Stuffing ready to go!

Last year on Christmas Eve I spent my evening stressing out wrapping presents and getting the stuffing made and ready to go in the oven the next day.  I didn't enjoy my Christmas Eve and went to bed tired and stressed out instead of relaxed and anticipating the kids opening their presents the next day.  I promised myself that this year would be different.  So, here I sit on Christmas Eve eve (see what I did there!) with a Bulmers (or Magners if you aren't from Ireland) in hand congratulating myself on how much better prepared I am this year.  Well done me!

Just before sitting down this evening I finished making my stuffing and it's in the fridge ready to go in the oven on Christmas day.  For the last few years I have made the same stuffing for each year - chestnut and cranberry roll - which was published in the December 2007 Goodfood magazine.  If you haven't decided what stuffing to make this year, do yourself a favour and make this.  Take it from me, it looks impressive, but it is fairly simple and straight forward to make.

Menu plan 16th December 2012 - 21st December 2012

As I get older I frequently find myself wondering where the time has gone.  It's not different today when I look at my last post - where has the time gone?  I am sure that, like me, all of you are up to your eyes in Christmas preparations.  I decided to take a break from the wrapping and writing cards to type up my menu plan for this week. 

So, my menu plan from the 16th December to the 21st December 2012 is as follows

Salmon and lemon rice pastry parcel

For dinner this evening we had Salmon and lemon rice pastry parcel from the September 2012 issue of the GoodFood magazine.  We will be having leftovers for dinner tomorrow night, so this recipe will feed the 4 of us for 2 nights.  The recipe states that it serves 6, and so we are able to get two nights dinners out of this quite easily.

Alterations
My husband and children don't like eggs, so I omitted these from the recipe when I made it. Though I did brush the pastry with whisked egg, as per the recipe, as I figured they couldn't object to something they didn't realise they were eating!!  I also left out the capers as no one in my family really likes them.

The hot-smoked salmon fillets that I used had cracked black pepper on them.  I used the same salmon the first time I made this recipe and it tasted lovely so I decided to stick with it.


Top tips - lemon basmati rice
The first time I made this recipe (about a month and half ago) I couldn't find the lemon basmati rice the recipe needs when I was doing my grocery shopping.  I did however find Martha Stewart's recipe for making lemon basmati rice on her website, and as I had all the ingredients in I decided to make my own.

After making the lemon rice, I had a lot more rice than the pastry parcel recipe called for, so I once again took to the Internet to check to see if it was possible to freeze cooked rice.  The short answer is - you can, but you need to cool it quickly.  For more information on how to freeze and defrost rice click on the link.

This morning I lifted my puff pastry and rice from the freezer to allow them to defrost for use in the dinner later in the day.  It is possible to re-heat the rice from frozen in the microwave, but I decided to not to do this so that I didn't have to wait for the rice to cool before I mixed it with the other ingredients.  The rice tasted fine when defrosted and reheated. 

After seeing how straight forward it was to freeze, defrost and re-heat the rice I think I might double up on portions of rice that I am boiling in the future in order to freeze half of it. 

Menu plan 17/11/2012 to 23/11/2012

Once again I've managed to not find the time to post my menu plan for the last few weeks.  I figured while I had the computer on, checking the ingredients I need for my shopping list, I would make a quick update. 

Anyway, my menu plan for the 17th November to the 23rd November is as follows:-
Saturday dinner - Mince and onions (from the freezer), potatoes and baked beans
Sunday dinner - Salmon and lemon rice pastry parcel
Monday dinner - leftover salmon and lemon rice pastry parcel
Tuesday dinner - Chilli
Wednesday dinner - Chicken with creamy bacon penne
Thursday dinner - Fish, chips, peas and sweetcorn
Friday dinner - Roast ham, potatoes and veg

For lunches this week we will have sandwiches, leftover chilli and salads.

At the moment I am trying to run down my freezer again before Christmas as I'll probably have a lot of leftovers to freeze (my husband insists on getting a big turkey and freezing what we don't eat as we only ever have turkey once a year).  This week, all the meat I will be using is from the freezer, except for the salmon for tomorrow's dinner which is in the fridge.  This will allow me to gain a lot of space in the freezer, as well as saving a bit of money as I will not have to buy any meat.

My husband has classes on Tuesday evenings, so I will make the chilli ahead on Monday evening so that he can take some to work to eat before he heads to class.  Having the chilli ready ahead of time will also help save some time in the evening when I get home which will be handy as I will be trying to get dinner on the table as quickly as possible as well as trying to entertain the kids. 

When I make chilli there is usually leftovers, but rather than put them in the freezer, like I would normally do, I will use any leftovers for lunches.  There is nothing quite like a nice warm filling lunch at this time of year.  Unfortunately I am still trying to lose weight so I'll be having salads!

Menu plan 20/10/2012 - 26/10/2012

I know, I know.  The week is almost over and I am only now getting around to posting my menu plan.  Apologies for being late, but you know what they say - better late than never and I have had quite a bit of the never lately!

Anyway, here is my menu plan for Saturday the 20th October to Friday the 26th October:-
Saturday dinner - Leftover beef and Guinness stew
Sunday dinner - Pork chops, baby potatoes and broccoli
Monday dinner - Chilli
Tuesday dinner - Leftover chilli
Wednesday dinner - Salmon, baby potatoes, green beans and broccoli
Thursday dinner - Sausages with creamy lentils
Friday dinner - Sticky pan roasted sausages

Lunches will be ham salad sandwiches, leftovers or soup.

Menu planner for 13/10/2012 to 19/10/2012

Another week another menu plan!

Recently I decided to join Weight Watchers (again!) in order to lose the weight that I put on after having my second baby.  Better late than never I suppose!  Anyway, I have bought a couple of the WW magazines recently for some inspiration and have come across a couple of recipes that I want to try out.  I figured that this week is as good a week as any to start!  I'll be adding details of the recipe for each dish, so if you see something you like check back later in the week for more details and some feedback on the recipes.

My menu plan for Saturday 13th October to Friday 19th October is as follows:-
Saturday dinner - Pork fillet with roasted parsnips and carrots (Nov 2012) - 5 propoints per serve
Sunday dinner - Lemon roast chicken with barley (Oct 2012) - 11 propoints per serve
Monday dinner - Leftover roast chicken
Tuesday dinner - Spicy sausage casserole (Oct 2012) - 5 propoints per serve
Wednesday dinner - Leftover spicy sausage casserole
Thursday dinner - Beef and Guinness stew (Nov 2012) - 10 propoints per serve
Friday dinner - Chicken wraps

For lunches we will be having ham salad sandwiches, soup and leftovers where there are some.

The November 2012 WW magazine is currently available to buy in shops, so if you fancy having a look at some of the recipes for yourself you can pick up a copy.  Otherwise you can wait until I post about them!

Menu planner 6/10/12 to 12/10/12

I guess you may have noticed that it's been quite a while since my last post.  Although I've been putting together my menu plans each week I haven't had a chance to post any of them.  Finally I've managed to find some time to write a post!

My menu plan for Saturday the 6th October to 12th October 2012 is as follows:-
Saturday dinner - Quick chicken chasseur
Sunday dinner - Pork loins with stir fry vegetables
Monday dinner - Sausages with creamy lentils
Tuesday dinner - Pizza
Wednesday dinner - Chicken and chorizo jambalaya
Thursday dinner - Mary's paprika pork in a pot, rice and green veg
Friday dinner - Salmon, baby potatoes and green veg

For lunches we will be having sandwiches, ham salad wraps or leftover chicken and chorizo jambalaya.

Tut tut!

Well, August is almost over and this is my first post this month!  Tut tut me!  We were on holiday the first week of the month and I just never got a chance to post since we got back for one reason or another.  Anyway, now that I have a new laptop (grrrrrr - the things we could have used the money for) and a bit of time to myself I thought I best put a post together so that I can at least have one post in August!

