Menu at my house this week 23/2/21

Hello, I hope you are all well and happy.  

This week brought a light on a distant horizon in terms of lifting restrictions here in the UK.  
Interestingly, the summer solstice has been chosen as the tentative date for us all getting back to normal.  
We always celebrate the solstices here, so this year should be a great celebration if so.

Anyhow... here`s the meals we are eating in our house this week, although life got in the way a little last week, or more accurately - pancake day - the very rare chance for my family to gorge themselves on sugar!  I attempted gluten and dairy free pancakes for myself, which were basically rather rubbery but at least I felt part of the celebrations.

I have a meal left over from last week because of the sugar fest that I haven`t cooked yet, and all the ingredients to do so, so I will be rolling that over to this week - making this weeks options a little shorter than usual.

So... let`s get started
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15 minute chana masala

Who doesn`t love a quick and easy dinner!
I`m going to add a lot more veggies to this to beef it up a bit.  Some peppers, onions and maybe some chickpeas.  I cook our brown rice from scratch.  I`m not a fan at all of the packets you heat up.   
​1 - I don`t own a microwave and 2 - heating plastics with food???!!!! that is a definite NO in terms of transferring chemicals onto your plates.

​Chicken Fajitas

Fajitas are so good and fun for the family.  Kiddos love eating things in wraps so these are always appreciated by all.
I abstain from the wrap option - I haven`t found a decent gluten free wrap alternative yet so I`d rather have it without.  I most probably will boil a little brown rice or chop a couple of potatoes to make wedges with to have along with this.

Everything I plate up ALWAYS comes with a huge salad and plenty of toppings - spring onions, radishes, chillies.  I`ll be making some delicious guacamole with this and some pico de gallo to add to the wraps.

Easy Vegan Burrito Bowl

Staying with the mexican theme, this burrito bowl is a great alternative to a traditional buddha bowl.  We aren`t great fans of the cashew cream so will probably ommit that bit and will make extra guacamole instead. I will most probably add some aduki beans in with the black beans and sweetcorn for extra protein yumminess.  
I`ll be using brown rice as like I`ve mentioned before, the refining of the rice removes all the B vitamins and goodness from the rice.  It is sooooo much better for you to eat brown rice, and I think it`s way tastier too.

Wood fired homemade pizzas
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.My partner in crime doesn`t very often make requests for his dinners - he usually just leaves it up to me.  However, he has been going on and on about pizza for a few weeks now and so I have given in.  I use this Jamie Oliver recipe for our pizza dough.  It always turns out nice and his tomato base is tasty too.  Don`t worry if you haven`t got the semolina that he puts in his recipe.  I never add that in and just use the whole quantity of strong bread flour.
I add in courgettes to the base and whizz it up and no one is the wiser! 

We have a wood fired stove in the garden that we use for these in the summer months but I doubt we`ll crank that up this weekend, unless it is a very mild evening.  These work just as well in a hot oven.  
One thing... life is so much easier if you have a pizza shovel though.

I`ll be sitting out of the pizza fest and will get the chance to make myself something that I enjoy that no one else does.. something probably involving mushrooms as Mark really isn`t keen on them.

Anyhow, like I said... a shorter menu this week as I still have the shrimp sizzler from last week to whip up and as always, Sunday will be a roast dinner.

I wish you all a happy and healthy week,

Eve 
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