Do you find every now & again you suddenly get hit in the face with the fact that you're on a bit of a treadmill, seeming to do a lot & not much all at the same time? Well that's exactly what happened to me at the weekend! I feel like order has been lost & chaos reigns in my life at the moment. It's a scary reality to realise your stable diet for the last month has pretty much been cheese on toast, marmite spaghetti or, & I'm quite ashamed to admit this, Heinz ravioli eaten cold straight from the tin! With everything feeling so chaotic, I'd lost my enthusiasm for food, which is not like me at all. It was time to take stock & get control back - I do realise there is a risk that this post will appear to make me look like a control freak....I'm not I promise :-)So I dusted off my pile of Olive & Delicious magazines that had accumulated still in their wrappers & set too looking for fresh inspiration. It always makes me hungry reading these mags, so I fuelled up with one of the few remaining things in my kitchen, a bowl of Coco Pops Rocks, (good grief it's not getting any better is it???) & marched off to the supermarket.
I'd decided I was going to cook dinner for my Mum, so patched together a menu from the July issue of Delicious. I wanted to share my creations with you in a bid to get myself back into my foodie groove & spur me on to do more.
To start I made Traditional Andalusian Gazpacho soup which was taken from Rick Stein's Spain book, complete with homemade croutons. It was the first time I'd made croutons & honestly, once you've tried them you'll never go back, dead simple to make too!
Main course was taken from the same Rick Stein feature, Lamb-stuffed aubergines with Moorish spices & manchego cheese, which I served with a green salad. Manchego is one of my weaknesses it was completely delicious paired with the lamb & succulent aubergine.
For dessert I chose a Fig & Raspberry tart which was yummy served warm with creme fraiche. It had an almond base so turned out a bit like a really posh bakewell tart.
The result was a big success! I've had a look around the wonderweb, but haven't been able to find any of the recipes, sorry :-( That said based on the dishes I tried, Rick Steins book could be worth a closer look.So I'm feeling part way back on track, my fridge is full of fruit & veg & I'm actually cooking again! I'm feeling the restorative powers of having blogged & can feel the healing foodie vibes coming back at my from the blogsphere! I just need to sort out a hair cut, some exercise, tackle my paperwork, the mound of ironing & we're all good. For now, yours, a slightly more organised Rebecca x
p.s. I only have to look after me & get overwhelmed at times, Mum's & Dad's I don't know how you do it!
It all looks gorgeous! I've lost inspiration a bit lately too, and get into a bit of a rut when cooking dinners. I think I know what I need to do now...
ReplyDeleteChaos, yes I know what you mean. Your menu looks lovely. To keep some order in my life, I double up quantities of meals at the weekend and either keep in the fridge or freeze (depending on how long I'm going to keep it) so that I have at least two meals made for during the week. That helps a lot.
ReplyDeleteAh, I could have written this post myself! I even said this last week that I don't know how Mums and Dads do it, as I struggle enough with me and the boyf! I've been feeling in a food rut too and just turning to what I know (I feel like I may actually start to resemble a stir fry soon) and I even had some Heinz ravioli this week (although I did warm mine up!) Glad to see you're feeling back on track and with a menu like that, what a way to start!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments ladies, good to know I'm not the only one that gets in a food rut!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely feeling more inspired, so much so I'm experimenting with a new flavour for Cupcake Week!