This was an unusual dinner week here in the Bumbles House, I went back to work leaving the kids home with Dad for three days, and him in charge in the kitchen. It went well, so I’m happy to share 🙂 Here’s what we ate.
Monday
Chicken Bacon and Leek Pilaff
I spotted this Paul Flynn Lidl recipe in the paper in Mam’s and had all the ingredients at home except the mango chutney so decided to try it. I loved the texture and flavours and I’ll use the cooking method with lots of different combinations. The kids ate theirs without the mango chutney and sour cream sauce. It looked a bit anaemic so I served it with steamed broccoli and green beans to up the veg quantity, the kids mostly ignored the veg.

Tuesday
Chorizo pasta bake
Yes, another Paul Flynn Lidl recipe, I mentioned this a few weeks ago and thought it would become a regular on our menu and it has. We had garlic bread with it as the sauce is delicious to dip, if you haven’t tried this recipe already give it a go.
Wednesday
Chili con carne (by the Daddy of House)
A lovely warm comforting dinner awaited me when I got in from my first day back to work a big bumble of rice and a rich Chile con Carne. Laoise (10 months) couldn’t get enough of the meat and the boys always love this and think that maybe Daddy’s is nicer than Mammy’s. Controversial.
Thursday
Fajitas
The boys love assembling their own dinner so fajitas are an instant hit. They prefer the Extra Mild (blue) old El Paso pack to anything I ever make myself so that’s what Dad had ready for us on Thursday evening, with cheese, tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce on the table.
Friday
Sausage bean and leek casserole with mash
This is one of my own favourites, and after 3 days at work I hoovered it up. There was a minor complaint from Ciarán about leeks but they were picked out and dinner eaten.
Saturday
Pasta Pesto
The boys’ favourite, I was too lazy to jazz it up so we all had the simple pasta pesto after an afternoon at the playcentre.
Giant fusili pasta that we picked up in Lidl during their Italian week sparked a dinner table debate as to whether it was made BY giants or FOR giants. The result was inconclusive. I used the Aldi fresh pesto from the chiller and was very impressed with the taste. There were clean plates all round so we had choc ice bars to celebrate.

Sunday
Duck with orange sauce, rosemary potatoes and steamed broccoli, baby corn and green beans.
Fancy or what? The kids had sausages instead of the duck! I loved this, the duck and sauce came from Supervalu own brand fancy range, (the name escapes me) and I would buy it again.
That was our week, what was yours like? I mentioned that I was planning to get everyone sharing their week’s dinners – here’s the info on that, please do share it, I’d love to get as many real dinners as possible featured, as fancy or as plain as they are. Don’t worry about what you had planned to eat, this is more about what actually happens, and is less about showing off and more about showing.
And to see all the entries so far click on the BLUE FROG at the bottom of this post.
If you don’t have a blog and would like to take part you can either add your list of dinners to the comments in this post, or email me bumblesofrice AT gmail.com and I can publish yours (with your permission and you credited of course) on a roundup blogpost.
Bloggers, click on the blue frog below to add your link to the linky (I really hope it works) If you’d like to add my badge (ooh, a badge) to your blogpost feel free to copy it and link back to this post.
Nice! I forgot about the chorizo pasta – made it a few weeks ago when you mentioned it and everyone loved it – will line it up for this friday. I will definitely do the linky – great idea!!
Great, welcome aboard Office Mum!
I’ll add mine in over the weekend. Great idea!
Ok – just did the meal plan and the food shop for the week yesterday so here it is :-
Monday
Chilli Beef Stir Fry with Basmati Rice
Adapted from a BBC Good Food Recipe
Tuesday
Baked Salmon Fillet with Green Beans, Pesto & Feta with Baby Potatoes
Adapted from a Jamie Recipe
Wednesday
Chicken Korma
Jamie Recipe
Thursday
Same as Wednesday as will make enough for 2 nights and Con will be out that night
Friday
Homemade Pizza
Saturday
We will be at a Family gathering in Wicklow so no cooking
Sunday
Dinner for 2 !
