Hello, lovely people! It has been stormy and rainy here in Southern England. I couldn’t help but take this photo while lying in bed the other night.
I do love a good storm!
Anyway, it’s Wednesday. Last week I missed out on all the fun, but today I’m back in the game for What I Ate Wednesday and show you some of my latest dinners.
Thanks, Jenn!
Now I’m going to throw out something a bit crazy here. The following eats will win no awards. The will not appear in any great book of recipes. They don’t look pretty. They are simply random, working-week dinners that were thrown together in the midst of hunger.
People, let’s get real here: I am not a fancy blogger. Don’t get me wrong, I admire greatly all those beautiful blogs with beautiful photos and the effort and time that’s been spent on them. I truly admire that.
But this week, I’m bucking the trend. Throwing in the towel. So please, be kind in your judgements…these are just some random meals from a busy working week.
Mystery Fish Meal
I wish I could take credit for this taste sensation, but I have to thank good old Sainsbury’s supermarket. We’ve been ordering our food online recently because life has been hectic at work and the weekends and it’s just easier. Anyway, I ordered fish (just plain old river cobbler) and they gave me this instead. It’s still river cobbler but it’s got some crazy delicious bread-crumb coating. I don’t even want to think of what’s involved to make it taste so good. It can’t be good
Anyway, I had this with broad beans and roasted butternut squash. Heavenly simple.
Random Beef and Egg Meal
I think I saw a recipe months ago that was something similar to the above and then I randomly decided to give it a go. However, I’ve later found it actually involved sweet potato and not mince at all (sweet potato hash maybe?). HOWEVER this was exceptionally tasty for all it’s randomness. For kicks here’s the recipe (it may not be the prettiest meal in the world, or the best titled but it tasted goood!).
Random Beef and Egg Meal (serves 2)
- White onion, diced
- Clove of garlic, diced
- 400g minced/ground lean beef
- Grated zucchini
- 2 medium grated mushrooms
- 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- Crumbled beef stock cube
- 1 tbsp. tomato puree
- Mixed herbs (oregano, rosemary, basil)
- 2 eggs
– Pre-heat oven to 190C. Fry onion and garlic for 5 minutes, add beef, zucchini and mushrooms (the grated mushrooms was an idea I got from the lovely Jessie – GENIUS. Ben didn’t even realise and he hates mushrooms. Haha those vitamins snuck right in and he didn’t notice). Fry until beef has browned.
– Add Worcestershire sauce, stock cube, tomato puree and herbs.
– Transfer to an over-proof dish (e..g casserole dish) and then make two small holes at either end and crack an egg in each.
– Put in oven for around 15 minutes (until the eggs have cooked).
Egg and Beef Mess
I had some mince left over, I had a lot of eggs, and I had some veg. I threw it all together. New favourite scrambled egg meal right there. And seriously filling. Three eggs, 100g minced/ground beef, veg. You know it makes sense.
Chicken and Cream Cheese
This meal is such a staple meal for me. Chicken is one of my favourite meats and I adore cream cheese. Basically there’s a lot of veg (this time onion, zucchini and mushrooms), chicken and cream cheese with a tablespoon of tomato puree and lots of spices. Easy and quick thrown together in a pan and cooked through.
You could argue that the majority of my meals are never that ‘pretty’ or creative. You’d have a good point
I do tend to put a lot of (highly unnecessary) pressure on myself to create elaborate, ground-breaking meals and post them on my blog in beautifully edited photos with a well-written recipe below. But sometimes, I’m just tired. Sometimes I honestly can’t be bothered. That’s not to say I don’t care. I just don’t always have the time.
So please forgive me this week, I will endeavour to do better
What’s your random, easy meal this week?
Do you cook every single day? Unless we go out or order in, I will always cook a meal – the degree of cooking involved varies though (see above
As a blogger, do you feel pressurised to upload great recipes and meals all the time?
I am with you on the internet shopping too (plus I spend waaaay less when I shop online- I am so easily tempted by things in the shops)- I know what you mean about the beautiful photos on other blogs (I have a tea towel with butterflies on- that’s as fancy as my prettying up photos gets). Most of my meals aren’t really recipes, just a collection of things. On Monday I had been out for afternoon tea (for lunch) so just had a salad for dinner with spinach, beetroot, tofu and maybe something else. I think I took a photo too 🙂
Yep definitely – I always see those extra unnecessary things when walking around the supermarket.
