Gluten Free Pizza - Pizza Hut

I was going to write about this at the weekend, but I was at my friends wedding this weekend, so thought I would share with you now. I've moved jobs within the same company this week, so as Friday was my last day myself and Khila from Miss Budget Beauty & Life of Khi  decided to go over to Pizza Hut for lunch. I've heard quite a few people talk about this previously, but this was the first time I've tried their gluten free options.

I was impressed with the fact you could have any topping you wanted, we went for chicken and mushroom.

We also had some nacho's, which were really good. I did really enjoy this meal, it's nice to have some more options for eating out now and the choice of toppings was good. 

I did find the texture of the pizza quite different to that of Domino's, which is a thicker round pizza in comparison to this square thinner one.

Both still taste really good and have some good toppings available. The Domino's versions seemed fluffier and slightly less dry. I would however not hesitate to order again from Pizza Hut as I really enjoyed it and thought the price and options were good.

Next on my list to try is the Pizza Express, which I've previously heard good things about and also offers some other gluten free options.

I may even try making my own again. If any of you have any tips, then please feel free to share them with me.

Menu 04/08/13 - 10/08/13

It was quite busy this weekend, we went to a wonderful wedding. However, as we were out of the house most of the weekend and knew we'd be tired when we got back on the Sunday, we decided it would be an ideal time to try out the home delivery services. We settled on Sainsbury's, the deal was that if you spent £60 you could get £15 off delivery. I also managed to secure delivery charges of £2.99 (I believe these are dependent upon the time and the delivery area). The deal turned out to be pretty good and meant that I could stock up on some bits for next week too.

Crunchy Nut Cornflakes (500 g) £2.00

Chicken Thigh Fillet £3.33 *

Sainsburys Basic Hard Cheese 200 g £2.00

Arborio Risotto Rice 500 g £1.12

1 tin Basic Red Kidney Beans £0.21

Longley Farm Cottage Cheese 250 g £1.20

Soured Cream 150 ml £0.60

Fajita Seasoning Mix £0.89

Plain Tortilla Wraps £1.20

Basics Cooked and Peeled Prawns 300 g £2.25

Basis Barn Eggs - 18 £2.10

Sainsburys Smoked Bacon 1  x 225 g (came as a pack of 2 and part of the 3 for £10 deal) £1.67 *

2 x loose carrots £0.31

Soft Multigrain Rolls (4 - 300 g) £2.19

Family Bag of Apples £1.85

10 x loose fairtrade Bananas £1.08

1 x Iceburg Lettuce £0.90

Peppers Basics 600 g £1.60

Cucumber £0.80

2 x loose red onions £0.34

2 x Naturally Sweet Sweetcorn £1.20

2 l semi skimmed milk £1.35

Nestle Honey Shreddies (500 g) £2.00

Rude Health Honey Puffed Oats (gluten free) £2.50

Gluten Free Wraps (Tesco) £3.10

Total £37.79

The above total price does not take into consideration the discount of £15 (or £12.01 after taking off the  delivery charge), so this actually cost less than the above.

* These items were part of a multi deal (3 for £10 - some of these items will appear in next week's menu).

Breakfast - Eggs, Cereal

Lunches - Chicken  / Bacon Salad, Leftovers

Leftovers -: Rump Steak, Broad Beans, Potatoes, 

Jacket Potato, Cottage Cheese and Chives

Beef Fajitas

Carrot and Kidney Bean Burgers 

Prawn and Chive Omelette

Jacket Potato and Chilli (leftovers from freezer, cupboard)

Broad Bean and Bacon Risotto

The above prices were correct prices on day of purchase 04/08/13 from Sainsbury's.

Overall I would say that I was pretty impressed with the quality of the products and it was nice to have the food delivered. I wouldn't use this service all the time, but I would consider using it again when busy.

Gluten Free Bread Rolls

I fancied having a try at making some bread rolls the other night, so decided to have a go at this recipe I saw on the Dove's Farm website. 

To be honest I had some normal gluten free plain flour in the cupboard, so decided to use this instead of getting some bread flour. I'm not really sure if it was due to this or the recipe, but I found that it was very liquid like. They did however come out quite soft when they were out of the oven. They did tend to go a little harder when they'd cooled down, but refreshed in the microwave for approx 20 seconds they come out nice and soft again.

I cooked mine in a muffin tin.

All in all they weren't a bad attempt, they're OK if you freshen them up but probably not brilliant if you're travelling.

If anyone has any good recipes to share, then please go ahead.

Menu 28/07/13 - 03/08/13

There are quite a few meals from last week being brought into this week, simply because we had a lot of leftovers from the BBQ, so we tended to eat our leftovers as we didn't want to waste them. This is good news for this week and next week, as they need to be fairly low cost!

We will be eating out on the Sunday, so only need 6 meals for this week. 

