and the van manoeuvres into the driveway and, following a mere 2 hours under my expert supervision (maybe close supervison speeds up the process!), the carpet is adorning the bedroom floor. No more builders until March when the driveway is being re-done – I can hardly wait!

All this excitement has helped build a nice appetite and luckily for me Petula has been busy. Today’s creation is a nice succulent veggie burger served on a wholemeal bun with lightly fried onions and dill pickles – I added the tomato sauce myself.

Succulent Veggie Burger

Lunch over and it’s going to be an easier than normal afternoon. I pottered around putting some finishing touches to the walls following the window installation – a little bit of filling and painting. We had to forego our usual walk as the weather wasn’t too good. Still,  Petula had a treat in mind for dinner – a really tasty jacket potato with leeks and smoked mackerel. I definitely recommend trying this, especially as it’s a thrifty and healthy diet option.  Mackerel is an oily fish that provides lots of omega-3, which is really good for you as, apparently, these fatty acids are brain and heart healthy. Mackerel and Leek Jacket Potato – Recipe Here.

Thrifty Dinner – Poached Egg on Bubble and Squeak

Poached Egg on Bubble and Squeak

Huzzah, a final push by the builders and they have now left the building. An event of this magnitude was clearly cause for celebration, so the two former hostages to the window installers dashed off to their favourite café for a spot of lunch. We had a delicious celeriac and stilton soup with an hunk of crusty wholemeal bread. This classic lunch provided me with the required amount of energy to crack on and complete the preparations for the carpet installation first thing (why is it always first thing – I keep dreaming of a lie in) tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, Petula has her eye on creating a thrifty dinner and has decided on a really nice bubble and squeak with a poached egg sitting on top. The bubble and squeak was made from left over potatoes and cabbage, in this case mashed with some lightly sautéed spring onions to give it extra flavour and fried in a little rapeseed oil until crispy and hot.

Using rapeseed oil for frying or roasting is one of Petula’s top tips. It’s the healthiest oil, better for you even than olive oil as it has less saturated fat and is also high in omega-3 and omega-6. Unlike olive oil rapeseed doesn’t go toxic at high heat.

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A Cold Day Calls For A Healthy Hearty Hotpot

Healthy Hearty Bean and Vegetable Hotpot

Since the builders started work at maison Nick and Petula’s, the breakfast schedules have gone to pot and I’m getting confused. According to my normally reliable schedule today’s breakfast should have been cereal, but it turned out to be a nice hot bowl of porridge with blueberries and honey – if this carries on the world will surely implode. Still slightly confused, I decided to finish off the last of the decorating work in the bedroom interspersed with my consultancy role advising the builders – 2 more days and they will finally leave us! Meanwhile Petula has put together a spot of lunch which today is some hummus and beetroot on some really nice rye bread with a side salad.

Hummus and Beetroot on Toasted Rye

We spent a pleasant hour this afternoon on Skype with my sister in New York, where it seems to be a little chilly at the moment. But, quelle horreur, it turns out that she has not had a healthy weekend as she confessed to having a hot dog and fries followed by wine and peanuts in the afternoon! After a short sit down to get over the shock, Petula headed off to create a lovely healthy, hearty hotpot – just the thing that you should be eating on a cold day! Healthy Hearty Hotpot Recipe Here.

Hearty Bean and Vegetable Hotpot

Sunday Special – Pea Soup and Lemon Sole

Pea and Spinach Soup

Doesn’t everyone love Sunday mornings, slow to rise, a hearty breakfast and big thick newspapers. All the comings and goings this week have blown Petula’s breakfast schedule slightly off course, so today was a nicely hard boiled egg with some crispy slices of wholemeal toast. The rest of Nick’s morning was spent following Petula around the aisles of the local Waitrose in a bid to refill the fridge for another week of fabulous meals.

Lunch was a bowl of pea and spinach soup with some really chunky lumps of wholemeal bread plus, of course, our customary salad which today was rocket, tomatoes, radishes and the usual sprinkling of pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

After an afternoon of painting skirting boards (plus a teabreak or two) ready for the new carpet that’s being fitted on Wednesday, the call for dinner rings out. Flashing down stairs, there, ready and waiting are Lemon Sole fillets lightly dusted with herb seasoning, baked in the oven and served with sautéed potatoes and onion, plus steamed courgettes with mint. After a final coffee and two squares of dark chocolate, it’s now time to slump on the sofa and watch an action packed thriller on the telly.

Lemon Sole and Sautéed Potatoes

Viva The Kitchen Liberation! Celebratory Pearl Barley Risotto

No rest for the wicked – even though it’s the week-end it’s up early to let the plumber in to start work on connecting the new bedroom radiators. The plumber obviously needs my expert advice which leaves Petula free to wander off to get the papers in the lovely morning sunshine. The morning was devoted to an early spring clean in the kitchen to get rid of the remaining dust and general grime. Then it was fit to prepare a proper lunch of hummus, salads and toasted rye bread. Normal service has been resumed.

Cracking Hummus Salad

The plumbers been and gone and the house is now nice and toasty. I’ve spent the afternoon putting back all the floorboards, being careful not to screw through the nice new shiny copper pipes. Meanwhile Petula has decided to try out one of ‘A Girl Called Jack’ recipes, a Pearl Barley, vegetable and cream cheese risotto. It was delicious – using pearl barley gives it a lovely chewy, nutty flavour and is a healthier grain than the short grain rice that is normally used in risotto. It’s gone down in the magic book of recipes to be re-visited in the future. Jack Monroe’s Recipe Here.

A Hectic Day Ends With A Bowl Of Soothing Pasta

Chilli Lentil Pasta

The builders arrive at 08:00, a rushed bowl of cereal and out of the door for an appointment at 08:45. When we returned an hour later it was off to the last undisturbed bedroom to take up the floorboards and notch the joists ready for the plumbers arrival tomorrow morning. The only lunch that was easily to hand were a few crackers and cheddar cheese plus a low fat yoghurt with some mashed banana, then I was once again back at work. The builders were under strict instructions, under pain of death, to finish off all work in the kitchen before they left for the day. Darkness descended and yay, yay and thrice yay the kitchen was liberated! Petula dashed in and pulled together a scratch meal consisting of a can of green lentils plus spinach, in a tomato and chilli sauce all served with wholewheat pasta. It was a delicious treat. We can return to normal tomorrow – although builders will still be here until Wednesday – just not in the kitchen!!!!

Out and about…

Out and About

Dispatches from the Home Front – Cheese to the Rescue

Don’t you feel like this sometimes?

It’s been a difficult week

Disaster, the fridge is covered over with a dust sheet, the cooker is nowhere to be seen and as far as I can tell there is no food! How will I make it through the day and more importantly how is Petula going to get us through such a dark time. It looks like the builders will be around for a few more days yet – and to make matters worse the plumber will be here all week-end! So many things for me to worry about while I hoik up the bedroom carpet in preparation for it’s replacement next week – it’s all go at the moment! A call to lunch, that’s a relief, and as if by magic another yummy sandwich appears on my plate. Voila, a cheese, tomato, rocket and pesto sandwich to the rescue – marvellous.

Cheese, Tomato and Pesto Sandwich

After lunch it’s back to watching the builders and trying to establish when we’ll get access to the kitchen – another day yet. So, there’s only one thing to do, we’re off out to dinner and as it turned out we had a rather nice fish pie with some perfectly cooked veg – yum. Normal service will resume soon – I hope.