On my plate: week of August 17-23

I'm hungry. Like, really hungry. An inhuman level of hunger has possessed me. Our meals last week were what I would normally classify as "man food"; the cold rainy weather didn't help either. Here's what I concocted in our kitchen: 

Breakfasts: Homemade oatmeal (porridge) using 1/2cup uncooked oats, a handful of mixed dried fruits, and 1 tsp brown sugar

Lunches: Soup! This is a carrot and coriander soup I whipped up when I picked up a massive bag of carrots on sale. It's not vegetarian because I used chicken stock as the base, then just cooked down carrots, onion, garlic, and the spices (mostly coriander), and hit it with an immersion blender and a splash of cream at the end. Oh, and homemade bread, because it's 1) so super simple that I can just pop a loaf in the oven after work twice a week, and 2) it's cheaper than store bought bread: about 33p (50 cents?) a per loaf. Plus, its delicious and amazing and packaged bread can't hold a candle to it. Here's my recipe. 

        

Dinners! I usually cook enough that we both eat leftovers for lunch the next day. First up to the plate (well, bowl) is my chock-full chili. It has all of the southwest chili flavor, but with the added magic of lots of veg and sweet potato to kick it up a notch, a la Emeril.  The sweet potato was one of my genius additions that has proven to be a real crowd pleaser. 

          

Then I had one of those really naughty down-home comfort food cravings, and resorted to linguine with broccoli and chicken in a pesto cream sauce. (A little note: When I poach chicken for recipes like this, I use the "stock" leftover as a base for soups!) We effectively committed carbicide that day. Don't judge the preggo. 

           

These sausages were picked up at our local farmer's market. They're venison and red currant sausauges, which I browned and braised in a fresh tomato sauce with some peppers and onions and served over creamy parmesan polenta. Rainy day food at its finest. This was actually a small side plate, not even a large dinner plate. It was that filling.     

                                                    

Veggie night (we try to do this at least twice a week): Spinach and ricotta canneloni! With fresh spinach and tomatoes in a really light, fresh sauce. Ok, I was craving Italian this week. At least I mixed it up a little bit. This photo was before baking, because they lasted all of 3 minutes once they came out of the oven. This was the hub's favorite meal last week, if I'm not mistaken. 

       

And that's all the photos I've got! I was inspired to do another post in this series today as I caught up on some much loved blog reading this weekend. Comment below if you'd like me to post any of the recipes (on the blog or by email!)

On My Plate: Week of March 15th

I haven't been that exciting this week with my eating. I haven't been in the kitchen as much while packing up to move to the new flat, so there's lots of fresh fruits and salads and lemon tea, but not my usual ton of cooking going on.

I made a big batch of yellow split peas (aka mung beans I guess?) curried up with some celery, carrots, and peas, and I've been having that with salad for my lunches. It's not very photogenic though, and kind of looks like something you'd find in a diaper (as most curries tend to do), so I didn't take any pictures of it. It's yummy and flavorful, though, and I've enjoyed it.

Here are a few other highlights:

Kiwi! I got some kiwis on sale (half price, yo!) on Monday, and I've been nomming on them since. I haven't had kiwi in ages, and it's one of my favorite fruits. So that's what I've been having as snacks and sometimes breakfasts.

Dark chocolate with hazlenuts! Oh man, this is good. It's a massive bar, too, and it was only like £1.50. It's pretty good, too, for store-brand chocolate, and it's been keeping my sweet tooth at bay this week. It's been really effective at helping me to resist the urge to bake chocolate chip cookie bars or something equally horrifically caloric.

Pret latte! I haven't been to Pret in, like, months. So a short trip into Windsor on Tuesday meant that I got to indulge in one of my favorite places to get a latte. This used to be a Friday tradition for me, since there's a Pret A Manger on like every corner in Midtown, and I kind of miss it. A lot. Not pictured here: the egg & spinach 'protein pot' I had for breakfast with it.

I brought back a classic lunch favorite this week: eggplant (aubergine) "pizza", Here's a link to the recipe - it's grain free and tastes JUST like pizza.

