What we ate last week: Birthday week and pulled pork.

A few days late on this one, what with last week being our 5 year wedding anniversary, my birthday and a bank holiday weekend life has been a little busy. Coupled with a week of beautiful sunshine. We had been busy out and about visiting friends and places and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Saturday: anniversary dinner at The Ramblers Rest

5 years ago I married my husband. 5 years that have passed. And usually we don't do much, what with having the boys and being as busy as we are. This weekend my mil offered to watch them so we could head out for dinner. We head to a restaurant we have been meaning to try for ages, and we were not disappointed. I had a yummy lobster roll with a thermodoire dip and the husband had an epic confit duck leg on top of waffle with sweet potato fries. Well worth it. Even if the little one missed us so much he sat up waiting for us...

Sunday: Christening day

It's so lovely to be part of a family and group of friends that have families which are growing. And we get to share in these celebrations. We donned our finest clothes, scrubbed up well and went to give thanks and love to a new little man. We are well on curry, rice, patties and of course some cupcakes.

Monday: roast chicken with brown rice spinach and mange tout

In an attempt to be a bit healthier during the week and feed our bodies with some good stuff I will be trying to limit carbohydrates intake and switch in more brown or whole meal. Today's healthy switch was a whole roasted chicken - simple season in and some lemon juice. The brown rice I cooked in some chicken stock on the stove. Once it was fully absorbed and soft I added the vegetables (a mix of mange tout and spinach) straight into the pan and left it on low to steam. Mix a little salt and pepper. It was really filling. Some of the shredded chicken on top of the rice.

Tuesday: peppers & beef steak with sweet potato mash

We quite often buy the thin cut beef steak as an alternative to buying larger steak pieces. These cook quickly and offer the same taste. I softened up some onions and added some peppers to the pan – before chopping up the steak before adding into the pan to brown off and cook down. Lowering the pan heat down and adding some liquid to the pan with a stock cube. Leaving that to simmer I added some large sweet potatoes to oven to bake to make a lazy sweet potato mash. Before piling the meat onto of a soft sweet mash.

Wednesday: my birthday!! Steak and chips and dessert..

Yes the 24^th August is my birthday (even though I have been celebrating all week) but my actual birthday and my parents took me and the boys (the husband couldn’t make due to the hours he works – but he did bake my cake while we were out?!) This happened to be the hottest day and the pub was sticky and the kids were grumpy – the service was not the best, but the food was decent. A nice steak with chips for me while the boys dined on burger and waffles before a chocolate ice cream sundae. I had a panacotta cheesecake slice for dessert. It was rather delicious.

Thursday: pulled pork brown rice & vegetable

Time to get the slow cooker to work and pork joints are one of my favourite things to cook in it. It always produces yummy meat which is so versatile in uses. Today’s joint I added some onions, some BBQ sauce and some soy sauce with a sprinkling of spicy seasoning before leaving it on low all day. The meat cooked slow and was shredded and sticky. Steaming some brown rice and with some added iron rich vegetables of spinach and broccoli. It was a filling bowl dinner with plenty of leftovers for the next day.

Friday: leftover pulled pork & sweet potato hash, with a fried egg and avocado

In attempt to do something more than just reheat the pork from yesterday I headed to the cookbooks and was inspired by a pulled pork hash recipe in Jamie Oliver’s Comfort Food cookbook and made a hash with carrots, sweet potatoes and onions. Cooking them in a pan, then removing 2/3 of the dish and mashing it up roughly. Combining it back with the chunkier pieces and cooking down. Add the leftover pulled pork which has been roughly chopped. We had a bowl of the hash with a fried egg and sliced avocado on top. It was a really quite quick and yummy Friday night dinner.