Monthly Menu - February

Week One
Monday - baked potato with tuna
Tuesday - Caribbean chicken pilaff (cooked by my lovely mother in law)
Wednesday - butternut soup (I can't get enough)
Thursday - gammon, mash and winter veggies
Friday - pizza night!
Saturday - Thai green curry and rice
Sunday - curry night!

Week Two
Monday - Roast chicken
Tuesday - chicken soup
Wednesday - baked cod and braised fennel (it was appalling!)
Thursday - soft boiled eggs and soldiers
Friday - steak my husband's way (I'm going to try to get him to write down what he does)
Saturday - home made pizzas with pepperoni and jalapeños
Sunday - take out - from the local rib house

Week Three
Monday - beef stew
Tuesday - piri piri chicken soup, from Asda
Wednesday - Caesar salad (but with bacon, asparagus, baby corn and fine beans)
Thursday - butternut soup and tiger bread
Friday - spaghetti bolognese
Saturday - Subway; Italian BMT with all the salad options (I needed it, actually needed it)
Sunday - roast beef dinner with all the trimmings, including Yorkies

Week Four
Monday - chicken fajitas
Tuesday - cod in parsley sauce with mashed potatoes (courtesy of my father in law)
Wednesday - goats cheese and vegetable pizza (out of the freezer, sadly)
Thursday - paprika chicken
Friday - baked potato with cottage cheese and pineapple
Saturday - curry night!
Sunday - slow cooked lamb hotpot

Slow cooked lamb hotpot

I make beef stew quite regularly in my slow cooker, and whilst it's one of my favourite meals to make and eat, it's easy to just stick to that and try nothing else, which isn't very adventurous. As the sun is out and spring looks like it's on its way, I thought it was time to vary the contents of the slow cooker and do something with lamb. As always the first thing I did was preheat the slow cooker, then I started with my ingredients:

500g lamb leg steak (I used leg steak because it was meatier than the chops in the supermarket)
200g Chantenay carrots, topped and tailed
2 sticks celery
1 white onion
1/2 swede
2 tablespoons plain flour
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons dried rosemary (my shrub has had it, so we're back to dried)
Two tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1.5 pints of beef stock (I thought I had lamb stock in the cupboard, but was wrong)
Sliced waxy potatoes - enough to cover the meat, veg and gravy in the slow cooker - for me that was 4 small spuds

1. I diced the lamb into bite size cubes, then coated it in seasoned flour and sealed it in a frying pan. Then I transferred this to the pre-heated slow cooker (on high).
2. I chopped the onion and fried this in the juices left from the lamb. I added the remaining flour which had not stuck to the lamb, and made sure I'd got all the goodness out of the pan by adding some of the stock until a thick gravy was produced. That was then added to the lamb.
3. To the preheated slow cooker I added the carrots (whole), celery and swede (which were chopped into bite sized pieces). I then added the herbs and Worcestershire Sauce, gave it a good stir and added the remaining stock.
4. I added the sliced potatoes to the top - I sliced them to about 5mm thick so they would hold shape without staying uncooked. They were layered up - just enough to ensure all of the top of the stew mix was covered. I added a little salt and pepper so that the top wasn't completely boring. A sprinkle of extra rosemary might have sneaked in too. I left the slow cooker on high for the first 30 mins, then turned it to low for the rest of the cooking time.
5. I started this around 12pm, and served it at around 7pm with green beans and a little cabbage