A week in my kitchen

28 August 2018
I'm always interested to read about what others are up to in their day-to-day lives. Not in a 'look at me' social media way but more a 'I'm not the only one' kind of way. When I first started on my simple living and values based eating journey it felt a little lonely. Most of my friends were living a very different lifestyle. I don't mind being different, but it's also nice to connect to people that share your interests and some experiences. Thankfully there's the internet!

So, I thought I'd share a week in my kitchen to give a snap shot of what goes on around here and a few of the things we eat.

Hommus and sauteed chard on toast - a quick and tasty lunch.


Monday

Meal planning day and shopping if needed. Picked up some fruit, veg, milk and eggs.
Lunch: fried egg, sauteed chard and tomato chutney on sourdough toast.
Dinner: Girls had fried eggs on toast and we had Mexican stuffed rolls to use up some sad bread rolls
While the oven was on for dinner I cooked some jam muesli balls  for snacks and a chocolate pudding for Tuesday night dessert.

Jam (actually marmalade this time) muesli balls

Tuesday

Lunch: hommus and sauteed chard on sourdough.
Dinner: We had friends over for dinner so four extra mouths to feed. I made a lamb rogan josh in the slow cooker, red lentil dahl on the stove top and grabbed leftover cauliflower curry out from the freezer. Served with rice, poppadoms, yoghurt and apricot chutney. Followed by Chocolate Pudding and homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert (which I made in the afternoon). Ended up having a couple of lunch serves of Indian for leftovers and enough dahl and lamb curry to go for another dinner - off to the freezer they went.

Chocolate self saucing pudding.

Wednesday

Largely a day off in the kitchen today. Made a sourdough sponge for prepping bread on Thursday.
Lunch: leftover Indian curry.
Dinner: I had planned to make congee in the slow cooker but didn't quite get organised. The girls had leftover dahl and rice and we had an Italian sausage and vegie stew from the freezer with rice.

Thursday

Mixed up my bread doughs for baking on Friday.
Lunch: a bowl of muesli and milk. We were out of leftovers and bread today so I kept things supper simple.
Dinner: Ham Congee - a new recipe I tried out. I'll do a post about this one later this week. A delicious, comforting, simple and frugal dish. Everyone in the family enjoyed this one.

A delicious bowl of congee.

Friday

Big cook up day today. I baked an everyday sourdough loaf, 3 small fruit loaves, bagels and pizzas. For snacks I made chocolate muffins and a chocolate cake. The muffins were kept out for the weekend and the cake went in the freezer with half the pizza for another time. I also stocked up my homemade crackers while the oven was on.
Lunch: leftover congee.
Dinner: Girls had some of the pizza. We had crumbed lamb cutlets, mash and vegies - my dad was in town for a visit and he likes his meat and veg.

Saturday

Dinner: Fish and Octopus grilled on the webber. With my dad in town we grabbed some seafood from the markets to have for dinner. He lives in the centre of NSW so doesn't get much fresh seafood! Kept it simple and served with homemade chips baked in the oven.
While the oven was on I baked a lemon meringue pie for my dad - his favourite.

Sunday:

Lemon meringue pie for morning tea with my dad for his birthday.
Lunch: Out for lunch for dad's birthday to a local pub.
Dinner: Girls had the last of the pizza and we had spaghetti on toast. Normally we eat together on the weekends but after a big lunch we weren't hungry until later and just kept things simple. Spaghetti on toast is a little bit of a strange thing really but because I grew up having it, it kind of holds a nostalgic place in my food repertoire. It's also the perfect easy meal around here!

And that wraps up a week in my kitchen.

What happened in your kitchen last week?
Any new recipes or experiments?

16 comments

  1. Hmm I have never heard of congee. Sounds interesting.

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    1. yes, it's a little interesting. Recipe post coming up tomorrow if you're interested enough to give it a go Chel.

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  2. Leftover pasta on toast is my definition of divine! I do like carbs with my carbs ... The tinned variety, alongside baked beans, was a pretty fancy jaffle filling in the 70s.

