Sunday - a day of rest

Not for most mothers, who are busy washing school uniform/kit, polishing shoes, ferrying to and from sports clubs, supervising homework and generally putting on an unrivalled show of domestic excellence. Here's a couple of ideas for some lazy food to help redress the balance:

Pancakes

 

For breakfast - quick to make & cook, and even quicker to eat if you roll them up and cram them into one mouthful, as my daughter did. This recipe (from St Delia) makes about 10:

110g plain flour
a pinch of salt
2 large eggs
200ml milk mixed with 75ml water (or 275ml skimmed milk)
2 tablespoons melted butter

Mix everything together in a blender. It's ready to use straight away. Wipe the pan with a bit of melted butter between each pancake, and serve with lemon juice & sugar, jam, maple syrup, bananas, Nutella... After so much industry, I recommend retiring to bed for at least an hour with a cup of tea.

Important - leave the clearing up to someone else

Our lunch today is a ready-made steak pie from the local farm shop. Serve it with a 2 or 3 veg (no need for potatoes, as there's plenty of pastry). Or you could push the boat out and roast a chicken.

Quicker roast chicken

Abandon your normal thinking of a carefully timed Sunday roast, and serve instead with something quick and easy - new potatoes, couscous, salad, oven chips, baked potatoes, any veg. In the absence of gravy, Thai chilli dipping sauce and garlic mayonnaise are good accompaniments.

At the risk of coming over a bit Nigella, I think it's a good idea to stuff a couple of quartered, peeled onions in the orifices and rub some butter into the breasts before cooking. Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas 5 and cook for 20 minutes per lb (450g) and up to an extra 20 minutes at the end (when you can also turn up the heat a bit to crisp the skin). Let it rest/cool until you are ready to eat it. Basting is good, but not essential.

Chicken stock

After the chicken has been devoured, make chicken strock (tomorrow?). Put all the inedible bits into a large saucepan, cover with water, add a veg or chicken stock cube, and bring to the boil. Let it simmer, uncovered, for about an hour then strain and refrigerate. When it is completely cold you can carefully lift off the fat which has solidified on the surface.

Chocolate orange brownies

Such is my lack of food management that we have just one piece of fruit in the house - an orange.
The best (and most edible) way to eke it out is to make chocolate orange brownies:

100g unsalted butter
100g plain chocolate
300g caster sugar
pinch of salt
1tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
130g plain flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
grated zest of 1 orange and 2 tablespoons of its juice

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4 and butter & line a square 7" cake tin.  Melt the butter and chocolate over a pan of simmering water. Cool slightly and add sugar, salt, vanilla, zest and orange juice.  Add the eggs one at a time, stirring well. Add flour and cocoa and beat for a minute until smooth. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the top is evenly coloured and a cocktail stick comes out almost clean. Let it cool, and cut into whatever size pieces suit you.