Louisianna Crabcakes
Taken from BBC Good Food
BBQ Tuna Steaks
Adapted from a Delia Recipe
Rhubarb Crumble with Homemade Custard
Rhubarb Recipe taken from the card attached to the Rhubarb in Tesco
Custard Recipe from Delia
Monday
Meatballs in a Spicy Tomato Sauce
My own Recipe
btw will come back next Tuesday and let you know how the plan compared to reality ! Mostly it’s pretty close but will be a good experiment now that I have actually written it all down 🙂
Oh great I have mine nearly ready 😉
This is a great idea! I just need to make sure I do some proper cooking 🙂
Great idea-it’s influencing me to get cooking!Have gotten very bad lately.Getting nothing done with a clingy baby who’s stuck to me all day-but I’m not complaining too much! 😉
Can’t wait to see them Aedín
Ok – so here’s how the week went in reality :-
Monday
Chilli Beef Stir Fry with Basmati Rice
Adapted from a BBC Good Food Recipe
I love this recipe. It’s v easy and quick to make. It is spicy but both Con & I love it. Amalia (aged 4) won’t eat it (she is extremely fussy) and Brendan (aged 7) is not really a fan either though he did eat it. He gave it a 4 out of 10 – a la My Kitchen Rules Australia !
Tuesday
Baked Salmon Fillet with Green Beans, Pesto & Feta with Baby Potatoes
Adapted from a Jamie Recipe
Another easy one – good for mid-week. This time I got a 10 out of 10 from Brendan 🙂
Wednesday
Chicken Korma
Jamie Recipe
Slightly more time-consuming to make but a favourite in this house. Amalia ate some with copious quantities of Greek Yogurt. 9 out of 10 from Brendan !
Thursday
Same as Wednesday as will make enough for 2 nights and Con will be out that night
As above
Friday
Homemade Pizza
Winner in this house. I make 4 Pizza Bases and then everyone custom-designs their own toppings ! 10 out of 10 from Brendan with Amalia loving her special “4 Cheese Pizza” !
Saturday
We will be at a Family gathering in Wicklow so no cooking
We had lunch early so when we got home we put 2 very exhausted kids to bed and Con made an Omlette – Smokey Bacon and Mushroom – Yum !
Sunday
Dinner for 2 !
Louisianna Crabcakes
Taken from BBC Good Food
BBQ Tuna Steaks
Adapted from a Delia Recipe
Rhubarb Crumble with Homemade Custard
Rhubarb Recipe taken from the card attached to the Rhubarb in Tesco
Custard Recipe from Delia
Sunday did not go according to plan. I wasn’t feeling v well and wasn’t really up to a 3 course dinner so we decided to scrap the Dinner for 2 idea and have Family Dinner instead which Con made. Pasta Carbonara and Garlic Toast – one of my all time favourite comfort dinners 🙂 Amalia ate some and Brendan complained about the Mushrooms in it but ate it.
Monday
Meatballs in a Spicy Tomato Sauce
My own Recipe
We went ahead with the Dinner for 2 which was meant for Sunday !
Crabcakes turned out well but probably had too little breadcrumb in them – still v v tasty. The Tuna was yummy and was served with Homemade chips which I cut and Con cooked as well as the Tuna.
Crumble was lovely. The Custard split while I was making it but as I learned 2 Christmases ago – if it splits, blend it with a Stick Blender and it will recover !
So, all in all not too bad for the week !
So this week:-
Tuesday
Chicken Fajitas
My own Recipe
Wednesday
Butternut Squash, Chorizo & Baby Tomato Pasta
Taken from BBC Good Food
Thursday
No cooking as Con and I going out to dinner 🙂
Friday
Baked Chicken Fillets stuffed with Mascarpone & Pesto wrapped in Prosciutto
Adapted from a BBC Good Food Recipe
Saturday
Lasagne
My own Recipe
Bakewell Cake
A Rachel Allen Recipe
Sunday
Roast Loin of Pork
A Delia Recipe
Undecided on Dessert at the mo !