So, it looks like this will be my only meal plan for August.  This week we will be eating;

Saturday lunch - chicken salad
Saturday dinner - Spring salmon with minty veg (yes - I know it's not Spring, but it ain't Summer either so I figured, why not!)
Sunday lunch - chicken salad wrap
Sunday dinner - roast beef dinner
Monday dinner - leftover roast beef dinner
Tuesday dinner - Chorizo, pepper and pasta
Wednesday dinner - Chicken and mushrooms in red wine sauce, potatoes and veg
Thursday dinner - Mussels, spaghetti and dill
Friday dinner - Wraps

Lunches will be sandwiches, soup and corn on the cob.

When a few adjustments to the weekly menu plan are needed...

...don't be afraid to make them!

No sooner had a I returned from the grocery shop on Saturday evening than my husband suggested that perhaps we could have a BBQ for dinner instead of whatever I had planned to make.  I had nothing in for a BBQ!  After initially saying no, I ended up agreeing to a BBQ - after all, it was our one half decent Saturday this 'Summer' so far and for all I knew it might well be out last!!  This caused me a little menu plan dilemma. 

Firstly I had to go and get the meat required for the BBQ.  Unexpected additional grocery shopping, but as I've already said, it may just be the only Saturday we get to have a BBQ for a long time so I forgave myself for the extra spend.  We ditched the idea of soup as we had to go out to the butchers again and needed something that would be a little faster to make.  Queue sandwiches!

Secondly, I had already lifted the pork loins out of the freezer before I took off to get the grocery shopping so I had to decide what to do with them.  The reason why we were to have pork loins two nights in a row was because I had five frozen together.  I was going to cook two on the Saturday night for my husband and I, and three the next night to feed up as all.  I knew they'd still be fine to cook on the Sunday, but was a bit worried about cooking them on the Monday night as they were lifted out of the freezer on the Saturday morning (I really should read up about freezing/defrosting meat and how long it is 'ok' for after it has been defrosted).  As luck would have it my mum called to say that she and my dad would be visiting on Sunday, so I needed five pork loins for dinner after all!

After being invited to a birthday party on Sunday evening, we decided to have our main meal earlier in the day.  I made the Bacon and sweetcorn chowder at the same time as preparing Sundays dinner.  I initially intended for us to have this for lunch during the week, but we ended up having it for dinner tonight.

Tomorrow night we will have the soup again, then we will have the mixed bean chilli on Wednesday and Thursday night.  The only night this week that we will eat the dinner I intended will be on Friday night.

I guess you could say that things haven't exactly gone as planned!

The other thing about spending extra money on meat for a BBQ - I went slightly over my €50 budget for the week.  I'll write a bit more about this later this week as I intend to have a review of my July challenge to work out exactly how I did...

Menu planner from 21/7/2012 to 27/7/2012

On to week 4 and the final week of my July challenge, though I think I might keep it going for one a 5th week.  Once again I am working off a list of items that are in my freezer, fridge and cupboard to try and use what I have in already as far as possible in order to keep the cost of my groceries down.

So, my menu planner for 21st July to the 27th July is as follows;
Saturday lunch - Bacon and sweetcorn chowder
Saturday dinner - Braised chops with borlotti beans and wine and Boulangère potatoes
Sunday lunch - Leftover bacon and sweetcorn chowder
Sunday dinner - Braised pork chops with cider vinegar and prunes with leftover Boulangère potatoes
Monday dinner - Mixed bean chilli (my own recipe)
Tuesday dinner - Leftover mixed bean chilli
Wednesday dinner - Fish fingers, waffles, peas and sweetcorn
Thursday dinner - Smoky beef stew served with tortillas
Friday dinner - Pizza (for me and daughter), chicken breast and gravy with potatoes (for husband)and other freezer dinner for baby (using up odds and ends from the freezer here!)

For lunches during the week we will have ham sandwiches, tuna salad and any leftovers from dinner.

Last week I spent below my €50 budget once again by spending only €43.80 on my groceries for the week.  I am hoping that this week I manage to stick to my €50 budget once again.  If I do, that will mean that I will have managed to stay below €200 for the four full weeks in July, leaving €200 to go to our savings account.

Roast lemon chicken with tagliatelle

On Sunday evening I made the roast lemon chicken with tagliatelle from the September 2009 issue of Olive magazine.  It was really straightforward to make and tasted delicious (I think I need to find another adjective or two to describe recipes that turn out to be extremely tasty!!).

I found the recipe after doing a search for 'basil' and 'chicken' as I had both ingredients in the house.  The basil was purchased for summer chicken and basil stew that I made for dinner on Thursday night last week.  I had some leftover and didn't want to throw it out.  Obviously as I had made the summer chicken and basil stew the week before, I was keen to find something that would taste quite different from the stew as we'd had it two nights in a row and I didn't want to bore my family.  So, after looking through the search results I picked the roast lemon chicken with tagliatelle and I have to say - I'm glad I did!

All the family enjoyed this meal and my son devoured it.  As the alcohol in the wine evaporates when cooking, it was fine to serve this to him as well as to the rest of the family.  He really enjoyed picking up the bits of tagliatelle and feeding them to himself!

Alterations
When I said I had chicken in - I had chicken breasts in.  The recipe calls for chicken thighs.  So, once again I used chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs.  As well as not having to buy chicken thighs for the meal, using the chicken breasts allowed me to reduce the roasting time as they didn't take as long to roast as the chicken thighs would have.

As I was only making this recipe for 2 adults and 2 kids, I only used 2 chicken breasts to keep the costs down a bit.  I stuck to the recipe with regards to the rest of the ingredients though as I fancied a lot of flavour and a bit more juices to tip into my tagliatelle than I would have had if I had halved all the other ingredients.

Cost
The chicken breasts cost €2, the basil was 50 cent, the lemons were 50 cent, the tagliatelle was around 80 cent and I have allowed 30 cent for the garlic and olive oil.  The wine I had in the house was bought on my last trip to my mothers house in Asda.  It was on offer 3 bottles for £10.  As the recipe only uses one glass I estimate that the wine cost around 80 cent.  This makes the total cost of the recipe €4.90.

Took this photo with my phone so it doesn't look great - sorry!

Tomato, lentil and lime soup - yummy!!

For lunch today we had tomato, lentil and lime soup.  The recipe is from the April 2012 issue of Olive magazine.  I found the recipe on the Good Food website by searching for lime soup.  There were a few lime left in my fruit bowl (they are starting to look a bit sad so I wanted to use them up) so I decided to see if there was a recipe that would allow me to use one of them for lunch.

One thing that I liked about this recipe (other than the fact that the soup was delicious) is that it uses both the zest and the juice of the lime, so there is no waste.  The recipe is easy to follow and quick to make.  I had a little bit more soup than what was needed to serve two people, so I have a portion left over for lunch tomorrow (there may well be a fight over who gets to take it to work!) as well as being able to feed two adults and a child lunch. 

I didn't give it to my son as I used a stock cube to make the vegetable stock.  To make the soup suitable for giving to a baby you need either make your own vegetable stock from scratch, omitting salt or use a low salt variety of stock cube (for example, Boots sell low salt stock cubes suitable for weaning in the baby food section of their shops).

Alterations
I made a few small alterations to the recipe.  I couldn't find my cumin seeds so I decided to use a little ground cumin instead of spending ages looking for the seeds.  I didn't have a large carrot, but had four small ones which I used instead.  Also, while the soup was simmering, the volume of the liquid decreased quite a bit, so I added some boiled water from the kettle to the pot. 

Cost
The onion for the soup cost 20 cent, the carrots were about 30 cent, the can of chopped tomatoes were 45 cent (from Lidl), the lime was 25 cent and I have allowed another 50 cent for the stock cube, ground cumin and puy lentils.  That makes the total cost of the soup €1.70 for three adult portions and a child's portion.  I think this would easily feed a family of four if the children are quite young.  If they are a bit older you might want to double to ingredients and have any leftovers you might have for lunch the next day.

If I had successfully grown my own carrots and onions this year (as I did last year) then the cost of the soup would have been €1.20 which is extremely cheap for lunch for the family.

