Squash and Chorizo Stew

We're just loving squash at the moment and are eating a lot of it, I've also come across some different varieties in Morrisons so I decided to give the Harlequin squash a go. The taste and texture are slightly different and for me I prefer Butternut but it might be nice to mix to the 2 different types together in one stew.

This recipe was just what the cold weather ordered, a nice warming, comforting and tasty meal. As you may have noticed, I love chorizo so this recipe was ideal as it involves 2 of my favourite things.

I used 2 tins of chopped tomatoes in mine imstead of passata, this is just personal preference as this is how i like to make my tomato sauces. Instead of parsley I also used a couple of pinches of dried mixed herbs. I also added 2 chopped peppers as we had these available in the fridge.

I would suggest adding a little sugar to balance the tomato sauce a little.

Overall a very tasty, easy dish that we both enjoyed and it's such a bonus that this is low calorie as well. You don't have to make the full amount either, it's really easy to half.

You can find the recipe that I followed here on the BBC Good Food website.

Butternut Squash, Bacon and Vegetable Hash

This recipe was made out of the leftovers from another meal last week, so before the ingredients went off I thought it would be good to use them up. I do hate food waste and try to minimise it as much as possible, though I do think I could still improve this. 

This is ideal for a light supper or for lunch for 2, it's quite light and tasty. The good thing about this is that you can use up any of your leftovers from the bottom of the fridge, so feel free to experiment with this.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1/2 Butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 Pepper, de-seeded and sliced

3 spring onions, sliced

1/2 large courgette or 1 medium, chopped into small cubes

3 eggs

1 tablespoon mixed herbs

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

100 g bacon (I used cooking bacon)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C (fan oven).
2. Put all of the vegetables into a roasting tin, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle over the mixed herbs.
3. Season with salt and pepper and mixed around.
4. Put in the oven for approximately 30 minutes, or until all of the vegetables are cooked through and tender.
5. Meanwhile, chop the bacon into small pieces are fry in a large drying pan with some oil.
6. When the bacon has cooked through, add the cooked vegetables to the pan and fry off for a couple of minutes.
7. Crack the eggs into the pan and stir through until the egg has cooked.

Meal Plan 27/10/13 - 02/11/13

As we made quite a bit of soup last week, we have quite a few leftovers in the freezer. We're using some of these up, so that we can try and create some space in the freezer. The idea of this was also to keep the costs down for this week, as well as enjoying some nice comforting soups!

Meal Plan 27/10/13 - 02/11/13

Lentil and Bacon Soup

Broccoli and Stilton Soup (Leftovers)

Polish Sausage Soup (Leftovers)

Butternut Squash, Vegetable and Bacon Hash

Squash, Peppers and Chorizo Stew

Chorizo and Pepper Risotto

Spiced Carrot and Lentil Soup (leftover from last week)

Breakfast: Cereal, Porridge, Eggs, Bacon, Toast

Lunch: Tuna & Sweetcorn sandwiches, Leftovers

Snacks: Bananas, Clementines, Plums

Leftovers: Bacon, Tuna, Sweetcorn, Carrots, Eggs, Porridge Oats

Shopping List:

Milk £0.97

Bananas ( 10 - 1.72 kg) £1.17

Plums £1.00

Sweet Clementines (Marked down) £0.95

Onions £1.00

Garlic £0.25

Red Lentil 500 g £0.99

Harlequin Squash £0.60

Chopped Tomatoes £0.31

Knorr Chicken Stock Cubes (20) £2.99

Weetabix (24) £2.39

Yoghurts (2 x 4 Packs on offer) £2.00

Water £2.29

Isotonic Drinks £2.00

Genius Brown Bread £2.39

Chorizo 200 g (just over) £2.04

Peppers £1.75

Total £25.09

All of the above were bought from Morrisons on 26/10/13

The meals may be juggled around a little this week as I seem to have planned too much. So we had the Butternut squash and vegetable hash for lunch today and it was absolutely fantastic, I'll be sure to share this recipe with you soon as it was really tasty.