What I Ate Wednesday | Memoirs of an Amateur Cook

Category: What I Ate Wednesday
- What I Ate Wednesday: Christmas Day!
  
  Posted at 4:17 pm by Sarah @ Memoirs of an Amateur Cook, on December 26, 2013
  Well, I am really rather late to the party this week but I couldn’t resist doing a ‘What I Ate Wednesday’ post containing all the yummy delights of Christmas Day! To be honest, I was far too busy stuffing my face, spending time with family and opening presents to even think about writing a post yesterday!! Thanks go to Jenn at Peas and Crayons who still found time to post, even on Christmas Day! Anyway, here goes….please don’t judge me too much as I really was a bit of a glutton!!
  
  Breakfast – Our usual tradition on Christmas Day morning is to have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on toast, washed down with some bucks fizz (or just plain champagne for the hardcore and those who don’t have to drive anywhere!) however, I decided to do something a little different this year! I came across a recipe in this month’s Good Food magazine for Mincemeat Chelsea Buns and thought they looked lovely. Unfortunately, I did not read the recipe and just looked at the picture so I thought it was for mincemeat cinnamon swirls so they came out rather different to how I thought they would!! I think Neil was a little disappointed but I thought they were pretty tasty and a nice alternative to our usual tradition! You can find the recipe here.
  
  Snacks – As it was Christmas Day, it seemed rude not to have some chocolate early on! If you can’t be indulgent at Christmas when can you?! I had a few Celebrations at Neil’s Mum’s house along with a few from my Dairy Box selection which was a yu7mmy present from Neil’s brother and sister in law.
  
  Lunch – Neil had Christmas lunch with his Mum and family whereas I journeyed over to my parents who rather conveniently live only a short drive from Neil’s family. Nowerdays, my Mom, Dad and I have our Christmas dinner rather late in the day but, as we were drinking bubbly we thought we should have a little something to stop us from becoming too merry! We all tucked into my Mom’s artichoke heart dip which is served warm and is full of cheesy deliciousness and was a most welcome savoury snack!
  
  Dinner – After the Queen’s speech and a few more glasses of champagne, Neil joined us and we sat down for dinner. Yes that’s right, the greedy boy managed to eat two Christmas dinners!! To start, we had avocado’s with prawn cocktail. For me, this was the perfect starter, not too heavy, fantastically retro and full of goodness!! I especially love the dishes my Mom uses which she purchased from Abraxas, one of my favourite cookery shops here in Northamptonshire. It was then time for the main event, beautifully moist turkey with all the trimmings! We tend to be fairly traditional and have stuffing, gravy, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, brussel sprouts. carrots along with my Mom’s delicious red cabbage and a variety of condiments! My Mom always makes cranberry salsa which has a bit of a kick to it and isn’t as sweet as the jarred stuff you can buy in the supermarket. Watch this space for the recipe; it makes a really nice change from traditional cranberry sauce and we remain very grateful to our American friend for the recipe!
  
  Snack – We were all rather full after our huge lunch so took a bit of a break before enjoying some cheese in front of the telly. I pre-ordered our cheese selection from the ever-so-wonderful St Giles Cheese in Northampton; one of my very favourite foodie stores! This year we feasted on Colton Basset Stilton, Cornish Yarg, Glastonbury Cheddar, Dorset Red and Brie de Meaux. The Brie was perfectly oozy and the Dorset Red was so wonderfully smokey. My Dad and I couldn’t resist a glass of port to accompany the delicious selection! I would thoroughly recommend going to St Giles for all your dinner party needs or special meals – they always offer such excellent customer service, expert knowledge and are very good value!
  
  Unfortunately we really could not manage any Christmas pudding which was a shame but my Mom sent us home with some lovely homemade Christmas cake before we journeyed back to Neil’s Mum’s for a wonderful Boxing Day buffet today!!!! The diet really must begin now……
  
  Wishing all my readers a very merry Christmas and a happy 2014!!
  
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  Posted in Baking, Breakfast, Celebrations & Occasions, Christmas, Northamptonshire, Recipe, Series, Suppliers, What I Ate Wednesday | 0 Comments | Tagged Abraxas, Avocado, Cheeseboard, Chocolate, Christmas. St Giles, cranberry salsa, cranberry sauce, Mincemeat Chelsea Buns, prawn cocktail, stuffing, turkey
- Recipe: Breakfast Frittata
  
  Posted at 7:39 pm by Sarah @ Memoirs of an Amateur Cook, on December 5, 2013
  Apologies it has taken me so long to post this recipe! Last week, for ‘What I Are Wednesday’, I blogged about meals that can be made in advance, perfect for busy people who always seem to be in a hurry, and promised to post this recipe.
  
