Pot roast mutton shoulder

It is roast lamb week this week, as I cycle between chicken, beef, pork then lamb. However, Abel and Cole had mutton joints available for roasting so I thought why not try it? The reviews made it clear you could end up with a shoulder joint which had less meat than the leg, but I thought I’ll try it and see. If it isn’t any good, I just won’t have it again.

So, was it any good? I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t have lunch because we had a big breakfast, so I was definitely hungry, but it was DELICIOUS! I used this recipe exchanging thyme for rosemary which I had in the garden and adding some golden beetroot that we got in the box this week. As promised, it fell off the bone and while there was a fair amount of fat, there was definitely enough meat for the three of us. Yummo! The meat was very tender and the onions were simply sublime. Would do again.

Stuffed pattypan squash

Something about autumn just appeals to me when it comes to trying new recipes. It also helps when you get pattypan squash in the veg box that are about ten times bigger than expected. If you don’t believe me, see the first photo I’ve published in years below. So instead of cutting them up and stewing or putting them into a curry, I decided to stuff them instead.

I looked for some recipes and found this one, which used a Mexican cheese I can’t pronounce let alone possessed, so I decided to use feta instead. The recipe used kale. I had cavolo nero in the fridge, so that got pressed into service instead. I also added some red pepper. Cos why not. I decided to cook the pepper, cavolo nero, red pepper with onion and garlic, let it cool and then added the feta. Result pre cooked was

And post cooked, with the basil:

We had them with roast pork belly, homemade apple sauce and sweet potato wedges. We would also have had the crackling but it didn’t roast well and got burnt under the griller. The shards I managed to save were great. I’ve also got enough left over squash, stuffing, sweet potato, pork and apple sauce for two lunches tomorrow.

New Year’s stew

After our normal roast rib of beef on New Year’s Eve, we had quite a lot of beef and veg leftover. I roasted potatoes, parsnips and carrots and stir fried shredded Brussels sprouts and leek in olive oil, which was very tasty. We also had apple crumble, made from a mix of Bramleys and other apples to make some room in the fridge with the last of the brandy cream.

So tonight we had beef stew. I cut the beef and roasted veg into bite size pieces. I dry fried the beef, as it had enough fat in it still not to need any added. Then I added the leftover gravy, the roast veg, a can of tomatoes and the Brussels and leeks. Yum. I love leftovers.

My son had some too. It’s taking persistence but he’s eating more variety these days.

Looking forward in 2019…

A slightly less manic year.

2018 was incredibly busy with GDPR work though it had a lot of good points as well. I spoke at a conference in Riga in May and I have published a book, Information Rights for Records Managers. It was an interesting experience, where the writing itself was the part that gave me the most pleasure. However, it was useful to get feedback from the publishers at Facet, and to go through the process of being critiqued and copy edited. My favourite copy editor comment was ‘Is this what you mean?’. Sometimes it was, other times I realised I was not making the sense I had intended to. I’ve never minded being red-penned. No matter how good you are or think you are, in the end writing is about communicating and if you haven’t communicated what you intended it hasn’t worked.

So this year (resolution 1) I will tackle one of the stories in my head and finally get it down. And then find a Beta reader I can trust to tell me what works and what doesn’t.

My other resolutions are to:

(Resolution 2) use the Nerd Fitness Levelling up programme to get eating healthier. I know it starts with calorie counting which is strictly speaking not accurate, but just like my Fitbit is not 100 per cent accurate, both it and calorie counting are indicative. If you don’t let them rule you, but use them to show patterns, you can get out of them what you need which is the general trends of your personal fitness. I’m too old and unfit to get all the way, but I should be able to reach level 7-8. I aim to start after Twelfth Night.

(Resolution 3) grow some vegetables in the veg trug. It’s been built, it just needs filling. We’ll be around more this summer and the book is finished, so I’ve no excuse.

(Resolution 4) read Cicero’s philosophical works. I can’t do Latin, but can do translations. I managed to keep my average number of books read at 50 in 2018, and plan to do the same this year.

Should be manageable. One thing I will continue to do is bullet journaling which I started when we were over in Melbourne in August. I’ve found that very useful in remembering things I have to do and it has made me more productive.

And I will be keeping track of things via this blog so that I manage more than three entries in a year.

Reasons for blogging part 1

Without putting any effort into this blog since the New Year and with 2019 almost upon us, I’ve found a reason to keep this blog going.

