Bangers, Mash and Garlic Gravy

Ahhhhh, Friday, I was officially on holiday at last and we were due to leave for a long weekend getaway on Saturday. Friday night I thought I'd make a favourite but I'd been so busy at work that I didn't have time to pick up any onions.

Rather than try a new recipe I decided to use a couple of cloves of garlic and follow the usual recipe and it was a success. Usually the garlic gets a bit lost in the onion but without the onion, it was lovely. 

Bangers, Mash, Broad Beans and Onion Gravy

This speaks for itself really. The onion gravy was as lovely as ever. We had it with some broad beans from my colleague's garden too, delicious. 

Tomato and Sausage Pasta Bake

As I had spent so long preparing dinner yesterday and I had two dinners to make tonight (tomorrow's as well as we're off to meet Paula Radcliffe at dinner time) I thought I'd go for something simple. I'd made this recipe before and it's aimed at student so it's pretty simple!

Here it is made vegetarian and slightly adapted.

(serves 4)

2 small onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tsp soy sauce
200g pasta
50g mature cheddar, grated
4 cooked vegetarian sausages, sliced (I used the new Linda McCartney Italian Style ones)

1.  Fry off the onions and garlic.
2.  Add the cans of tomatoes, bring to the boil and simmer for twenty minutes. 
3.  Cook the pasta
4. Add the soy sauce and season.
5.  Mix the pasta and tomato sauce together and spread out in an oven proof dish.
6. Scatter the sausages over the top and grate the cheese on top before grilling for 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

Barbecue on the Cliffs

We went down to Cornwall on Saturday and had a lovely time with friends at Godrevy beach. We got several barbecues going and Mr VST and I had some Linda McCartney sausages and Quorn burgers with plastic cheese, white bread rolls and ketchup, perfect!

Bangers, Mash and Onion Gravy with Braised Red Cabbage

Good old favourite.

Sausage Sandwich

Mr VST and I planned to go for a bike ride today. The weather was gloriously bright and sunny yesterday and I was hoping for more of the same today for our ride. We didn't get up early but the ground was covered in frost and the bucket of water had a thin layer of ice on top when we eventually did get up. This meant that something extraordinary was needed for breakfast to set us up for our chilly ride. Sausage sandwiches it was! We ate Linda's of course, nothing else would do. I watched them like a hawk under the grill so that I didn't do my normal trick of burning them, then cut them in half and put them in the sandwiches covered with ketchup. They were pretty good although the bread was a little thick.

Bangers, Mash, Onion Gravy and Braised Cabbage

I love, love, love this gravy and the braised cabbage. Real hearty comfort food at the end of a long week.

Bangers and Mash

I cooked for us this evening for the first time in what feels like ages! I made good old bangers and mash with onion gravy and served it with carrots and the last of the braised cabbage from the freezer.

Lunch with the in-laws

My stomach will soon be HUGE. I had my third multi-course meal in as many days for lunch today and am unable to run off the monster amount of calories due to the icy conditions. Back to low fat simple meals and no naughty snacks in January I think.

As a result of this I've only been able to drink tea and eat some gingerbread cake for dinner so I'll blog about my lunch instead.

To start we had crackers with mushroom pate and cream cheese, followed by homemade veggie sausage pizza with yummy potato skins and carrots and then apple crumble and custard to finish.

Some might think that this is a little strange. It is perfectly normal for Mr VST who is famous for his pizza and broccoli combo, now you know where he gets it from!

Jacket, beans and veggie sausage

I always find it difficult to decide what to eat when I'm on my own. It doesn't seem worth cooking and leaving loads of leftovers just for me. Mr VST always goes for something 'naughty' when he's feeding himself, usually pizza. I usually delve into the freezer. This evening I went for a jacket potato, baked beans and a Linda McCartney sausage.

I didn't always eat like this when alone. When I was a student I would make big batches of lasagne or shepherd's pie and freeze portions. What do you eat when you're cooking for one?

Bangers, Mash, Onion Gravy, Braised Cabbage and Peas

A Sunday evening feast! Absolutely delicious of course and much needed after my weekend of making an baking. My back is still aching from standing all day! My goodies look (and taste) pretty good though, I'm pleased with them. I'll post about my baileys and white chocolate and dark choc, orange and rum fudge and my cinnamon mince pies when I can.

Toad in the hole

Surely there isn't anything better than Yorkshire pudding?  I am more of a Jamie than a Delia in the kitchen but I use Delia's Yorkshire pudding recipe and it works every time. To make my mini toad in the holes I make Delia's batter and use her hot oven technique (using olive oil instead of beef dripping), I grill some Linda McCartney sausages and then cut them in half, and put them in with the batter in a Yorkshire tin.

I served them with mashed potato, Anna's onion gravy, some carrots and broccoli.

For pudding this evening it was my Mum's chocolate pudding floating in it's own sauce. I made this over the weekend and we had some of what was left this evening.

Bangers and Mash

Tonight's dinner was another classic (I must find a more imaginative term!) Linda McCartney sausages, mashed potato, peas and Anna's onion gravy (recipe on the cottage smallholder blog in links).

You can see from the photo that the gravy really is the main part of the meal!

We now eat this with a knife, fork and spoon. Mr VST licks the plate behind my back. He says that the day he doesn't lick the plate I'll know I've made a bad batch - it hasn't happened yet!



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