What a different focus can make!

Normally my blogs are centred around a recipe, but as I have been mainly cooking Pinch of Nom and they are from cookbooks and the website, I don’t feel I can pass it off as my own, but I will leave you a link to the curry I have made today, which was just so tasty.

A few weeks ago I spoke about Campfire Stew, well that dish has changed an awful lot in my kitchen. Currently sat in my office, I have 3 big Pinch of Nom (from now on PoN) cook books and 2 of the little journal ones (which also have 26 recipes in. But above all else it is there website, sit there was 10 minutes and your meal plan for the next week gets written a whole lot quicker.

Before PoN I had been planning meals since the lockdown, more to help with shopping, but it did also help me stay on top of things, but it was getting repetitive, i was looking back for ideas of previous weeks and felt I was cooking the same stuff ever two weeks. This week however, I am cooking five new recipes I have never cooked before. What is good is, that I would make a curry every couple of weeks, it was the same one I have been cooking for a number of years, and it is lovely, but it is the same. Now I’m cooking a curry, but a different one. So far I have cooked a Dupiaza and one called Garlic and Ginger and tonight a Madras, all of which have been amazing. Next week it is the turn of the English Favourite Chicken Tikka Masala.

So that’s great but what does it mean, it means that cooking things that are different and exciting has got me back my focus, which has been missing in action, for maybe as far back as the lifting of lockdown. I think having to think about what I am cooking, what is going into the meal, I have to follow the recipe. If i was making my old favourite Paella, I know it, I most likely add more bacon, chicken and rice than I should as I know what works, but with PoN, I need to follow the exact measurements to make sure it tastes right.

The other thing for me, has been the ability to find snacks bits I like, marmite swifts (cheese and marmite in light puff) Steak Bakes (mince in a rich gravy, bake in a thin!) these I made before going away to a hotel for a weekend, so save me getting a MacDonald’s, pasty or shop bought sandwich or two.

To prove this even more, for Lent I have given up my kryptonite, crisps! Whether it is Cheese Puffs, Walkers sensations, Twiglets or Pringles, they are my major weakness that I snack on after dinner when watching TV. But very rashly, I decided to give them up to support my daughter as she gave up Chocolate. I have gone back to an old favourite, rice cakes, I get the the crisps like flavour in a low pointed hint. I also bought some popcorn kernels, but not made any yet.

Tomorrow is my birthday, I know when i wake up tomorrow I can have, my egg and bacon treat, I have homemade PoN KFC for my lunch as we are going to football in the evening. I’m in control of what I’m doing, 100% focused and happy with what I am eating as the food is so tasty.

Here are some of the meals I have made recently.

Yes I really do photograph all my food, I share it in more than one facebook group, as I love talking about food, I like people saying it looks nice, and above all else the community help each other, give ideas and ask questions, which again helps so very much.

My parting gift that I promised is a link. This is the Beef Madras I made this evening, basically brown your bits, add to a overproof pan, and cook it for two hours. I might have given you a link to that recipe, but now you have in your hands, the link to the website. Many recipes are available free on there, but if there is one you like that is not on there, it shows you which book it will be in, so you don’t need to search.

Please leave a comment, let me know if you have cooked any PoN recipes and what you thought, or will you be giving the website a look?