Friday

At the front of the house.  I might use it at the top of the blog at some point but not yet, seeing as I have only just changed it.

One week gone!  Doesn't time fly when you are having a good time?  I've done loads of things but I really need to settle down to the nitty gritty of sorting out the house!  It's not in a shockingly bad state and Lenka arrives today to work her two hours of magic but there's a fair number of things that need seeing to at some point.

I had K round yesterday for dinner and a good chat and we had a grand time.  As I said yesterday, I made another version of Jack Monroe's Cola Chicken with a number of changes.
First of all I used chicken breast (didn't have any thighs and wanted to use what I had) and to make up for the lack of flavour (thighs are by far the most flavoursome part of a chicken, I think) I added half a chicken stock pot.
As well as the chicken I added onion, red pepper, mushroom and peas so it really became a one-pot meal.
I used some chorizo and some smoked paprika and I think they are a flavour made in heaven when combined with tomato.
Also I sussed that basically the recipe is equal amounts of chopped tomatoes (or it could be passata, I guess) and cola which makes life easier from the point of view of making a portion for one.
I think I will write up what I did and pop it in the other blog with all due acknowledgement.

It went down a real treat.  I made much more than I knew I would need so I have three meals to pop in the freezer too.  Excellent!

A few days ago I mentioned ordering some chicken breast fillets.  They arrived yesterday so I unpacked them with keen interest to see what sort of value they were.  Well, I was very pleasantly surprised.  The packs (I had ordered two of them) were supposed to have ten in each but, in fact, there were thirteen in each and they were a very good size too.  That's just over £1.00 each and they're big enough to do a main meal and a lunch the next day if used with vegetables in a stir fry, a casserole or as a salad ingredient so it turned out to be a most frugal purchase.  I used one of them in the cola chicken as I had already thawed out three little ones that I had in the freezer as I wasn't totally sure the order would arrive yesterday.  The rest of them are now individually bagged and nestling deep within the freezer.  That'll keep me in protein for many a week to come!

It wasn't until afterwards that I thought I could have removed the tender little fillet under each breast and frozen those separately, but I couldn't be bothered to unwrap them all and start again so I will just have to remember that next time!

Today Beth and Alex are round to do some stuff and in the afternoon I am taking a neighbour to the station.  Lenka is coming so the house should be shiny by the end of the day and I need to decide which of Jack's recipes to try next.  Decisions, decisions!