Garden soup

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been quite busy in my garden over the past few months planting and maintaining veg.  The first things that I planted this year were spinach, watercress and rocket seeds.  I sowed them straight into a prepared bed in May

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The ultimate soda bread

Tonight I made the dinner for tomorrow night before hitting the hay - soda bread and soup (leek, potato and bacon).  The soda bread that I make is from the March 2007 issue of Goodfood magazine.  It is one of Angela Nilsen's 'ultimate' recipes from her 'The Ultimate Recipe Book'.  I (sadly) do not own a copy of her book, but GF magazine has published quite a few of them and they have a number of them available on their website - but not the one that I made this evening.  A lot of her recipes are makeovers of old favourites in an effort to make them healthier - lower fat, lower salt, lower sugar etc.

Anyway, as the recipe is not available on the GF website I am not able to link to it and so have to type it up in order to share it.  I've made it a number of times over the years (to the point where I know the recipe by heart) and have always enjoyed it.  I am currently sitting here smelling it and trying hard to fight the temptation to jump up and tuck into it! 

Ingredients
225 g/8oz plain flour, preferably organic
225 g/8 oz plain wholemeal flour, preferably organic
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
25g /1 oz butter, room temperature
500 ml/ 18 fl oz buttermilk

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees C/ fan 180 degrees C/ gas 6.  Butter and flour a large baking sheet.  Mix both the flours with the bicarbonate of soda and slat in the biggest bowl you have - the bigger the better to give yourself room for the mixing.  Cut the butter into pieces, then rub it into the flour mixture so it is evenly mixed in.
2. Give the buttermilk a good stir.  Create a big dip in the flour mixture, then pour in the buttermilk all at once.  You can now mix everything with your hands, or it you find it easier, start with a round-bladed knife to work in the liquid, then switch to your hands to finish off.  Start in the middle of the bowl and work towards the outside in a circular movement - the mixing should only take a few seconds.  You want to blend rather than mix, and if you do this for too long the dough will lose its lightness - so stop handling it as soon as you have a soft, sticky dough.
3. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.  With floured hands, gently shape the dough into a round.  It shouldn't be kneaded, just gently tucked and eased into a round shape.  The less it is handled the better.  Lift it onto the baking sheet.  pat it, again gently, into a round about 3cm/ 1.25 inch thick and 20cm/ 8 inch across, and very slightly rounded.  Cut a deep cross into the surface of the dough with a sharp knife.  Prick in the centre of each cut, then sprinkle the loaf with a little flour.
4. Bake for 30 mins until golden on top.  Check the underneath before removing - it should be golden and sound a bit hollow when tapped.  Transfer to a wire rack, and for a soft top lightly wrap with a clean tea towel as the loaf cools.  To serve, break the bread in the centre (for luck), then into quarters and cut into thick slices.  Best eaten fresh, while still a bit warm.  If well wrapped, the loaf will keep for a few days.

Pancake Tuesday!

Well, as it's Shrove Tuesday I decided that we may as well have pancakes for dinner.  Pancakes are quick and easy to make and can be served with  of sweet and savoury foods. 
One of my all time favourite ways to eat pancakes is to have them with maple syrup and crispy bacon.  I also love them served with blueberry compote that I make by heating blueberries and a little sugar in a saucepan over a low heat.  A bit sweet to be having for dinner everyday, but we only do this once a year on Shrove Tuesday so I think it's ok to have them for dinner as a once off!

Pancakes are excellent finger food to give to babies.  I made small ones especially for my son and gave them to him to try.  My 3 year old daughter refuses to eat eggs, so pancakes are a good way of including eggs in her diet.

Who doesn't like a Sunday roast?

To be honest, until a few years ago I had gone off Sunday roasts altogether.  During my final few years living at my parents house we seemed to have roast chicken or beef with potatoes and vegetables all the time.  At least, that's what it felt like.  After I left home to go to university I stopped eating roast dinners, even managing to avoid eating them when I went home.  I had become sick of them!  Fast forward a (good) few years and I love having a roast dinner.  We don't have them every Sunday though - I don't want to get to the point where I am bored of eating them again - and I try to shake things up a bit by having different vegetables on the side or cooking the potatoes a different way.
Yesterday we had a roast chicken dinner.  I got the chicken from my local butcher on Saturday.  It cost €6.99 which is a bit more expensive than the whole chickens you can get in the supermarkets but I prefer to buy it from my butcher as I feel it tastes much better. 

