This week will be a busy week for us as we get ready for our daughters birthday party on Saturday. To make sure we have plenty of time to get ready on Friday night I have opted to have leftovers from Thursday nights chilli.
My menu plan for the 19 May to the 25 May is as follows:-
Saturday dinner - Spiced salmon with lentils
Sunday lunch - soup (depending on what veg is on offer)
Sunday dinner - Ham, vegetables and Boulangère potatoes
Monday dinner - Leftovers from Sunday lunch
Tuesday dinner - Pizza
Wednesday dinner - Maple and pepper glazed chicken with roasted carrots and mash
Thursday dinner - Quick chilli (special request by my daughter for her birthday!)
Friday dinner - Leftover chilli
For lunches I will be making baked feta and tomato, scrambled eggs, tuna, red onion and white bean salad and sandwiches.
Several of the recipes I have picked this week are low GI recipes. Food that has a low GI helps to keep your blood sugar level steady as the foods take longer to digest. This helps make you feel fuller for longer. I will be trying to incorporate more low GI foods into our diet over the next few weeks, paying special attention to lunches.
Tip - My shopping bill for this week will probably be slightly higher than previous weeks as I will be adding some items to it for my daughters birthday. Next weekend we are planning on having a BBQ at our house, so rather than buy everything in one trip to the supermarket next week, I am hoping to pick up some things this weekend in order to spread the cost slightly. Our butcher has offers on this weekend on pork loins which are lovely cooked on the BBQ, so I will pick up a few of these, marinade them and then freeze them so that they are ready to simply lift out of the freezer and cook next Saturday. Doing this will save me time as well as money.
Showing posts with label Low GI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Low GI. Show all posts
Friday, 18 May 2012
Monday, 30 April 2012
Very quick chicken stew
Dinner tonight was very quick chicken stew from Olive magazine's December 2006 issue. I don't buy Olive magazine but the GoodFood website has some recipes from the magazine on it. I found this recipe when I was looking for a low GI chicken meal on the website.
The stew serves two. As I wanted to have it for dinner on Tuesday night as well I doubled the ingredients. While saving time on preparing dinner tomorrow night, it did take slightly longer than the 30 mins stated to make as there was a lot more in the pot.
I made a few alterations to the recipe. I had chicken breasts in the freezer, so I used four of them instead of the chicken thighs listed in the recipe ingredients. Also, I had now fresh tarragon in. I do have dried tarragon in my cupboard, but rather than use it, I decided to use some parsley as I had bought some for the quinoa (bulghar wheat) tabbouleh and had some leftover.
As I want to have give some of the chicken stew to my baby for dinner tomorrow night, I left the chicken stock cube out of the recipe, just adding boiled water instead. As the chicken and vegetables were going to be cooking in the water I figured that they would flavour it. To be sure that the stew had plenty of flavour without the stock cube, I threw a couple of bay leaves into the pot and seasoned with pepper to add a bit more flavour to the stew. You can buy low salt stock cubes suitable for giving to babies, but I do not have any of these in the house. While the stew tasted ok - it was much better the second night, I think it would have tasted better if I had used chicken or vegetable stock in it. Next time I make it I will use some chicken or vegetable stock that I make myself in advance.
TIP - Anytime I have a roast chicken for dinner, I always boil the bones after the stripping all the meat from it to make stock. I throw in a carrot, celery and an onion (skin on) if I have them in the house. I then pour the stock into some 'Pour and store' bags and put in the freezer for when I need it. Unfortunately I didn't have any in the freezer for this recipe, otherwise I would have used some.
Cost - The chicken breasts were bought at the butchers when it was 12 chicken breasts for €10. I used four chicken breasts in this recipe, so the cost was €3.33. The potatoes were 99 cent, the shallots were 49 cent, the carrots were 50 cent and the peas were 50 cent (another estimate). I have allowed 20 cent for the parsley, bay leaves and pepper. The total cost is €6.01, making the cost per meal 0.005 cent over €3! Not too bad.
The stew serves two. As I wanted to have it for dinner on Tuesday night as well I doubled the ingredients. While saving time on preparing dinner tomorrow night, it did take slightly longer than the 30 mins stated to make as there was a lot more in the pot.
