The autumn chill is something I welcome much more on an emotional level than a physical one since being diagnosed with fibromyalgia. That chill seeps into my joints like nothing else and my temperature regulation seems to finally just give up, throwing up hands and letting whatever happens, happen. I am, still, an autumn person though. Cozy socks, books about little animals acting human, a crochet blanket project and of course, the food. I'm much better at devising (and executing!) autumn/winter meals and tend to start coming undone in the summer as my gotos are too much effort in the heat or unsuitable. Hopefully with this blog acting as a little record and encouraging push to try new things, that'll change but autumn we start with.
Because I live in a neurodiverse household and live with chronic illness, cooking isn't always the balm it used to be. Planning, prepping and actually cooking (then cleaning, storing, etc) become much bigger operations when you're operating on a physical spoon budget so I tend to prep batches when possible, invest in equipment to cut down on physical activity and store as mindfully as I can using the fridge/freezer. I'm not perfect, no-one is, and there are still times when we resort to takeaway or an easily thrown together dinner of readymade tortellini and pesto.
Anyway, plenty of time to go into the living that happens around food, what did I make this past weekend?
I did split up the prep over Saturday/Sunday/Monday simply because of the current flare I'm going through. I thought about easy ways to feed ourselves first and foremost. Cost is always important but we don't overly eat out and try to cook from scratch so we tend to have a weekly spend of around £50 pounds, more if we need to do a stock up and we have costco membership which we visit infrequently and more for household items than anything else. Any food our dog needs comes from his set aside budget.
A rummage in the freezer revealed a boston pork butt (heehee) which I cooked in the slow cooker following Midwest Foodies recipe but omitted frying onions (like I said, flare) and added onion powder to the rub to make up somewhat. I shredded the meat, discarded the broth (again, flare but this was regrettable!) and made a batch of sage + onion stuffing. Along with some bake at home rolls from lidl (surprisingly good!) this has made plenty of sandwiches for us.
For breakfast/dessert options I prepped these sticky toffee baked oats with the alterations of using peanut butter instead of almond butter (cheaper) and blending the mixture entirely in my Magimix foodprocessor. This does cost some texture but for ease, I was okay with that. I ended up increasing the recipe by 1.5 to use up another banana so have frozen some portions for the second half of the month. So far, really tasty and filling! Highly recommend this.
The final prepped item was salmon and walnut pate made using a new to me ingredient (tinned salmon) which I made in my beloved Magimix using sunflower seeds instead of walnuts (since I had lots on hand, I often use them in pesto making) and less olive oil than the recipe asked for. Delicious though I'm interested in using herbs/spices next time to make some mini flavoured pots up. Been spreading this on toast and crackers.
No recipes/sources for the next couple of things, I'm afraid (one is from a youtube video I cannot find again and the other is a facebook recipe which...same) but on Sunday, PB made wildflower honey fudge after we bought some at the end of last month from a farmer's market. Very sweet! We have plenty stashed away in the fridge...and probably will be eating fudge until Christmas...
Finally, I threw together a rice pudding in the slow cooker yesterday since we had some gold top (from the fudge making) to use up. Recipe was as follows:
1 cup pudding rice
4 cups milk (any kind you like/have)
1/4 sweetener of choice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon spices of choice (ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed)
You cook it on medium (I don't have a medium setting so did high) for an hour then turn it low for three hours or so. If it starts looking dry before done, add another cup of milk (which I did). The issue really is that rice pudding does need a bit of stir and this didn't turn out to be a set it and forget it (apart from turning the temp down), it probably could have done with a good stir about half an hour in and then infrequent stirs after that as it came out a bit claggy/clumpy. I do think this is more likely down to my slow cooker simply being high or low with no medium but something to consider if you try it.
As of today there is still pulled pork left which I'm thinking of making enchiladas with tomorrow and tonight, PB is doing his famous baked potatoes with tuna + sweetcorn mayo on top. Delicious!
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