With the chicken yesterday we had a little bit of mash potatoes, roast potatoes (made the same way that the roast potatoes were made last weekend), mashed carrots and parsnip and gravy with onions, some carrot and parsnip through it.  For dinner this evening, we had leftovers from yesterday.  The baby had the same dinner as us, minus the gravy. 

TIP - Having a whole chicken - then get as much out of it as possible.  After slicing the roast chicken for our dinner yesterday and today, I pulled the remaining meat from the wings and legs and put it in a bowl.  Then I made chicken stock by boiling the carcass in water in a stock pot on my cooker.  I used the chicken stock and the meat to make a soup (a version of the creamy chicken soup mentioned earlier in the blog) for lunches this week.

Cost - Sometimes paying for a whole chicken can seem a bit expensive, however you can get more out of a whole chicken than you can out of chicken breasts making it good value for money.  We had dinner for 2 nights - slicing a breast for each night - plus six portions of soup from our lunch during the week.  The chicken was € 4.66 (I've allowed two thirds of the cost for the roast dinners), the parsnips were 49 cent, the carrots were 99 cent per 1 kg bag (I used them all between the soup and dinners), the potatoes were about € 1.50 and the onion was 28cent.  The total for the roast dinner was €7.92, making it €3.96 per dinner. 

Looking at the cost of our roast dinner I can easily understand why my mum made so many of them.  It was good value for money and offered a well balanced meal of protein, carbs and veg.

Chicken and chorizo jambalaya

Last night I made the chicken and chorizo jambalaya recipe from the April 2011 issue of the good food magazine. 

The recipe requires Cajun seasoning.  I didn't have any Cajun seasoning so I used a teaspoon of hot chilli powder instead.  It has a few of the ingredients used to make Cajun seasoning in it and was the closest possible substitute I had in my kitchen.  I found that the 350ml of chicken stock was not enough to make the rice tender and I had to add a bit more water to it as it was cooking.

Overall this was really easy to make and turned out really nice.  I feel that it took less time than the 55 minutes stated in the recipe to make and would be happy to make it during the week after getting home from work.  Next time I make it I'll add an extra pepper to increase the amount of vegetables being served.

TIP - This recipe is already low fat, but I decreased the amount of fat further by not adding the olive oil when cooking.  Instead, I cooked the chicken in a non-stick saute pan which is the only pan I had suitable for making the recipe as I don't own a frying pan with a lid. 

Cost - The two chicken breasts cost €2, the chorizo cost 75 cent, the red pepper was 95 cent, the can of peeled plum tomatoes was 67 cent, the rice was 30 cent, the onion was 28 cent and I am allowing 20 cent for the garlic, chilli powder and stock cube.  That makes the total cost of the recipe €5.15.  The recipe will easily serve 4 adults.  Leftovers would make a nice cold lunch with some salad leaves.

Chicken and veg bake with mashed potatoes

My husband prepared dinner tonight from a recipe that I taught him how to make - chicken and veg bake.  We had leftover mash from yesterdays roast dinner with the chicken and veg bake.

I usually use a can of chicken soup for this recipe but we had none in the house so used a can of mushroom soup instead.

Ingredients
2 x chicken breasts (€2)
carrots (30 cent)
celery (50 cent)
broccoli (59 cent)
can of mushroom soup (€1 - estimate)
milk - I use around 250ml (50 cent - estimate)
slice of bread (5 cent)

Method

1. Prepare the veg and cut into chunks.  Steam until almost soft and remove from the heat.
2. Cut the chicken breast into chunks and cook in a non-stick frying pan.
3. Heat the soup and add milk to it.  Once is it starting to warm lift it off the heat.
4. Make breadcrumbs with the slice of bread in a food processor.
5. Put the veg in the bottom of a rectangular roasting dish.  Put the chicken on top of the veg and then pour the heated soup on top of it.  Scatter the breadcrumbs across the top.  Put the dish in the oven.
6. Heat until the breadcrumbs are beginning to brown.  Lift out of the oven and serve.

TIP - This recipe is already low in fat, but to lower it further I use low fat condensed soup. 

TIP - To save time on making the meal tonight I prepared the veg in advance so that all my husband had to do was steam it.  After preparing the veg I put it in a resealable sandwich bag and stored it in the fridge.

