You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May 2008.
to make four peppers last two days and stretch to feed 8 people twice….. a certain amount of satisfaction comes with accomplishing a task like that… though I sometimes feel I might be in danger of taking frugality a tad to far…. yesterday,lunch was jacket poatatoes which the children have been craving for ages… I finally caved and DD16 was on spud watch while they cooked. Eaten simply with a very generous helping of salad, it was one of those meals that was nothing to rave about, but still amazingly, nourishingly, delicious…. the family spud watcher did a grand job masha’allah…. supper was the peppers, or at least the other half of them, cooked off with some onion and garlic and a couple of spoons from a tin of tomatoes…kind of like a rattatuille without the rest of the veg… 
I made some latkes too, because I love them…. because it’s one of my favourite things to cook and munch as i’m cooking … my latke recipe is not an easy one to write down because I’ve got used to eyeballing the quantity i need , it’s basically grated potato , grated onion, egg and flour, all mixed together and fried in mounds till golden and crunchy on the outside….
and just so that you know other things have been going on this week apart from me feeding my face, I’ve finally finished the cardigan I started for the four year old, and I’m very happy with it masha’allah…I made a few changes, like erm, making it short sleeved because I’m just too lazy to stitch a whole sleeve because it’s summer and a long sleeved cardi just wouldn’t make as much sense (?) and I stitched some really nice edging that i had ,to the bottom of it. I love the pattern so much i want to make another after I’ve finshed all the other projects that are waiting in the wings
and just to tempt my creativity I bought some lovely new colours….
Now I don’t want the meat eaters out there to get too excited, nor my veggie pals to get too despondent, but I’ve got MEAT!!!!! I had a rummage in the freezer yesterday cos I had a vague notion that some might be lurking somehwere… we don’t often have meat in the house, so when we do, everyone appreciates it, I was a vegan before I married a meat eater and so I’m quite happy to live on veggie meals indefinately, but today the meaties win…. I’m off now for my first cuppa .. and to finish my choccy spread on toasted baguette…the boys have gone with the hubster to work this morning so it’s a girls only brekkie, do I begrudge them the fact that they have gone to the coffee shop to spen quality time with cake ?…not much at all!!!
see ya later…… got some WIP’s to show ya
Breakfast was rushed, we all overslept and the children had only just managed to gulp down the last of their breakfast as the tutor was knocking on the door! And we, fell back on that good old Algerian standby, baguette..so nothing imaginative I’m afraid
DD17 made lunch this afternoon, I went out with the other three girls this morning to grab some wool and do a bit of thrifting, so it was nice to have lunch cooked by someone else.. again nothing spectacular, just pasta with tuna and cheese, but it’s an old faithful that we fall back on whenever theres little time or we just cant be bothered to think about what to cook.
I used up leftover, and in danger of going stale baguette for dinner, by turning them into french bread pizzas… put together a tomato sauce with tinned tomatoes, oregano, bay leaves, garlic, salt and a bit of sugar and topped with cheese, served with salad, and completely devoured masha’allah.
The dh had peppers sauteed with onion, garlic, some tomato, and potatoes, a non spectacular day in my kitchen.. but sometimes thats what you need.
Bought myself a new cake tin today so who knows what tomorrow may hold insha’allah
I gave in and went to bed a little before lunchtime to try and save my sanity and get rid of the migraine that had been plagueing me since breakfast…. DD17 fed the children this morning, leftover banana bread which was made by DD16 last night, and DD16 made a big pot of lentils for lunch, I was feeling realyl nauseus from the migraine, but the smell of lentils wafting up the stairs was hugely comforting,
and one of the plus points with lentils is that no matter how little you think you’re making, you always end up with more than you bargained for…
I was feeling well enough by dinner time to rustle up a veggie supper for the dh, mushrooms sauteed with lots of garlic, an onion and some finely chopped parsley, then i tossed in some cubed, fried potatoes and served with a salad…. children ate the lentils from lunchtime padded out with pasta thrown in for good measure…..
Lentil Stew
- a large mug of lentils
- 1-2 celery stalks finely sliced
- an onion finely sliced
- a clove of garlic, crushed,
- a can of tomatoes, or at least 3 generously sized fresh tomatoes
- a couple of medium sized carrots chopped
everything goes straight into the pot with enough water to cover,although i do go back a couple of times for topping up purposes…. the only seasoning i use for this is salt, because i love the nuttiness of the lentils and the celery brings out enough flavour on it’s own…I like it to have some cooking liquid left and i always have enough leftover for a second meal, which normally gets padded out with the addition of rice or pasta or sometimes some fried potatoes….the children love this, and in the winter especially i make kesera to eat with it…migraine didnt permit it today though
happy eating 
something new and delicious is made….. this morning while the tutor was with the children and I was waiting for my lesson… I started making some lentil and chickpea burgers, and I have to say I was curious but not highly optimistic
alhamdulillah it doesn’t take much effort to get my children to eat pulses, so half the battle was already won, but new recipes, even if reccomended by someone else can sometimes be disatserous
i was even less optimistic after combining all the ingredients and wasn’t convinced that any of it would hold together…….
