Making Ordinary Dinners So Much Better

This week, by happy coincidence, I have stumbled upon ways to make three of our everyday dinners so much better. 

First, roast chicken dinner. I usually make traditional bread stuffing, but only one member of the family really likes it. This week - stuffing the chicken with lemon wedges. So easy. The revelation? It flavours the whole chicken with essence of lemon. The lemon oils release into the flesh, the juice makes a reservoir of delicious flavoured pan drippings, which then make a wonderful, lemon flavoured gravy. What's not to love?

Second, Tuna Mornay. Old comfort-food standby with lots of stodgy white sauce. Yummy, but gloppy. Well, this week The Girl whipped up e's version, the tuna pasta bake. The Girl used a little less cream, and broccoli and peas for the veg. Everybody loved it. It was so much lighter, the tuna and lemon starred together, and it featured more vegetables than we usually see in a mornay. A winner.

Third, Pasta with vegetables. Generally, about once a week I whip a dish that is based on pasta with the addition of various vegetables, with a little stock, a little pasta water, and some finely grated cheese for the sauce. It is quite a dry pasta dish (in a good way, as opposed to a lot of liquid sauce). Sometimes I add a cube or two of the frozen pesto I make and keep in the freezer. This week I took it to the next level with the addition of a kind of fresh pesto. A handful each of wild rocket, parsley and basil from the garden, tossed in the blender with a little olive oil, nuts, salt, garlic, then toasted a little in the pan before adding the pasta and stock.

So far we have had this with roasted pumpkin cubes, broccoli and beans, and broccoli and bacon. As you may have guessed, local broccoli is really cheap right now, and has been a theme at dinner this week.

It is so exciting to find ways to make dinner better without having to get my head around whole new recipes.