COST - The total cost of the recipe is €4.94.  As this is doing dinner for two nights (we are having leftovers tomorrow) this means that the cost is only €2.47.  Not bad, although the mash increases the cost slightly. 

Chunky chicken and ham chowder

Our dinner tonight made use of some of the food we had in our freezer.  At Christmas, the ham we got was very large (I had to get the butcher to cut it in half so that I could cook it!) and we had quite a bit leftover.  So I sliced it and froze it to use in dinners early in 2012.  I decided to use some of the ham this week, but didn't fancy having a dinner of meat, veg and potatoes both nights that I am having ham, so opted to make the chunky chicken and ham chowder from February 2006 issue of Goodfood dinner tonight.

TIP - Although the fat content of this meal is low to begin with, it is possible to lower it further by using fry lite spray in place of the olive oil and by using skimmed milk.

I found this recipe really quick and easy to make.  As well as being very tasty, it was extremely filling so is suitable for an evening meal.  The recipe on the website suggests swapping the chicken and ham for some fish which I may do some time I make it in the future.  It is an ideal recipe to keep in mind for any day that we have a roast ham as I can make it using some leftover ham for dinner the next day.

I made it earlier in the day for dinner later one.  This worked out well, although I did find it necessary to add a bit of water as it becomes extremely thick when standing.

For me one of the best things about this chowder was the fact that I was able to give it to the baby as well without making an alterations.  I just mashed the veg and finely chopped the meat before giving it to him.  He really enjoyed it and actually ended up having some from his dads bowl as well!!

COST - As I already had the ham leftover it is difficult to work out the exact cost for this recipe.  The leeks were €1.32, the potatoes were 50 cent, the milk as 80 cent, the chicken was €2 and the peas and sweetcorn were about 60 cent.  So, excluding the cost of the ham, this recipe was €4.62 for 4 servings (I have counted the baby and toddler serving as one, plus serving for lunch earlier in the day when I made it).

To be honest, I found that there was a lot of meat in it and I think that the next time I make it I will use one chicken breast instead of two, which will lower the cost a bit.  I also think it would be possible to add some extra veg to it and make it last for a second night or lunches the next day.

Spicy sausage pasta

This is a quick and easy dinner that I used to make a while ago and had forgotten about.  I've adapted from WW recipe I got a few years ago.  This recipe serves 4, so I make it for dinner and we have the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Ingredients
fry lite cooking spray
1 red onion, sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
1 green pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves
crush chilli (to your own taste - I use lots!)
150g chorizo, thinly sliced
punnet of mushrooms (chestnut mushrooms are lovely in this dish if you can get them)
400g can of chopped tomatoes


Method

1. Cook the pasta according to instructions, drain and keep warm.
2. While the pasta is cooking, spray a large pan with fry-lite and fry the onion over a low heat until it starts to soften.
3. Add the sausage, crushed chilli, garlic and peppers, turn up the heat and fry for a further 3 minutes.  Add the mushrooms, mix well and fry for a further 3 minutes.  Add the chopped tomatoes, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Add the pasta to the pan and mix.  Bring back to a simmer and serve.

The cost for this meal is quite low.  The chorizo was € 1.50, the two peppers were 90 cent for both, the red onion was 23 cent, 66 cent for the can of chopped tomatoes,  23 cent for 250g of pasta and 99 cent for the punnet of mushrooms.  I've added on an extra 30 cent for the fry lite, crushed chilli and garlic.  The total cost is € 4.81.

As this was adapted from a WW recipe it is low in fat.  In the old points system (pre-pro-points) it was 4.5 WW points per serving.

Irish coddled pork with cider

On Sunday I made the Irish coddled pork with cider recipe from the March 2008 issue of the Goodfood magazine.  This recipe is for 2, so I doubled it and served the leftovers on Monday night.  It went down a treat, especially with my daughter who has recently decided she does not like cabbage - obviously she likes the taste of cabbage that has been cooked in stock and cider.  It is a brilliant way of increasing your vegetable intake for the day and is a lovely filling dinner for cold winter nights.

To make it I used one of the packs of smoked bacon medallions that I recently got on offer in Lidl for €1.49.  I used half a white cabbage (65 cent), a whole swede (89 cent), 4 carrots (50 cent) and 6 potatoes (estimated at about 90 cent).  The four pork loins that I used came as part of a deal I got in the butchers last weekend, so I have allowed € 5 for them.  I used Bulmers cider that I had left over from Christmas which I bought for 87p for a pint bottle (it was in a case of 8 for sale for £7 before Christmas), so I have allowed 50 cent for the Bulmers I used.  In total the cost was € 9.93, making it less than € 5 per meal.