But oh, how wrong I was….. not only were they easy to cook and held together perfectly, but the children happily devoured them …a new favourite is born masha’allah
salad as always,
I love it when a plan comes together
I know..no prizes for the unimaginative title…but it DID seem appropriate….
we find it difficult sometimes in our house to strike a balance between having enough bread, and having so much that it’s in danger of going to waste…. bread is generally our cutlery, so it’s always needed… and with such big Khobz eaters I only do recreational bread making… otherwise the bread making alone would be a full time job… this morning I did what i always do with my almost to be stale leftover baguette…courtesy of nigella…I rip it up ,sprinkle it with sugar (and my addititon to her suggestion is a dusting of cinnamon ) and then pour over warm milk…the kids love it…it sorts out the bread glut, avoids waste and tummies are filled… ticks all the boxes….
I am fickle, and sometimes i just get caught up in a whirlwind of activity that sets all well laid plans aside….the beanburgers have been put on hold until tomorrow lunchtime, likewise the bubble and squeek which will be made for tea..which sorts out tomorrows menu without much fuss…. children had exams today, so with only four of us at home we decided to take the easy route and use up some of our generous stash of potatoes on a duo of spanish omelettes..it also gave me an excuse to finally use up the ast of my baby peppers that were languishing in misery at the bottom of the fridge….
which gave me time to pretty up my kitchen window with a bit of curtain i found lying around upstairs, I also sorted out some very broken draws by removing them completely and making a linen curtain to go over the bare space that was left…and there i had it my new laundry cubby hole..big enough for my wash basket and a box of detergent…. I keep telling you it’s the simple pleasures…
I’m off to have a cup of tea and then to bed…tomorrow is an early start with the tutor coming and my tajweed lesson, cooking has to be done early ….
I was gifted today with a box of eggs and some more spuds, which is jolly nice, and the only other things that were bought in today were baguettes and milk, I’m trying very hard to keep costs low, avoid wasteand lessen the impact a large family can have…… not always easy, sometimes a huge struggle, but we’re trying…
My main culinary tasks today will be finding a use for the breadcrumbs i attempted to make yesterday in my ailing blitzer, and the 3….yes 3…cabbages lurking at the bottom of my fridge…
think I might have a soloution for the breadcrumbs….
LENTIL AND CHICKPEA BURGERS
1 cup (280g) red lentils
1 tablespoon oil
2 onions, sliced
1 tablespoon tandoori mix powder
425g can chickpeas- drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 egg
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
2 ¼ cups breadcrumbs (almond meal is nice here)
Flour for dusting.
and the cabbage may very well become some bubble and squeak later…… off now to have brekkie..which DD17 is on the verge of making…. left over baguette from yesterday which she very cleverly toasts, butters and then puts back under the grill again, so that the butter soaks right into the baguette…even teens can have culinary inspirations…..
Yesterday when my dh brought home the groceries he er..didnt actually bring enough fruit for the whole family..so i was left with the dilemma of how to make 6 apples stretch to fill 8 mouths with all kids crying for fruit…so what DO you do when you don’t have enough?? You make apple cake of course…so 3 apples down, 3 to go….the apple cake also helped to find a use for some of THOSE breadcrumbs i’m trying NOT to waste….I think I may have already posted the recipe for apple cake somewhere here, it really is delicious masha’allah…anyway….I’m here before my first cuppa even, so I’m off now to refresh myself with tea and ponder over the many and varied ways to use a cabbage….
later people xxx
feeding a family of eight is NEVER an easy task, and the more our supplies dwindle the harder it sometimes gets…although there is something to be said for less, rather than more choice on the food front….so… feeling inspired, I’m doing a week in eats….. everything we buy, make and eat within the space of a week. I’m becoming more and more aware of what we buy and how much we consume, and with a family of eight it’s sometimes ALOT
My unwritten house rules are that foods are made from scratch and we have as little “unnecessary” food in the house as possible, unless very kind people bring it in… so if you are one of the unwitting donaters that are taken aback by the unbridled joy my children show when they see a packet of biccies or a sweeties coming throught the door, you now know why….. I’m cooking tea at the moment so I leave you for the present with some scenes of domesticity from my home and some of the lovely fresh goodies that arrived today in my grocery shopping that will become our week of eats insha’allah….
My day has lost it’s rhytmn…. it’s lost that indefinable qulaity that makes it “MY day”… and I want it back!!!
I want to wake up in the morning, excited at the prospect of filling MY day with things that make ME feel happy and contented… Days like that don’t happen by accident however, days like that have to be created with care and due attention to detail, and the savoured until the time comes for you to climb back into your bed, contented and worn out from a day well done… I haven’t had one of those for a while.. and what am i going to do about it???
Well…. I’m presently going to put my keyboard to rest and then i’m going to potter about for a while tidying my house and finding all sorts of joyful meaning in the (very) mundane, and then i’m going to create some deliciusness in the kitchen that will fill my home with a warm, homely scent… tackle the ever increasing washing pile…which i could swear is breeding! and settle down tosome crafting this afternoon with mychildren.
I choose to ignore the fact that the garden is looking like a brazillian rainforest after the buldozers have been in and done their worst, and i shall choose to ignore the proddings of one of my teens, that she really NEEDS me to start making that new hijab we bought the material for yesterday…. I shall also choose to ignore the rantings of the rest of my kin in their futile attempts to scupper MY plans for MY day…
