Home Made 5 Spice Powder

I don't know about you, but after the rush of finishing off the Christmas presents and eating way too much over the festive period, for a couple of days I quite like to stay at home and not do much! It was on one of these days that we were due to make Chinese food. We quite like to make a "takeaway" type meal, in the hope that it will stop us from buying a take away.

We realised quite quickly that for the Salty Crispy Chicken recipe that I cook, we need 5 spice which we were out of. Neither of us wanted to go to the shop, preferring just to have a relaxing day instead. A quick scout on the internet later and I came across a home made 5 spice recipe.

I must admit that I've never used the grinder function on my food processor, but I will most definitely be using it again as this was so easy! 

The 5 spice powder was really aromatic and it tasted really good in the recipe, so I don't think I'll be buying the small jars on pre-made stuff from the supermarket from now on. You can find the recipe on the food.com website here.

I used whole black peppercorns in my recipe, as this is what I had in the house. I would love to taste it with with szechuan peppercorns.

Do you make your own spice mixes?

Meal Plan 15/12/13 - 21/12/13

The beef joints at Asda are still on offer at £4 per kilo, so I've bought another one of these and frozen it in 2 halves. They're really good for leaving plenty of leftovers, which is really good made when made into a pie. If we have enough leftovers, we're also going to make either a hot pot or a cottage pie.

I'm going to be quite busy in the coming weeks, baking and making chocolate for Christmas presents.

Meal Plan 15/12/13 - 21/12/13

Roast Beef Dinner

Smoked Mackerel with Potatoes and Beans

Stuffing Crusted Pork with Tenderstem Broccoli and Fine Beans

Cottage Pie /Beef Hot Pot

Roast Beef Pie

Crème Fraiche Chicken with Beans

Chorizo, Pork belly & chickpea casserole

Breakfast: Cereals, Eggs, Bacon, Fruit

Lunch: Gammon Sandwiches, Leftovers

Snacks: Fruit

Leftovers:  Pork Loin Steaks, Cheese,  Frozen Green Beans, Small Potatoes

Shopping

Milk £1.00

Bananas £1.00

Mandarins £1.00

Apples £1.28

Bread £1.50

GF Bread £1.75

Yoghurts £1.00

Stuffing £2.00

Gluten Free Soy Sauce £2.80

Garlic £0.30

Potatoes £2.25

Vitality Drinks (6) * 2 £2.00

Chopped Tomatoes £0.31

Gammon Joint (1.4 kg) £7.00

Smoked Mackerel Fillets £2.27

Chicken  Thigh Fillets £3.58

Courgette £0.55

Crème Fraiche £1.10

Pecorino £2.00

Frozen Sliced Green Beans £0.75

2 * carrots £0.25

Beef Joint 2.3 kg (for later use) £9.20

2 * squash £2.50

Tender stem Broccoli & Fine Beans £1.35

Porridge Oats £0.75

Olive Spread £1.00

Total £50.49

Meal Plan 08/12/13 - 14/12/13

I'll not be sharing a shopping list this week, as I let the other half loose in the supermarket this week. I will still share with you the meals I have planned for the week though.

Gammon Dinner with Broccoli, Carrots and Green Beans

Griddled Polenta with Caramelised Onion, Goats Cheese & Bacon

Leftover Lamb Curry

Pork Stir fry

Spaghetti, Peppers (from jar) and Chorizo

Blue Cheese Beef Burgers and Wedges

Chorizo, Pork belly & Chickpea Casserole

Breakfast: Cereal, Toast, Fruit, Eggs, Bacon

Lunches: Gammon / Tuna Sandwiches, Leftovers

Snacks: Clementines, Bananas, Apples

I'm looking forward to trying this weeks meals, I've never tried Polenta before so I'm really looking forward to trying it. I was hoping to try a recipe I'd seen for Parma ham wrapped polenta chips. 

Beef Stroganoff

After buying a huge 2.5 kg joint of rump roast from Asda for £4 per kg I knew we'd have PLENTY of leftovers from this. As there's only 2 of us, I actually cut it in half and roasted half for a dinner on Monday. This left of with enough beef for the stroganoff and another (approx) 300 g for a pie that I'm planning of making tomorrow.

This recipe happened to pop up when I was searching for one and it looked pretty simple and straight forward so I decided to give it a go. I can tell you now that I wasn't disappointed and felt like I was slaving over a hot stove for too long after work.

You can find the recipe on the Ocado website here. I do urge you to give this a go, as it's so simple and straight forward and is a great way to enjoy leftover beef! This is definitely going on the list of things to make again.

