Easy Thai prawn curry

We love Thai curry in our house, they have a really good flavour and a bit of heat. Though I must admit, my boyfriend tends to like a LOT of heat in his. He actually cooked this one today and it was a bit too hot for me. It had lots of flavour, was quick and easy and I would definitely recommend it.

I think the heat of red Thai curry paste does vary dependant upon which one you use (correct me if I am wrong), but the one that we used was a little too hot with 2 teaspoons. Next time we will be using just 1 teaspoon. 

This was filling enough on its own, but I think the next time we make this, I might add some vegetables to it to bulk it out a little bit. Plus there's nothing wrong with trying to eat more veg! 

The recipe I used is here.

Oh my god dinner

I found this recipe after watching BBC breakfast on Saturday, after seeing Jack from http://agirlcalledjack.com talking about eating on £1 per day. They were also discussing the Live Below The Line UK challenge. It does make you think about how lucky those of us are who don't have to budget to such an extent. 

I've also put a couple of her recipes on this weeks meal plan to try them out, as the recipes do look delicious! 

I was really impressed with the flavour and textures in this pasta dish. Definitely something I would have again and to be honest I REALLY love brie. It's one of my favourite cheeses. 

The recipe I used is here , but I did make some changes to this recipe as my budget is not quite as low:

• Spaghetti was gluten free
• I used 250 g of spaghetti in the recipe and I didn't break the pasta before boiling
• I used around 80 g of brie
• We had some leftover chicken to used, so chopped the meat from one chicken leg and put this in towards the end of cooking.
• We're also a huge fan of garlic in this house, so we did also use 2 garlic cloves.
• I added a glug of olive oil to the pan with the spaghetti just before serving, when the spaghetti was off the heat.

Meal Plan 28/04/13 - 04/05/13

As we've ended up eating out twice this last week, we've actually got some leftovers from last week to use up still. So we're going to have the remaining food from last week and a few extras. As we're not eating at home one day this week, there'll be some more leftovers that we'll probably take into the following meal plan too.

Meal Plan 28/04/13 - 04/05/13

Cod in chorizo sauce with vegetables (leftover from last week)

Easy Thai prawn curry with rice

Carrot, cumin & kidney bean burger served with quinoa feta salad

Oh My God dinner 

Jacket potatoes and chilli (leftover from last week)

Brie, spinach & mushroom frittata

Shopping List

Smoked Bacon (leftover bacon from 2 for £4 deal from Asda) £2.00

Butter (1 kg) £2.00

Dried pitted black olives £0.95

Sliced green beans ( 2 kg) £1.00

Loose bananas (10 approx 1.535 kg) £1.04

2 lemons & 2 limes £1.00

Jumbo prawns £3.00

Diced chicken 500 g £3.00

Chestnut mushrooms £1.00

Living mint £1.00

Warburton loaf £1.50

GF bread £2.45

Garlic £0.30

Eggs 18 £1.63

Haslet (reduced item) £0.49

Tinned tomatoes £0.31

Dliced pork and pastrami (2 for £3 offer) £3.00

Wafer thin ham £0.50

1 carrot (0.150 kg) £0.14

1 red onion £0.12

Salad tomatoes £0.50

Vine tomatoes £1.25

French brie (0.222) £1.33

1 courgette (0.215 kg) £0.41

Coconut cream £1.00

Kidney beans £0.27

Tangerine £1.00

4 pints milk £1.49

Barrel aged feta £2.00

Ground cumin £0.95

4 apples (0.745 kg) £1.45

Total  £38.08

Unless stated otherwise, all of the above were bought from Morrisons on 27/04/13

Leftovers from the previous week and store cupboard: onions, chorizo, spaghetti, cornflakes, porridge oats, rice, spinach, cod, peas, Thai red curry paste.

Breakfast: Cornflakes, porridge

Lunch: Sandwiches, griddled chicken and quinoa salad

Snacks: Apples, bananas and tangerines

Bacon and mixed pepper frittata

It's been a while since I've had frittata and I forget how much I like it. For something so simple, it tastes good. The flavours worked well together and it was nice to have something a quick and easy. All of the ingredients were gluten free and it was very easy to make. It makes for a perfect weekday evening meal in my book. 

Next time, I think I'll make goats cheese and asparagus frittata seeing as though it's in season right now.

