Leon's broccoli with sausage, chilli and fennel

Hurrah - everybody is home! What better way to celebrate than by having a family meal featuring one Milo's favourite things - sausages!

Despite being able to go to sleep with the window and curtains open, listening to music and being able to do pretty much what I want, I have to say it's nice to see everybody again. Apart from the relentless creation of dens of course...

sources
Leon's broccoli with sausage, chilli and fennel - Leon, Naturally Fast Food, p61

leon's broccoli with garlic, cashew nuts and chilli & salmon and angela boggiano's poached chicken broth

We're on short-orders tonight as the mighty Arsenal are playing those awful Catalans in the Champions League and, much to Ana's disgust, I've commandeered the TV tonight.

Two things need to happen tonight (well three if you count giving Xavi et al a right good Franco-British rogering - thank you RVP and Andy Arshavin!):
1. We need a dinner that's quicker than light to prepare;
2. And I also need to get the next two night's dinner prepped by poaching some chicken.

Luckily I manage both with the added benefit of only missing Barcelona's goal, and I also manage to use up the left-over cabbage in Leon's broccoli dish *and* we had interesting salmon in the form of the extra-pink and meaty Sockeye variety. Ana is only happy about one of these things, and I have to bow to her knowledge, the cabbage does overpower the broccoli. Still, I've got football to watch so who cares?

So, whilst I'm watching the footie and Ana is watching the Nation's Favourite Independent Video-on-Demand Service in bed, we've got some chicken poaching for the rest of the week's dinners. Lucyfer, is this anything like yours?

Food of the Milos
Not only is it a Julia day, but he's staying for dinner tonight as Ana has a staff meeting. When I find his book I will update accordingly, but it's probably a torrent of pasta, sausages and yoghurt.

sources
leon's broccoli with garlic, cashew nuts & chilli - Leon: Naturally Fast Food, p60
poached chicken broth - Angela Boggiano, Delicious February 2007, p59

bill granger's miso fish with spring onions & sesame seeds and leon's persian onion soup

Despite it being February, we're desperately trying to stick to our budget guns, which means tonight we're eating *whatever* is going to go off first. It's chicken, but despite being inspired by a Mac-fuelled Lucyfer (who insists she'll be blogging soon) I can't be cracked to poach it, cool it, strip it and make a pie OR a risotto-y thing, so it's our new favourite five-minute fish dish instead. Bill Granger's ace miso fish, in fact.

I imagine this would be brilliant in the Summer - Sarah, give it a spin and let us know - but it's not so cold today, so it feels virtuous rather than frigidly misplaced.

One positive side effect of the miso fish is I can make up a fresh batch of soup since the tomato soup from last night was gourmandised by swansea university alumni womenfolk, with no thought of what I'm going to have for lunch tomorrow. Luckily I have a clear idea - Persian Onion Soup, which I spotted in the Leon Cookbook. It looks insane, but you can smell the healthy vibes coming off it's turmericky base AND I know for a fact one wife who won't go near it's onion-y goodness!

 Naturally we finish the evening with Misfits.

Food of the Milos
Super Spandy McTartlin was up today with Cerys in tow, so it was all about the snacking in between playing.
Breakfast: Nibbles and porridge;
Lunch: Thomas the Tank Engine pasta shapes on toast, fruit, carrots;
Dinner: Bill Granger's Lazy pasta with cheese and peas

sources
miso fish with spring onions & sesame seeds - Bill Granger, Feed Me Now, p78
apple's persian onion soup - Leon, Naturally Fast Food Book 2, p80. Apple? These people really are scum

Leon's broccoli with sausage, chilli and fennel

We are not a happy house today. Well that's not strictly true, a third of us is full of the joys of spring, wanting to make dens, pirate ships out of pillows, watch Scooby Doo, read books, draw and play playdough. However the remaining two-thirds are struck low by woman flu and bad-wales-losing-again-hangovers, and just want to sleep the sweet sleep of death.

It's not to be, instead we're up doing all of the above, as well as going shopping, going to the tip, having a walk and providing human representations of the Total Wipeout course for small people to throw themselves across. His bedtime cannot come soon enough, and luckily as he was up extraordinarily early, it's not too far off. All we have to do is get through an ill-advised extension of our Sunday night dinners together...

Of course, it's not as bad as I've made out. Milo's been great *if* exhausting, and he needs no convincing to eat a dinner made out of two of his favourite things, even if he did go "Urrgggh!" when we showed him the pan:

It's a weird one this, effectively the other half of our other recent Leon broccoli discovery, only this time with sausages. Seriously though, that's it. We both think it needs something else, but we're at a loss to think what. Pasta would add far too much bulk - and actually swapping pasta for the broccoli makes it almost exactly Jamie's Proper Bloke's Fusilli - whilst any other veg would just seem limp. It's lovely but we're left nonplussed by it. Maybe it's a lunch?