As I've got another joint in the freezer, I'll be looking for different ways to use up the meat. I have a few ideas but if you have any, please feel free to share.

Meal Plan 01/12/13 - 07/12/13

We've stocked up on food a bit this week, so we'll have plenty of leftovers for next week. Beef Rump Roast was on offer this week for £4 per kg this week, so we took advantage of this offer while we could. It'll give the 2 of us plenty of food to get on with.

We're eating out twice this week, so there will be 2 less meals than usual.

Roast Beef Dinner

Leftover Beef Recipe (Maybe Roast Beef Pie)

Beef Stroganoff

Egg, Bacon & Cheese Omelette

Lamb Curry & Bombay Potatoes

Breakfast: Cereal, Eggs, Bacon, Toast, Fruit, Sausages

Lunch: Tuna & Sweetcorn / Chicken Sandwiches, Leftovers

Snacks: Apples, Bananas, Clementines, Chicken Wings, 

Leftovers:  Tuna, Sweetcorn

Shopping List

Milk £1.00

Bananas (10) £1.27

Clementines £1.80

Apples £1.00

Little Big Loaf £0.75

GF Bread £1.75

Sliced Chicken £3.00

Chicken Wings £3.00

2.5 kg beef joint £10.06

Savoy £0.80

2 * Carrots £0.24

Frozen Green Beans £1.05

Dried Mushrooms £1.98

Onions £1.00

Double Cream £1.10

Curry Paste £1.68

2 X Diced Lamb (300 g) £7.00

Chopped Tomatoes £0.62

Baby Potatoes £0.69

Yoghurts £1.00

Bacon £1.69

GF Sausages £1.98

Salt £0.29

Total £44.75

Garlic Cheese, Herb and Gammon Spaghetti

We often cook a smoked gammon joint in the slow cooker then use this for sandwiches or lunches to take to work. We'll often find ourselves with some left though, so we decided we'd use some up in some pasta. 

I don't know about you, but sometimes when I get home from work, all I want to do is relax and have some time to myself or with the other half before we have to go back to work again. Don't get me wrong, I do like cooking but I don't always feel like it. This recipe is great for those days and the good thing is you can change the flavour easily to your taste.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

250 g Spaghetti (I used gluten free)

200 g Pack Garlic and Herb Cream Cheese

100 - 150 g leftover Smoked Gammon

1 handful of Parmesan / Pecorino Cheese

Salt & Pepper

Method:

1. Cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the packet.
2. Drain the pasta, but reserve some of the cooking liquid.
3. Add the spaghetti back to the pan, add the cream cheese, ham and stir through. Keep on the heat and add the reserved cooking water until you get the spaghetti to the required consistency.
4. Add half the remaining cheese to the spaghetti, then sprinkle the rest on top when you serve it up.

I know this is a very simple recipe, but with the different flavours of cream cheese you can get it's very

Meal Plan 24/11/13 - 30/11/13

In this weeks meals, I've tried to make sure that most of the meals don't take too long to prepare / cook. I've noticed since a lot of the colder and darker days and nights have come in that all I seem to want to do when I get home is hibernate. 

We've also stocked up on a few bits such as pork, which will give us enough for 4 meals for the both of us. We'll also probably have some gammon leftover from sandwiches, so I'll either freeze the leftovers or I'll make a quiche again. 

Meal Plan 24/11/13 - 30/11/13

Butter Chicken

Pork Stir Fry

Polish Sausage Soup

Roast Vegetables with Cheese

Cheese, garlic and herbs & Gammon Spaghetti

Buffalo Chicken Pitta & Wedges

Goats Cheese and Spinach ravioli

Shopping List

Milk £1.00

Bananas (0.81 kg) £0.55

Clementines £1.80

Gala Apples £1.00

Bread £1.00

GF Bread £1.75

Chicken Breasts ( 4 breasts) £4.50

Single Cream £0.55

Pork Loin Steak £5.00

Stir Fry Vegetables & Rice Noodles £3.00

2 * Oyster Sauce £1.00

Garlic £0.30

Carrots * 4 (0.42 kg) £0.37

Kale £0.95

Kabanos £2.40

Butter £1.00

Peppers £1.00

Courgettes £0.49

Gammon £5.34

Garlic and Herb Cheese £0.80

Smoked Bacon £1.69

Eggs £1.41

Goats Cheese £1.28

Buffalo Wings Sauce £1.48

Southern Fried Potato Wedges £1.00

Free From flour £1.65

Pesto £1.10

Cheese £2.00

Total £45.41