Lastly, this was the only time I cooked dinner this week: Pork roulade stuffed with apples, caramelized onions, garlic & rosemary. Da bomb dot com. There was a really thick, delicious sauce that had the addition of some balsamic vinegar and rosé wine, but I took the photo before adding it because, come on, that roulade is pretty. 

On My Plate: Week of March 8th

So, this is the second post in my "On My Plate" series. You can catch the first one here if you missed it.

This week was pretty awesome, in terms of deliciousness. I mastered the gluten free sweet potato gnocchi, and I've incorporated it into 3 meals so far. I also came up with a fantastic recipe for balsamic glazed chicken, and it was such a hit that I'll be doing a recipe post for it soon. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of it at the moment. It was one of those meals that was eaten too quickly to photograph.

I haven't had bubble tea since leaving New York, so I was thrilled to see a bubble tea stand when Steve and I were out & about. It was a nice little treat (and a splurge that I wouldn't usually spend money on) that brought back a lot of fond memories of my former home, and my beloved Chinatown.

Speaking of foods that remind me of home, I made a classic "mom's cooking" favorite: pickled eggs & beets. If you're not from Pennsylvania Dutch country, you're probably not going to understand why anyone would enjoy eating stinky, pickled purple eggs, but trust me: they're incredible. And I love them. And as soon as the weather starts to turn warm, I can't get them out of my head. Well, pickled eggs and deviled eggs... basically, any eggs that you would find served at a picnic potluck. Which is ironic, because they're probably the last foods that you'd want to eat after they'd been left out in the sun. But I digress...

Then I experimented today with my classic tomato sauce. Since it's a Lenten Friday and I won't be partaking in meat today, I made a tuna tomato sauce (served with the last of my sweet potato gnocchi) with fresh spinach & basil. I was a bit skeptical at first, but the flavors are a match made in heaven. I'm even playing around with the idea of a tuna meatball recipe, just for kicks.

Let me know in the comments if you'd like me to post any of the above recipes!

On My Plate: Week of March 1st

Optional title for this post: "How to eat Mexican food every day for a week: The Dani Robinson story". Sounds like a Lifetime movie akin to a documentary about the morbidly obese, but I digress:

This is a new little feature that I'd like to get into, because I know I've taken some time off from food and recipe blogging on Street Cred until we move into our new flat. But as someone who is obsessed with cooking, I figured that some of my readers might be wondering what I actually eat. And it's usually pretty healthy, so if there's enough interest in any particular recipe or meal, I'd be more than happy to post it.

First up: Taco-lasagna. I know, this is not the prettiest meal you've ever seen. It's a total weeknight casserole type of thing. But we do "Taco Tuesday" in this house on a pretty regular basis, so this week I mixed it up with all of our favorite taco fixin's in a big lasagna-style presentation. The verdict? Less mess and cleanup, and leftovers were consumed for breakfast the next day (they didn't even make it until lunch, is the point I'm getting at here).

Basically, the taco meat (w/ added crushed tomatoes) was layered with sauteed onions and peppers, cheese, and tortillas replaced the pasta in this lasagna assembly. Then once it came out of the oven, the whole thing was topped with lettuce and tomatoes, and individuals could garnish their portion with salsa, sour cream, guac, etc.

Next up: Leftover pork chops turned burrito bowl. I thinly sliced the pork, added it to onions and peppers, and cooked it up with garlic, chili powder, and cumin. Then I threw it on top of some rice and topped it with homemade salsa, some guac, and greek yogurt (instead of sour cream). It was a great lunch in a pinch, and only took all of 10 minutes to make. On a larger scale, it could make a pretty filling dinner.

Souper: (that's a pun between "soup" and "supper", by the way)
I cooked up some black beans the other night, so I used what was left to whip up a quick black bean soup for lunch. About 1 cup of homemade chicken stock, some onions and peppers (are you sensing a theme yet?), garlic, frozen sweet corn, cumin, chili powder, kale and fresh cilantro (coriander) all cooked up in another 10-minute lunch. A great filling and healthy vegetarian option if you use vegetable stock i/o chicken, and it's perfect on a deceptively chilly day.

The week isn't even over yet! I wonder if I'll end up with a quesadilla tonight...