I made a few alterations to the recipe. I had chicken breasts in the freezer, so I used four of them instead of the chicken thighs listed in the recipe ingredients. Also, I had now fresh tarragon in. I do have dried tarragon in my cupboard, but rather than use it, I decided to use some parsley as I had bought some for the quinoa (bulghar wheat) tabbouleh and had some leftover.
As I want to have give some of the chicken stew to my baby for dinner tomorrow night, I left the chicken stock cube out of the recipe, just adding boiled water instead. As the chicken and vegetables were going to be cooking in the water I figured that they would flavour it. To be sure that the stew had plenty of flavour without the stock cube, I threw a couple of bay leaves into the pot and seasoned with pepper to add a bit more flavour to the stew. You can buy low salt stock cubes suitable for giving to babies, but I do not have any of these in the house. While the stew tasted ok - it was much better the second night, I think it would have tasted better if I had used chicken or vegetable stock in it. Next time I make it I will use some chicken or vegetable stock that I make myself in advance.
TIP - Anytime I have a roast chicken for dinner, I always boil the bones after the stripping all the meat from it to make stock. I throw in a carrot, celery and an onion (skin on) if I have them in the house. I then pour the stock into some 'Pour and store' bags and put in the freezer for when I need it. Unfortunately I didn't have any in the freezer for this recipe, otherwise I would have used some.
Cost - The chicken breasts were bought at the butchers when it was 12 chicken breasts for €10. I used four chicken breasts in this recipe, so the cost was €3.33. The potatoes were 99 cent, the shallots were 49 cent, the carrots were 50 cent and the peas were 50 cent (another estimate). I have allowed 20 cent for the parsley, bay leaves and pepper. The total cost is €6.01, making the cost per meal 0.005 cent over €3! Not too bad.
Sunday, 29 April 2012
Quinoa tabbouleh, minus the quinoa!
Just in case I am not keen on the bulghar wheat version I halved the ingredients and made enough to serve 2 people, so it will do me for lunch on Monday and Tuesday. If I like it I will make more on Tuesday night for lunch on Wednesday and Thursday. If I'm not keen on the Bulgar wheat I'll use cous cous instead when I make it on Tuesday night.
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| Qunioa tabbouleh, from GoodFood magazine |
If you looked at my meal planner for the next week you may have noticed that one of the things I was planning to make for lunches was Quinoa tabbouleh. Unfortunately I never checked to make sure I had quinoa in the house before going to do the grocery shop, so I bought all the ingredients and when I went to make it tonight for lunch at work over the next few days, I discovered that I have no quinoa in any of my cupboards. Gutted!! I assume I had some in as I usually do, so it just goes to show that you should always check your cupboards thoroughly before going to get the groceries.
As I had all the ingredients in I decided to check to see which ingredients I had that might make a suitable substitute. I decided to use Bulgar wheat in place of the quinoa, so I guess you could say I actually made Bulgar wheat tabbouleh. I'll find out tomorrow if it tastes as good as the quinoa tabbouleh!
Saturday, 28 April 2012
Marinated lamb steaks with barley salad
So, tonight after the kids went to bed I made the marinated lamb steaks with barley salad from the June 2010 issue of the GoodFood magazine. It was, quite frankly, delicious! My taste buds are still in heaven! This recipe is definitely going on the list of dinners that we will be having again (and again and again and again!!).
After trying it my husband confessed that he was a bit dubious about the barely salad but that it tasted much better than he expected. As well as making a nice change from potatoes as a side, the barley salad is has a low GI, meaning that you'll feel fuller for longer. According to the GoodFood magazine the salad gives 2 of your 5-a-day, making it a healthy choice for dinner.
I made a few alterations to the recipe as I was going along. The first change was forced upon me when I went to by the meat. My butcher didn't have any lamb steaks, but he did have some lovely looking boneless lamb chops which looked quite thick so I decided that they would do the trick. The second change was when I was making the marinade - it called for a pinch of dried chilli and I added a bit more than a pinch as we like our food spicy.
