Day fourteen - Saturday 14th Feb

Holy crap, it's Valentines Day! I know it's a a cliche but it's one that I truly believe is founded in reality; men, in general, do not plan for Valentines day. Birthdays? No problem. Christmas? Can't forget that one. Anniversary? Chances are good we'll put that in our phone calendar. But Valentines Day? Not a bloody chance. This is not an excuse.  We all know that despite differing expectations, two people must make allowances on occasion and this is one such occasion. Such a conclusion puts me at a distinct disadvantage as I had not a) planned a surprise or b) in fact planned anything. Mrs P is pretty easy going most of the time but one thing she does expect is a bit of effort every now and then. I therefore had a problem.

As you have no doubt seen from the shopping list, I had pretty much run out of cash for anything other than a Happy Meal at McDonalds and if I was to stay within the rules of the experiment and also deliver something that Mrs P would appreciate I had to get creative. First and foremost, I'm no quitter so I had to find some cash from somewhere and I decided to borrow it. This is not as controversial as it may seem because as this is Saturday and I would usually do my shopping for next week today, I decided to borrow the cash from the next seven days. Therefore the additional items will count against this week - it's not ideal and I agree that it is self-defeating in the long term if you keep doing it but life is full of these twists. It's how you deal with them that really matters. There can be no doubt that I've gone over for this week which I have to recognise, but then I would argue that it was done in a manageable way.

I feel quite positive actually because looking at the fridge I can see loads of potential and with the meal plan below I actually feel like we are getting more flexible towards the end of the month not less. The more we plan in those larger meals gives us more leftover/recycled meals later on which means less shopping and more flexibility.

Anyway, back to today - Breakfast was no great shakes - has anyone noticed that you can't really get bored with toast? Lunch was crispy risotto balls from earlier in the week and tasty they were too. Admittedly these don't look too much like balls but they tended to resist coming away from the bottom of the pan and we're not fussy!  They may not look pretty but they tasted... Great!

Dinner  was a series of very simple flavours all combined to a serious end result. Something special without spending a completely mental amount of cash? How does grilled lamb chops and rack of lamb with garlic, mash and spinach with pine nuts sound, followed by salted caramel popcorn pots? Yeah, that's the way we roll!

First we made up a crust - as we had a distinct lack of herbs we cooked off some spinach and blitzed it with salt/pepper, roasted garlic, the last bread roll, pine nuts, the last drops of juice from our lemon and a blob of butter. Then the rack of lamb was browned off at the top and the crust was layered on before going in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

Some left over mash was heated up and the chops were studded with garlic and grilled. The pine nuts were toasted and added to the spinach when they had sweated down and we used the grill pan juices when the lamb was resting to make the gravy. We ended up surprisingly stuffed. One thing has become very apparent as we lie like beached whales on the sofa: we didn't need so much lamb!!!

Pudding started life as 2 parts double cream to one part milk, heated and infused with toffee popcorn before being strained out. Then cooled and mixed with a couple of sheets of gelatine. The caramel was mixed with sea salt to and the two were layered in a glass before being put in the fridge. I think it's fair to say that the desert was a game of two halves, on the one hand it was a soft, silky, popcorn flavoured hug on a spoon, and on the other the non dissolved pieces of gelatine reminded Mrs P of... well, let's just say that it reminded her of something very specific, and unpleasant. I've got to work on that.

Yeah, I put more popcorn on the top to make it look snazzy.  All in all a great tea... on the cheap.  BUT don't tell Mrs P that!  

On to the plan for next week: 

Sunday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - roast pork and trimmings
Dinner - leftovers/sandwiches

Monday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - Tomato soup and roll
Dinner - Left overs

Tuesday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - Wrap
Dinner - Cottage pie

Wednesday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - Soup and bread rolls
Dinner - Bacon, and garlic spaghetti

Thursday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - Wrap
Dinner - Pork chops, mash & veg

Friday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - salad/sandwich
Dinner - Mussels and samphire

Saturday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - salad/sandwich
Dinner - Birthday party!

 I'll update the shopping list tomorrow when I go and get everything but things should be OK. Even though it's half term and we're expecting additional kids at many, varied and unexpected times during the week, I'm generally optimistic at the above but time will tell!