Biggest food successes of the week were the roast beef last Sunday, done to rosy in the middle, sliced thin and piled onto bread with the onions roasted underneath it, some slaw and a thin smear of mustard. And the braised red cabbage with caraway, mustard seeds and red wine. The granola bars, however, didn’t hold together at all, so got crumbled up, baked for another half hour and put in the jar for granola over cereal.

Recipes:

• An attempt at these granola bars – but see problems above (I think I was a bit too liberal with the rice krispies)
• Cabbage and carrot slaw with this citrusy dressing (with the beef sandwiches)
• Braised red cabbage – from an old Wednesday Chef post (served with sausages)

Without a recipe:

• Fish finger tacos, cabbage slaw, avocado
• Breadcrumbed fish and chips
• Roast topside of beef in sandwiches with roast onions
• Egg fried rice with vegetables
• Pizza with artichoke hearts and cheddar

Reading:

• The extract from Joanna Blythman’s latest book on what’s really in your food makes for somewhat worrying reading. Food manufacturers gradually replacing declared additives and e-numbers with naturally-derived replacements that don’t have to appear on the label.
• Rome’s schools are serving a pan-European menu – and the Italians are predictably in uproar.
• This is an amazing list of helpful Scandinavian words that don’t exist in English. I particularly love ‘Tandsmør’ – a Danish word meaning ‘tooth butter’ – there’s so much butter on your bread that you leave toothmarks.
• I’ve just got the 5 O’Clock Apron cookbook, which looks great. Particularly keen to try the chicken shawarma recipe, which features in this list of 10 top kids recipes.