Serves 2 - 3

Ingredients:

6 medium eggs

A small glug of milk

1 handful of frozen peppers

1 small onion, chopped

6 rashers of bacon, chopped (I used smoked), chopped

1 handful of grated cheese

1 small bunch of chives, chopped

A few basil leaves, chopped

Salt and pepper

Oil

Method:

1. Fry the onion on a medium heat, until the onions begin to soften. Add the bacon and cook the bacon for a few minutes. Add the frozen peppers and cook for another few minutes until the peppers are cooked through.
2. Whisk the eggs with a small amount of milk, season with salt and pepper and add to the frying pan.
3. Cook the frittata for a couple of minutes and when the bottom starts to cook and set, sprinkle the cheese, chives and basil over. When the bottom of the eggs are set, put under a hot grill.
4. Cook until it's set on the top. We served ours with baked beans.

Smoked mackerel, fried cherry tomatoes and fine beans

It has been a bit of a long day for me today and my boyfriend didn't really feel like cooking anything that took too much time either. In the end we decided to have smoked mackerel, as it didn't need much cooking at all and can be ready in about 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 pack of trimmed fine green beans

1 pack of smoked mackerel

1/2 can of tomatoes

1 - 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced (or 3 if you like it very garlicky like us)

Small handful fresh basil, roughly chopped

1 pinch of chilli flakes

1 teaspoon of sugar

Salt and pepper

1 pack of cherry tomatoes

Oil

Method:

1. Boil some water and cook the beans for approximately 4 - 5 minutes in boiling water and drain when cooked through.
2. Flake the smoked mackerel and put to one side.
3. Put a frying pan on a medium heat and add a little oil to the pan. Add the garlic and cherry tomatoes and fry for 2 minutes until the tomatoes have started to soften.
4. Add the tomatoes, chilli flakes, sugar and cook through for another few minutes.
5. Add the chopped basil to the sauce, stir through and take off the heat.
6. Serve the beans, mackerel and cover with the cherry tomato sauce.

Cinnamon Rolls

A while back, I saw a recipe for cinnamon buns and decided I wanted to bake something this weekend as I hadn't for a while. I'm trying not to bake as much, in a bid to shed a couple of pounds before I go on holiday in June. 

For my first ever attempt at cinnamon rolls, I don't think they turned out too bad. I will definitely make them again and there are a couple of tweaks that I would make. I was going to make a healthier version I'd see, but decided as I hadn't made anything like this in a while that I would just make this instead.

They did turn out quite large, so I think potentially I would prefer to make smaller ones next time. These are ok as a treat, but I don't think I could get away with eating these all the time. They did taste nice though and were sweet but not overly sweet.

You can find the recipe that I used here over on Lauren's Latest . I think it was easy to follow and didn't really take much effort. Definitely one I will be trying again. These also went down a treat in my house, so it's already on the request list to make again at some point!

Meal Plan 21/04/13 - 27/04/13

This week, we have decided to eat a little more meat than we have been recently. We saw some rib eye steaks on offer so decided it would be good to treat ourselves a little bit. We're still trying to vary our diet, so we have tried to incorporate some fish into our meal plan for this week. We're also eating at my mums on Sunday too, so we've got 6 meals planned for this week.

Meal Plan 21/04/13 to 27/04/13

Cod in chorizo sauce with tender stem broccoli and fine beans

Turkey mince chilli

Jacket potatoes with turkey chilli

Bacon and mixed pepper frittata

Smoked mackerel with fine beans and roasted cherry tomatoes

Rib eye steaks with potato wedges

Shopping List

Item Price 

2 x ribeye steaks (2 for £7 offer) £7.00

Bacon ( £4 for 2 x 10 rashers) - 1 packet £2.00

Small white cabbage £0.64

Low fat mayo (250 ml) £0.48

1 carrot (0.12 kg) £0.11

Seeded Batch £1.50

GF Bread £2.48

Carver Ham £6.00

Bananas (1.755kg) £1.19

Asda satsumas (600 g) £1.00

Turkey thigh mince (450 g) £2.22

chilli beans £0.48

Frozen mixed peppers  (500 g) £0.55

2 x jacket potatoes (approx 0.67 kg) £0.87

Frozen mixed peppers  (500 g) £1.00

Onions £1.00

Baked beans £0.68

Mackerel £3.00

Fine Beans £1.00

Cherry Tomatoes £1.20

Napolina hard cheese £1.30

Asda extra special chorizo £2.00

Chopped tomatoes x 2 £0.78

tender stem broccoli and fine beans £1.20

2 x cod £4.00

Apples (0.67 kg) £1.31

Milk £1.00

Basmati rice (500 g) £1.08

Total  £47.07

Checked on asda.com on 21/04/13

Leftovers from the previous week: cornflakes, porridge oats, potatoes, eggs, tomato purée, garlic

Breakfast: cornflakes, porridge oats, bacon, eggs

Lunch: sandwiches, leftovers

Snacks: bananas, satsumas