A busy week. But a successful one, I think, from a meal planning perspective. I cooked a pot of slow-cooker black beans on Monday which gave me a resource to fall back on throughout the week. I also roasted vegetables on Sunday – sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and mushrooms – to make sure I had quick options in the fridge in the week. I liberated sea bass fillets from the freezer for Tuesday, and grilled it over sliced, boiled new potatoes, those tomatoes, and artichoke pieces from a jar. I combined the rest of those beans with the mushrooms, sweet potatoes and tomatoes, plus some jarred roasted peppers and some extra spices to make vegetable chilli in the slow cooker on Friday afternoon. Overall, a good week, and a welcome contrast to some of the meat-heavy meals we’ve had recently.

Recipes:

• Coconut rice pudding – Scandilicious Baking. My daughter loves eating rice pudding at nursery, but we never really have it at home. This recipe, made with coconut milk, and baked, really did the trick (though I might use light coconut milk next time).
• Cuban-style black beans – Slow Cooked

Without a recipe:

• Fried rice with vegetables, topped with a fried egg
• Black bean tacos, with cheese, sliced radishes, spring onions, and leftover pulled pork
• Sea bass fillets over potatoes, tomatoes and artichokes
• Green soup (from the freezer) and cheese pitas (dinner on Wednesday, lunch on Friday)
• Vegetable chilli with black beans, with sausages
• Fish curry with sweet potatoes and peas, Spice Tailor sauce

Reading:

• Despite their name, the Kitchen Sisters, who create the Fugitive Waves podcast don’t often do episodes about food or cooking, but this week’s podcast, called Hidden Kitchen Mama is, as always, a lovely piece of oral history about mothers, cooking and kitchens.
• A collection of easy vegetable recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi in the Guardian. Especially like the look of sweet potatoes glazed with miso, and fried broccoli with garlic, cumin and lime.
• A tirade against inappropriate flavouring from Lottie + Doof: F**k Lemon Zest
• Molly Wizenberg from Orangette and Ashley Rodriguez from Not Without Salt have a Facebook Live conversation on the Not Without Salt Facebook page about motherhood, Harry Potter and cooking with kids.
• Molly also has an excellent round-up post here
• I’m interested in finding out more about this photography course/service that I came across this week: Makelight
• Recipes bookmarked: Ottolenghi roast aubergines with chilli yoghurt and paprika almonds; Poppy and pumpkin seed spelt cookies with jam centres;  the rhubarb cake on the cover of this month’s Delicious magazine.