A week's menu

A reader asked recently if I'd write a post about what we eat during the week. I'm happy to do that but I think you'll see by our list that we're plain and simple people. I always cook from scratch and I tend to cook in a similar way to my mother and grandmother. We do have the occasional meal they wouldn't have known how to cook, but they're rare and I feel most comfortable with old-fashioned foods.

If you're still learning to cook, I've written a post here about developing flavour in food without adding anything artificial. I believe it's best to understand how flavours work together and how food cooks than to follow a recipe to the letter. If you have that deeper understanding, you'll be able to expand beyond your recipes and create meals that suit your family and your budget while getting the best from the food.

We usually have the same lunch - homemade bread sandwiches with salad, plus either cheese, tuna, salmon or boiled egg. Once a week we'll have scones instead of bread. We drink either tea or a cold cordial or water. I won't keep repeating that in the list below.

MONDAY
Morning
Tea and toast

Night
Macaroni and cheese with garden salad. Made enough for two nights.
Orange buttermilk cake

TUESDAY
Morning
Fried eggs on toast and tea

Night
Macaroni and cheese with garden salad
Orange buttermilk cake with buttermilk ice cream

WEDNESDAY
Morning
Scrambled eggs with herbs on toast and tea

Night
Homemade pizza with cheese, tomato, mushrooms, caramelised onions on top, and a beer
Fresh peaches

THURSDAY
Morning
Baked beans on toast and tea

Night
Boiled eggs with fresh garden salad and potatoes
Buttermilk ice cream with a spoon of freshly made strawberry jam on top

FRIDAY
Morning
Crumpets and honey with tea

Night
Fresh snapper (fish) with potato salad and garden salad
Yoghurt with strawberries

SATURDAY
Morning
Boiled eggs and toast soldiers, and tea

Night
Beef stew with mashed potatoes and wax beans - made enough for two nights

SUNDAY
Baked beans on toast, and tea

Night
Beef stew with herb dumplings. The recipe for beef stew is in the developing flavours link above.
Canned peaches and ice cream

As you can see our vegetables were mostly in the form of salads and potatoes. We don't have much growing at the moment but this will improve when we do our big March planting. We still have potatoes from the last harvest, golden nugget pumpkins, wax beans, bok choi, lettuce, cucumbers, capsicum (peppers) and herbs, so our meals are fashioned around what we have produced. The salads are supplemented with home preserved beetroot and bread and butter cucumbers. I am buying tomatoes and onions at the moment.

So, there you have it. It's not fancy but it's usually fresh and delicious and it keeps us going. We are both pretty healthy. Hanno takes medication for high blood pressure but I'm not on any medication. I hope you get some ideas for your own meals from this meagre sample. Cooking from scratch, especially if you have fresh produce, is a very healthy way to cook.

ADDITION: Margaret has written a post about setting up a buddy system to help people learn how to carry out various household tasks, It's well worth a read.

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