Meal planning Monday

I usually plan our meals anyway but by taking part in Meal Planning Monday maybe I’ll be more encouraged to do it at the start of the week. It also happens to be a Meat-Free Monday this week, never one to pass up any bandwagons to jump on! I won’t post it every week but if anyone has a recipe they swear by please let me know. I’m trying to use more of my cookbooks but this week is looking quite busy so I think it’ll be back to old staples.

Monday – Falafel, couscous, pittas, tzatziki and salad
Tuesday – Spaghetti bolognaise
Wednesday – Chunky veg soup with bread
Thursday – Keema curry and wedges
Friday – at the in-laws
Saturday – at the in-laws
Sunday – Naan/pitta pizzas

I’m trying to lose a few pounds that have crept on over the past few months and I find planning healthy meals really works. It’s the socialising/visiting other people bit where it all falls down. My mum always has pudding when we go there and when we visit my in-laws they seem to have a constant stream of crisps on the go. I don’t like to go on about losing weight so I just eat whatever they make for meals but my willpower isn’t very good when the snacks come out. It’s also not so easy when we live quite far away from both sets of parents so we usually go for at least one night, if not two, usually involving a takeaway or meal out.

Also alcohol is a big weight gain culprit for me but it’s hard to say no to a drink without people thinking you’re pregnant! Curse of being in your 30’s I suppose :) Hopefully I can manage to shift this spare tyre by eating healthily and going to the gym during the week, but it's not the end of the world if it takes a while - you've got to live a little.

TRAY BAKE - THE SEQUEL...

So, not content with my baking success of last week I decided to make another tray bake for going away this weekend. I had a vague Malteser cake recipe in my head but got home to realise that I'd mistaken white chocolate for milk and that the only Digestives I had were chocolate ones. Not one to be beaten by chocolate, and with the mantra 'mixing chocolate and buttter, how wrong can it go??' ringing in my ears, I forged ahead anyway.

Turns out melting white chocolate and butter together can go a bit wrong, luckily I rescued it with a bit of help from the hubby. And what was meant to be a Malteser tray bake turned into a tray bake/fudge hybrid that tasted so good and was so addictive!

300g white chocolate

125g butter

3 tbsp golden syrup

200g (ish) Maltesers

200g (ish) milk chocolate digestives

Melt the butter, syrup and white chocolate together in a pan. Mine split and looked like it had curdled. I took it off the heat and beat it for about 10 minutes until it came together again. It still looked a bit dodgy but worked out fine in the end.

Mix in the Maltesers and the crushed up chocolate digestives. My husband crushed these and was a bit over-enthusiastic with the rolling pin. A lot of them were very crumbled but I think this actually helped the texture so I would recommend a mixture of very crushed and chunks of biscuit.

Spread the mixture out in a foil-lined tin. I use an Ikea glass oven dish. Sprinkle edible stars on top even though it looks a bit ugly (hubby likened it to stovies!) Surely edible stars make everything look good??

Chill in the fridge until set then cut up into small pieces. Devour over a weekend.

NIGELLA'S SWEET AND SALTY BARS

On Wednesday I baked for the first time in ages. I say baked but it was more like melting and mixing. I like tray bakes though and they're are pretty hard to mess up. As long as you like all the stuff you're chucking into the molten chocolate, butter and syrup mixture then chances are you'll like the finished product.

I had 2 recipes in mind, one I'd made before (and also devoured at Kate's party) and one I hadn't, both from the queen of food porn, Nigella. I went with the new one, Nigella's Sweet and Salty Bars from her book Kitchen.

It doesn't look that pretty but it tasted amazing! I love the combination of sweet and salty, very moreish and so easy.

Ingredients

• 100g dark chocolate (original recipe says 200g but I prefer a milkier chocolate taste)
• 200g milk chocolate (original recipe says 100g)
• 125g butter
• 3 Tbsp golden syrup
• 200g salted peanuts (original recipe says 250g but I didn't have enough)
• 4 x 40g Crunchie bars
• Glittery edible stars

Method

1. Line a tin with foil. Break chocolate into pieces, add to a saucapan with the butter and syrup. Melt on a low heat and stir until melted.
2. Tip the peanuts into a bowl, and crush the Crunchie bars. I hit mine with a rolling pin and may have made them a bit more like Crunchie dust!
3. Take the melted chocolate mixture off the heat and stir in the peanuts and crushed Crunchie bars, then tip straight into the cake tin or foil tray. Smooth the top of the mixture as much as you can.
4. Sprinkle glittery stars on top. Optional but it makes them look prettier!
5. Put into the fridge for about 4 hours and, once set, cut into slices. I actually cut mine up after about 2 hours when it was still a bit soft.
6. Don't try to eat one piece of this, it's addictive!

The Nigella website says the UK version of the recipe isn't online buy they link to the US version of the recipe (weights in cups) here.

What have you got planned for this weekend? I'm off to Millport with my cousin but will try to fit in a run or two to work off this cake!