{Meal Planning Monday}

At Home with Mrs M

Fish is the Dish

Joining in again this week with At Home with Mrs M for her Meal Planning Monday blog linky.

Here's the menu for this week...

Monday (just me) - chicken salad

Tuesday (just me) - smoked mackerel pate on toast

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Wednesday - ham & cheese omelette with baked beans

Thursday - fish pie and broccoli

Friday - pasta & meatballs

Saturday  - sausage casserole (kids) and take out for me

Sunday (just me) - soup or salad

{Recipe: Orange Double Chocolate Cheesecakes}

The last recipe I shared was for a blueberry cheesecake, but whilst browsing my cookery books for #RecipeSwap I came across this amazing recipe for individual Orange Double Chocolate Cheesecakes that I just had to share! The recipe below makes 6. It's a little bit of a faff - I remember using countless bowls and making a bit of a mess, but it was worth it!!

{Ingredients}

25g butter
40g orange flavoured plain chocolate
125g digestive biscuits, crushed
150g good white chocolate
250g tub mascarpone
zest of 1 orange
1tsp orange juice
142mL carton double cream
3tbsp good strawberry jam, warmed and sieved
100g summer fruits (cherries, strawberries, raspberries, redcurrents)

{Method}

Line a 6-hole muffin tin with muffin cases.

Put the butter and plain chocolate into a pan and heat gently until melted.

Remove from the heat and stir in digestive biscuits.

Divide the mixture between the cases and press down lightly with the back of a teaspoon. Chill.

Break white chocolate into a heatproof bowl and rest over a pan of simmering water.

Remove from heat and stir until melted. Allow to cool slightly.

In a separate bowl, beat the mascarpone with orange zest.

In another bowl, whip the cream into soft peaks.

Mix the white chocolate into the mascarpone, then gently fold in the cream.

Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases and chill for 1.5 to 2 hours until just firm.

To serve, carefully peel the muffin cases away from the cheesecakes and transfer to a plate.

Mix the orange juice with the jam.

Decorate the cheesecakes with the summer fruits and drizzle with a little of the warmed jam glaze.


In Blue Peter style, here's one I made earlier...

(I had a shop bought strawberry sauce in my fridge which I used to decorate the cheesecakes instead of making the glaze described above)

I'm also joining in again with Mrs M's Recipe Link Party for March.

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{Meal Planning Monday}

Here is a very quick post for Mrs M's Meal Planning Monday...

I'm so busy right now trying to get my house ready for going on the market. I've spent the whole of this evening painting and cleaning!! The agent is coming on Thursday to photograph the house and the home report is also being done on Thursday - no pressure!!

Anyway, here's the meal plan for this week:

Monday (just me) - I had chicken salad

Tuesday (just me) - chicken salad again - leftovers from tonight

Wednesday - baked potatoes with beans and cheese

Thursday - might try cooking a ham in the slow cooker! Ham, roast potatoes & veg

Friday - stir fried rice with ham (leftovers from Thurs) and veg (peas, pepper, mushroom)

Saturday - take out (having friends over!)

Sunday (just me) - something low fat... maybe a grilled chicken kebab?  

If you're interested...here's how the house is looking at the minute... I'm getting there and I'm confident that by Thursday I'll be ready!

What was the dining room... now a tidy playroom!

My kitchen, which I now love! I'll be sad to say goodbye :-(

{Recipe: Blueberry Cheesecake}

Last night I had five of my mum friends round for a 'bring a plate' night. I made a Mediterranean Vegetable Pastry Ring (recipe here) whilst the others brought chilli nachos, roasted vegetable pasta, a selection of cured meats, cheese, homemade chocolate truffles and chocolate pots and the most amazing blueberry cheesecake.

During preparation!

The finished article!

The spread... yum!!

And again!

The star of the show... the cheesecake with blueberry sauce!

My small* portion

I've asked Heather to share her recipe with me, so here it is - thanks Heather...

Blueberry Cheesecake

{Ingredients}

450g blueberries
200g caster sugar
200mL water
1tbsp cornflour

For the base:
250g digestive biscuits
85g  butter, melted

For the filling:
300mL double cream
100g caster sugar
500g cream cheese
zest of 1 lemon
1tsp vanilla extract


{Method}

Put 200g of the (softer) blueberries into a pan with 200g sugar and 175mL water.

Heat slowly to dissolve the sugar, then simmer for 7-8 minutes.

Mix the cornflour with the remaining 25mL water and stir into the mixture. Simmer, stirring for 2-3 minutes.

Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing the berries into the sieve to extract as much juice as possible. Leave to cool.

Line a 20cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper. Crush the biscuits in a food processor to coarse crumbs.

Mix with the melted butter, then pack into the cake tin to make the base, pressing it down with the back of a spoon.

Whip the cream and 100g caster sugar until stiff.

In another bowl, beat the cream cheese to soften, then fold in the cream along with the lemon zest and vanilla extract.

Lightly fold through half of the blueberry syrup to create a rippled effect.

Spoon this filling onto the base, then place in the fridge for 2-3 hours until firm.

Mix the rest of the fruit with the remaining syrup.

To unmould the cheesecake, run a hot knife around the edge and then release the side of the tin and slide the cheesecake onto a board.

Cut into slices and serve each one topped with a generous spoonful of blueberry sauce.

*I keep telling myself that it goes towards my five a day, and the portion I had last night (along with the leftovers today!) doesn't count!! ;-)

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{Meal Planning Monday...*cough cough*}

So, I've decided as one of my resolutions that I want to get more organised, and in particular I want to make an effort to plan my meals. What better way to ensure I do this, than to join in with Mrs M's Meal Planning Monday blog hop (although I do realise that today is in fact Tuesday, and I've already had my evening meal tonight, which leaves just 5 days of meal planning!!).

I'm hoping that by joining in with this blog hop I'll get some more inspiration for family friendly meals, as my efforts in the kitchen lately have been pretty appalling to say the least.

In order for this meal plan to be effective, I'm going to have to hit the supermarket tomorrow at some point to stock up on supplies. I'm feeling motivated... let's see how long it lasts!

Wednesday - meatballs with rice (just watched a Jamie's 15-minute meals episode on the Sky+ that featured this recipe although I doubt the kids will eat celeriac rice, so we'll just have plain rice I reckon)

Thursday - chicken, leek and basil pesto pasta

Friday - parmesan chicken with baked beans (and veg of some sort, but this will probably be ignored by the kiddies!)

Saturday - something from the freezer... I think I still have some sausage casserole or Bolognese sauce in there... failing that then we might get some take out

Sunday (just me) - right now I'm fancying some Gordon Ramsay minced pork noodles (@the_grey_house - if only we could find the recipe!!) 

Crispy parmesan chicken

Hop on over to Mrs M's blog to see what everyone else is cooking this week and I also have a food board on Pinterest where I will start pinning more recipes and ideas.