Meal Planning (w/c June 30, 2013)

In this week’s meal plan, I’ve gone with an old favourite, a usual weekday staple and an experiment.  It’s Canada Day on Monday, so we’ll be out celebrating all things red and white for the evening.  Out on Thursday night too, so it’s light on the dinners this week.

Click here to view or print a copy of the plan with the shopping list.

For breakfast, I’m going with an omelette with sliced tomato on a whole meal English muffin.  Make the omelette per steps 6 to 9 of the recipe here.

For lunch, I’m going with a cottage pie made with chicken mince and I’ll add some cauliflower florets into the lunch container.  I’ll make the potato topping in the Thermomix but you can do it on the stove if you want.  Both options are in the recipe.

For dinner on Tuesday, it’s the usual steak with mushrooms and snow peas.

Wednesday’s dinner and Thursday’s lunch is a pork, spinach and pine nut parcel which is a new recipe.  The draft can be found below.  I’ll serve this with natural yoghurt and for dinner, I’ll steam some broccoli and peas for dinner.  For lunch, I’ll put the uncooked vegetables in a container which I’ll cook in the microwave at work.  The parcels can be reheated in the microwave or using a sandwich press.

Draft Recipe

Pork, Spinach and Pine Nut parcels

Ingredients

80g pine nuts

Light olive oil for cooking

1 clove garlic

400g pork mince

Salt and pepper to season

2 tsp Thermomix stock concentrate

4 handfuls baby spinach

4 sheets filo pastry, defrosted

Instructions

1. Add pine nuts into the Thermomix bowl and roast for 3 minutes/Varoma/Reverse/Speed 1; remove to a small bowl

2. Add garlic and chop for 3 seconds/Speed 3

3. Add oil and cook for 30 seconds/100C/Speed 1

4. Add mince, stock, salt and pepper and cook for 10 minutes/Varoma/Reverse/Speed soft

5. Add spinach and cook for 3 minutes/100C/Reverse/Speed soft

6. Remove mixture to the Thermomix basket and strain over a small bowl while cooling to catch any liquid

7. Once mixture has cooled, squeeze out and extra liquid, add pine nuts and mix together

8. To make the parcels, take a sheet of file pastry and fold in half

9. Put 1/4 of the meat mixture into the centre of the pastry and form into a loosely packed rectangle about 2cm high

10. Fold in the sides of the pastry on the short side and then fold up tightly into a parcel

11. Repeat with the remaining 3 pieces of pastry and meat filling

12. Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and place each parcel into the pan and cook until both side are golden brown