How did you do?

As I said last week, for the month of November I will be reviewing my menu plan and seeing how it was followed. Each week I will look from Thursday to Wednesday. Recipes for the different dishes can be found on the blog and a weekly and monthly menu planner can also be found there. http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/printables/monthly-menu-planner-and-shopping-list/ and

Remember, a menu plan is not set in stone and if you need to make an adjustment, that’s fine.

Last Thursday my husband and I went out for our annual date night (we don’t get to do date night often, but this is one I won’t miss), I was sick as a dog, but it is an annual appreciation dinner for a community group that I have been part of for the last 10 years.

The kids had a treat also; they got a large family pizza to share and watched a movie.

Friday night supper is always important and I make more than usual. My starter was a cold avocado soup. For the main course I served a garden salad and cooked a rolled bolo roast in the slow cooker. No recipe here, you brown your meat and put it in the pot with a packet of your favourite packet soup and 1 ½ cups of water. Turn it to auto and leave for 8 hours. Delicious, soft and beautifully flavoured. I served this with rice, gem squash and mint green peas. For desert we had canned peach slices and dairy free custard, which I didn’t make myself. I bought Alpro soya custard. http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/recipes/cold-avocado-soup/

Saturday lunch we were now 3/6 with stomach pains and diarrhoea, so lunch was cold meat sandwiches for those who could eat.

Sunday lunch we usually go to my mom but with half of us under the weather, we stayed home. I made potato salad and we had short ribs and chicken sausages with strawberries to finish. We now have had a change of patient. I am better but my youngest has started with pains. So still 3/6 not well. Supper was scrambled eggs and toast for those that could eat.

Monday night is as always meat free, so we were supposed to have lasagne bows according to my menu plan. I obviously didn’t read the recipe properly because it asks for fresh lasagne, which is not on my ‘to do’ list anytime soon. So I adapted the recipe to a ricotta and salmon lasagne. Not a drop left and I forgot to take a before photo, so my picture is of an empty lasagne dish! http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/recipes/ricotta-and-canned-salmon-lasagna/

Tuesday night is mince night (ground beef for my American readers). I took the mince out of the freezer in the morning and then looked at the meal plan; it says ‘beef ragout’.  Well, now that was a problem! Beef ragout is a fancy name for a stew. So there I am at 5:30am paging through my books looking for the recipe that obviously caught my eye.  All to no avail! Time for an experiment and supper was invented. A mince ragout! I made it with onion, garlic, mushrooms, green pepper, baby marrow (zucchini), Rosa tomatoes, korma spice, tomato sauce, water and stock powder. I served it with baby pasta shells and garlic rolls. http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/recipes/mince-meat-ragout/

Wednesday was actually a night where what was on my menu is actually what I served. It was, as always, something quick and simple as I usually teach a beading class. The menu called for vegetarian schnitzels with mash. We had coleslaw, vegetarian schnitzels with garlic mash potato, and baby peas. http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/recipes/creamy-mash-potato/

I would love to hear what you are serving. For those who menu plan, I have a weekly planner and a monthly one that you can print. How well do you stick to your meal plans?http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/printables/638-2/

Try something new this month. Introduce a new flavour to an old recipe and let us know how it went.

Have a gastronomically delightful week.