Menu 30/06/13 - 06/07/13

With my other half starting his new job this month, it's been a bit tighter on the old purse strings than usual.

I've tried to keep the cost of this weeks meals down.

We bought some meat from the market last weekend, so we've used up these leftovers in this weeks menu. 

We are eating at mum's for Sunday lunch, so we only have 6 meals this week. We're eating some leftovers from last week's meal for dinner.

Meal Plan 30/06/13 - 06/06/13

Creamy Crab and Pea Spaghetti

Sweet Chilli Pork Stir Fry

Chicken Thai Green Curry

Courgette and Pea Risotto

Bacon, Pea and Cheese Sauce Spaghetti

Sausage and mixed bean casserole

Item Price 

Gluten Free Bread £2.00

Milk £1.00

Bananas (8 - approx 1.36 kg) £0.92

Pink Lady Apples ( 6 apples - approx 0.96 kg) £3.59

Onions £1.00

Crème Fraiche £1.10

Crab Meat £1.06

Coconut Milk - Light £1.40

Coriander £0.78

Sweet Chilli Stir Fry Sauce £1.20

1 Courgette (0.22 kg) £0.35

Bacon (2 for £4) £4.00

Salad Cream £0.58

Sweetcorn £1.00

Red onion (0.13 kg - approx weight) £0.10

Chopped Tomatoes £0.31

Cucumber £0.50

3 Mixed Peppers £1.00

Lettuce ( 2 at a price of 50 p each) £1.00

Sliced Meat £1.00

2 Heinz Veg Soup £1.20

Extra Mature Cheese - 200 g £1.50

Honey mustard dressing - 250 ml £0.90

Gluten Free Sausage £1.70

Risotto Rice £1.10

Stir fry vegetables £1.20

Total  £31.59

All of the above were correct on 30/06/13 on asda.com

Leftovers: Peas, Cereal, chilli, chicken, rice, Pork, Spaghetti, Hard Cheese, Frozen mixed vegetables, Eggs, Lemongrass, flour

Snacks: Apple or Banana

Breakfast: Cereal, Egg, Toast, Sausages, Bacon

There are ways you can still bring down the cost of the above, such as buying cheaper apples. We really like these apples in particular, so tend to buy these.

Purple Majesty Potatoes

When strolling through Asda this week, I saw that Purple Majesty Potatoes were £1 for 1.25 kg (true at time of writing 29/06/13). I'd never tried them before, so decided it would be nice go give these a try and see what they are like. I must admit, that they looked good when they were peeled and chopped.

I tried mine mashed and I think they had a nice taste to them and mashed really well. They went well with my bangers, mash and onion gravy. 

They were slightly lighter after cooking and mashing, but still kept their purple colour. All in all, a nice potato and one that I will be using again.

Salty Crispy Chicken and Gluten Free Egg Fried Rice

This is one of those recipes I found whilst browsing the internet one day, I've watched a few of Ching He Huang's programmes and I've got the book which her and Ken Hom have done. I quite like her recipes and this one in particular caught my eye, as it seemed really easy. I also love chicken thigh fillets, as I find them much more succulent that chicken breasts.

Home made egg fried rice is also really good and a treat for me as normal soy sauce is a no go for most people going gluten free. If I have a little bit it wont hurt me too much, as I'm not Coeliac but too much does affect me... particularly my stomach! 

You can find the salty crispy chicken recipe here , I did make a couple of changes :

• I used gluten free soy sauce (available in most larger supermarkets now)
• I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs and cut them into thin strips. I prefer them like this, as they are great dipped in some sweet chilli sauce.
• I used plain gluten free flour instead of potato flour, as I didn't have any of this in the cupboard.

For the Egg Fried Rice (Serves 4):

• 1 mug of Basmati rice (cooked)
• 1 handful of Frozen Peas
•  1 - 2 tablespoons of Gluten Free Soy Sauce
• Approx 1 tablespoon of Sesame Oil
• 3 Eggs

Method:

1. Beat the eggs, add to a heated wok. Add the rice to the pan, then add the soy sauce, sesame oil, frozen peas.
2. Cook the peas through, you can add more sesame oil or soy sauce if you think it needs it.
3. Serve with the Salty, Crispy, Chicken.