Your cakes (and meals) always look amazing and always make me think I should get back into baking. In fact, this weekend I’m considering whipping up a cake…we’ll see!!
Eggs & Beef? Say what!! I would never of thought to combine those two. Will have to give it a try one of these days. Thanks for sharing so many great ideas 🙂
I appreciate your enthusiasm for my humble meals, Jessie, hehe.
Ahh I get this totally (although I think the pressure is self-imposed, as really, your blog should be about what YOU want it to be – people don’t have to read it if they aren’t interested in that particular post) – and I think it’s great that you are breaking the mould 🙂
Most of my self-imposed pressure revolves around posting to a regular and predictable timetable…but I’ve had to break that the past few months as I just haven’t had the time – I feel really guilty about it actually – but something had to give!
You’re so right when you say that about it being my blog. It’s true, I shouldn’t try and conform to something I’m clearly not. But I do envy a lot of those very beautiful blogs!
Ahh but life happens and timetables shift – don’t beat yourself up about it. If you didn’t live to the full you wouldn’t be able to write about anything interesting 🙂
I love your beef and egg idea. I like to oput a fried egg on top of chilli sometimes with some sliced avocado on the side.
Ooh now there’s a good idea, avocado as well! Eggs and avocados are a match made in heaven.
I appreciate you “keeping it real.” I actually get tired of looking at gorgeous food photos all of the time because they just don’t seem real. Like, no one’s bowl of oatmeal looks that freaking perfect everyday. 🙂
That breaded chicken looks pretty great. I think the idea of ordering online sounds really convenient. I bet it’s great when you’re busy!
I always put a crock pot on with a chicken every night and cook my soup for every meal, but it’s pretty automatic now so I don’t think too much of it.
Hahaha yes about the oatmeal!! Surely by the time you get to eat the food it’s cold because of the faffinf with the photo?? Hehe.
I reeeeaaally need to get my slow cooker out of the cupboard and use it…it’s on my to-do list hehe.
I think I’m exactly like you: I very rarely post recipes as I think none of my meals are ground breaking, I just throw a load of ingredients together! Plus I’m lazy and hate writing out recipes, so I figure why force myself! Lovely looking eats! (And damn I meant to take part in this weeks WIAW, but only realised it was Wednesday at about 11am… ooooops!)
I always love your meals because they’re so simple and ‘thrown together’. You always have delicious looking salads and dinners. I always look for recipes that are simple and don’t have an ingredients list longer than a short novel. Who’s got the time for that with a full-time job!
Ive been LOVING the one pot meals as of late. Like seriously just throw it all in a pan to cook or the crockpot. Its my favorite way to cook when the weather heats up like it has!
Yes definitely with you on one-pot meals! 🙂
I think your meals are creative!! Like the chicken with cream cheese/ tomato puree & the beef with an egg in it. I would have never thought to make either. & Seriously, all your recipes I’ve tried are amazing too!
Thanks Jessie, you’re lovely!
I’m totally with you on speedy meals. I get quite stressed out if I try to cook up elaborate stuff every day, so I stick to the basics and cook now and again which I enjoy. I do cook most days, but sometimes leftovers are a winner! Stir fry is probably my favourite easy meal.
Ahh left-overs, yes! And I’ve been loving stir-fries lately (especially with the ready to go vegetables you can buy haha). Sometimes life is just too stressful to rock out with crazy recipes every day.
Hehe, love this! That beef and egg meal sounds and looks great! I do tend to cook pretty much every day, I try and make it an enjoyable experience when I can!
I love that “try and make it an enjoyable experience”. I’m with you on that. It sucks when it’s stressful! Usually if I’m back from work late…
This is usually how I cook on weekdays too! If I didn’t have a job and a million other things to do I’m sure I could come up with some awesome fancy dinner creations…but that’s not the way life works! I love the look of all of these though (even if they’re not so pretty, like you said) because they look so delicious!
Yeah life just gets in the way sometimes but it’s not always about the presentation!