We got some whiting in the last meat and fish box. I also discovered some sweet potato wedges in the freezer so fish and chips it is! I remembered doing some coconut and lime whiting in the past but could not find the recipe anywhere though I distinctly remember there being one. I searched online in vain then thought: what about the blog? And hey presto there it was!

So I know now what I’m doing for dinner, which is useful as it needs to be done within the next hour. Blogs – more useful than you think they will be.

Food Principles

Woohoo, two blog posts in almost two days!

Last night being New Year’s Eve, we had roast beef, ratatouille and roast potatoes, with possibly the best gravy I’ve ever made. The ratatouille veg had been hanging around for a while, but aside from the aubergine which needed a bit of trimming, most of it had stayed in good nick. The beef itself was fore rib and aside from a bit of mustard powder, salt and pepper went into the oven and came out a couple of hours later absolutely beautiful. We finished with a blood orange syrup steamed pudding. I love blood oranges and the steamed pudding is a great way of using them. We had a leftover pot of brandy cream so had that with it. Tonight will be leftovers, though I may also roast some carrots and parsnips as the potatoes were all eaten and we have enough carrots and parsnips to sink a battleship.

Proper beef just has a beautiful taste and is the main reason I will never go vegetarian. I also don’t believe that you can go completely cruelty free when it comes to eating. I read the Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith a few years back, which made it clear death (of animals, including insects) was always going to occur in anything grown for human food. I also read Death by Food Pyramid by Denise Minger, which showed through her own example that veganism is not always as healthy as it proclaims itself. So my food principles are:

• Human beings are omnivores for a reason – vegetable, animal and fungi all provide nutrients we need. Missing out one group means a lot of planning is needed and still may cause a gap in nutrients.
• Vegetables are obviously good for you in as much of a variety of colours but can’t provide all the nutrients we need. However, they should form the focus and basis of as many meals as possible.
• Animals provide a very concentrated set of nutrients, particularly protein. However, it is best to use free range and well treated animals to ensure the best meat and to use the whole of the animal as much as possible. If an animal has to die for my meal, I will make sure it wasn’t a waste. So a lot of the stock I use is homemade from animal carcasses. I try to keep any fat that I can to use for roasting or frying.
• Don’t forget fish, as this has particular nutrients like omega 3 fatty acids. Even if white fish on its own is the most boring food ever devised. You can still curry and spice it in other ways.
• Fermented foods also help to provide a healthy meal, so try to eat more of them.
• Limit sugar and processed foods as much as possible. They provide energy, but not nutrition. However, limiting them completely is also unhealthy. As long as such foods are part of celebration and not crowding out other food, then it should be included in our diet.

This is my main reason for staying with Abel and Cole as we may eat less meat, but the meat and fish box means we have some weekly fish and the meat we do eat is well treated. When we have anything with bones, it goes into stock. We get plenty of veg, particularly with the soup and salad boxes. We haven’t been so good at limiting the processed stuff over Christmas, who does, but as always, I’m looking forward to January for its focus on eating more healthy eating after December’s excess.

2018 resolutions

Um, okay so it has been longer than I realised. It has been a very busy year in 2017. Preparations for the General Data Protection Regulation took over in June and I’ve also been focused on drafting the book for handing in in March 2018. Plus all the normal activities has meant that I’ve completely neglected the blog. December was when my body decided to yell ‘Stop!’ and I went through a broken coccyx from a fall on the stairs, flu and food poisoning on Christmas Eve. Christmas itself went well, but I didn’t eat my usual on the day.

But new year, time to review and plan for the next year. January is also going to be a busy month. We have the Information Commissioner’s Office coming for a friendly (hopefully) visit mid month. And it is Data Privacy Day on 28th January – put it in your calendars! – and Williams’s birthday on the 14th. So I plan on taking a breath just before February starts but spend that month really going through my reviewer’s comments and corrections. Then mum comes over in early March.

I have been cooking though. Lots of soups as we’ve been trying to keep to Monday and Friday as a way of eating more veg. It also means that we’ve had some smaller meals, which are more appropriate to our appetites these days. The Christmas period has been lovely, but we have had big meals most nights. Including the turkey and ham pot pie we are finishing off tonight which included the leftover turkey, ham, stuffing, red cabbage, carrots and parsnips. First time I have used the puff pastry sheets from JusRol, it worked quite well. I also had enough pie mix leftover to freeze for another day AND a serve of turkey chilli, plus two large bowls of turkey stock which will be used in soups and stews over the next week or so.