Menu plan for 14/7/2012 to 20/7/2012

We're onto week 3 of my July challenge and so far things are going good.  Last week I managed to spend only €35.70 of my €50 budget for the week.  To say I am happy would be a bit of an understatement.  Although, in fairness I had one less day to feed the family last week and while this wouldn't have caused me to save the €14.30 that I didn't spend of my budget it certainly helped a bit.  Hopefully I'll be able to do as well with my budget this week as I did last week.

This morning my husband cleaned out our fridge while giving me a bit of a lie in (I know - lucky me!) so it was possible to see at a glance what we had in our fridge.  Together we had another review of the contents of the freezer and made a list of what was in there just to update the list of what we had in already.  So, using the list of what we have in already I put together a menu plan for the week.  It is as follows:

Saturday dinner - Steak and sticky red wine shallots with potatoes
Sunday lunch - Tomato, lentil and lime soup (I have all the ingredients in for this)
Sunday dinner - Roast lemon chicken with tagliatelle (I have all the ingredients in for this)
Monday dinner - Wraps
Tuesday dinner - Pizza
Wednesday dinner - Chorizo pilaf (I have all the ingredients in for this)
Thursday dinner - Leftover chorizo pilaf
Friday dinner - Fish fingers, chips, peas and sweetcorn

For lunches we will be having ham sandwiches, leftover tomato, lentil and lime soup and leftover roast lemon chicken with tagliatelle.

As you can see, I have selected three items for my menu for the week were I will not have to buy anything for the recipe as I already have all the ingredients in.  For the rest of the options I have selected I have most of the items in already apart from Tuesday evenings pizza.  I will be buying whatever frozen pizza is on offer for my daughters dinner on Tuesday evening as a special treat for her as my husband and I are off to a concert on Tuesday evening while she and her brother stay at home with a minder.  Picking recipes where I have most of the ingredients, if not all of them, in the house already has enabled me to keep my shopping list quite small for this week again.

Tip
To help select recipes using ingredients I already have in, I used the search function on the Good Food website to do this quickly.  I typed in a selection of the ingredients I have in already, for example 'chicken' and 'basil', and then went through the search results.  I then looked at the ingredients list for those that caught my eye, dismissing those that involved the purchasing of lots of items I don't have in the house at the moment. 

Sweet and sour pork stir fry

On Tuesday night we had some sweet and sour pork stir fry leftovers that I had frozen last week.  The recipe is for two, but I doubled up the ingredients so that I would have enough left to freeze for a dinner at a future date when I was scarce on time.  I served my sweet and sour pork with rice both times.  The recipe was easy to make and extremely quick to prepare and cook.

Although the recipe has ingredients that are high in salt/sugar - the tomato ketchup, brown sugar and soy sauce - which I wouldn't normally give to my baby, I decided to give some to my son the first night I made it.  He loved it!  Since then I have had him at the Dr with a rash that turns out to be a food allergy and have had to cut all fruit from his diet, re-introducing one fruit at a time, so I was unable to give it to him on Tuesday night due to the pineapple in it.

Alterations
The biggest alteration that I made to the recipe has already been mentioned - I doubled up the ingredients to make enough for the freezer.  With regards to the pork strips, I used pork loins instead.  I had several in my freezer, so I cut two up into small strips and used these instead of going and buying pork strips.  This saved me money on my grocery shopping.  I didn't bother with the garnish of shredded spring onions and added all the spring onions that I used to the pan instead.  I added a little water to the pan to make extra sauce.

Cost
The pork loins cost me €2.  I bought the pineapple on offer for €1 and had it in the cupboard.  I used two peppers which were on offer for 79 cent each, making them €1.58.  I used a bunch of spring onions which cost another 79 cent.  I have allowed 50 cent for the tomato ketchup, soy sauce, oil, sugar, white wine vinegar and cornflour, all of which were in my cupboard already.  This means that the total cost of the stir fry was € 5.87 (excluding the rice). 

This did two nights dinners for 2 adults and 1 child (the baby only ate it once) and we had an extra portion leftover for lunch one day as well.  So the actual cost for me per meal was probably more around the €3 mark including the rice.

Menu planner 8/7/2012 to 13/7/2012

I've been a little slow at getting my menu plan for this week up - sorry about that.  Anyway, I have finally got round to posting it.  This is week two of my July challenge, so I am attempting to keep the cost of the shopping down by using leftovers from the freezer and other items I have in already.  Another way that I will be able to keep costs down this week is by using some veg that my father-in-law grew and gave to me and by using some eggs that my brother-in-law gave to me.

We were at a Christening on Saturday so my menu plan for this week only runs from Sunday 8th July to Friday 13th July.  It is as follows:

Sunday dinner - Leftover better-than-baked-beans and oven chips
Monday dinner - Letfover sweet and sour pork and rice
Tuesday dinner - Salmon, broccoli and new potatoes
Wednesday dinner - Summer chicken and basil stew
Thursday dinner - Leftover summer chicken and basil stew
Friday dinner - Fish, chips, peas and sweetcorn

For lunches we will be having soup, sandwiches and leftovers if there are any.

Turkey meatballs in tomato and fennel sauce

Last night I made turkey meatballs in tomato and fennel sauce for dinner and we had the leftovers for dinner tonight.  The recipe appeared in the March 2010 issue of Good Food magazine.  I decided to make it when I realised that I had all the ingredients in that were required

As with a lot of the Good Food recipes I have used recently, this was really quick and easy to make.  My husband, daughter and son loved it - my daughter informed us that she wanted a second bowl of it after her first forkful!  I liked it to, but I think the next time I make it I'll add something to the meatballs to give them a bit more flavour.  They definitely need some seasoning at the very least.

With regards to the leftovers, instead of heating up the whole dish, I had prepared all the meatballs on the first night, leaving half in the fridge for dinner tonight.  I cooked them while the pasta was boiling and then added them to the sauce that I had made the night before and reheated.  It worked out really well and dinner was on the table in the length of time it took for the spaghetti to be ready.

Alterations
When I was preparing the ingredients for the sauce I added two onions instead of one as the onions I had in were quite small.  I also added three carrots as my carrots were quite small as well.  I omitted the tomato puree simply because I forgot to add it!  Other than that I stuck to the recipe.

I think it would be easy to add additional veg to the sauce without altering the taste too much.  As the sauce is blended, it is a handy way of getting veg into kids without them realising it which can be helpful if you have fussy eaters.

Tip
To save time on a busy weeknight, you could prepare the meatballs the night before and keep them in the fridge until you are ready to cook them the next night.  In fact, you could even make the meatballs before freezing them so that all you had to do is lift them out of the freezer to defrost when you want to have them for dinner.  You could also make the sauce ahead of time and reheat it after the meatballs have been cooked while the pasta is boiling, saving more time.

Cost
This is another one that is difficult for me to work out the cost of as I got the turkey mince up north in Asda a while back and had it in my freezer.  The turkey mince was £1.98.  The can of chopped tomatoes cost 66 cent, the onions cost about 25 cent, the carrots were around 30 cent, the spaghetti that I served it with was about 80 cent (allowing for two nights) and I have allowed another 40 cent for the fennel seeds, breadcrumbs, oil and garlic.  In total I reckon that this dish cost me about €5 to make.  Considering that this did us for dinner for two nights that makes it about €2.50 per night to feed two adults, a four year old and an 11 month old baby.

Weekly shopping budget - slightly over in week 1

As you can see from the title I went slightly over the weekly shopping budget in week one.  To sum up my expenditure for the week - I spent €6.91 in Lidl, €45.82 in Dunnes and my husband spent €5.38 in Dunnes on Monday.  The means I spent a total of €58.11 which is €8.11 over my weekly shopping budget of €50 during each week in July.

So where did I go wrong?  Well, two things happened that I feel caused me to go over the limit.  Firstly, my disorganisation meant that my husband ended up buying some food on Monday in order for me to be able to put together a meal for Monday night.  So, lesson one is to be better prepared in future!