Meal Plan 23/06/13 - 29/06/13

I've planned our meals for next week, but it's not entirely finished yet as I haven't been shopping. I thought I would still share what meals I was going to have and I'll update with the other details later. I did take a visit to the market at the weekend though and I got some good deals on some meat as we went in the afternoon.

Meal Plan 23/06/13 - 29/06/13

• Feta Cheese, Tuna and Avocado  Salad, Balsamic & Olive Oil
• Mixed Bean and Sausage Casserole
• Honey, Soy Sauce and Garlic Pork Steaks, Carrots, Broccoli
• Bangers and Mash with Carrots and Onion Gravy
• Beef Fajitas
• Tapas Night: Paella, Patatas Bravas, Spanish Ham Selection, Manchego Cheese, Garlic Prawns
• Salty Crispy chicken, Egg Fried Rice

Fried Potato, Bacon and Egg Hash

I really fancied some bacon this morning and had some potatoes in so thought I would make a fried potato, bacon and egg hash. This recipe would be a good way to use up any leftover potatoes from your Sunday dinner or if you have some leftovers to use up.

It's also quite a substantial breakfast to set you up for a long day. To be honest though, I'd quite happily eat this at any time of day, so doesn't need to be restricted to breakfast!

Serves 2 

Ingredients:

• Approx 250 g Potatoes, boiled and chopped into cubes or chunks
• 4 slices of Smoked Bacon
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of Smoked Paprika
• Salt and Pepper
• Oil for frying

Method:

1. Fry off the bacon in a frying pan, on a medium - high heat. Cook for a couple of minutes until the bacon starts to cook through.
2. Add a little oil to the pan and add the potatoes, cook for approximately 5 minutes until the potatoes have warmed through.
3. Add the paprika, salt and pepper to the pan and stir through.
4. Add the eggs to the pan, stirring round the egg in the pan so that it starts to coat the bacon and potao mixture. Cook until the egg has cooked through, it will only take a minute or so.

Creme Fraiche Chicken

This was so simple and tasty, that I would definitely have it again. I'd also like to experiment with the different vegetables in the dish.

There was just enough bacon in the dish, to give the slightly smoky bacon taste and the taste of the hard cheese coming through. I ate this wish just the vegetables, but I think this would be good served with some pasta or some potatoes.

Serves - 4

Ingredients:

• 500 g chicken, diced
• 205 g of fine trimmed beans, cut in half while still in the packet
• 2 courgettes, diced
• 1 tablespoon of hard grated cheese
• 2 teaspoons of dijon mustard
• 3 heaped dessert spoons Creme Fraiche
• Salt and Pepper 
• Oil

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a pan on a medium - high heat, add the chicken to the pan and brown the chicken, until almost cooked through.
2. Add the mustard to the pan, stir through and add the courgettes and the beans.
3. Stir through and fry for a minute, add the creme fraiche, salt and pepper and the cheese.
4. Put a lid on the pan and turn down the heat, cook through for 5 to 10 minutes.

I think this would go really nice with pasta or some new potatoes. I just ate it on its own though and it was still really nice.

Roast Chicken Leg with Quinoa, Dried Pork Sausage, Feta & Peppers

We had a Quinoa, Feta, Pepper and Tomato salad a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I decided that I would quite like to have this again, as we still had some Quinoa left. This time it was served with some chicken and we used some of the leftover dried pork sausages up.

I really liked the Roast Chicken with the Quinoa Salad. I would definitely have this again. Lovely for a meal when the weather is a little warmer, thought I could probably eat this all year round.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken legs
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 1 mug of Quinoa
• 100 g Feta Cheese
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 1 - 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
• a handful of dried pork sausage, chopped

Method:

1. Boil a kettle, and boil the Quinoa with 2 mugs of boiling water. Add the stock cube to the pan.
2. Bring the pan to the boil, then turn the heat and cook for about 20 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed. Take off the heat and put into a bowl, add the the vinegar, Peppers, Feta and sausage.
3. While the Quinoa is cooking, you can start cooking the chicken leg. Seal them in a dry pan for 5 minutes then put into a pre-heated oven at 180 C. Cook for about 35 - 40 minutes.
4. Serve with the Quinoa Salad.