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Comfort food for cold nights

As cold wind blows and the rain falls, the meals require more comfort and warmth in the shape of soups, pasta, mince. Gone are salads — no icebergs at the table for a while.

J has put in her standing requests as usual — tacos and pesto pasta with chicken schnitzel are non-negotiable. The rest of the week leans into winter comfort food as part of our Parkinson’s diet experiment, including a split dinner night where hubby gets pumpkin soup and J and I have nachos. Same table, two completely different meals. That’s family cooking.

Side note: the $50 average from splitting the grocery run between Aldi and Coles still holds. It takes slightly more work comparing prices, but in today’s economy, $50 is well worth the effort.

This Week’s Menu

This Week’s Menu

Dinner Source Notes for Parkinson’s Observation
🌮 Tacos Family recipe Taco Tuesday — J’s non-negotiable. A reliable known baseline.
🍝 Pesto Pasta with Chicken Schnitzel Family recipe Store-bought pesto and pasta. Moderate protein from schnitzel.
🌭 Curried Sausages with Jam Family recipe A winter favourite. Moderate protein, curry sauce base. Jam is mandatory — J’s law.
🎃 / 🍟 Pumpkin Soup (hubby) — Nachos (J and I) Family recipe Split dinner night. Hubby’s soup is light and easy on the tablets. Nachos are higher protein if mince is added.
🥗 Cheesy Taco Pasta Bake taste.com.au Pasta bake with taco flavours — higher carb with the pasta. Worth watching timing.
🍝 Spaghetti Bolognese Family recipe Not made this week — replaced by a TikTok croissant recipe J found.
🍞 Savoury Mince on Toast Family recipe Not made this week — the pumpkin soup claimed all the bread.

Our Own Recipes This Week

🌮 Tacos
Taco Tuesday. Non-negotiable. J has made this very clear. 😄

Ingredients
• 500g beef mince
• 1 onion, diced
• Taco shells or soft tortillas
• Salsa
• Sour cream and cheese to serve

Homemade Taco Seasoning
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp chilli powder or chilli flakes
• ½ tsp salt

Method

  1. Brown the mince and onion with a little salt.
  2. Add taco seasoning and 2–3 teaspoons of salsa. Cook through.
  3. Heat taco shells and serve with toppings of your choice.
    Tip: Alternative serving idea: bowl with mince, salsa and cheese, with quartered tortilla pieces as edible cutlery.

🍝 Pesto Pasta with Chicken Schnitzel
Simple, quick, and always a hit. Store-bought pesto and pasta make this an easy weeknight dinner.

Ingredients
• Spiral pasta
• 1 jar pesto
• Chicken schnitzels (store-bought)
• Optional: shredded cheese to serve

Method

  1. Cook pasta according to packet instructions.
  2. While pasta is cooking, cook chicken schnitzels in a pan or oven.
  3. Drain pasta and return to the pot.
  4. Stir through pesto until well coated.
  5. Serve pasta with chicken schnitzel on top and cheese if using.

🌭 Curried Sausages with Jam
A mild, family-friendly curry that is warm, comforting, and easy to stretch. And yes, the jam is mandatory — J has made the law very clear on this one.

Ingredients
• 8 beef sausages
• 1 brown onion, sliced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 2 cups beef stock
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Optional: frozen peas
• Homemade mixed berry jam, to serve

Method

  1. Brown the sausages and onion in a large pan.
  2. Remove sausages and slice into chunks.
  3. Sprinkle curry powder and flour over the pan and stir for 1 minute.
  4. Slowly add beef stock, stirring until smooth.
  5. Return sausages to the pan along with carrots.
  6. Simmer for 20–30 minutes until the sauce thickens, and the carrots are tender.
  7. Add peas in the last few minutes if using.
  8. Season to taste.

To Serve
Serve with mashed potato or rice and a spoonful of homemade mixed berry jam on the side. According to J, curried sausages without jam are simply not legal.

🍞 Savoury Mince on Toast
A classic budget-friendly dinner that also works beautifully for leftovers or lunchboxes.

Ingredients
• 500g beef mince
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 1 carrot, finely diced or grated
• 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 tbsp gravy powder
• 1½ cups beef stock (adjust for thickness)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Buttered toast, to serve

Method

  1. Brown the mince and onion in a large pan until no longer pink.
  2. Add carrot and frozen vegetables and cook for 3–5 minutes.
  3. Mix the gravy powder with the beef stock until smooth.
  4. Pour into the pan and stir well.
  5. Simmer until thick and glossy, about 10–15 minutes.
  6. Season to taste.
  7. Serve hot over buttered toast.

🎃 Pumpkin Soup
Simple, smooth, and perfect for cold nights. This one is for hubby — while J and I have nachos, he gets a bowl of something warm and gentle on the tablets.

Ingredients
• 1kg pumpkin, peeled and chopped
• 1 brown onion, chopped
• 1–2 carrots, chopped
• 3–4 cups chicken stock (enough to cover vegetables)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Optional: splash of cream or milk

Method

  1. Place pumpkin, onion, and carrot into a large pot.
  2. Add chicken stock until vegetables are just covered.
  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
  4. Cook for 20–25 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
  5. Blend until smooth using a stick blender.
  6. Season with salt and pepper.
  7. Stir through cream or milk if using.

🍟 Nachos
While hubby has his soup, J and I have nachos. Simple, customisable, and always satisfying.

Ingredients
• Corn chips of your choice
• Salsa
• Cheese, grated
• Sour cream (optional)
• Optional extras: mince and onion with taco seasoning, avocado

Method

  1. Spread corn chips on a baking tray or oven-safe plate.
  2. Top with salsa and cheese.
  3. Add mince if using.
  4. Grill or bake until cheese is melted and bubbling.
  5. Top with sour cream and avocado and serve immediately.

This Week’s Online Recipe

Cheesy Taco Pasta Bake — taste.com.au
The cheesy taco pasta bake comes from taste.com.au — a pasta bake with all the flavours of taco night baked in. Find the full recipe at taste.com.au/recipes/cheesy-taco-pasta-bake-recipe/i9fmz2mq

Observations — Winter Warmers Week

The standout this week was the pumpkin soup. The boys loved it. Us girls are not pumpkin fans, so we enjoyed our nachos on the side. Being a light meal with no dairy and low protein, it didn’t affect hubby’s tablets at all — a good clean result. It was so popular that the bread supply took a hit — which is why the mince on toast had to be postponed. The soup claimed all the bread.

Tacos and curried sausages — and we did not forget the jam — don’t cause much disruption medication-wise. They are familiar visitors to the menu and we know where we stand with them.

The Cheesy Taco Pasta Bake from taste.com.au was a hit — hubby enjoyed it so much he went back for seconds. That did mean the tablets took longer to become effective again, which is a good reminder that portion size matters just as much as the meal itself. Interestingly, when we had the leftovers for lunch the next day, the smaller portion wasn’t as much of an issue. A useful data point: same meal, smaller serve, noticeably different result.

The spaghetti bolognese also didn’t make it this week. Instead J found a recipe on TikTok — ham, cheese and egg on a croissant, but the egg is cooked in the croissant tray so it is the same size and shape as the croissant. Wow, how many times can one say croissant in one sentence? It was a fun swap and very much enjoyed.

Part of an ongoing series tracking diet and Parkinson’s medication response.

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