To be honest I am pleasantly surprised at how much this cost as I thought that it was a lot more than this. 

TIP to lower fat - to lower the fat in this dish the first thing I would do is to grill the pork loins instead of frying them in butter in the pot.  I wouldn't use the butter in the recipe at all and would use spray some fry lite in the pot before adding the bacon and vegetables.  To further lower the fat you could leave the cider out, or use a 'light' cider such as bulmers light.  You could also use less potatoes and more vegetables.

Oven baked chicken, tomatoes and baby potatoes

This is one of my favourite meals to make on a Saturday where I just do the prep work and through the dish in the oven, checking on it every now and then.  It takes a while for the potatoes to cook in the oven, so you are best to leave it until a night are able to start dinner a bit earlier.  I have often adjusted the amount of this dinner I make and served it to anything from 2 to 7 people.

Ingredients
Chicken breasts - 1 per person
Baby potatoes - allow 250g per person
Cherry tomatoes - at least 250g (I always put in as many as I have)
Red onion - 1 or 2
Dried basil - as much as you like
Garlic cloves - I like garlic so usually have at least 3 cloves
Olive oil

Method

1. Turn on the oven - I use gas mark 7 for this
2. Wash the baby potatoes and cut them in half, or quarters (the smaller they are the quicker they cook).  Put them in a large roasting tin.  Drizzle with olive oil and put in the oven for 10 minutes to start them cooking.
3. Wash the cherry tomatoes.  Lift out the roasting tin and add the tomatoes to the potatoes.  Mix well and put back in the oven for a further 10 minutes.
4. Prepare the red onion(s) by cutting into large chunks.  Slice or crush the garlic.  (NB. Crushing the garlic can sometimes result in it burning)  Remove the roasting tin from the oven and add the onion and garlic.  Sprinkle the dried basil (as much as you want) and give a good mix.  Add a bit more olive oil if needed.  Put back in the oven until the potatoes are almost soft.
5. Place the chicken breasts on top of the mixture and put the roasting tin back in the oven.  After 10 minutes, remove from the oven and turn the chicken breasts.  Mix the potatoes, tomatoes and onions under each chicken breast as you turn them.  Put back in the oven until the chicken is cooked.  Remove and serve.

This dinner is delicious hot or cold.  I sometimes serve with green beans or a side salad.  If I make it at the weekend I often leave a few of the potatoes, tomatoes and onions in a bowl and mix them through some scrambled eggs the next day for lunch.

You can use large tomatoes, but I have found that cherry tomatoes left whole are the tastiest way to make this recipe as they explode in your mouth when you put them in whole.  Yummy!  I always use the baby potatoes as I used large potatoes one day and I found that they went really mushy in the juice from the tomatoes and the olive oil.  While still tasty, it wasn't as mice as it is when made with baby potatoes.

TIP  If you want to make this mid-week you can speed up the time it takes to make by par boiling the potatoes before cutting them for 10 or 15 minutes.  Drain and then cut them before putting them on the roasting tray.  Dry them out in the oven for a minute before adding all of the rest of the ingredients, except the chicken breasts.  Put in the oven for 10 minutes before adding the chicken breasts to the top of the dish.

TIP  To lower the fat content in this meal, you can spray fry lite on the ingredients instead of using olive oil.  I have done this in the past and it has been fine, but you need to stir it more often to make sure the ingredients don't catch on the bottom.  I'd do a few sprays each time you remove the dish from the oven.  You might find it better to cut the tomatoes in half if you are using fry lite as more juice from them will go to the bottom of the roasting tin, helping to prevent the mix from sticking.

Cost - This dinner was quite cheap for me to make.  I used 3 chicken breasts at €1 each, 1 kg potatoes at 45 cent, 250g of cherry tomatoes 89 cent and red onion 23 cent.  I'll allow a further 30 cent for the basil, olive oil and garlic cloves, making the total for this meal €4.87.  It served 3

Salmon, green beans and baby potatoes

Tonight we had a dinner mostly from the freezer.  It went down really well and cleared a bit of space in our freezer.  It also allowed me to use up the last of the green beans I had grown in the garden and frozen last year.  To be honest, the beans were not at their best as they were frozen in the middle of September.

