Gluten Free Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

I was given a bread maker a few weeks ago and it's been sat in the cupboard ever since. I thought I'd make use of it today as I had the urge to re-attempt gluten free bread today, which to be honest I think turned out pretty well. I just couldn't leave it long enough to cool before having a slice! I'm going to test it out tomorrow again to see what the taste and texture is like the next day. I will be blogging soon about my latest gluten free bread attempt.

Another thing that I have been wanting to try for some time is banana bread. We had some ripe bananas that needed using up, so I decided I would give this a try too. 

The texture and taste of the banana bread were really good and the chocolate chips in there just made it even better. Another good thing about this recipe is that it has no eggs in. I had some milled flaxseed in the cupboard and as I'd run out of eggs, I decided to follow this recipe. I'm really glad I did and wouldn't hesitate to do this again.

You can find the recipe that I used here.

I'm definitely going to have another go making banana bread, next time though I think I might put some chopped pecans in instead of the chocolate chips. 

I'm really going to enjoy this for breakfast in the morning, although I may have had a cheeky slice when it was still warm from the oven ;-)

Gluten Free Bacon, Pea and Tomato Spaghetti

It's been a bit of a hectic week at work this week, so I think I was having a moment when I made this pasta. It was supposed to be with mushrooms, but to be honest it worked just as well with the peas. 

It was a very quick tomato pasta, made with gluten free spaghetti. 

Ingredients:

• 100 g gluten free spaghetti
• 1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1 teaspoon of chilli powder (or to taste)
• Approx 80g of cooking bacon
• 1 handful of frozen peas
• Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Fry the bacon on a medium heat. 
2. In the meantime cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the packet.
3. Add the tomatoes, chilli, paprika, salt and pepper to the pan. Continue to cook and reduce down while the spaghetti continues to cook.
4. Add the peas at the end of the cooking time, add the cooked spaghetti.

This meal was fairly cheap and very quick and easy to make. It will be made again, but I do normally prefer to reduce my tomato sauce down more than I did here. It will be made again, but probably tweaked a little.

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.