  I understand only too well how tough it can be to stay healthy and eat balanced meals when your life is hectic and you are running around like a blue-arsed fly; you simply do not have the energy to cook and look after yourself properly! It is always so tempting to simply grab a takeaway or some processed convenience food when you are in a rush but it really isn’t necessary. All it takes is a little organisation and you can easily eat healthily even when you do not have time to think, let alone cook a nutritious meal. When I am especially busy, I like to fill my freezer with pre-cooked meals that simply need a blast in the microwave and my fridge with dishes that will last for a few days and can be grabbed on the go. This breakfast frittata is a perfect example of this type of meal and is adapted from a recipe originally in a Slimming World magazine, so it is nice and healthy too!
  
  Breakfast Frittata
  
  (Serves 4 – 8)
  
  4 reduced-fat pork sausages
  
  250g new potatoes
  
  1 onion, diced
  
  150g mushrooms, halved and sliced
  
  Large handful cherry tomatoes, halved
  
  6 eggs
  
  Half tbsp mixed herbs
  
  Salt and pepper
  
  Frylight
  
  1. Boil the potatoes for 20 minutes in slightly salted water. Once drained and cooled slightly, cut into slices.
  
  2. Grill the sausages and, once cooked and cooled, slice each sausage into six pieces.
  
  3. Spray a large frying pan with frylight and heat. Once the pan is hot, add the prepared onion and mushrooms to the pan and cook over a low heat for 5 – 10 minutes.
  
  4. Add the sliced sausages and halved tomatoes and cook for another few minutes.
  
  5. Beat the eggs with seasoning and the mixed herbs. Pour into the pan over the onion, mushroom, sausage and tomato mixture, coating the pan evenly. Top with the new potato slices.
  
  5. Swirl the egg mixture around the pan and cook on the hob for 10 minutes. Transfer to a hot oven for another 10 minutes until cooked through.
  
  I tend to use Tesco’s Healthy Living sausages for this dish although vegetarian sausages work just as easily. Depending on how hungry my boyfriend and I are, I either cut this frittata into quarters or eights; if I cut it into eights we have a piece of fruit to accompany the frittata and it lasts twice as long! This healthy and filling breakfast will easily last for several days if it is wrapped up well in the fridge. I find it is an ideal grab-and-go breakfast that keeps me full up until lunchtime.
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  Posted in Breakfast, Dairy Free, Healthy, Light Meal, Recipe, Tips, Vegetarian, What I Ate Wednesday | 2 Comments | Tagged Breakfast, Breakfast Frittata, Breakfast Recipe, cherry tomatoes, Easy, Eggs, Food, Grab-and-go, Healthy, Healthy Living Sausages, Mushrooms, new potatoes, onion, Recipe, Slimming World
- What I Ate Wednesday 2: Meals that Can be Made in Advance
  
  Posted at 9:01 pm by Sarah @ Memoirs of an Amateur Cook, on November 27, 2013
  A big thank you to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting, yet another, What I Ate Wednesday!
  
  For my second ‘What I Ate Wednesday’, I have decided to post about simple meals that can be made in advance. I don’t know about anyone else but when the calendar is turned to December, I find my life becomes really hectic and spare time can be somewhat sparse! This year I have several work parties, friends visiting, two weekends away and still lots of Christmas shopping, card writing and baking to do!! I love meals that can be prepped in advance and what better time to use them than in the run up to Christmas!
  
  Breakfast – For breakfast, I had a slice of breakfast frittata that I had made the night before. I am not particularly a morning person, so I find that I often do not time for anything more than a hurried piece of toast (I have been known to still be eating it whilst rushing to my car) and some fruit after I have arrived at work. However, making a breakfast frittata is a great way to ensure that you have a healthy and filling breakfast dish for at least a couple of days. As I have a rather large frying pan, my frittata will do 4 – 8 portions depending on how greedy you want to be! It contains low-fat sausages, sometimes bacon, new potato slices, onion, mushrooms, tomatoes and, of course, eggs. All in all a nutritious breakfast that will keep hunger ‘locked up till lunch’ much better than a bowl of sugary cereal would! I will be posting the recipe later this week….
  
  Snack – Today’s snack was an apple, Satsuma and a Slimming World mint chocolate hi-fi bar. I love satsumas so try to eat as many as possible at this time of year – I find an extra dose or two of vitamin C doesn’t go a miss when winter sets in. A really easy grab-and-go snack that requires zero preparation.
  
  Lunch – My lunch today was so delicious, I almost forgot to take a photo of it! Unfortunately, I am in the habit of eating lunch at my desk so I tend to make dishes that are easily transportable and can either be eaten cold or blasted in a microwave; all my lunches are prepped in advance. Today’s was an ever so simple salad of chicken and roasted vegetables with a bit of lettuce. We really like roasted vegetables in my household and I make a mean roasted vegetable frittata however, they are also very versatile and can be used as a side dish or as the main ingredient in a salad or couscous. I like roasting a massive bunch of peppers, tomatoes, red onion, sweet potato or butternut squash, courgette and aubergine and once cool, I leave them in the fridge to use for a speedy lunch or to add to dishes as and when I need a little sweetness. We also always have some cooked protein in the fridge, like ham or chicken, for when we want a lean snack or to throw together a quick salad.
  
