More weekend cooking

Another weekend draws to a close and it has been a busy one. After aquajogging yesterday it was a rush into town for choir rehearsal and after that I hung around town for an hour before heading into one of the Irish pubs to watch the rugby. The place was packed, with most tables reserved so I ended up standing the whole time, which is one of my least favourite things to do. After it was over, I headed home, cycling part of the way. I had my bike with me as it wasn't raining and it had meant I'd be a few minutes quicker getting to the tram from the pool and be able to cycle straight to the church we were rehearsing at in town instead of having to change onto the bus.

Then this morning I was up at the crack of dawn to get into town on time for another short rehearsal before singing at ten o'clock mass - the end of semester mass for the university. The trams only go once an hour on Sunday mornings and it often seems to come down to arriving 45 minutes early or 15 minutes late kind of thing. After a reallllly long mass, I headed back home and declared the afternoon one for the sofa. I even managed to doze for about 40 minutes. And then it was up and on the run again as I was performing with my little local choir at a 95th birthday party. Small town life. Before going to that, though, I sped around, chopping up vegetables and opening tins and throwing everything into the slow cooker. So I'm waiting for the last half-hour of that to be done and then I will declare cooking done for at least the next week. In the slow cooker: 275g leek, 250g onion, 75g chard, 150g carrots, 175g kohlrabi, 1 tin of tomatoes and 1 carton of passata, a small 130g tin of peas and carrots, and a 400g tin of white beans. Along with enough water to cover the lot, a couple of spoonfuls of veg stock powder, a teaspoon each of cumin and tumeric, and three teaspoons of smoked paprika. Forgot to add garlic but I can live with that.

When I got in this evening, I also chopped up the other leek (225g) and an onion (100g) and sauteed them along with a small packet (just over 100g) of lardons. That's now in a Tupperware container in the fridge and I can use it to give a quick and easy veg boost to meals over the next week - adding it to a cheese sandwich, for example, or scrambled eggs. I also bought salad again this week and have that washed and ready to use in the fridge as well. Along with the two portions of cabbage soup I still have left over and the one portion of leftovers curry, and some sliced ham and sliced cheese I bought, I should be well able to get through the coming week of far too much extracurricular activity. I have choir on Tuesday (rehearsal), Wednesday (singing at another uni mass then concert rehearsal with the orchester), possibly going to a Wikipedia monthly meeting on Thursday, final rehearsal on Friday, and concerts on Saturday and Sunday. And on Saturday I have aquajogging and want to try and get to see the rugby before heading to choir. On Sunday, I will be sleeping in and then I have signed up to go to dinner with choir after the concert that evening. So, a far too busy week and I think it's safe to say that I will not be cooking much of anything next weekend. But what I've done this weekend should last at least into the start of the week after next. The aim is as little canteen or takeaway food as possible.

The leftovers curry I made yesterday deserves a mention before I sign off. I may never be able to replicate it but it is very good. I had a half a tin of coconut milk in Tupperware in the fridge and wanted to use that up and decided to do a quick curry with everything else that needed to be used up. So I actually got out of bed relatively early yesterday and, after bringing a wash downstairs to the cellar, started cooking. In went: 25g chard plus the leaves from the kohlrabi, 75g onion, 1 portion of cabbage soup, the coconut milk, 1 generous teaspoon of almond butter, 1 teaspoon of Thai green curry past, 100g cooked cabbage, a good handful of green beans from the freezer, a good splash of lime juice, and the last of the older potatoes and sweet potato that really needed to be used up. That ended up being 450g potatoes and 175g of sweet potato. Definitely not at all a balanced meal in terms of proportions of veg to carbs (even if you count the sweet potato as veg, which I'm not supposed to) but oh so good. I put some in a flask and brought it with me and ate it in between choir and going to the pub yesterday. That was a huge win because they serve Irish breakfasts and proper chips (with vinegar!) in that pub. Maybe next week.