Chocolate Mousse

I've been feeling a little under the weather this last week and to treat myself today I felt like eating something a little sweet. I did contemplate making a cake or baking something, but instead decided on a simple mousse instead. Just because it's easy to make though, makes it no less delicious and chocolatey!

The mousse itself was nice, chocolatey and light so it was not too heavy and sickly. I think that next time I make this, I'll serve it with some fruit such as raspberries or strawberries (when they come into season) and potentially a double layered mousse made with white chocolate.

You can find the recipe I used here, I halved the recipe to make 2 portions (made with 4 smallish eggs).

What do you like to eat when you are feeling a little under the weather?

Green Garden Vegetable Pie

As a big meat lover, I always thought my plate would be a little lacking without the meat. I've been wanting to eat more vegetables in the hope that it would help us both to get a little healthier, as well as helping cut the costs of the shopping down. I needn't have worried about cutting the meat out though, as this recipe  was delicious. It had a lovely creamy cheese sauce, great tasting vegetables and a nice crisp cheese and potato topping. What more can you ask for?

There's no reason why you can't use leftover vegetables after your Sunday roast or any that you have laying around. It'd be a good way to use them up and taste good at the same time. 

This particular recipe serves 4 as a main, with good size portions. There's also no reason why you can't serve this as a side dish to a nice roast such as beef. As an accompaniment, I think this would serve approximately 6 -8.

The original recipe that I have adapted is here.

Ingredients:

50g butter

2 tsp mustard powder

600ml milk

200g mature cheddar cheese, grated

15g parmesan cheese (optional)

2 large potatoes, peeled and sliced into rounds

1 head of broccoli, cut into florets

1 carrot, peeled, cut in half and sliced

200g frozen peas

small bunch of chives, snipped

50g gluten free flour (I used Asda's Free From)

1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets

1 tsp of garlic salt

salt

pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 220 C, 200 Fan, Gas 7 and boil the kettle.
2. Add the butter to the pan and melt, put the mustard and flour into the pan and cook for 1 minute.
3. Add the milk in little by little, stirring constantly to avoid getting any lumps. At this point you should also add the salt, garlic salt and pepper.
4.  When you've added all of the milk and the sauce thickens, you can take it off the heat and add most of the grated cheese to the pan. You just need a little put the side to sprinkle over the top of the dish later.
5. Preheat a large pan, put the boiling water into the pan and add the potatoes. Boil for 5 minutes, add the cauliflower, broccoli and carrot and cook for 3 minutes. Add the peas and leave for 1 more minute. You can leave for a little longer if you like your vegetables really well cooked through and soft.
6. Drain all of the vegetables and leave enough sliced potatoes to the side to cover the casserole dish. 
7. Add the vegetables, sauce and chives together and mix well. Put them into the casserole dish, cover with the sliced potatoes and sprinkle the cheese on top. You can also grate the parmesan on top at this point, if you are using it. 
8. Put into the oven and cook for approximately 25 minutes, until it is fully cooked through and nice and golden on the top.

We found that the parmesan gave the dish a little extra taste. This is definitely something that I would try again. Next time, we may try some chopped, fried bacon in for a different taste. 

Meal Plan 31/03/13 to 06/04/13

This week we have really tried to cut a lot of the meat out of our diets and replace it with vegetables, seafood and fish. We will not be cutting all of the meat in our diet, but we thought that it would be good to vary our diet more as we think we've been eating a little too much of it lately!

On the Sunday we went out for dinner and on one of the days we will be having leftovers. There are only 2 us, so tend to have plenty. Sometimes we take them to work for lunches.

Meal Plan for 31/03/13 to 06/04/13

Mediterranean tuna and rice bake

Sweet chilli prawn stir fry

Green garden vegetable pie

Aubergine parmesan

Lentil ragu

Leftovers

The shopping list below was checked on asda.com on 29/03:

Onions - £0.85

Carrots (500 g ) - £0.50

Celery - £0.89

Garlic (1 bulb) - £0.30

Red lentils - £1.28 (I actually bought mine from the local market for £0.60)

4 x boxes of chopped tomatoes - £1.50

Tomato purée - £0.55

500 g gluten free  spaghetti - £1.30 

Vegetable Stock Cube - £1.67 *

1 large aubergine - £0.50

1 low fat mozzarella ball - £0.83

100 g grated parmesan - £1.68 *

2 large potatoes - £1.50

200 g mature cheddar cheese - £2.00

1 head of broccoli - £1.00

Frozen peas - £1.60

Small bunch of chives - £0.60

1 head of cauliflower - £0.50

Long grain rice (500 g) - £0.40

1 jar sun dried tomatoes - £1.37

1 large courgette - £1.47 (this is approximate)

200 g Greek feta cheese - £1.00

Mixed salad leaves- £1.00

Sweet chilli sauce -£1.20

King prawns (380 g) - £5.00

1 can of tune in brine or spring water - £1.00 *

Total - £32.74

* These items are actually in my store cupboard or fridge already so I actually did not need to buy these.