Secondly, in a rush of blood to the head I managed to miscalculate how much I spent on cartons of ready-made formula for the baby.  I had to buy a lot more of them than I anticipated as a trip to the Dr's on Tuesday resulted in me being told that the baby has a food allergy of some sort and in order to get to the bottom of it I have been told to cut out cows milk and all fruit from his diet to see if the rash clears.  This means that I need extra formula to send up to the creche for his cereal in the morning so that it can be used in place of the cows milk that he usually gets and I bought more than I had on my shopping list.  So, my second lesson is not to try to do maths in my head when I am shopping.  I should use the calculator on my mobile phone.  Of course, it generally helps if the mobile phone is in your handbag when you go shopping in the first instance!

Still, I am pleased with the €58.11 and won't be too hard on myself for going over.  I did acknowledge that if I was intending to buy nappies and formula that I would need a slightly higher budget than the €50 I had set for my July challenge, but I really didn't think I would need to buy anymore of either this month. 

I wonder if next week I might be able to limit my spend to €41.89 to make up for my overspend this week.  That might be too much of an ask.  You know what they say though - it won't hurt to try!!

Summer-in-winter chicken

Last week I made the summer-in-winter chicken as part of my menu plan for the week, took photos of the dish and didn't get a chance to write up about it so am doing it now.  This recipe was an ideal one for making on a busy evening after work.  There was minimum prep work involved - in fact I think the only prep work was to wash the tomatoes and cut them in half.  The rest of the recipe basically involved adding ingredients to a pan and leaving it to cook.  My kind of recipe!!

Personally I thought it was very tasty.  My mum and dad, who also had it, loved it.  My husband was not as fussed on it as the rest of us were though.  He basically said it was nice enough, that he'd eat it again if it was set in front of him, but that he wouldn't be begging me to make it.  I think I will make it again, but perhaps when he is away with work or something as I don't like the thought of him eating something that he isn't dying about.

In my menu plan I indicated that I was going to serve this with olive oil baked potatoes but I decided to serve it with rice instead as it was quicker.  I used half-fat crème fraîche as the recipe suggests to lower the fat content.

Alterations
As I made if for extra adults, I used 5 chicken breasts instead of the suggested 4.  I doubled up on the amount of pesto, crème fraîche, tomatoes and basil I used as my mum likes a lot of sauce with her dinner and I wanted to make sure that there was enough to go around. 

Cost
I am not able to work out the cost of this one as my mum supplied most of the ingredients and couldn't recall what exactly she paid for them.  Sorry!

Not exactly going to plan...

So, day one of my July challenge hasn't exactly gone to plan as I ended up not being able to do my grocery shopping as yet for a number of reasons.  Instead of having the turkey meatballs that we were supposed to have this evening, we ended up having fish, chips, peas and sweetcorn.  There was fish in the freezer and I used tins of peas and sweetcorn, so all that needed to be bought were the chips which my husband picked up on his way home from work, along with some bread and bananas.  He spent €5.38 in total leaving me with €44.62 for the groceries for the rest of the week.

As we didn't have the turkey meatballs this evening, I am going to make them for dinner tomorrow night instead.  I'll just bump my entire menu plan along one day, freezing the leftover better-than-baked-beans instead of having it the following evening for dinner.  I could just stick to the recipe and make enough to serve dinner for one night, but it is such a simple recipe to double up and save the leftovers for another night that it would be a shame to waste the opportunity to save time another evening.

I am hoping to get my groceries tomorrow so I've done my shopping list in preparation for going.  It is REALLY short this week so I know that I am definitely going to stay within my budget.  It is as follows:

1. Red Pepper (on offer for 79cent in Dunnes at the moment)
2. Mushrooms x 2 punnets (on offer in Lidl for 69 cent per 250g at the moment)
3. Milk - slim line x 2 litres
4. Milk - full fat x 2 litres
5. Cheese - babybel
6. Ham
7. Bacon medallions (on offer in Lidl for €1.69)
8. Cartons of ready made formula x 15 (10% back in Dunnes on baby products ending on the 3rd July)
9. Toilet cleaner

A very short shopping list.  I have decided to split the shop over two stores as there is so little I will easily be able to walk from one shop to the other carrying whatever I have bought.  I don't go in for driving to different shops on a weekly basis as I reckon that any savings that would be made would be swallowed up by the fuel costs in getting between all the different shops.  However, if I can see that I will make decent savings, I will walk between Lidl and Dunnes as they are not too far away from each other, so it is worth my while to park between the two and do this.

I am actually quite excited to see what my food shop comes to for the week.  I think I'll put whatever extra I save, on top of the €50 that I am aiming to save, into our savings account as well.

July challenge starts now - the first menu plan of the month!

So, this week will be the first week of my July challenge where I aim to limit my grocery spend to €50 per week.  I hate to admit it but I am actually quite excited by my July challenge.  I know, I know - this makes me sound extremely sad, but I think it will force me to exercise a bit of creativity to stay below the €50 each week.

Now, to be clear, this €50 will probably only be food shopping with the odd toiletery, pack of nappies or tub of formula thrown in.  I have quite a large stockpile of toileteries, nappies and formula built up at the moment from buying when they were on offer or from using my Boots Advantage card to buy them.  If I was to buy formula and nappies each week as well as the groceries, I think I would need to increase my shopping budget to €75 to accomodate this.  So if you have decided to give yourself a July challenge, remember to allow yourself some extra money to allow for expensives items like this or you will be setting yourself up for a fall!

This weekend I am up visiting my parents as it is my dads 50th birthday, so I won't need to worry about grocery shopping for dinner on Saturday or Sunday evening.  So, for this week my menu plan only needs to cover Monday to Friday.

So, my menu plan for the 2th July 2012 to 6th July 2012 is as follows:-
Monday dinner - Turkey meatballs in tomato and fennel sauce
Tuesday dinner - Leftovers
Wednesday dinner - Mushroom and rice one-pot
Thursday dinner - Better than baked beans and wedges
Friday dinner - Leftovers

For lunches we will have ham sandwiches, leftover mushroom and rice one-pot and tuna salad.

Patatas bravas with chorizo

Last night I made the patatas bravas with chorizo from the May 2010 issue of the Good food magazine.  According to the recipe it serves 6 as an appetiser, but I made it for dinner instead, adjusting the volume of ingredients so that I made enough for two adults, one child and a baby.

The recipe was easy to follow and make, but I had to steam the potatoes for longer than the suggested 10 minutes as they were still rock hard after the 10 minutes had passed.  Next time I will cut the potatoes smaller in the hope that they steam quicker.  Another thing that I will change for next time is the type of potatoes that I use.  We had roosters in the house, so I used these but they were too floury and feel apart in the pan a bit.  I think that waxy potatoes might have held together a bit better.

To save time when I make this recipe in the future I will probably steam the potatoes the day before and keep them in the fridge until I am ready to use them.

For the baby I mashed some of the potatoes and stirred in some of the tomato sauce and onion.  He loved it.

Alterations
Instead of using 250g of small cooking chorizo I used three large cooking chorizo from Marks and Spencers and cut them into chunks.  I substituted the red chilli in the recipe for some dried crushed chillis instead and as there was no cayenne pepper in the house I didn't add it to the dish.  As the recipe was only for two adults and one child I used less potatoes than the suggested 1kg.

Cost
The chorizo sausages that I used cost €1.25.  I have estimated that the potatoes I used were €1.50, the onion was 20 cent, the can of chopped tomatoes was 67 cent and I have allowed 30 cent for the garlic, olive oil and spices.  That makes the total cost €3.92 which is quite reasonable for dinner for the family.

If I used potatoes from the garden the cost of the meal would be reduced further, making it an even cheaper recipe to make.

Menu plan 25/6/2012 to 29/6/2012

I didn't get a chance to plan my menu over the weekend and just used whatever was in the freezer.  I needed to put a bit of thought into what I am planning for the next few days before heading off to the shops though, so I put together a menu plan for the next of the week.

So, my plan for the rest of the week is as follows:
Monday dinner - wraps
Tuesday dinner - Patatas bravas with chorizo
Wednesday dinner - Grilled pork loins, potatoes, peas and sweetcorn
Thursday dinner - Sweet and sour pork stir-fry
Friday dinner - Summer-in-winter chicken with olive oil baked potatoes

For lunches we will be having sandwiches, wraps, broccoli and almond soup and baked tomato and feta.

