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!

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Sticky gammon steaks

I must confess that ever since I found this recipe and put it on my meal planner for the week I have not been able to stop thinking about it!  So, it was with much excitement that I made the sticky gammon steaks from the Olive magazine issued in August 2005.  The picture is from the GoodFood website.

Instead of using a red chilli, I used some crushed chilli.  While this was quicker than deseeding and finely chopping a red chilli, my main reason for doing it was that I didn't fancy spending €1.99 on a pack of chilli's in Dunnes as I only needed one.

This meal is very quick to prepare and cook - 15 minutes in total - which makes it an ideal dinner for when you are short on time.  To save time with the preparation, you can use crushed chilli as I did.

As suggested I served it with steamed greens (Pak choi as shown in the photo) and some rice.  I broke off some of the pak choi and gave it to the baby to eat as finger food.  He also had a little bit of the gammon, but I didn't give him too much as I was concerned that it might have been too salty for him.

Cost - I am certain before I even start working out the cost of this meal that it is one of my more expensive mid-week meals.  This is because the gammon steaks that I bought  from my local butchers were €4.99.  I know that if I had gone to the supermarket I probably could have picked up some cheaper gammon steaks, however, when I saw the ones the butcher had for sale I had to have them as they were so meaty looking unlike the last gammon steaks I had which were fairly flat and round.  So, before I finish working out the cost of the meal, I would like to point out that this is one of those recipes that you could make for less depending on what gammon steaks you use.

Ok, that said it is time to work out the rest of the cost.  The pak choi was €1.99, the rice was 30 cent, the orange was 7 cent and I have allowed 40 cent for the honey, soy sauce and crushed chilli.  This brings the total to €7.75 for two adults, a toddler and a baby.

Suggestion - I think the same recipe would work quite well with chicken breasts or pork loins instead of the gammon steaks.  Using either of these instead of the gammon steaks would lower the cost of the meal considerably.  Another way of lowering the cost would be opting to use alternative greens instead of pak choi which are quite expensive.  I think that steamed sugar snap peas might work well.

And this is what mine looked like!

Very quick chicken stew

Dinner tonight was very quick chicken stew from Olive magazine's December 2006 issue.  I don't buy Olive magazine but the GoodFood website has some recipes from the magazine on it.  I found this recipe when I was looking for a low GI chicken meal on the website.

The stew serves two.  As I wanted to have it for dinner on Tuesday night as well I doubled the ingredients.  While saving time on preparing dinner tomorrow night, it did take slightly longer than the 30 mins stated to make as there was a lot more in the pot.

I made a few alterations to the recipe.  I had chicken breasts in the freezer, so I used four of them instead of the chicken thighs listed in the recipe ingredients.  Also, I had now fresh tarragon in.  I do have dried tarragon in my cupboard, but rather than use it, I decided to use some parsley as I had bought some for the quinoa (bulghar wheat) tabbouleh and had some leftover.

As I want to have give some of the chicken stew to my baby for dinner tomorrow night, I left the chicken stock cube out of the recipe, just adding boiled water instead.  As the chicken and vegetables were going to be cooking in the water I figured that they would flavour it.  To be sure that the stew had plenty of flavour without the stock cube, I threw a couple of bay leaves into the pot and seasoned with pepper to add a bit more flavour to the stew.  You can buy low salt stock cubes suitable for giving to babies, but I do not have any of these in the house.  While the stew tasted ok - it was much better the second night, I think it would have tasted better if I had used chicken or vegetable stock in it.  Next time I make it I will use some chicken or vegetable stock that I make myself in advance.


TIP - Anytime I have a roast chicken for dinner, I always boil the bones after the stripping all the meat from it to make stock.  I throw in a carrot, celery and an onion (skin on) if I have them in the house.  I then pour the stock into some 'Pour and store' bags and put in the freezer for when I need it.  Unfortunately I didn't have any in the freezer for this recipe, otherwise I would have used some.

Cost - The chicken breasts were bought at the butchers when it was 12 chicken breasts for €10.  I used four chicken breasts in this recipe, so the cost was €3.33.  The potatoes were 99 cent, the shallots were 49 cent, the carrots were 50 cent and the peas were 50 cent (another estimate).  I have allowed 20 cent for the parsley, bay leaves and pepper.  The total cost is €6.01, making the cost per meal 0.005 cent over €3!  Not too bad.