    You've been pretty busy! Last week's out-of-the-ordinary for me was two batches of marmalade and strawberry jam. I also did a self-saucing pudding for dinner with friends - blood orange. The citrus in the shops is fantastic at the moment (sadly no mini home orchard attached to my tiny apartment).

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    1. Yes, carbs on carbs is a winner in my book too :)
      Good citrus at the moment is making me miss my prolific orange tree in Adelaide. Last year I made a double marmalade batch in anticipation (commiseration??) of the loss of the tree so still making my way through that!

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  3. My first visit to your blog...I also like to see what "other' people are up to...you have cooked up a storm !! I've never had congee, look forward to seeing your post about it :-)

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    1. Thanks for dropping in and taking the time to comment Suzie. Congee recipe scheduled to drop tomorrow - let me know how it goes if you give it a whirl.
      Cheers,
      Laura

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  4. Mmm your Tuesday dinner sounds absolutely delicious.
    Actually all your meals sound delicious. :)

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  5. Hi Laura,
    your week in the kitchen has been very productive and everything sounds delicious. You are very organised to make the most of your oven being on by cooking multiple dishes. Just reading about all your baking on Friday makes me feel exhausted. How do you manage to do that with two young girls?
    My week in the kitchen produced -
    2 loaves of Rye & Caraway Sourdough
    2 loaves of Fruit & Spice Sourdough
    Banana & Walnut Bread
    Apple & Rhubarb Slice
    Meatball Lasagna
    Butter Chicken
    Greek Lamb Kebabs in Home-made Flatbread
    2 batches of bagels (1 white and the other spelt. Thank you for your post on bagels. They are amazing and now I won't be buying any from the shops).
    I really like this post Laura. Perhaps you could do this regularly. It is interesting reading about what you are making and it provides ideas for your readers too.
    Cheers, Maria from Adelaide.

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    Replies
    1. Hey Maria, Sounds like your week has also been very productive in the kitchen. I like the sound of rye & caraway sourdough. A friend gave me some rye flour she wasn't using so I might just have to give that a try - what ratio of rye to white do you use?
      It's a bit of an orchestration to bake around the girls. Friday was about 4 hours of baking while also distracting the girls with stories and dinner - luckily hubby was home in time to take them off my hands for bath etc. Tonight it was all a bit much so i waited until they were in bed - luckily sourdough is forgiving if I leave it on the bench for an extra hour (or 5!).
      Thanks for the feedback on the post. I'm definitely happy to add this in regularly.
      Cheers,
      Laura

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  6. Hi Laura,
    for 2 loaves of Rye & Caraway Sourdough I use-:
    300g starter
    700g bread flour
    300g rye flour
    600g water
    20g salt
    1tbs caraway seeds
    Hope you enjoy this bread as much as we do. We really like it toasted and then spread with butter and cream cheese. A pastrami or corned beef sandwich with dill pickles, mayonnaise or coleslaw (or potato salad -my son's favourite) and Swiss cheese is great made with this bread.
    Regards, Maria from Adelaide.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Maria - looking forward to trying this one out. Sounds perfect for corned beef! Cheers, Laura

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  7. Oh, lemon meringue pie. I can't remember the last time I had that. I wonder if I have the ingredients here to make one for our Fathers' Day dinner tonight?? Will have to check immediately ... (hang on, just off to the fridge and pantry and fruit bowl)...hooray, there is so pie it shall be! It is very dangerous reading such delicious blogs!! Meg:)

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    1. Well, that was fortuitous that you had things on hand - enjoy Meg.

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  8. Hey Laura, thanks for sharing this insight into your family's meals for the week. Like you, I love to see what other 'real' families are doing (and eating!) It certainly helps to make you feel like you're not doing your real food thing in a vacuum. Great idea for a blog post! Cheers, Sally at One Family, One Planet blog

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    1. Thanks Sally, I think i'll make it a regular feature - maybe once a month. It's nice to see what changes with the seasons too I think.
      Cheers,
      Laura

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