I'll be continuing my inventory this week in preparation for my July challenge.  I am hoping that by using a lot of the contents of my store cupboard and freezer contents that I will be able to limit my grocery spend to €50 per week.  I've also been reading through some of my recipe books and Good Food magazines to try and get a few ideas of recipes that won't cost the earth to make.

July challenge - €50 per week

So, as the title suggests I have set myself a bit of a challenge for July.  I intend to limit my grocery spend for each week in July to €50 per week.  I've recently re-done my monthly budget again and I've lowered my grocery budget down to €100 per week again, so if I manage to spend €50 per week throughout July I'll be able to save €200 which I'll put into my savings account. 

There are a few reasons why I've decided to do this.  Firstly, it'd be nice to put the extra money into my savings account as it'll come in handy come Christmas time.  Secondly, I am hoping to run down the contents of the freezer.  Thirdly, if I limit the amount I am spending each week to €50 then I'll be forced get creative with the contents of my store cupboard.

So, to help to try and complete this challenge I will be taking an inventory of my kitchen cupboards and freezer so that I have an accurate list of what I have in the house.  I'll then plan my weekly menu using this list, as well as considering what is on offer in the shops each week. 

Hopefully I'll be able to stick to it and still make some yummy meals for my family!

If anyone has any suggestions of cheap and cheerful, yet tasty meals then please leave a comment sharing your suggestions.

Chorizo chicken

On Saturday night past, I made chorizo chicken for our dinner.  The recipe appeared in the September 2008 issue of GoodFood magazine.  The recipe in the magazine includes chilli wedges, but they are made from sweet potato which my husband really doesn't like.  So, I served my chorizo chicken with some oven chips and a bit of side salad. 

I decided to make the chorizo chicken as it has been on my 'to make' list for a while now and Dunnes had an offer on a selection of Spanish meats which included Chorizo slices, so I bought them specifically to make this recipe.

Unfortunately I made a bit of an error on Saturday morning and forgot to lift some chicken breasts out of the freezer.  By the time I realised my butcher had closed, so I had to nip up to Superquinn to get some chicken there.  Superquinn's free range chicken is on offer at the moment, so it actually worked out cheaper to by two free range chicken breasts than their non-free range chicken breasts, but they were still expensive. 

The chorizo chicken was fairly simple and easy to make.  I had it and the oven chips in the oven at the same time.  Unfortunately the bits of chorizo that weren't touching the chicken ended up getting a bit overdone (read burnt!!), so take care to make sure that your chorizo is tucked tightly to your chicken.

If I am honest this didn't turn out quite as I expected.  The chorizo chicken was not as spicy as I expected, however it was really moist and tender.  I think if I was to make it again I'd make chilli wedges to go with it, but with potatoes instead of sweet potatoes, to add a bit more spice to the meal.  In saying that, there are a lot of other dishes that I would make again ahead of this one. 

Cost
As I said, the chicken breasts I got were quite expensive - they were €4.02.  The chorizo slices were about 80 cent, the chips were about €1 and I've estimated that the salad I served was also about €1 (the salad consisted of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, scallions, olive oil and sherry vinegar).  The total cost was €6.82. 

If I had used the chicken breasts that I get from my local butcher then the cost of the meal would have been €4.82 which is much more reasonable.  If I make it in the future I'll take care to remember to lift the chicken out of the freezer if I need to!!

Sunblush tomatoes and spinach tagliatelle

Tonight I made sunblush tomatoes and spinach tagliatelle for dinner.  This is one of my favourite quick vegetarian meals and is a handy recipe to have up your sleeve for a busy midweek night. 

I chopped some of the tomatoes, spinach and pasta up into the chunks and feed it to the baby who devoured it!  I added a little cooled boiled water to it before giving it to him to help keep up his water intake.  He was not impressed when his was all gone and we ended up giving him some tagliatelle to feed himself while we were finished ours as he was looking at us with puppy dog eyes!

I paused long enough to take this photo of my tagliatelle before eating it!

Tip
I make my own sunblush tomatoes by roasting them in the oven.  Making your own will save a bit of money as shop bought ones can be quite expensive.  I also find that shop bought ones can be extremely oily.  If you are using shop bought ones in the recipe, put a spoonful of the oil into the pan before adding the tomatoes and frying.  Do not pour the whole lot into the pan straight from the tub!  My husband did this one night as I wasn't very direct in my instructions with regards to dealing with the tomatoes and the dinner was really greasy and not as pleasant to eat as it normally is.

When I make my own, I add a bit of extra flavour by adding some crushed garlic, dried basil and oregano, as well as olive oil to the tomatoes before putting them into the oven to roast.  As I had the oven on for dinner last night to cook the oven chips we had with the dinner last night I put the tomatoes into the oven at the same time so that the oven was on once.  After lifting out the chips, I put the oven up to gas mark 9 for five minutes and then turned it off, but left the tomatoes in the oven to continue roasting.  Once the oven was cooled I removed the tomatoes and put them into the into a tub and put them in the oven ready to use in the dinner tonight.

Ingredients - enough of each to serve the number of people you are cooking for.
Sunblush tomatoes - (I made my own with 1.5 punnets of cherry tomatoes)
Spinach, stalks removed (I used one small bag of baby spinach)
Tagliatelle (I used 6 nests of Dunnes tagliatelle)


Method

1. Put on the tagliatelle to cook according to instructions.  Before rinsing, remove a mug of water from the pasta pot.  Rinse the starch off with hot water from the kettle.
2. Heat the tomatoes in a frying pan and add the spinach.  Cook until the spinach has wilted.
3. Add tagliatelle to the frying pan and stir into the tomatoes and spinach.  Add a little of the water from the mug at a time to coat the pasta.  Serve.

Cost
I've estimated that the tagliatelle cost me €1, the tomatoes were €1.50 and the spinach was €1.49, making the total cost less €4 exactly.  In the past I have used spinach that I've grown myself to make this meal, meaning that it can cost me as little as €2.50.

Salmon with basil veg

Last week I made a version of the spring salmon with minty veg recipe from the Goodfood website for dinner one of the nights.  Mine was more like spring salmon with basil veg though as I had leftover basil in the fridge and decided to use it, as per the suggestion at the bottom of the recipe.

With regards to the veg, I used a mix of fresh and frozen veg.  I used broccoli, green beans and frozen peas.  This meant that I had a little bit of prep to do for the broccoli, but I was able to do this while the potatoes were boiling so it didn't really take any extra time.

Cooking the salmon in the microwave worked really well.  I have used the microwave to cook fish before and I've found that you have to be very careful when doing it as it is easy to overcook it and make it rubbery.  However, with this recipe the salmon stayed really moist owing to the that it was covered with the dressing.  I stopped the microwave after 3 and a half minutes to check it and then gave it another 15 seconds and it was done.  If you've not used a microwave before to cook fish then it might be a good idea to check the salmon periodically while it is cooking to make sure it doesn't overcook.

Tip
I made extra salmon, potatoes and veg and chopped it up and froze it in portions for the baby for during the week.  He devoured his portion and ate some green beans as finger food as well.  If I am doing a dinner that is suitable for him I have started making extra to freeze for him rather than making food specially for him now.  When I defrost a portion and heat it up for him I will add a bit of boiled water to it as it can be quite dry when it comes out of the freezer.  I find this is a handy way of getting water into him as well as he can be a bit reluctant to drink it some days.

Cost
The salmon was €6 for three fillets (I used Donegal catch frozen fillets which are skinned), the basil was 40 cent, the lemon was 25 cent, the frozen peas were 30 cent, the broccoli was 40 cent, the green beans were €1.50 and the potatoes I used were 99 cent.  This means the total cost of the meal that I made was €9.84.  For this I feed two adults, two kids and got 8 portions for the freezer for the baby. 

This is one of the more expensive meals that I have made, but given that I got so many portions of dinner for the baby out of it as well I think it works out as quite good value when you consider the cost of jars of baby food.  If I had used all frozen veg then the cost could have been lowered a bit.  Also, when my potatoes and green beans are eventually ready in the garden, and if I planted some herbs, I could lower the cost further.

