Off girly shopping today - that'll cost me!

1st June 2015

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.  Bertrand Russell

The first of the sixth month of the year, almost half way through 2015, is my life speeding up, where has this year gone!  I must say realising my job is not just a place I go to work but a passion, it combines all my interests into a paid hobby and that's just awesome, it also means that when I'm not working, I can justify sitting around doing sod all!  That's what I've decided anyway, that it is okay to lay about at the weekend if that's what I fancy doing, I no longer have to feel guilty for being lazy, so once I'd done my paperwork and finished at my desk about noon, that's more or less what I did all day besides stopping to cook food.  

We had the Rogan Josh from the spice tailor range, yet again another really tasty sauce and one I'd buy again, and you can order them directly from their website http://www.thespicetailor.com/Sauces although you do have to spend £20 to get free delivery, but at £2.95 a sauce that won't be difficult.  I want to try the butter chicken, I adored the Mangalore herb one and I like the look of the spinach one, although it says out of stock at the moment.  I've just checked Waitrose and they are 25% off on their website, nice, time to stock up I thinks.

I often buy potatoes then don't get round to using them, so yesterday I looked for a recipe to use them up, I was thinking of making mash and freezing it, instead I made these, so my food plan tea changed from actifry chip butty but I still used the potatoes which was my plan!  

Cottage pie cakes

Prep: 15 mins Cook: 20 mins Plus chilling

Makes 6, 8pp each.

These rostis with beef mince are great for using up leftover mashed potato and are ideal for a family supper

Ingredients

400g pack Extra lean beef mince (5% fat), raw (13pp)

1 beef stock cube

50g plain flour (5pp)

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (1pp)

140g frozen peas (3pp)

450g leftover mashed potato (9pp)

2 eggs, beaten (4pp)

85g dried breadcrumbs (8pp)

vegetable oil, for frying (1 tbsp = 4pp)

baked beans, to serve (3tbsp = 2pp)

Heat a large frying pan until hot. Dry-fry the mince until browned, breaking it up with a fork. Crumble in the stock cube and 1 tbsp of the flour, and mix well. Add the Worcestershire sauce and peas, and mix well to combine.

Tip the mince mixture into a bowl and cool a little, before stirring in the mash and shaping into 6 cakes. Dust the cakes in the remaining flour, then dip them into the egg, then the crumbs. Chill for at least 10 mins, longer if you have time.

Heat the oil in a large pan. Fry the cakes for 3-4 mins each side, until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper. Season with a little salt and serve with baked beans.

Tip - Short of time or want to save ProPoints? Just dust the cakes in the flour, forgetting the egg and crumbs, then cook as above – no need to chill. Dinner can be on the table in about 30 mins and the cakes are now 6pp each, unless you use more flour which is 5pp per 100g.

They were very tasty and really easy to make.  I made mine without the breadcrumbs because I didn't have any and I'm not that much of a fan to be honest.  I do love mash though and love the idea of potato cakes, other suggestions for making them are combining them with fish – smoked haddock, trout, kippers and salmon work well. Alternatively, use shredded ham, black pudding, chorizo, or corned beef, then bind with a little flour and shallow fry. 

I'm looking forward to today, I'm off out with my favourite young lady girly shopping then meeting her mom, my bestie for some lunch, the fact I've lost 1.5lb this week will motivate me to make a wise-ish meal choice and not go mad, yes I've finally lost the weight I gained last time me and my bestie spent time together!  I may be losing slowly but at least it's coming off and not going up, 5lb in total since March, less than 1/2lb a week on average but I'm okay with that, I know it would be more if I tracked and stayed within my ProPoints, I'm going with the one tweak a week idea, more water, more fruit, less snacking.  My tweak the last week has been swapping my breakfast for a nutribullet drink, they're suprisingly filling and zero ProPoints if they only have fruit, veg and water in them, which means I get to save a few ProPoints and hopefully are getting closer to the allowance I should be having!

Tonight's tea might have to be those cottage pie potato cake things again, the fish finger thin on my food plan can be kept for another time, it's good to have options even if I opt for a different meal. 

Right I'm starting to ramble and it's only Monday, so I'll get off.  Here's to making it an epic week, apparently we finally have hot weather on its way from Wednesday according to the reports, we live in hope.