The baby potatoes were on offer in Dunnes and bought for 49 cent, the Salmon was bought when it was on offer and around €4.  As the green beans were homegrown this dinner was quite cheap.

Creamy chicken soup

On Saturday night we had a roast chicken dinner (and it was good!!).  Anyway, on Sunday I made a chicken soup with the leg meat from the chicken.  This is another cheap soup to make and makes good use of the chicken by using the bones for stock.

To make the soup you will need some chicken, chicken stock, an onion, 2 carrots, 2 leeks, 2/3 medium sized potatoes, butter, plain flour and thyme (I use dried).

First of all I boiled the bones of the chicken to make a stock for the soup.  Sometimes I will add onion, carrot, celery and maybe a few peppercorns to the water for a bit more flavour, but on Sunday I just boiled the bones.  After about half an hour, I strained the contents of the pot and set the stock to the side for use in my soup.  I usually have about 1.5 litres of stock for this recipe.  A chicken stock cube can be used instead, but I prefer this soup made with stock I've made myself.

To make the soup I begin cooking the vegetables in a frying pan.  I try and cut all the vegetables into small chunks of a similar size.  First, I chop the onion and fried it in fry lite (usually I will fry it in butter), then add chopped carrot and potato.  I put a lid over the frying pan and cook the vegetables for a few mins before adding chopped leeks and some thyme (I put about a teaspoon of dried thyme in).  I give the vegetables a good stir, before putting the lid back on the pan and cooking for a further 5-10 minutes, taking care to not let the vegetables burn.

Meanwhile, I get the stock ready for adding the vegetables.  I melt a knob butter in the bottom of a non-stick soup pot.  I then add 2 tablespoons of plain flour and whisk.  The stock that was set aside earlier is then added to this mixture a little at a time, whisking each time stock is added, until it is all in the pot.  I bring this to the boil and then add the vegetables to the pot.  I then simmer the soup until the vegetables are soft. 

As soon as the vegetables are soft I add the chicken that was leftover from the roast dinner to the pot.  Once the chicken is heated through the soup is ready to serve.  It is very filling and makes a brilliant dinner on a winters night, but this week we will be eating it for lunch.

TIP  To lower the fat content of the soup, omit the butter and flour and simply heat the stock in the soup pot and add the vegetables.

Squash and chorizo stew

This squash and chorizo stew is really quick and easy to make.  It has only five ingredients in it, so there is little preparation work involved.


I served the stew with some baby boiled potatoes which were on offer in Dunnes this week for 48 cent per pack.  I only used half the pack for the 3 of us.  I omitted the parsley as I didn't have any in.  As it was to garnish for serving I do not think that the stew really needed it so I may leave it out if I make this recipe again as it will save a bit of money.  However, if I had some in I would add it at the end as per the method.

The stew is quite inexpensive.  I paid €1.49 for the butternut squash, €0.75 for the Chorizo, 6.5 cent for the onion and €1 for the passata.  Together with the potatoes I paid €3.54 for this meal. 

While I was preparing this dinner I also cooked and pureed a little of the butternut squash to give to my baby as a first taste.  I often try to do this with other vegetables, freezing the puree for future use if I do not need it straight away.

Creamy avocado jackets

Last Saturday I bought 2 avocados that were on offer in Dunnes for 48 cent each.  There were ripe when I checked them yesterday before doing my shopping list, so I decided that we would have creamy avocado jackets for dinner tonight.

Ingredients
5 medium size potatoes
2 avocados
pack of bacon medallions
1/2 tub of light sour cream

Method
To make them, I put potatoes in the oven and roast them until they are cooked.  When they are ready, I take them out, cut them in half and scoop out the potato, cut it into small pieces and put it into a bowl.  I cut up the bacon into small pieces and fry in a non-stick pan.  While the bacon is cooking I prepare the avocado, cutting it into small pieces and adding it to the bowl.  When the bacon is cooked it is also added to the bowl.  I then spoon in the sour cream and mix the ingredients together.  When they are well mixed I spoon the mixture back in the skins of the potatoes and put them back in the oven.  Once the top of the mixture is starting to turn golden I take them out and serve. 

Sometimes I serve them with salad, but tonight we had them on their own.  They are really tasty and filling.  I dont make them often as the avocados can be quite expensive, but with the avocados on offer they cost me € 4.21 to make.