Menu plan 16/6/2012 to 22/6/2012

It's been a while since I put together a proper menu plan but I decided that I needed to take the time to put one together this evening for the next week.  So, my menu plan for the 16th June to the 22nd June is as follows:-

Saturday lunch - spring onion soup
Saturday dinner - Chorizo chicken
Sunday lunch  - leftover soup
Sunday dinner - Steak, mushrooms, onions, chips, sweetcorn and peas (Fathers day request)
Monday dinner - Tagliatelle, sunblush tomatoe and spinach
Tuesday dinner - Shepherds pie
Wednesday dinner - Leftover shepherds pie
Thursday dinner - Bacon and mushroom pasta
Friday dinner - Fish, chips and peas

For lunches through the week we will have ham sandwiches and tuna salad. 

Spring onions (scallions) and mushrooms are on offer in Dunnes at the moment for 48 cent.  I picked up two bunches of scallions to make soup for lunch over the weekend and I picked up 3 packs of mushrooms for use in various dishes through the week.  Youngs frozen battered fish is on offer in Dunnes at the moment for €2 for 2 large fillets.  I picked up two boxes of these for the freezer and will use one of them on Friday.

Tip
There were quite a few offers on frozen products in Dunnes and I picked up several.  When I got home I discovered that I didn't have as much room in my freezer as I thought, so I removed the Youngs fish fillets from their packaging and put them in freezer bags to save space.  The box for the fish was quite large in comparison of the actual size of the fillets, so this saved a lot of space in the freezer.

Summer pea pasta

Like many parents, when feeling unwell I still have to make dinner for my kids regardless of how I'm feeling.  So on Monday night I wanted something quick to make so that I didn't have to stand at the cooker for long.  Also, given that I wasn't feeling very well, I didn't want something creamy or heavy to eat.  I found this recipe for summer pea pasta in the August 2010 issue of the Goodfood magazine and thought it would make an ideal meal for my family. 

This recipe was really handy for me to make as I had all the ingredients in the house except the basil and chilli which are available in my local green grocers, so I didn't have to go to a supermarket to get ingredients for dinner.


Tip
Eating vegetarian can be a good way of cutting the costs of a meal so I have decided to try and introduce more vegetarian meals to my family.  Unfortunately, my husband tends to expect meat with every meal (show me an Irishman who doesn't!) so I find that when I suggest adding a vegetarian option to the menu that it is usually meet with a 'what meat are we having with that' from him.  On Monday night he had no idea what he was having for dinner as the menu hadn't been prepared in advance, so couldn't protest at the lack of meat, so perhaps my plan for the future should be to just spring meat-free dishes on him!!  Fortunately for me, this dish was really tasty and filling, so he couldn't complain too much about the lack of meat.  If he did I think I would have told him how much it cost and pointed out that he could maybe have a nice steak some night soon with the money I saved!!

Alterations
As I was making this for two adults and one child, I used a bit less pasta, basil and peas than what the recipe suggests.  I used the full amount of red chilli, garlic and lemon zest suggested despite using less of the other ingredients and the result was a dish full of flavour.

Cost
This was quite a cheap dinner to make.  The basil was 40 cent, the pasta was 50 cent, the peas were 50 cent, the red chilli was 30 cent, the garlic was 20 cent and I am allowing 10 cent for the olive oil.  This means that the total cost of the dish is €2.

I haven't counted the lemon zest in the overall cost as I still have the lemons to use in another dish and didn't want to end up counting the cost of them twice.

Maple and pepper-glazed chicken with roasted carrots

Last Wednesday night we had maple and pepper-glazed chicken with roasted carrots for dinner.  This recipe was from the March 2010 issue of Olive magazine.  It was delicious!

I am only getting to write about it now as I have been a bit unwell the last week.  I did make the dinner, as it was a quick one, and took a few photos so that I would be able to post about the meal as it was so delicious.

The meal was really quick and easy to make.  When I put the carrots in to roast, I put a few potatoes on to boil so that I could make a little bit of mash to go with the chicken and roasted carrots.  To be honest, I don't think the mash is really necessary, but I knew my husband would be starving and would appreciate a bit of mash.

I gave the baby a bit of mash and chicken.  I only gave him a little of the chicken though as I was conscious of the fact that it had been cooked in stock.  He had some of the roasted carrots to eat as finger food.  They went down really well and I ended up giving him more from my plate.


Alterations
Other than using three chicken breasts instead of two and more carrots, I made no alterations to this recipe.

Cost
The chicken breasts cost €3, the carrots cost 40 cent and I have allowed €1 for the remaining ingredients and potatoes.  The total cost of the meal was €4.30.

Baked feta and tomato

I had initially planned to have baked feta and tomato last Saturday for my lunch, but Saturday didn't go as planned.  I ended up making it for my lunch on Friday instead.

This recipe is low GI and was really satisfying.  Although I made it for lunch, I think the salad would make a pretty decent evening meal. 

Alterations
As my husband doesn't like cheese (to my knowledge he hasn't tried feta yet, but all cheese is slimy according to him and there is no persuading him to try it) I made this recipe for one.  I halved all the ingredients except the tomatoes - I used 3.  I didn't substitute any of the ingredients in this recipe.

Cost
The feta was about €1, the tomatoes were 50 cent, the salad leaves were 50 cent and I would allow another 30 cent for the olive oil, garlic, dried oregano and balsamic vinegar.  The total cost of the salad was €2.30.  Considering the cost of some of the other lunches I make, this is quite expensive.  However, it was so tasty that I will definitely be making it again in the future.

Parsnip soup

As my menu planner for the week shows, on Sunday I intended to make soup for my family, but the type of soup would depend on what vegetables were on offer in Dunnes when I got there.  Parsnips were on offer for 49 cent for a tray of 500g.  I bought two trays (98 cent) knowing that I would be able to find some sort of parsnip soup on the GoodFood website that I could make.  After doing a search on 'parsnip soup' and sifting through the results I decided on the parsnip soup with parsley cream, minus the parsley cream as I didn't have all the ingredients for it.

I only completed step one of the recipe.  After an incident (the soup boiled over when I went upstairs to see what my daughter was up to) there wasn't much liquid left in the soup, so I didn't bother with the removing of the liquid to blend the parsnip.  As it was, once I finished blending I had to add a bit of liquid to the soup as it was very thick. 

The end result was pretty tasty and it is definitely one I would make again.  Removing a chunk of the steps and cutting the parsnips finer than the chunks the recipe calls for meant that it was ready in about 30 minutes.  Leftovers were used for lunch on Monday.

Not adding the parsley cream lowered the calories and fat content of the soup considerably. I used slimline milk to help lower the fat content as well.


Cost
The cost was pretty reasonable.  As I already noted the parsnips cost me 98 cent.  I have allowed another €1 for the onion, stock, milk and bay leaves - I think this is quite generous.  This means that the total cost of the soup was €1.98.  Another bargain soup for lunch!!

Next time I make the soup I'd really like to make the parsley cream as well.  I know that this will add to the cost of it, but given how cheap it is in the first place I don't mind.  As I've mentioned before - parsley is one of my favourite ingredients and I'd try the soup with the parsley cream in it to see how it adds to the taste.

Menu planner for 19/5/2012 to 25/5/2012

This week will be a busy week for us as we get ready for our daughters birthday party on Saturday.  To make sure we have plenty of time to get ready on Friday night I have opted to have leftovers from Thursday nights chilli.

My menu plan for the 19 May to the 25 May is as follows:-
Saturday dinner - Spiced salmon with lentils
Sunday lunch - soup (depending on what veg is on offer)
Sunday dinner - Ham, vegetables and Boulangère potatoes
Monday dinner - Leftovers from Sunday lunch
Tuesday dinner - Pizza
Wednesday dinner - Maple and pepper glazed chicken with roasted carrots and mash
Thursday dinner - Quick chilli (special request by my daughter for her birthday!)
Friday dinner - Leftover chilli

For lunches I will be making baked feta and tomato, scrambled eggs, tuna, red onion and white bean salad and sandwiches.