Menu 28/07/13 - 03/08/13:

Beef Chilli

Lamb Curry and Tarka Dahl (from last week's menu)

Sausage Casserole

Bangers and Mash with Onion Gravy (from last week's menu)

Cottage Pie

Broad Bean and Bacon Risotto (from last week's menu)

Ingredients / Costs:

Fresher for longer GF Bread 2.39

Salad Crisp Sweet Corn x 2 1.00

Lettuce x 2 1.00

Bananas (10 - 1.665 kg) 1.13

Spring Onions 0.50

Cucumber 0.50

Apples (2 bags x 5 apples) 3.00

Smart Price Onions 0.98

Frozen Garden Peas (1 kg) 1.50

Mixed Peppers 1.00

Reduced Sliced Chicken 0.31

Reduced Sliced Pork 0.58

Carrots ( 2 - 0.230 kg) 0.18

Milk 1.00

Chopped Tomatoes 0.31

Orange Juice 0.50

Light Mayonnaise (750 ml) 1.18

Sharwood Balti Paste 1.00

Smart Price Small Potatoes 0.69

Small Tin Loaf Sliced Bread (reduced) 0.25

15 Smart Price Eggs 1.35

Total 20.35

Breakfast: Cereal, Toast, Fried Potatoes, Eggs, Bacon

Lunch: Tuna Salad, Leftovers, Sandwiches

Leftovers: Beef Mince, Sausages, Rice (Basmati and Risotto) , Lamb, Red Potatoes, Broad Beans, Split Peas

For next week, I really need to start using up some of the leftovers in the freezer and cupboard, which will hopefully keep the cost of next weeks shopping down.

Almost Turkey Courgette Lasagne

After a pretty strange and tiring week at work, I was a bit tired last night. I came home and made the courgette lasagne and was really pleased to get it in the oven, it was only then that I realised that I hadn't put any Bechamel sauce on the lasagne. 

It still tasted good even without the white sauce though. I didn't actually miss the pasta in the dish either, I was really surprised. Definitely something I'd make again.

Serves 2 - 3

Ingredients:

• 400 g Turkey mince
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon tomato purée
• 1 - 2 garlic cloves
• dash of Henderson's Relish
• 2 Bovril stock cubes
• 1/2 large onion or 1 small onion
• 1 large courgette - sliced lengthways (I used the slicer on the grater to make thin slices)
• Glug of oil
• 80 g  - 100 g mature cheddar cheese

Method:

1. Put the oil in a frying pan, on a medium heat. Add the onion and cook for a couple of minutes until they start to soften. Add the minced garlic. 
2. Add the mince meat the pan and cook the mince until it is browned, crumble the Bovril cubes onto the meat, add the tomato purée, Henderson's relish to the pan and stir through until combined and cook for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes to the pan, then put on a high heat until it starts to bubble, then lower the heat and cook for approximately 10 minutes until the sauce starts to reduce.
4. Put half of the meat mixture into a small baking dish, put half of the courgette on top. Pour on the other half of the meat. Top with the other half of the sliced courgette and top with the enough grated cheese to cover the top. You would put on the Bechamel sauce before the cheese, if I'd have remember to 
5. Bake on 170 C until the cheese is melted on top, for about 25 - 30 minutes.

A few calories lower than a normal lasagne, you could obviously ease off the cheese if you're trying to get rid of a few calories or use a lower fat cheese.

Potato, Chickpea and Spinach Curry

I liked the Chickpea and Spinach Madras so much last time that I decided to make this again, but this time I decided to bulk it out with potatoes. I also used curry powder for a different flavour, rather than using curry paste.

Ingredients:

Serves 4 - 6

• 500 g small potatoes, chopped into cubes
• 1 tin of chickpeas, drained
• 2 tins of chopped, tomatoes
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon of medium curry powder
• 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of tomato purée
• 1/2 tin of water
• 350 g frozen spinach
• Salt and Pepper
• Oil for frying

Serve with Basmati rice

Method:

1. Add the oil to the pan on a medium heat, add the chopped onions and cook for a couple of minutes until they start to soften. Add the garlic, stir through and cook for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the potatoes and cook until they start to colour, for about 10 minutes.
3. Add the the chickpeas, chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, curry powder, water and cook through for 10 minutes.
4. Put the Basmati on - I normally cook 1 mug to 2 mugs of water. I will then use boiling water, bring the rice and water to the boil. Turn the heat down, put the lid on and cook until all the water is absorbed.
5. Season the curry with the salt and pepper and serve with Basmati rice.

If you're serving for 6 then use 1.5 mugs of rice to 3 mugs of water. Tomorrow I shall be making the courgette lasagne...

Gym and jacket potatoes!

After eating too much at the BBQ this weekend and PLENTY of leftovers, I'm trying to not eat as much this week. For a low cost and healthy dinner tonight I thought I'd have my cottage cheese and jacket potatoes. I chopped some fresh chives into the cottage cheese on the top. 

I used fresh chives as I have some growing in the garden and I think its a little nicer to add them fresh. You can obviously used the tubs of cottage cheese with chives already in. 

I've started going back to the gym last week, after quite a fairly long period of not going. I've been bogged down with work and really not felt like going. I'm back on track now though and trying to eat a little healthier. Hopefully I'll be able to lose a couple of pounds too!

I've strayed away from the meal plan a few nights this week, but I think tomorrow I'm possibly going to have Turkey Courgette Lasagne Tomorrow.