Economy Gastronomy and the Secret Housewife...

I wonder if you have been watching the tv programme Economy Gastronomy? It is on BBC1 on Wednesdays and I absolutely love it!! I even went and bought the cook book and have been regaling my family with meals from it each day... whether they like them or not.

The idea behind the show is that you should plan your week's menus and start with one main meal, from which you cook " tumbledown meals". For example, this Sunday just gone I cooked a yummy roast chicken and then picked the carcass clean, using the leftover meat for pollo con arroz ( chicken and rice to those of you, like me, not fluent in Espagnol)for the next day. I also cooked up the remaining carcass to make chicken stock.

You end up knowing exactly what you are going to cook each day, removing the whole " standing in front of the fridge thinking oh God, what shall we have for tea tonight" thang.The food is easy to cook and absolutely, bloody delicious!!You also end up saving loads of money as you only buy what you need and avoid the whole impulse buy and chuck half of it away lottery. Yesterday I made Pasta Garganelli which consisted of pasta, broccoli, peas, olive oil and a dressing made from fresh herbs, mustard, garlic, lemon juice and zest.I now possess a window sill bursting with said fresh herbs.Being able to zing up a tasty dressing from my own freshly picked produce makes me feel like a proper chef!


Each Saturday I am making fresh bread, the excess of which I freeze for the rest of the week.I am feeling like an excellent mother and wife!! Although we did have both ends of the culinary scale tonight as son#1 took one look at my Pasta e Fagioli and declared he would make himself packet noodles.Husband and I sat eating fresh pasta with cannellini beans, tomatoes and parmesan, while the boy sat with a bowl full of chemicals...Still, you can't win them all and at least I am trying.Kids, eh.... they just don't appreciate how bloody marvelous I am...