Meal planning Monday: 24 February 2020

I can't believe that we woke up to snow this morning!  It's a shame I have to go out and earn a living because I could quite favour spending the entire day wrapped up in a blanket staring wistfully out of the window.  There is something about the extreme quiet that always seems to accompany snow that prompts in my a very enjoyable sense of gentle melancholy.  Mind, put me outside in snowy conditions and said gentle melancholy turns to verging-on-blind-panic.  I'm not steady on my feet at the best of times and I hate slippery conditions - or conditions which look as though they should be slippery even if they are not.

Meal planning this week - obviously, Tuesday sorted itself, we are going out for supper on Friday (pay day!) and two freezer dive meals, so not a sterling week for cooking but some nice winter warmers on there.

Monday: Pasta alla Genovese - a bump from last week.  We continue to build our repertoire of quick and easy store cupboard pasta dishes and I like the sound of this one - albeit, we are going to cheat and use store bought pesto.  I know that every telly chef out there rebukes one for using pesto out of a jar but have you ever made pesto?  Do you know how much basil you have to buy to make a couple of spoonfuls?  And how expensive fresh herbs are if you are forced to buy some in a supermarket?  I like Sacla pesto, anyway.  Yes, it probably tastes different to freshly made but it has a charm all of its own as far as I am concerned.

Tuesday: Pancake day!  As per usual, we will be having pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, courtesy of April Bloomfield's recipe.

Wednesday: First of the two freezer dives - Thai fish curry.

Thursday: Macaroni cheese because it is forecast snow again and one must eat stodgy pasta bakes when it snows.

Saturday: Rice bowls with pepper and lime crusted tuna and mustard dressed cucumber.  A slightly different iteration of this dish.  There will probably be other garnishes as well, but D hasn't quite decided where else to go with it yet.

Sunday: Second of the two freezer dives - coq au vin.  With mash.

Have a good week all - and stay warm!