Meals of the Week, November 10th - November 16th 2024

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I am determined that I am going to eat healthy and balanced meals despite now living on my own for the first time in my life. I have gone from cooking for my parents and siblings to cooking for a family, a variety of husbands and now at the age of 69 I find myself having to adapt again to the smallest family I have ever cooked for, one person!

As cooks I think we go through different stages in our lives.  I started cooking for my parents and siblings when I was a young teenager and my mother went out to work fulltime. I probably wasn’t very good then. I mostly just reheated things my mother had already prepared, but I gained experience and I learned.

One of my first jobs away from home was as a pastry chef in a big hotel. I learned a lot at that job, let me tell you, but it was fun, and it was exciting. I was responsible for all of the appetizers, salads and desserts.

I have gone through the years, cooking at home, cooking for my large family, cooking for a couple of empty nesters, cooking for an American family and their guests on a Manor Estate (fancy schmancy) and now here I am cooking for just me most of the time. 

I love to cook. I love to eat and I have vowed to never be that person who subsists on takeaways, frozen dinners or tin cans.  I try each week to cook myself fairly healthy, well-balanced meals that I know I am going to enjoy. I also try to keep things within my budget as much as possible and to cut down waste wherever I can. Hence smaller meals and portions.

Most Sundays I do eat with my sister, brother-in-law and father, so I will either go to their place for dinner or they will come here.  And usually on Wednesday nights I enjoy a supper with my dad.  Sometimes we will eat out or sometimes he will come here and let me treat him to one of my home-cooked meals. You just cannot beat a delicious home-cooked meal.

I usually eat my big meal of the day at noon, unless I am eating with others.  Breakfast lately has been a delicious Protein Shake (trying to get in more vitamins and protein) and later in the day for my “supper” I will have a salad, or a sandwich, some toast, or maybe some cereal. I just don’t want to eat anything that is going to lay heavy on my stomach when I go to bed, so light evening meals/suppers are the order of the day.

I am trying my hardest not to pick at things through the day. I sometimes tend to be a grazer and so having my big meal at noon, or early in the afternoon serves me well.

I hope you will enjoy looking through the options I enjoyed over the past seven days and that you will be inspired to want to cook at least a few of them for yourself!

 

MONDAY, November 11th - Honey Mustard Chicken and Potatoes

This recipe uses skin-on chicken leg quarters, which contain the thigh and the drumstick. This isn’t a cut of chicken that I use very often.  These get browned in a skillet and then removed.  After that you cook some streaky bacon and halved baby potatoes in the drippings.  BACON!  Count me in!  

Once the potatoes are golden you return the chicken pieces to the pan, and you pour a mixture of mustard, cream, honey and water around them in the pan. The whole thing then gets banged into the oven and braised to melt in the mouth juicy perfection. This is totally delicious. 

This is a small batch recipe which feeds two, but which certainly be doubled. I actually cut it in half for myself and served it with some steamed broccoli on the side. I love skillet meals.

TUESDAY, November 12th – Creamy Tomato Soup and a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I had an extremely busy day on Tuesday and so I took some soup out of the freezer. I like to freeze homemade soup in single serve portions for just such an occasion.  If you have never made tomato soup from scratch, you really need to. It is so delicious!  This recipe makes two tasty servings and is very simple to make.  Prepare to fall in love.

On this occasion I started with a mixed salad and then finished off with the soup and a grilled cheese sandwich for dipping. Yes. I am a soup dipper and I don’t apologize for it, lol.

WEDNESDAY, November 13th – Dinner out with Dad

Dad had seen an advertisement for the Swiss Chalet Festive menu on the television and so he wanted to take us all out to Swiss Chalet for supper.  It is in New Minas.  The festive menu had a few options, but we decided to go for the quarter rotisserie chicken served with their classic dipping sauce, stuffing, roll and your choice of potato.  We each also got a box of assorted Lindt truffles to enjoy afterwards. 

This is my father as he was perusing the menu. It meant a lot to him for us all to be there with him. Heck, it meant a lot to me for me to be there with him. Who knows how many more occasions like this we will have. He is 90 years old and will be 91 in January and is thankfully still going strong.

I am providing my recipe for Swiss Chalet Dipping Sauce so that you can make their iconic dipping sauce at home.  All you need to do is to roast a chicken or some chicken or pick up a Rotisserie chicken and make this sauce to enjoy on the side for dipping. It is fabulously delicious! I used to make this all the time when I lived in the U.K. and Swiss Chalet was not available. We would enjoy it with a Costco chicken.

On Thursday I cooked up a small batch of beef stew. I made this sweet and sour recipe that I have been making since the early 1970′s.  It is delicious.  Tender, melt-in-the-mouth pieces of beef in a lush and rich gravy which has just a hint of sweet and a touch of tanginess to it.  I so enjoyed this.  

I froze one serving for another time, and took one serving over to my next-door neighbor for her to enjoy.  I served it with some fluffy mashed potatoes. Pure and utter comfort food.  No complaints from anyone.

Old habits die hard, and I treated myself to a tasty piece of fish on Friday.  I had some sole in the freezer that needed using up.  We often used to have fish and chips from the local chippy on Friday when I lived over in the U.K. George’s fish and chips on the Parade in Blacon.  (The Parade was a series of shops.)  The first fish and chips I ever had in the U.K. came from George’s and I can remember being amazed at the size of the piece of fish. It was hanging over both sides of my plate and the chips were amazing.

Anyways, no fish and chips for me on Friday, just a lovely piece of sole panfried in butter with some lemon and fresh thyme.  Delicious.  On this occasion I enjoyed it with some tasty, mashed potatoes and some canned green beans. It was lovely.

I was wanting pizza for supper but I didn’t want to go to all the trouble of making a full pizza from scratch.  French Bread Pizza to the rescue!  Not only is it sized for two people, but you can have it on the table in about 10 minutes give or take, plus it is a bazillion times tastier than any frozen French Bread pizza you can buy. (I usually find those to be somewhat disappointing if I am honest.)