Chorizo and Pea Rice

My boyfriend has taken to eating mackerel soup most night's at the moment (yes you heard right, he normally takes a tin of vegetable soup and mixes mackerel in various sauces into the soup), I'm not keen on this so I'm  cooking as usual and I'm going to take the leftovers in for lunch or freeze them. A lot of the food this week will be fairly easy, as after a long day at work I don't always feel like slaving over a hot stove for too long.

This meal was pretty easy to make though and tasted good. Even better, considering it was made entirely of leftovers.

Serves 3 - 4

Ingredients

• 120 g chorizo, chopped into cubes
• 1 mug of basmati rice
• 1 Knorr vegetable stock cube
• 1 large handful of frozen peas
• 1/2 large white onion, chopped
• Glug of oil

Method:

1. Boil the kettle with at least 2 mugs of water.
2. Heat the oil on a medium heat in a large pan / frying pan.  Add the onions and fry for a few minutes until they star to soften.
3. Add the chorizo to the pan and fry for a few minutes, it should start to colour the onions.
4. Add the rice to the pan and stir to coat the rice with the oil. 
5. Crumble the vegetable stock cube into the pan, then add 2 mugs full of boiling water to the pan from the kettle. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and put the lid on the pan and cook until the rice is nice and fluffy. You can add the peas to the rice a couple of minutes before the end and season to taste.

Carrot, Cumin and Kidney Bean Burgers

After seeing Jack from http://agirlcalledjack.com on BBC Breakfast I had a look at her blog like a lot of viewers who watched her that morning. I think her story is inspiring and just goes to show how squeezed some peoples finances are. It's amazing what some people can make on so little money though.

One of the recipes on Jack's blog that caught my eye was carrot, cumin and kidney bean burger. 

They were really easy to make, came out looking pretty good and held together well.

We had some pitta bread for another meal later in the week, so decided to use them. Mine was gluten free, I've had these before and they're not bad. We also had some of the garlic pickle with nigella seeds that we had picked up from the Fountain Abbey, which made a nice addition.

I liked the flavour and texture of the burger. It's probably the  best bean burger that we've had. Considering the taste and how much it cost to make, it shall definitely be on the list of things to make again.

You can find the recipe here.

 Notes: I used Doves Farm gluten free flour in this recipe.

Meal Plan 05/05/13 - 11/05/13

This week is a bit of a mixed bag food wise, there are some leftovers being made into mealsand a mix of some cheaper meals as well as a big treat for my boyfriend and I. He just loves steak and we don't tend to eat it too often, as it's quite expensive for good steak. The ones that he has chosen for us though are particularly big, so I'll be lucky to get to the end of mine!

Meal Plan 05/05/13 - 11/05/13

Chorizo and pea rice ( using leftovers from last week)

Bacon, pea spaghetti with cheese sauce

Spicy tomato, mushroom and bacon spaghetti

Mushroom risotto

Jacket potatoes, tuna mayonnaise and sweetcorn

Crème fraiche, onion and bacon pitta bread pizzas

Steak and wedges

Shopping List

Asda cooking bacon 500 g £0.81

Asda free from spaghetti £1.40

Milk 4 pints £1.00

White mushrooms 250 g £0.70

Chopped tomatoes £0.39

Asda extra mature cheese £1.27

Gluten free pitta bread £2.00

Plain pitta £0.70 

Free from bread £2.00

Bread £1.00

Mozzarella £0.83

organic crème fraiche 200 g £0.77

1 onion (0.23 kg) £0.18

Carver ham £4.00

risotto rice £1.00

Desiree potatoes 1.95 kg £1.95

Tuna  £0.49

Sweetcorn £0.32

T Bone steak £24.00 (this was bought from our butcher at our local market)

Apples (0.67 kg) £1.31

Bananas (1.755kg) £1.19

Asda satsumas (600 g) £1.00

5 for £2 thick vegetable soup £2.00

Asda mackerel in tomato sauce £1.70

Frosted shredded wheat £2.48

Sliced squid (200 g) - £2.00 (this was also from our local market)

Bag of mixed salad leaves - £1.84 (would normally buy these from asda with the rest of our shop, but these were bough from the Tesco local)

Total  £58.55

I also have some leftovers from last week to use up: frozen peas, chorizo, cornflakes, onions and porridge oats.

All of the above were checked at asda.com on 04/05/13, apart from where specified.

To be honest, this was a bit of an expensive week for us. As I said earlier though, it was a bit of a treat for the other half as we were celebrating some good news of his this week. Next week, we will be cutting back again and spending a little less. 

Poached eggs and bacon on toast

I went out for dinner last night for some friends and a cocktail or two. So this morning, I wanted a decent breakfast, but I didn't fancy a full fry up. I don't tend to eat poached eggs much, normally I go for scrambled eggs. They tend to be much quicker and less hassle for me, but today I really just fancied some poached eggs on toast. We also had some mushrooms that needed using up in the fridge, so decided to make use of these too.

We served it with some grilled cooking bacon, some mushrooms fried in butter (the boyfriend sneakily put some garlic powder on this too).  It was a really good breakfast, just what I needed this morning. I've seen people use avocado on toast with poached eggs, I may try this next time as I quite like the idea.

1 serving

Ingredients:

• 50 - 65 g of mushrooms
• Approx 80 - 100 g of cooking bacon
• 2 medium free range eggs
• 1 tsp of garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon of vinegar
• 2 slices of gluten free bread
• Butter (for the toast and frying the mushrooms)

We fried the mushrooms in a little butter in a frying pan and added some garlic powder. Cook the bacon under the grill on the medium heat. For the poached eggs, you need to bring a large pan of water to the boil, adding approx 1 tablespoon of vinegar. If you swirl the water and break the egg into the middle, the poached eggs tend to stay together. Then serve on toast.

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