  Snack – My boyfriend and I viewed a house this afternoon as we are thinking of moving. After the viewing we popped into my Mom and Dad’s and when my Mom offered us a naughty mince-pie each, we just couldn’t resist!! Obviously not very healthy but mince pies are one of my favourite calorific treat and it is almost……well, maybe not Christmas, but it is almost December!! Of course shop bought mince-pies involve no preparation and are made in advance also….by someone else that is!
  
  Dinner – Tonight I tried out a new recipe for low-fat Moussaka, inspired by a recipe in this month’s Good Food magazine. I have made quite a few changes to make the dish even healthier but it does not compromise on taste at all. I seem to be cooking a lot of hearty dishes at the moment like cottage pie, stews, and I’m planning on making my balsamic beef casserole this weekend – the cold weather is most certainly getting to me! This dish gives you a taste of the Mediterranean but is certainly warming, check out my blog later this week for the recipe!
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  Posted in Breakfast, Healthy, Main Course, Recipe, Series, Vegetarian, What I Ate Wednesday | 1 Comment | Tagged Breakfast Frittata, Chicken and roasted vegetable salad, Low Fat Moussaka, Mince pies, Mint Hi-Fi Bar, Roasted vegetables, Satsumas, Slimming World, What I Ate Wednesday
- What I Ate Wednesday
  
  Posted at 10:01 pm by Sarah @ Memoirs of an Amateur Cook, on November 20, 2013
  Although I adore cooking and cook pretty much every day, I sometimes find it difficult to find the time to create something that I consider to be ‘blog worthy’ or indeed blog a new recipe or about a recent foodie adventure. With the aforementioned in mind, I have decided to start a new series on my blog called ‘What I Ate Wednesday’, inspired by the lovely Jenn at Peas and Crayons.
  
  Some time ago, I came across Jenn’s fantastic blog which contains some fantastic recipes, including lots which are healthy and tasty in equal amounts, stunning photography and good old food related banter. A fair while ago, Jenn started hosting ‘What I Ate Wednesday’ which is basically a weekly, photographic food diary of what people have eaten. As a food blogger, I love having a nosey at Jenn’s blog to see what other people are eating and to generate recipe ideas so I thought it was about time I took part from time to time! So here goes, my first What I Ate Wednesday……
  
  Breakfast – As I was in a bit of a rush this morning, I grabbed my favourite speedy breakfast and ultimate comfort food, marmite on toast accompanied with an apple to at least add some nutrition! It may not be the healthiest or most inventive breakfast but I love marmite and it did the trick!
  
  Lunch – Today’s lunch was a rather large portion of last night’s left overs; cottage pie with garlicky kale and carrots. My boyfriend and I often take leftovers to work for lunch the next day, it saves preparing an extra meal! Winter is most definitely here in the UK, it is really cold and dismal and I even had to defrost my car yesterday so comfort food is most definitely on the menu; you really can’t beat a wonderfully warming cottage pie! Check out my recipe adapted from my Mom’s here. Also, I haven’t really experimented with kale before but I love it!! It is in season at the moment and perfect pan-fried with a small amount of light marg and a crushed clove of garlic and further wilted with some veg stock – give it a go!
  
  Snacks – This afternoon once I returned from work, I had the luxury of spending some quality time in the kitchen and doing a bit of baking. I am currently doing a bit of recipe testing to improve my own cupcake recipes so had a nibble or two of a plain vanilla cupcake I had been playing around with. I also baked some chocolate and caramel cupcakes, adapted from a recipe featured in ‘Cake Days’ by the Hummingbird Bakery, for my local doctors surgery (after a request from my cheeky GP!!) and I must admit that my boyfriend and I sneakily shared one to see if they were up to scratch and I can testify that they were delicious!
  
  Dinner – As we are trying to up our protein intake in my household at present due to its’ healing and health benefits, my creamy garlic stuffed chicken with herby diced potatoes, carrot and sugar snap peas took centre stage on the menu tonight. The chicken breasts were massive though so I couldn’t quite finish mine! Watch this space for the recipe….
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  Posted in Breakfast, Light Meal, Main Course, Recipe, Series, What I Ate Wednesday | 4 Comments | Tagged Baking, Cake Days, chocolate caramel cupcakes, Cottage Pie, Creamy garlic stuffed chicken, Food, herbed potatoes, Kale, Marmite, Peas and Carrots, recipe testing, The Hummingbird Bakery, What I Ate Wednesday
- My name is Sarah, self confessed foodie and amateur cook. On these pages you will find lots of recipes, reviews and food related banter. Thank you for stopping by, happy reading!
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