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Who can give me a plan for a meal I can easily do on a Thursday? Its for two adults (one of which will need to reheat when he gets home) and two children (5 and 2 1/2). Preparation needs to be done in the morning as I only have 1/2 hour to cook between coming home from school and going out to dancing. It must be as healthy as possible and you need to bear in mind that my children are fussy with vegetables and I am trying to improve this. I am also on a fairly tight budget so no good suggesting caviar or the like! I do own a slow cooker, food processor and most other gadgets - you can always ask if it requires specialist equipment and I will see what Ive got.

I will choose the best out of the suggestions and over the course of the next few weeks will road test them on my family. The winner as judged by kids and hubby will be awarded either a £5 garden voucher or a pm of thanks, whichever they would find more uplifting (I know which I would pick!) If you think this is a daft idea then let me know and If enough people agree I will scrap it.

Tammy

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God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done

You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt

When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out

You will always be your child's favorite toy

Hi Tammy. Try this one for the slow-cooker. Bung veggies of your choice in with the chook if you like, or microwave/steam whatever in your half hour. Instead of spuds, I would recommend couscous - add a stock cube to the water when making and it is delish. My boys always yell for more.

Shirley's slow-cooker chicken

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Pasta bake! Precook the pasta and whatever veggies to mix in in the morning - mushrooms onion leek peper, bung on some ready made pasta bake or your own tomato concoction, sprinkle some cheese..... then bake for about 20 mins in the evening. Serve with salad (homegrown of course ) or garlic bread.

You can add ham or cooked bacon or chicken to it too but I am veggie so we always have ours meat free with the meat on the side for the boys.

janeyo

ok easy one i do when i cant really be bothered

one med onion white chopped
two garlic cloves (pending on preferance)
one pack of bacon chopped
2 tins of chopped tommies or plum chopped up (cheaper can )
good handfull of mushrooms chopped

fry all cept tommies in olive oil if you have it if not just normal oil, till bacon is crispy add tomatoes lower heat and simmer til reduced approx 20 mins add basil (fresh is better but dried is fine)
(if you have any whole grain mustard in the cupboard half a spoon of that is nice in it )
season to taste
later when you want to eat boil your pasta drain add you reheated better flavoured sauce

n.b. when i cook this it takes the time to boil pasta so 20 mins really, simmer it down to reduce the watery look, leave aside, cover, boil pasta reheat sauce as needed, mix together, sprinkle cheese and basil on top done

Sheherd's pie! With veg de jour.

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www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated September 29th - Bean drying.

i have tried the Jamie Oliver 'feed your family for a fiver' meatballs and pasta, the kids love them and you can pre make and cook the meatballs and sauce, then cook pasta later, warm through the sauce/balls and jobs a good 'un. and no I don't work for Sainsburys.

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Kernow rag nevra http://www.cornishnotenglish.com/

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits
Albert Einstein

Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when your'e tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand
Bruce Lee

I'd forgotten about the Jamie Oliver ads and I was gonna suggest turkey meatballs rather than beef ones with a homemade tomato sauce and either spaghetti or pasta twirls. For the meatballs grate an onion into a bowl, add sprinkling of oregano & basil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix in the turkey mince (you can always bulk it out with some homemade breadcrumbs too) Make the mixture into small meatballs and dry fry in batches in a frypan so the outsides are browned. For the tomato sauce finely chop an onion, a clove of garlic and gently fry in a little olive oil. Add a couple of tins of tomatoes, a grated carrot (optional but it gives the sauce a sweet taste), a sprinkling of basil or oregano or both. Add a splash of red wine vinegar and a tsp of sugar. Bring to boil and as each batch of the meatballs is browned add them to the sauce mixture. When all the meatballs are browned, make sure the sauce is simmering, then turn the whole lot into the slow cooker and leaver in there for the rest of the day so the meatballs cook through. Then when you get home alls you've got to do is cook the pasta If I'm feeling flush, I sometimes break up a ball of mozzerella cheese and add it to the mix in the slow cooker

How about a Risotto? You can cook it mostly and then finish it off later, although it only takes about 20mins anyway. You could cut up some vegetables really fine so the kids don't notice them.

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My organic gardening etc blog - http://thecornflake.blogspot.com

Home made burgers are another easy one. Buy beef, pork or turkey mince and then grate veggies into the mix along with breadcrumbs and an egg (to help it hold together). Shape into patties and leave in the fridge (separated by cling film or greaseproof paper) then fry or grill and serve with beans or whatever.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

noooooooo meat balls are soo much nicer made with mince pork honest i tried it for the first time couple of weeks ago not a rich as beef or lamb

For fast food you'd be hard pressed to beat the good old stir fry.

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - Tuscany update - 27th September

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Agreed Wayne, but a tricky one if the sprogs are not keen veggie-scoffers.

General tip - for a lighter version of spag-bol, use what the Dutch term 'half and half' mince (half beef, half pork). Makes a nice change.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Ah there is that. Quite a few of our friends have found that veg "in" something is turned down less often than veg "with" something. Worth a punt?

Are you suggesting they eat berk?