Food of the Milos
Breakfast: Pancakes - these are becoming a bit of a Saturday morning tradition now, which is a nice way to start the day even if you'd rather the day started in the early afternoon.
Lunch: Grazed his way around Waitrose, featuring mainly blueberries, cherry tomatoes, salami and Fruit Pastilles, followed by crisps, houmous and carrot sticks at home.
Dinner: broccoli with sausage, chilli and fennel, although I didn't add the chilli. He wolfed it down.

sources
Leon's broccoli with sausage, chilli and fennel - Leon, Naturally Fast Food, p61

bill granger's miso fish with spring onions & sesame seeds and leon's chicken nuggets

I have to say, doubling our fish intake does concentrate the mind when it comes to emptying the fridge, as nobody wants to get to the end of the week and be faced by a pile of whiffy parcels.

Despite the definite frost in the air on the ride home, tonight we opt for another helping of Bill Granger's miso fish on the basis a) it's quick and b) it creates a good-sized hole in the vegetable crisper.

It's a very virtuous meal, offset by the chocolate we both scoff afterwards.

Food of the Milos
It's a busy day in mummy and Milo world, with loads of games, an afternoon spent at Eddie Katz in Putney, and they've even got time to finally make the Leon chicken nuggets for dinner. Milo does the dipping and coating.

Breakfast: Continental nibbles to start (ham, apple, grapes, cheese) followed by toast with marmelade and honey, although not together;
Lunch: spaghetti with ham, fruit for pudding;
Dinner: See above.

sources
miso fish with spring onions & sesame seeds - Bill Granger, Feed Me Now, p78
chicken nuggets - Leon Naturally Fast Food Book 2, p168

Leon's dalston sweet potato curry

Somewhat incredibly this is the second week in a row I've managed to play rugby (and score, I know you'll be delighted to know, this time playing lock fact fans!). Also for the second week in a row I've come back to discover Ana and Milo have been baking *and* making jelly, this week Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's chocolate chip cookies!

A cheeky run around a field, a couple of pints and some warm biscuits when you get home cooked by the best wife and son, can life get any better? A couple of hours later the answer is a resounding "No, that's the peak of the day!"

It's not that Leon's sweet potato curry is awful, it's just quite bland and disappointing, all mouth and no trousers, a bit like London's trendy East End in fact. I bet an East Sheen Sweet Potato Curry would've tasted marvellous...

Even worse than the curry debacle, for some reason ITV3 have failed to schedule any Midsomer Murders tonight, making the whole day a complete write-off.

Food of the Milos
For some reason we're full of the joys of spring this morning, meaning we're up and watching Scooby Doo DVDs from about 7am. Hurrah for parenting!
Breakfast: pancakes, followed by the weekly sweet shopping - this week fruit pastilles, which he shared quite amicably;
There wasn't any lunch per se, more an aggregation of browsing: marmite sandwich, apple, cheese, satsumas, and a fair few biscuits;
Dinner: Fish cake and beans, followed by jelly.

sources
dalston sweet potato curry - Leon Naturally Fast Food, Book 2, p99
chocolate chip cookies - HFW & Fizz Carr, The River Cottage Family Cookbook, p400

allegra mcevedy's karma soupra and spinach, tomato & chick pea curry

These late nights really must stop. We are no longer young, if anything we're now technically middle aged, so staying up all night raving has begun to have consequences and take a heavy toll. Even if staying up all night raving is only "watching Miss Marple with a cup of decaf Earl Grey tea, builders for Ana, and some minty chocolate".

Tonight Ana is off to a parents evening at Nursery, which gives me some scope to do some double cooking. First up is lunch tomorrow and more importantly, tomorrow night's Book Club payment. Angela Hazel, from the Nation's Favourite Video on Demand Service, has kindly offered to babysit for the usual sitting terms - dinner.

I've had this Allegra Mcevedy recipe for over five years, desperate to try it but somehow never feeling inspired enough to try it. Until tonight. It's pretty easy to make, and is essentially a gently curried lentil, squash and rice soup, with a chilli and garlic dressing. I'll get some nice bread tomorrow, I hope she likes it.

