I Tried to Make a Good Meal Every Day for a Week
Being honest here, I am not a good cook. I can manage a good few bakes; cupcakes, biscuits and other such sweet delights but when it comes to actual food – I am useless. So, one cold and blustery week in November I decided to try and cook a good, relatively well-balanced meal every day (Sunday – Friday). I chose to start on a Sunday as it is my flatmate and I’s traditional food shop day, and I wanted to start on a day I would be motivated to cook. In terms of the money spent, my shop came to just under £25, however, I wouldn’t read into this too much as I bought a bunch of necessities like shampoo and baking ingredients that will last me far longer than the week I am documenting.
To start the week off, I sat down and wrote a menu of everything I wanted to eat that week being careful to take note of the page numbers of the recipes that are in my recipe book. Here is a picture of that menu, stuck upon my kitchen cupboard:
Sunday – Bean Meatballs and Spaghetti
After my weekly shop I was feeling motivated to make some good food, so decided on quite an involved recipe. The meatless meatballs we made with kidney beans, breadcrumbs, red pepper, garlic, onion and, a whole bunch of spices and herbs to give it some flavour. I made a quick tomato sauce, boiled some spaghetti and voila! I had a delicious meal, that was actually relatively healthy before I smothered it in cheddar.
Monday – Sausage Pie and Cinnamon Rolls
I got up early Monday morning and made cinnamon rolls for my flatmates, which went down a treat. I think throughout the whole week this was my biggest accomplishment.
Tonight was Guy Fawkes night, and I was heading to the fireworks, so I chose a meal that seemed relatively quick and easy. Boiling potatoes in a pot and frying onion, garlic and leeks in a pan to begin with I added sausages to this mix with vegetable stock and added it to a glass dish. After being sprinkled with cheese the dish went in the oven for 15 minutes. Although it doesn’t look the prettiest, this meal was very flavourful and warming, which helped prepare me for standing at the cold beachfront to watch the fireworks.
Tuesday – Fajitas
Consisting of peppers onions and Quorn pieces (i.e. fake chicken) these were a dream. Although I must admit that I didn’t have that big of a hand in creating them (Shout out to Kat), you really cannot go wrong with some spicy fajitas. And they were super spicy but super tasty – and combined with some cheese and salsa, it was a full proof meal.
Wednesday- Creamy Kale Pasta
Although not the healthiest, because of the cheese and cream content, this pasta is truly scrumptious. Including half a bag of curly Kale, green pesto, onion and garlic and, finished with a squeeze of lemon juice this meal was rich, delicate and delicious. This is one of my favourite meals of the week and one that I am definitely going to make again.
Thursday- Vegetable Curry
Stealing my flatmate’s dad’s recipe, we decided to make a vegetable curry with potato, cauliflower, red bell pepper, tomatoes, and coconut milk. Served with rice and naan this is a firm favourite of mine and one that I will be forcing my flatmate to make it again and again.
Friday- I Failed
I’m not proud, but dominoes called and I answered. After a long day of going to one 9am and having one solitary meeting, I was (very easily) convinced that stodgy pizza and wedges are what I needed to get me through to the weekend. I don’t even have a picture to show you I am that ashamed of my decision.
Overall, this was an interesting experience, although more time consuming, I really enjoyed cooking these meals and I definitely try to make more effort to make better choices when it comes to food. I feel pretty good about my week of cooking, despite my Friday failure.
All images are Iona’s own.