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - Tuscany update - 27th September

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Deffo sounds better than poef

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Ok what about this one

Half a dozen leeks six slices of ham and a quantity of cheese sauce, wrap the ham around the part cooked leeks lay in a oven proof dish and pour over cheese sauce then bake in a pre heated oven for 20 mins can be prepared earlier in the day and heated lateryou can even sprinkle grated cheese on top for addred flavour

Ive been making 'wait and see' since mine were toddlers - (as in whats for tea mum......) deffo a family favourite and vquick:

One or two tins of pink salmon (remove skin and bones) - cost 1.60
Onion, Pepper, fresh tomatoes (all sliced)
tinned sweetcorn
Lots of fresh thyme, little garlic and black pepper - spiceit up with chilis or hot sauce if liked.

Cook onions, peppers garlic and tomatoes until softened - addthyme sweetcorn etc
Add salmon about 5 minutes from end - lightly crush - you want bits rather than mush.
Leave in frypan with lidon to steam and bubble - you could addjuice from salmon tin if goes a bit dry.

I serve with potatoes and a green veg, broc or beans or peas.

Its kind of a take on caribbean fish dish.I think it even counts as feed family for a fiver from store cupboard kinda thing.

ooohhh... I love a culinary challenge! So, healthy, with secret veggies, able to reheat... hmmm...

Vietnamese food is fabulous, healthy and quick! And very nice at this time of year. A sparklingly quick version is to make the aromatic paste in the morning - in the food processor a few seconds, stick in some chicken thigh fillets (or breast whatever) to marinade all day. In your 30 minutes once home, pop the whole lot in a pan with a couple of tins of coconut milk, a pair of diced sweet potatoes and some peas and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 minutes, stir in a good couple of handfuls of coriander and basil, a little sugar, squeeze of lime and some fish sauce, and you're done.

Serve with rice that you've been cooking at the same time, or even quicker and easier, with some of those instant noodles.

So, you've got lean meat, veggies, and and lovely fresh green leaves. It'll reheat perfectly - just add another squeeze of lime and maybe sprinkle with more herbs. This can be as spicy and aromatic as you want - turn it up or down.

Let me know if you the sound of this and I'll post the spice paste etc.

Yes Rhona please post more details - sounds scrummy. Kids do eat a mild curry but its a jar of Uncle Bens that I use but I want to get away from that sort of convenience stuff cos its loaded in sugar, salt or fat most of the time.

Looking forward to starting some of these recepies out this Thursday and will keep you updated. Keep ideas comming in, until I decide a winner anyway but by the sounds of some of the ideas that wont be too long!

Thanks for all your help.

Tammy

__________________
God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done

You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt

When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out

You will always be your child's favorite toy

Okay! Although it's sometimes tempting to leave the odd thing out, the backbone flavours of this are the star anise (remove it when cooked); the lime, fish sauce (doesn't taste fishy); and the coriander. Like I said in earlier post - wind any ingredient up or down according to your family's tastes, but I would try to get all the core flavours in.

Re: the coconut milk - buy two 400 g tins and spoon off the thick cream into a bowl; use the thin milk towards the bottom to make spice paste


Spice Paste (sounds like lots of things but just all popped into the food processor):

Onion
2 x garlic cloves
large thumb of fresh ginger
green chili - maybe just a little to start with
few tablespoons of thin coconut milk to create liquid consistency
1 -2 tablespoons of garam masala or medium curry powder
tsp ground coriander
tsp ground cumin
zest of lime if you've got time (and a zester!)

other ingredients:

chicken (or just veg; or raw prawns - whatever)
corn oil
star anise
2 cloves
2 x tins coconut milk
2 sweet potatoes
peas - fresh or frozen
2 limes
fish sauce
black pepper
coriander
basil

1. Whiz spice paste ingredients in small bowl of processor, adding thin coconut milk to make slushy, stir in chicken pieces, coating everything; cover and leave in fridge.

2. When home, heat corn/sunflower oil; add chicken and all of marinade to saucepan. Don't worry about "colouring" chicken - doesn't matter. Just cook on medium heat, stirring, until everything is aromatic and the spices start to sing - about 3 minutes.

3. add remaining coconut milk; star anise (whole) and 2 cloves. Add cubed sweet potato (skin on or off) and peas. Grind in some black pepper - no salt at this stage; bring to light boil then simmer for 20 minutes.

4. The chicken and potato will cook through in about 20 minutes. If the sauce is thick, add water. Then add a little salt, a little sugar, and the juice of two limes. Add the fish sauce - you should aim for around 2 tablespoons, but maybe start your kiddies off on slightly less - depends how they take to it!

5. Roughly chop two large handfuls of coriander and basil and stir everything together, check seasoning, remove star anise, or wait for someone to find it on their plate, and serve with jasmine rice (best), or basmati (almost as good) or noodles (still pretty good!).

Hope they like it. I don't write recipes down much so if I made a glaring omission - apologies! x

p.s. find out where your local Chinese supermarket is - most sell wholesale AND operate as a little supermarket too. The difference in price is ridiculous - get all your spices, fish sauce, coconut milk and fresh produce there if you can. My local one is madly cheap, and I've discovered the most amazing things there too - tofu freshly made every day; and awesome veggies. This is a cheap dish once you've got your spices sorted.

p.p.s thinly sliced spring onions scattered on top is a great final touch.

what about home made pizza? you can always add veggies finely chopped to the tomato base, get the kids to make them and think of a design. you could use french bread, naan bread, pizza dough, bagels even. potato boats, microwave a potato, chop in half, remove the potato and mash up with anything you want, top with cheese, veggies or whatever you like, when cooked put a cocktail stick in with slices of cucumber/lettuce for the sail.