Weekly Menu 25th - 29th August

Rather late this week as Monday was a bank holiday so felt more like the weekend. Monday was in fact THE bank holiday the time everyone traditionally goes away though we didn't but only because what we had planned to do got cancelled. However this weekend did have something new and it was food related.

We have just got a new supermarket open near us, now I'm not totally keen on supermarkets when they drive out small shops and we try and get things like vegs and bread from local shops. However this isn't Tesco or Sainsburys or even Morrisons this is a Lidl which is a German company and the range of items is very different. From a gluten free perspective one of the great things about them is they do continental sausages, we came out with four different types and we didn't get any salami or that sort of sausage these were all suitable to replace a traditional banger with.. guess what we are having this week !

The gluten free menu swap is hosted by Fresh Ginger this week and she picked Eggplant or as we call them aubergine. I like aubergine but we don't often have them so I will check the Indian grocer later in the week and if they have them I will do a dish or two with them.

Monday - went to Habibi a local Arabic restaurant, we sat out the back on cushions in a tented area open to the fresh air and all of us including Small really enjoyed both the atmosphere and the food. If you check out the website you can see the menu and everything is made fresh. Most of the dishes are naturally gluten free and indeed we had the mezza for four and all the dishes were fine, apart from the bread on the side which was easy to ignore. Even Treestump (5 months old) had some humus off my finger and seemed to enjoy it.. it's a bit of a family tradition now to introduce them to humus early. Any place that apologises they can't do us a second strawberry milkshake for Small because they ran out of strawberries gets high marks from me as nearly everywhere uses milkshake syrup not fresh fruit. I had a limeade which was again freshly made and fantastic.

Tuesday - sausages in tomato sauce served with rice or pasta.

Wensday- gammon, eggs and new potatoes

Thursday - If I have time Involtini di Pasta e Polpette or moussaka or I might check this Aubergine recipe site a little more and pick something easier.

Friday - Some sort of veggy bake or soup depending what we have extra of veg wise.

I have also been given a bag full of cooking apples so some baking for the freezer seems on the cards.