I have been using a pad that Abel and Cole provided for meal planning and will use it until it runs out, at which might I will probably return to doing it here. But I think cooking and meal planning has now become a habit. I don’t need to include it in my resolutions for this year. But I do want to concentrate on the following.

1) walking and exercise – this will consist of one monthly walk with the family, getting to my step target 6 days a week and at least half on the seventh day and doing the 30day challenge in Fit and Well magazine. I managed to get through two before falling on my bottom, so I’ll start again in January.

2) read 50 books – I’ve only managed 41 this year versus 59 in 2016 but my husband pointed out that this was an average of 50. So I want to keep the average at 50.

There might be a third, but that will be related to managing stress, so I don’t end up falling over in December the way I did this year. And the year before. And the year before that. So the first step will be to recognise when the falling over is starting and determining what to do about it.

Onwards and upwards!

Salad box and life update

The last salad box had another two good salads. The first was a chopped salad of cucumber, tomatoe, red onion, red pepper and halloumi. I added a bit of chorizo to add some more protein. The tahini was hard to whisk – possibly shouldn’t have kept it in the fridge.

The other salad was called a piñata salad. It included grated Beetroot and carrot mixed with fried cumin seeds and orange, with half an avocado each. We also had some pork steaks with it the first night. It made enough for two meals. 

I’ve finally worked out what I was doing wrong with fair maiden weaves at shuttle in my tai chi practice. So now I face the right way when I come out of it. 

The book is going on, I’ve got ahead of my schedule, but I’m waiting for comments on the first chapter, which I plan on feeding into the second, as they both covered similar territory, FoI and the Environmental Information Regulation. 

My shoulders have been giving me a lot of trouble. I need to find a better way of managing stress. Chocolate is great but brings other problems. I need to include more exercise, but I’m worried about the effect it could have on my shoulder. And knees. But I need to do something more. I’m finding in my forties that exercise is no longer an added extra but essential maintenance. I do need to get a better handle on my eating. Not just for weight, but for mood. We had a pizza on Friday night and I was in a right mood all Saturday. I don’t want to be that snappy. We have plenty of fruit around so if I need something sweet, it’s there.

Three salad boxes

Abel and Cole moved into salad territory for the spring and summer. So, as we’d enjoyed the soups, I thought we’d try the salads as well. You get two salads versus three soups and we’ve had the ones with added protein as meals in themselves and used the others as side salads. 

The first box was a good harbinger of what was to come.  It started with a curried chickpea salad of red onion, cucumber, red pepper, cherry tomatoes and watercress. We ate this as a meal. The second salad had me at sheep’s cheese, but the toasted buckwheat wasn’t something I had had before. I’d make both again. 

The second box contained a ribbon veg salad. That was supposed to take twenty minutes to do. It took that long just to shave the fennel. It also made a huge amount of salad and I had some for lunch on two days as well. We had pork steaks with it the first time. The other salad was recommended for the tandoori chicken roast we also had and contained lentils, oranges and watercress with Moroccan flavourings. 

The third box we finished tonight. I made the Turkish Shepherd’s salad with crisp flatbreads and my favourite cheese of all time feta, to have with the leftover roast chicken. Which also got feta added to it. Another red onion, cucumber, and tomato salad but with chilli. Very nice and fresh. We had the honey spiced rhubarb and quinoa salad tonight, with the addition of some roast venison and leftover shallots from last nights dinner. Yum.

They are large, but some of them provide a lot of your five, seven, ten or however many it is now a day. We will be continuing to get them. 

Post Easter plan and last soup box review

So we’ve had our last soup box until next Autumn. It was a good box to end on too. The carrot apple and thyme soup had roasted carrot and apple, and served more than 2. The French spring soup, with potato and Dijon mustard in it, did serve two because I put it in our larger bowls. The Moroccan minestrone used bulgar wheat, which I don’t think I’ve had before. Very lemony, so thumbs up from me. We could have all three again.

We had a lovely short trip to Broadstairs in Kent in the past week but the bathroom mirror has made both my husband and I realise we need to do something. So more veg, less takeaways and using fruit and the soy desserts for sweetness rather than chocolates, which will be limited to once a week. And review if more is needed.