Weekly menu 2nd to 6th Feb 2009

February already ! Christmas seems both ages ago and yesterday somehow! It is however snowing here which isn't very common though there isn't enough of the ground to sled down the hill near the school which is a shame as the grandparents recently dropped off their old sleds here.. even more irritating there is plenty of snow in London where they live ! Still we managed to get the hedge in on the allotment just as it started yesterday.. We have put in a mixed native hedge which includes rose, hazel, blackthorn (sloe) and cherry pears so we might even get a harvest from it in later years! Tom is looking forward to more sloe gin!.

We have been warned the schools might be closed tomorrow if the forcast snow hits.. this country stops with stupidly little snow these days I remember walking to school through three foot a lot farther than Noodles school is from here or indeed most of the kids homes.. still if it does we might get to use those sleds!

Yesterday I did a chicken stir fry which Noodles said was the best food ever ! Though to be fair I think that was more because he wasn't expecting Chinese at home, I do cook it fairly often but mainly for the adults after he is in bed plus they had a Chinese new year meal at school recently..

The bit I think works particularity well was the chicken and it occurred to me it would work well on it's own without the stir fried veg as well, so I'll put it here
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Soy Chicken.
Cut chicken breast into thin strips. Liberally coat with Tamari (Japanese soy sauce.. GF of course), rub this in then coat with cornflour (corn starch I think in the states). Make sure the strips stay separate as they will tend to clump and add enough cornflour to give them all a coating.

Heat some oil in a wok and fry on a high heat in small batches till golden brown and crispy.

If adding to a stir fry remove from pan and cook the vegs, adding back only at the very end so the chicken stays crispy.
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This weeks Gluten Free menu swap is hosted by gluten free goodness and they have picked pineapple as an ingredient.. we do like pineapple here though it's rare to get the fresh stuff. That said the tinned is great too. We have rings of it caramelised in a hot pan with gammon steaks or on pizza or in a rice and stuff dish.. hum all of those are savoury though we do use it in sweets as well honest.. now I'm thinking of a pineapple upside down cake. not had one of those for ages.. if i get time perhaps I'll add it to the baking list this week !

Anyway on to the menu

Monday - Soya chicken again by request of Noodles who has been very tired and not concentrating at school today as his brother has been under the weather as well I hope that doen't mean they are going down with something. Probably with rice noodles or rice and sweetcorn.

Tuesday - Home made fish and chips.


Wensday - fritatta (thick oven baked omelet with left over cooked vegs in it )

Thursday - Oven roast vegs with apples or pears either on their own or with whatever meat I scare up from the freezer !

Friday - Possibly Chinese roast duck as I have a duck in the freezer that needs cooking, want time to do some pancakes though.. failing that sausage and mash.

Baking - early this week some sort of cake for Tom to take to work, it was his birthday recently and it's a common tradition in offices to take cakes in on your birthday.. as he has a GF colleague we always do GF cakes cos it's one of the few times she can have them.

Fruit cobbler (will have to check what tinned fruit we have, you never know it might be pineapple) as discussed on the Gluten free recipes Yahoo group, possibly tonight.