The biggest changes I made were to the barley salad. When I did the grocery shopping earlier today there were no frozen broad beans in Dunnes, so I bought soya beans and used these instead. Red onions were on my shopping list but I decided not to bother buying them as 1kg of onions was 29c in Dunnes and I didn't really fancy having a kg of red onions AND and kg of ordinary onions in the house. Although the red onions were on offer in Lidl this weekend, I decided that it was a bit excessive to buy a kg of them just for one recipe. I meant to buy a single red onion, but forgot and only realised when I started making the dinner. So instead of red onion I used two scallions (spring onions). The red onion wasn't to be cooked and I didn't think that a raw onion would taste nice in the salad, whereas I was confident that the scallions would be fine.
The recipe suggests marinating the lamb for up to two hours if you have the time. My lamb was marinated for 40 minutes and tasted fine.
TIP - If I was to decide to make this recipe mid-week I would probably buy the meat at the weekend, make up the marinade, rub into the meat and freeze. Then I would lift it out the night before making the meal and leave it to defrost and marinate in the fridge. Alternatively I would make up the marinade the night before or in the morning, but for me the first option would save the most time on meal preparation during the week.
Cost - This was a bit more expensive than some meals that I make. The lamb chops that I bought were €5. The soya beans were €1.50, the peas were 50 cent (estimate), the pearl barley was 75 cent, the mint was 50 cent, the lemon was 25 cent and I have allowed 40 cent for the scallions, dried chilli and olive oil. This makes the total €8.90 which makes this my most expensive meal to date.
I would not normally spend so much on one meal for two of us, but a lot of couples spend much more than this on a meal in the restaurant on a Saturday night, so as a one off I don't think it's that bad. In fact, we'd spend more on a takeaway if we were to get one and probably not enjoy it half as much!
After trying it my husband confessed that he was a bit dubious about the barely salad but that it tasted much better than he expected. As well as making a nice change from potatoes as a side, the barley salad is has a low GI, meaning that you'll feel fuller for longer. According to the GoodFood magazine the salad gives 2 of your 5-a-day, making it a healthy choice for dinner.I made a few alterations to the recipe as I was going along. The first change was forced upon me when I went to by the meat. My butcher didn't have any lamb steaks, but he did have some lovely looking boneless lamb chops which looked quite thick so I decided that they would do the trick. The second change was when I was making the marinade - it called for a pinch of dried chilli and I added a bit more than a pinch as we like our food spicy.
The biggest changes I made were to the barley salad. When I did the grocery shopping earlier today there were no frozen broad beans in Dunnes, so I bought soya beans and used these instead. Red onions were on my shopping list but I decided not to bother buying them as 1kg of onions was 29c in Dunnes and I didn't really fancy having a kg of red onions AND and kg of ordinary onions in the house. Although the red onions were on offer in Lidl this weekend, I decided that it was a bit excessive to buy a kg of them just for one recipe. I meant to buy a single red onion, but forgot and only realised when I started making the dinner. So instead of red onion I used two scallions (spring onions). The red onion wasn't to be cooked and I didn't think that a raw onion would taste nice in the salad, whereas I was confident that the scallions would be fine.
The recipe suggests marinating the lamb for up to two hours if you have the time. My lamb was marinated for 40 minutes and tasted fine.
TIP - If I was to decide to make this recipe mid-week I would probably buy the meat at the weekend, make up the marinade, rub into the meat and freeze. Then I would lift it out the night before making the meal and leave it to defrost and marinate in the fridge. Alternatively I would make up the marinade the night before or in the morning, but for me the first option would save the most time on meal preparation during the week.
Cost - This was a bit more expensive than some meals that I make. The lamb chops that I bought were €5. The soya beans were €1.50, the peas were 50 cent (estimate), the pearl barley was 75 cent, the mint was 50 cent, the lemon was 25 cent and I have allowed 40 cent for the scallions, dried chilli and olive oil. This makes the total €8.90 which makes this my most expensive meal to date.
I would not normally spend so much on one meal for two of us, but a lot of couples spend much more than this on a meal in the restaurant on a Saturday night, so as a one off I don't think it's that bad. In fact, we'd spend more on a takeaway if we were to get one and probably not enjoy it half as much!
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