Several of the recipes I have picked this week are low GI recipes.  Food that has a low GI helps to keep your blood sugar level steady as the foods take longer to digest.  This helps make you feel fuller for longer.  I will be trying to incorporate more low GI foods into our diet over the next few weeks, paying special attention to lunches.

Tip - My shopping bill for this week will probably be slightly higher than previous weeks as I will be adding some items to it for my daughters birthday.  Next weekend we are planning on having a BBQ at our house, so rather than buy everything in one trip to the supermarket next week, I am hoping to pick up some things this weekend in order to spread the cost slightly.  Our butcher has offers on this weekend on pork loins which are lovely cooked on the BBQ, so I will pick up a few of these, marinade them and then freeze them so that they are ready to simply lift out of the freezer and cook next Saturday.  Doing this will save me time as well as money.

Spanish bean stew

For dinner tonight we had Spanish bean stew from the December 2010 pull-out in the GoodFood magazine (image below).  We will be having leftovers tomorrow night.

To save time I made the stew on Wednesday night after the kids went to bed.  So all I had to do this evening was re-heat the stew - making sure the chicken was heated through - and serve.  As I used a stock cube to make my chicken stock, this meal was unsuitable for the baby.  Instead of having the stew, he had leftovers from the leek and mackerel pasta bake.

This recipe is suitable for freezing and according to the recipe can be kept for up to 2 months in the freezer, making leftovers a handy meal to have on standby in the freezer.

Alterations
As with the stew I made on Saturday night, I had no chicken thighs for the Spanish bean stew, so I used 2 chicken breasts instead.  I actually meant to use 3, but lifted the wrong freezer bag out of the freezer!  Anyway, to compensate for the lack of chicken I put an extra couple of potatoes in to the pot.  Instead of using one tomato I used a tin of peeled plum tomatoes, breaking them up with the wooden spoon as they cooked.  I only had 150g of chorizo instead of 200g.  As well as a white onion I used a red onion - both were quite small.  I didn't bother with the parsley as I had none in.


Cost
The chicken breasts cost €2, the chorizo was €1.52, the beans were €1.09, the tomatoes were 67 cent, the red onion was 15 cent, the white onion was 6 cent and I have allowed 50 cent for the potatoes, olive oil and stock cube.  The total cost of the recipe was €5.99, making the cost per meal €3.

Next time I make it I will be adding an extra chicken breast - 2 just was not enough. This will increase the cost by an extra €1 for the whole recipe or 50 cent per meal.  I still think that is quite a reasonable price for a yummy dinner.

Leek and mackerel penne bake

Dinner tonight was leek and mackerel penne bake from the November 2009 issue of the GoodFood magazine (picture below from magazine).  I found the recipe really easy to follow and quick to make.  The whole family enjoyed it. 

According to GoodFood, the bake is perfect for midweek winter nights.  Given the weather we have been having lately I figured it was perfect for a midweek winter night in May 2012!

Most of the pasta bake recipes that I've come across have cheese in them.  My husband refuses to eat cheese or any sort (apparently it's slimy and they all taste the same - go figure!) so I was delighted when I came across this recipe for a pasta bake with no cheese in it. 

Don't forget to remove any bones you find in the mackerel - the recipe doesn't mention this, but it is especially important if you are going to be giving it to small children.

Alterations
The biggest alteration I made was that I used fusilli instead of penne.  I used slightly more pasta than the recipe calls for - 200g instead of 175g.  I used an extra leek and 3 smoked mackerel fillets.

Using the extra ingredients meant that I had enough to do dinner tonight, a lunch tomorrow and two dinners for the freezer for my baby.  I didn't give the baby any capers as I wasn't sure how these would go down.  My daughter ate one and was not impressed!!

Cost
It is difficult for me to work out the cost of the bake as I no longer have the receipt for the mackerel.  I got it in aldi and from memory it was around €1.70.  The leeks were €1.99, the pasta was 30 cent, the crème fraîche was €1.30 and I have allowed 50 cent for the butter, capers and breadcrumbs.  The total cost of the bake €5.79.

Puy lentil, spiced carrot and feta salad

Just a tiny bit excited about my lunch for the next few days - almost looking forward to going to work in the morning so that I can have some at lunchtime!

I made the puy lentil, spiced carrot and feta salad from the May 2011 issue of GoodFood magazine.  This recipe is served warm, but obviously my salad won't be warm as I will be eating it straight out of the fridge, but the magazine suggested using leftovers for lunch so I decided to make it specifically for lunches.  I did however have a sneaky taste while it was hot and it was yummy!

Alterations
I made two minor alterations to the recipe.  I used the juice of one lemon instead of the juice of 1/2 a lemon and the lettuce I used was a mix of lambs lettuce and rocket.

Cost
The puy lentils (green lentils) cost 30 cent, the carrots were 50 cent, the lettuce was €1, the lemon was 25 cent, the red onion was 15 cent, 63 cent for the feta and I have allowed 50 cent for the other ingredients.  The total cost was €3.33.

There is enough in the salad to last to four days lunches.  I put it into a large tub in the fridge and will fill a small tub for my lunch each evening.  This means that the total cost of my lunch per day will be 83 cent.  Much cheaper than eating out!

Can not wait to eat this tomorrow!

Smoky chicken and bean stew

On Saturday night we had the smoky chicken and bean stew from the September 2008 issue of Olive magazine.  I found the recipe on the GoodFood website and was attracted by the image (see below) of the stew.  After reading the list of ingredients I decided to make it for dinner. 

It was delicious!!  Especially the chunks of pepper - they were bursting with flavour.  Before he had even finished his my husband was asking me make it again sometime!  The recipe suggests serving the stew with wholemeal pittas, so I did.  We had two each.  I heated them in the toaster before serving them and we cut them into strips to use to soak up the juices.  It was really filling and we didn't need any more than the couple of pittas.

Alterations
I had difficulty getting the chicken thighs required for the recipe.  One of the bigger Marks and Spencers that I was in a few weeks ago had them, but when I went to my local Marks and Spencers there were none.  My local butcher doesn't sell them and I didn't see them anywhere else, so I ended up using two chicken breasts instead.

Instead of using borlotti beans I used kidney beans.  I already had kidney beans in the cupboard, so using them meant I didn't have to buy a can of borlotti beans. 

When I did my grocery shop in Dunnes they didn't have any coriander in stock, so I just left it out.  I only own hot chilli powder in my cupboard so I used it instead of the mild chilli powder and I added a little smoked paprika as well.

The recipe called for half a red pepper, but I used a whole red pepper instead.  Instead of using 1/2 a pack of chorizo I used 1/3.  This is because I need the rest for the recipe I am I making on Thursday night.  Plus, I felt there was enough meat in the recipe with the two chicken breasts.

Cost - The chicken breasts cost €2, the chorizo was 76 cent, the red pepper cost 50 cent, the red onion was 15 cent, kidney beans €1, the tomatoes cost 46 cent, the wholemeal pittas cost 47 cent and I have allowed another 30 cent for the olive oil, garlic cloves, stock cube and spices.  The total cost for this meal was €5.64.

My smoky chicken and bean stew - looking at this is making me hungry!

Orange, carrot and mint soup

For lunch this weekend I wanted to make some sort of a carrot soup that I had never tried before.  I didn't want anything with coriander in it or red lentils, so I did a search on the GoodFood website and found this recipe for orange, carrot and mint soup.  All the ingredients were in my cupboards and I as interested to try the combination of orange, carrot and mint.  It was lovely!

Now, I have to confess that when it came to making the soup I wasn't too pushed about step 3 - it seemed like it would take a lot of time to me.  Plus it would result in extra dishes to wash which would use up even more time!!  Instead I used my hand blender to blend the soup in the pot.  It was still really smooth and velvety.

Alterations
I didn't really make any alterations to this recipe.  I had no large onion so I used 2 small onions instead, but I don't really think this could be called an alteration as this ingredient was listed already.  To lower the fat I didn't bother using the cream.  If I was to make it again I might use fry lite to further lower the fat content. 

