box 2

small joint of pork (800g)
beef mince (400g)
diced lamb (400g)

courgettes
swiss chard
ramiro pepper
celery
vine tomatoes

blood oranges
seedless grapes
complimentary lemon

Leftovers: potatoes, 1/4 onion, bananas, 2 cloves garlic
Additional purchases: fresh ginger, onions, garlic, pomegranate, bacon

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Spaghetti Bolognaise (sort of)

1/2 the beef mince, 1 courgette, 2 sticks celery, 1/4 onion, 3 large tomatoes
Worcestershire sauce, mixed herbs, oxo cube, tomato puree

served with spaghetti and parmesan cheese

-I like to put a lot of veg in my spag bol, partly because it stretches the meat out a lot farther and it's also healthier. I normally add bacon too, but don't have any today.

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Banana Bread

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Chinese Roast Pork

pork joint, garlic, fresh ginger
soy sauce, rice wine, chinese five spice, honey, brown sugar

-mixed all the seasonings, completely covered the joint and then put it the oven on a low temp for 2 hours total

served with courgette ribbons, ramiro pepper slices, 2 leaves chard.
with same seasonings as above, stir fried.

and rice.

-chard is less sweet than pak choi, but I treated it the same. It has a more earthy taste, but I don't mind that.
The pork was a wait, but very worth it because it turned out tender and moist and very tasty. I'm not a huge pork lover, but I do love it coupled with chinese flavours, and this was just perfect.

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Moroccan Lamb Tagine

diced lamb, garlic, fresh ginger, onion, courgette, ramiro pepper, fresh lemon juice
dates, apricots, honey, ground ginger, cumin, paprika, turmeric, allspice, cinnamon, pomegranate juice, lemon juice

served with rice and pomegranate seeds

-I love this style of cooking - using a lot of spices and fruits. The result is very rich, but so, so tasty.

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Wastage:

2 bananas
some leftover pork - I had so much of this that I just couldn't get through it all. Next time, I'll either invite someone over to share it, or cut it in half.

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Leftovers:

Half the beef mince - in the freezer
half the chard
half the celery
2 tomatos
3 blood oranges
some garlic
some ginger
2 onions

...so basically lots, but it's all still usable. =)
 
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Favourite meal of the fortnight was the roast pork. It was so, so delicious. The tagine was a close second though.
I had to buy extra stuff for the tagine, but it's actually the first time I've used it and I really wanted to try it out properly.

Landshare

Last summer I joined the website Landshare and listed my garden.

The idea of the website is that people with space in their gardens can 'lend' the space to a would-be gardener in order to grow vegetables, and then the harvest is split between the landowner and the grower. This struck me as a fantastic idea. I have a garden which I really don't use. I would love to grow veg myself but partly because of my health restrictions and partly because of laziness, I don't. There are so many people out there without gardens, sitting on allotment waiting lists and having to wait years before they can grow their own. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get any response and so, after a couple of months, I just forgot about it.

Then, last week I got a message from the site; someone had inquired about my listing! The guy in question is just a little younger than me and along with his girlfriend wants to be able to grow some fruit and veg, but doesn't have a garden. They also don't have a car, and the only available allotment they could find was too far away. Yesterday they came around to have a look at the garden and briefly chat with me and so come spring, they're going to turn part of the lawn into a veg patch!

They can't start clearing at the moment as it's buried under snow, but hopefully in a few weeks things can get started and I am looking forward to getting some real home-grown produce! I've said that I'm happy to help them, so perhaps this can also inspire me to do more myself - and start that herb garden I've been dreaming about all year!

-Hannah

2013 - box 1

Sporadic posting continues!

First box of 2013 and I got meat this time as well, as an experiment.

small joint of lamb
pork mince
diced beef

(all 500g ish)

calabrese brocoli
tomatoes on the vine
fennel bulb
lettuce
2 leeks

blood oranges
bananas

leftovers: 1 carrot, 1 onion
additionally bought: bag of potatoes, garlic bulb.


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Chinese braised pork:

half the minced pork, 1 piece garlic, small amount of the fennel
dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, five spice, salt and pepper, veg stock

served with rice and steamed brocoli

-technically there was enough for 2 meals here but it was so good, I ate it all. =D

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Roast Lamb Dinner:

the lamb joint, garlic, small amount of fennel
rosemary, mint, olive oil, lemon juice.

served with roast potatoes and steamed broccoli

-had leftovers of this the next day.

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Shepherds Pie:

leftover cooked lamb, garlic, potatoes
frozen peas, veg stock,

-I have never made shepherds pie with leftover scraps instead of mince, so this was an experience. Not really quite enough meat to make a decent pie, and could have done with more veg really, but I'm really glad I found a way to use up the leftovers... and it was enough for 2 meals.

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Leek & Fennel Soup:

both leeks, potatoes, rest of the fennel, garlic
veg stock, chicken stock, pepper, milk, black pepper

-Leek and potato soup is my favourite thing to do with leeks, and I needed to use the rest of the fennel up so decided to try putting it in the soup. I cooked everything aside from the milk and then blended it smooth. Bagged up two portions for the freezer, put a couple portions into the fridge and then mixed a small amount of milk in just before 'serving' each bowlful. I got a good 6 portions out of this, 2 of which are still in the freezer.

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Chinese Beef Stir fry:

2/3 the diced beef, carrot, half an onion
dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, chinese rice wine, sesame oil, garlic, chinese five spice

served with rice.

-I found the carrot and onion in my larder, which was lucky because I'd really run out of stuff and was considering heading to the shop. This was really tasty and I ate 2 helpings, finishing it all off.

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Mexican Chilli Beef:

1/3 the diced beef, 1/4 onion, 3 (over-ripe) tomatoes, garlic
cumin, paprika, cayenne chili pepper, tabasco sauce, tomato puree

served with rice.

-Final meal of the week and definitely just thrown together to use up leftovers. I thought this was going to be boring because of a lack of beans or any other veg, but actually it was really tasty and a spicy meal was just what I needed on a snowy day.

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Wastage:

lettuce - it sat unused in my fridge for a week and I had to throw it out. I'm terrible at using lettuce, especially in the winter. Next time I get one, I need to make an effort to use it.

half the pork mince - The plan was to use the other half to make meatballs, but I ended up cooking the lamb the next night and getting a takeaway one night and then by the time I remembered I needed to use it, it was looking and smelling suspect so I threw it away. I need to be more careful and just freeze the other half of stuff if I can't use it right away.

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Leftovers:

Most of the bananas.
1/4 onion.

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All in all, I'm actually very proud of myself. I normally end up throwing away a lot more, and I think I was really good with using up leftovers and turning the fennel into soup so it all got used.

My favourite meal of the fortnight was... ohh so tricky! I really liked most of them!! It was a really good fortnight. I don't normally make roast dinner just for me, so that was really nice. The soup was lovely, especially as it's been snowing this week, and homemade soup goes down so well on a cold day. Lots of chinese food (I had a chinese takeaway as well!) but each meal was very different, so not too samey.