I made you a cookie...

Excitement! Excitement! Another Follower (or should that be two followers, as it's Jane-and-Chris?! Actually, as they have thirteen cats -thirteen?! We think that 4 is possibly too many! - maybe I have 15 new followers!) Anyway, however many you are, Welcome and I hope you find something to interest you.

I'm not going to make cookies today - I made some for a new "incomer" to the area on Monday. They weren't that good I made Oat and Apple cookies, but I'm not sure I cooked them for long enough. They tadted a bit undercooked and were very crumbly. However I am going to make Hairy Lemon Drizzle cupcakes.  But I'm going to use the recipe to make a tray bake, rather than cup cakes, which means that I can cut the bake into more portions (I'm hoping to get 16 out of the quantity) making them less calorific.(125 calories each instead of 167) I haven't got blueberries either, so I'll use raisins - but fewer of them. In fact, a quick calculation tells me that the100g of blueberries in the recipe gives you 57 calories. To match that, I can only use 25g of raisins! Hardly worth the effort!! Still, I'll see what 25g of raisins looks like and then decide.
 
Despite saying last week that it would be a small shop, I still managed to spend almost 100€ in bits. And that doesn't include the 312€ excess I had to pay to have the bumped door replaced on the car. It's done now. Mr FD is pleased because the car got valeted inside and out, so it has a shiny clean smell about it. I suppose I ought to clear out all the sweetie wrappers now! We ate a lot from cupboard and freezer, but somehow I still found myself buying a lot. Last week, when I blogged, I wasn't sure what I was going to buy for dinner tomorrow; ShCarrefour had an offer on Red Label chickens (that's the label to show that they are humanely raised) so I bought a big corn fed one. I'm going to try cooking it in the slow cooker tomorrow - never done it before, but I've seen it recommended in several places. However, I think I'll use a lemon rather than the orange that the blogger used. I love lemon and herb chicken! I'll slow cook some potatoes too, wrapped in foil at the bottom of the slow cooker, for the chicken to rest on. 

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For the rest of the week...
MONDAY - I've taken a box of vegetable curry from the freezer. We'll have that, with some left over chicken added, and some rice.

TUESDAY - Chicken and mushroom pasta. Made up recipe, but I think it will consist of:

•  sauté a chopped onion and a couple of cloves of garlic in a tsp of oil. Add some chopped mushrooms. 
• Cook pasta. 
• Meanwhile add a tbsp of pesto, some chopped chicken and a tbsp of reduced fat creme fraiche to the onion mixture. 
• When the pasta is cooked, tip into the sauce and mix well. Add a shaving or two of parmesan and enjoy!

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WEDNESDAY - Mr FD made a very nice merguez-and-rice-sort-of-chilli last week, while I was out carousing with Cathy and Alison. There was (just) enough for two portions to go in the freezer. I think we will have that tonight. I might make some garlic bread to go with it, if there isn't enough.

THURSDAY - Hairy salmon with chilli and ginger sauce I don't have, and won't be buying, ginger in syrup, but I will "busk" with the ingredients I've got to make something similar. I'll also use the chicken carcase to make soup for supper. But then, you probably don't need telling that, do you?

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FRIDAY - I think I might make a chorizo, pepper and onion frittata to have with salad and maybe some Slimming World spicy potato wedges. I've got half a chorizo sausage in the fridge, so that should be okay.

SATURDAY - I think I might make a pizza for tonight. If I can use pizza dough to make a reduced calorie pie, why not use it to make a pizza?! So, vegetable and lower calorie mozzarella pizza for tonight, with more salad. Mmmmmm. I'm already looking forward to it!

SUNDAY - Pizza for lunch, and then for dinner we'll go for Hairy Beef and Ale casserole - using 500ml dark ale for 6 people, plus 1 kg braising steak, onions, parsnips and carrots I think this will be very tasty. 

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Although the cost for the meat will be quite high, I will get 3 meals-worth for 2 people from it, so it shouldn't be a problem. I think I will cook it in the slow cooker and then portion it out, putting  sliced cooked potatoes on top. That way, it can be frozen as a complete meal and, when I warm it through, the potatoes will crisp up in the oven.

PS You may remember I had an already opened tin of French baked beans to use, which I wasn't sure quite how to use. I finally used all the scrag end of veggies from the fridge bottom and the beans to make a thick soup. Which was very well received by Mr FD and has given us some very hearty lunches.