I didn't add any salt to the soup and it tasted fine without it.  I never add salt to any of my cooking as I think it's best to leave it for people to add their own salt.

Cost
The recipe was quite cheap to make.  The carrots cost 70 cent, the onions were 10 cent (bought when they were 29 cent for a kg), the orange that I juiced was 80 cent and I have allowed 30 cent for the mint and the vegetable stock cube.  This means that the recipe costs €1.70 in total.  There is enough to do lunch for my family today and tomorrow.

My effort in a bowl!

Menu planner for 12/5/2012 to 18/5/2012

So, it's that time of the week again - menu planning time!  This week I have quite a few leftover ingredients in the kitchen, so I have made a list of them so that I can pick recipes that will use them up and prevent waste.  Doing this will also keep my grocery spend for the week down, which is good as I need to buy some formula and nappies which takes a chunk out of my budget.

My meal plan for 12 May to 18 May 2012 is as follows:

Saturday lunch - Orange, carrot and mint soup
Saturday dinner - Smoky chicken and bean stew
Sunday lunch - leftover soup
Sunday dinner - Chicken wraps
Monday dinner - Shepherd's pie
Tuesday dinner - Leftover shepherd's pie
Wednesday dinner - Leek and mackerel penne bake
Thursday dinner - Spanish bean stew
Friday dinner - Leftover stew

For lunches during the week I will make puy lentil, spiced roast carrot and feta salad, some leftover chilli that is in the freezer, leftover shepherd's pie and sandwiches.

As you can see, this week I am making a couple of dishes that we can eat two nights.  This means that I will only have to cook from scratch three nights during the working week which will save time that I can spend doing other things.

Quick chilli

For the first time, I have been so tempted by a chilli recipe that I have decided to try it.  Usually, I look at recipes for chilli and decide to stick with my own after reminding myself of the saying 'if it's not broke, don't fix it'! 

The reason behind my decision to try a new chilli recipe?  Simple - this recipe includes chorizo which is one of my favourite ingredients! 

The recipe I am using is Nigella Lawson's Quick chilli from her book Nigella Express cookbook.  I have typed it out as Nigella has written it below.  After the method I have included some alterations that I made to the recipe in order to make sure that it is suitable for the baby to eat.

The recipe is as follows:-

Ingredients
150g chorizo sausage (not the salami sort), halved length ways and cut into 5mm half moons
500g minced beef
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cardamon pods, bruised
1 x 500g jar good-quality tomato and chunky vegetable sauce for pasta
1 x 390g mixed spicy beans
60ml sweet chilli sauce
1/4 teaspoon chilli flakes (optional, or if your beans are not spicy)


Method

1. Put the sliced chorizo into a hot, heavy-based pan and cook over a medium heat until the sausage crisps a little and gives up its orange-red oil.
2. Add the mince and cook for about 5 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden fork to help it brown.
3. Stir in the spices and then add the tomato-vegetable pasta sauces, spicy beans and chilli sauce.  Also add the chilli flakes if you need more heat or if you've managed only to find some regular canned beans.
4. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. You can eat this with rice or just as it is.  If you're not adding any rice, you might consider dolloping with a blob of sour cream and sprinkling some grated cheese and chopped coriander.  I can't think of a way of eating this that isn't good.

Alterations
I made a few swaps when making my Quick Chilli to make sure that it was suitable for feeding to my baby.  To lower the salt in the recipe I opted to use a 800g can of chopped tomatoes instead of the pasta sauce.  I also used non-spicy beans and added the chilli flakes that were suggested by Nigella.  I was concerned that the sauce in the spicy beans may have salt and sugar added to it.  Plus, I already had non-spicy beans in my cupboard, so I didn't need to buy them.

I had two forced alterations - my cardamon pods had gone off and I have run out of ground coriander so I couldn't add either of these ingredients.  Having never tasted the chilli before I didn't miss them, however the next time I make it I might add them to see how they alter the taste of the dish.
As I wasn't adding a pasta sauce with vegetables added to it I decided to add a finely chopped two small onions and a grated carrot large to the chilli in order to make sure that some vegetables other than the chopped tomatoes were included.

To make the meal stretch further additional vegetables could be added to the recipe.  If I was to make it again I think that I would add some mushrooms and grated courgette to bulk it up and increase my family's intake of vegetables.

Tip
Although this recipe is quick to make, if I was making it again I would make it the night before and re-heat for dinner when I get home from work.  Doing this would mean that it would only take as long as it takes to prepare the rice to have the dinner ready.

Cost
I used a pound of mince in this recipe - I know it says 500g, but I still buy it in pounds and have no idea how many grams is in a pound.  Anyway, the pound of mince I used came from my butchers and cost €3.  The chorizo I used were cooking chorizo that I bought in Marks and Spencer's on offer - 2 packs of 6 chorizo sausages for €7.  I used 3 sausages in my chilli, so that is a cost of €1.75.  The chopped tomatoes were €1.  The can of mix beans I used was bought in Aldi a while ago and I can not remember the cost of it, so have estimated it at €1.  For the remaining ingredients - spices, onions and carrot - I am allowing 50 cent.  The total cost for my version of the recipe is €5.50.

Using my version of the recipe I made enough chilli to feed my family of 4 (2 adults, a pre-schooler and a baby) two nights.  The portions were generous and I served them with rice.  I think that including the cost of the rice, the meal cost €3 for each night. 

Menu plan for 7/5/2012 to 11/5/2012

This week I have a short meal plan to put together as we were away for the Bank Holiday weekend, so I didn't have to worry about cooking on Saturday or Sunday.  My menu plan for this week is as follows:-

Monday dinner - Fish, baked potato and broccoli
Tuesday dinner - Potato, leek and bacon soup
Wednesday dinner - Quick chilli (from Nigella Express)
Thursday dinner - Leftover chilli
Friday dinner - Summer pork and potatoes

For lunches I am making soup broccoli and almond soup, ham sandwiches and tuna salad.

Sticky pan-roasted sausages

Tonight I was back on track with the menu plan and made the sticky pan-roasted sausages as planned.  This recipe was in the October 2008 issue of GoodFood magazine.  The picture below is from the GoodFood website.

I've added fruit to my dinner before - apricots and lamb, apple and pork, apple and parsnip - but I have never tried grapes in a main meal before so I was looking forward to seeing what they tasted like.  When I think about it I don't think I've ever had them hot either.  The whole meal turned out really nice and the grapes, especially the red onions, were lovely.

I had one slight alteration to the recipe tonight - I had no red wine vinegar in so I ended up using sherry vinegar instead.  The recipe turned out really well and tasted lovely.  The smell of the fennel while it was cooking smelled lovely and I was dying to try it by the time it was ready.

The recipe states that it takes 10 minutes to prepare the meal and 25 minutes to cook it, giving a total of 35 minutes.  However, I found that it was a bit quicker than this.  I put on my sausages and did the prep (cleaning the grapes and slicing the onions) during the first ten minutes while they were cooking, so that saved a bit of time.  I reckon it takes 25 minutes in total if you do this.

We had it with leftover mash from last night which my husband heated up in the microwave.  I confess that the first time it was suggested by my husband that we should heat up mash in the microwave it did not appeal to me at all.  However, I don't notice any difference to the taste and from a practical point of view it works really well when you are trying to get dinner on the table in a hurry.

If I was to make this again I would use red onion as I think it would taste quite nice with grapes and red wine vinegar (or sherry vinegar if I still do not have any red wine vinegar!).

My sticky pan-roasted sausages didn't turn out too badly!

Cost - My sausages came from my local butchers and are their 'jumbo' sausages.  They cost €4.20.  I've estimated the cost of the mash, grapes, onions, fennel, garlic and sherry vinegar at €2.00.  This makes the total cost €6.20 for the meal that I made.

The same as with the gammon steaks, I reckon that you could make this dinner for a lot less depending on the sausages you use.  I know if I had used our butchers normal sized sausages that it would have been cheaper, however, I felt that the jumbo sausages would be better for the recipe given the length of time they are in the pan.