Soup done, we end up having an entirely unplanned-for spinach, tomato and chick pea curry on the basis Ana doesn't fancy coconut fish cakes tonight, and I forgot to buy any cauliflower for the experimental Leon sweet potato curry we had planned for. With far too much spinach malingering in the fridge, it's the obvious choice for a cold night, and I even manage to avoid making the spinach too slimy this time.

Actually, it's one of my better efforts at it recently; rich, slightly sweet and tangy, with a nice late hit of ginger. Hopefully the spinach will sort out my blood iron issues.

Just in case you felt I'd let you down yesterday, tonight I've done a bumper* batch of things on the site:

• I've removed a large batch of appallingly badly spelled things from the site, including "chili" and "tumeric". Not exciting I know, but it needed to be done;
• I've separated out a couple of recipes from individual blog posts, particularly Fast Asian Fish, as requested by Mrs S White (does hands), and Donna Hay's Pad Thai, as requested by Lucy Taylor;
• There's another exciting installment of Saturday night watching Midsomer Murders chez Barnes, only this time we don't eat polpettine;
• Milo and I fly down to Folkestone for the day, to play with nanny and rescue our Christmas presents.

See, "bumper"!

Food of the Milos
Another early-ish morning spent watching TV is rudely interrupted by a mad dash to Julias for nursery. We make it record time, but only because I have to run all the way whilst he looks out for owls with his binoculars.
Breakfast: Cheerios and apricots;
Lunch: Boiled egg, toast, cheese, pepperami and a lollipop treat;
Dinner: Fish cakes with Cinderella spaghetti shapes, because he's the gayest little boy ever, and some of Julia's birthday cake.

sources
karma soupra - Allegra McEvedy, Delicious circa 2005, now the Parsley Book
spinach, tomato & chick pea curry - Waitrose recipe cards

*Note: Quantity of 'bumper' may go up as well as down, and can refer to a figure upwards and including one

leon's broccoli with garlic, cashew nuts and chilli & salmon

I'm afraid once again football has stopped blogging today (hurrah for the mighty Arsenal!), which means I've failed to do any backdating tonight. Soz. However, it's a happier football watching house this week, thanks to the glories of live-streaming on the iPlayer, which means Ana can watch Silent Witness in the front room and I can watch the footie in the kitchen on the laptop.

As it turns out this is just as well because after last week's less-than-stomach-filling portions, we've decided to beef it up with the addition of Bill Granger's baked new potatoes on a bed of salt. Unfortunately for some reason this takes about half an hour longer than advertised. Still, they are the perfect accompaniment to the salty, tangy greens and baked fish.

The broccoli also reminds me of something weird which happened when I went to give blood today.vThey had to do the blood test twice because my iron levels were low, which I was surprised at given I had two pints of Guinness at rugby on Saturday, and we've also eaten spinach, broccoli and almost a whole bush of cavalo nero in the last three or four days. Apparently kidney beans are the key if you're being vegetarian, although I'm opting for a hearty beef injection fnar fnar!

Food of the Milos
God he was up early today, and in accordance with our new resolution to play with him more in the morning, I get up to read, watch Octonauts and generally oaf about. To be honest, whatever time he gets up, it's too early...
Breakfast: nibbles (mango, banana, apple), toast with honey;
Lunch: egg sandwich;
Dinner: sausage, mini corn, carrots and green beans, mango with ice cream, banana.

Banana, custard and honey appear to be his new addictions.

sources
leon's broccoli with garlic, cashew nuts & chilli - Leon: Naturally Fast Food, p60
baked new potatoes on a bed of salt - Bill Granger, Holiday, p158

leon's broccoli with garlic, cashew nuts & chilli

Yesterday's hint towards expanding our Nigella repertoire of recipes was strangely apposite because today we've got an experimental dish culled from the other book we spotted at Lucy's: Leon: Naturally Fast Food. This time though we bought a copy, and in it we found this:

If you ignore the salmon - which was a suggested side - that was it. Diet-tastic! Actually it was delish, the salty soy sauce perking up the steamed broccoli and cashews, making it all really flavoursome if teeny-tiny. Next time I'm getting more broccoli, and possibly some bigger (hand dived) salmon fillets.

I love Leon. Their first restaurant is quite close to the office, a little anti-Pret/M&S oasis on Carnaby Street, which isn't exactly short of great places to eat like Mrs Marengos, Thanks for Franks, and Cha Cha Moon. I've been hording some Allegra Mcevedy recipes for ages, and I remember spending the summer of our wedding eating a lot of her power breakfast smoothies, but this is the first Leon recipe to make it to the blog. Looking at the book, it won't be the last.

sources
leon's broccoli with garlic, cashew nuts & chilli - Leon: Naturally Fast Food, p60