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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Marinated lamb steaks with barley salad

So, tonight after the kids went to bed I made the marinated lamb steaks with barley salad from the June 2010 issue of the GoodFood magazine.  It was, quite frankly, delicious!  My taste buds are still in heaven!  This recipe is definitely going on the list of dinners that we will be having again (and again and again and again!!).

After trying it my husband confessed that he was a bit dubious about the barely salad but that it tasted much better than he expected.  As well as making a nice change from potatoes as a side, the barley salad is has a low GI, meaning that you'll feel fuller for longer.  According to the GoodFood magazine the salad gives 2 of your 5-a-day, making it a healthy choice for dinner.

I made a few alterations to the recipe as I was going along.  The first change was forced upon me when I went to by the meat.  My butcher didn't have any lamb steaks, but he did have some lovely looking boneless lamb chops which looked quite thick so I decided that they would do the trick.  The second change was when I was making the marinade - it called for a pinch of dried chilli and I added a bit more than a pinch as we like our food spicy. 

The biggest changes I made were to the barley salad.  When I did the grocery shopping earlier today there were no frozen broad beans in Dunnes, so I bought soya beans and used these instead.  Red onions were on my shopping list but I decided not to bother buying them as 1kg of onions was 29c in Dunnes and I didn't really fancy having a kg of red onions AND and kg of ordinary onions in the house.  Although the red onions were on offer in Lidl this weekend, I decided that it was a bit excessive to buy a kg of them just for one recipe.  I meant to buy a single red onion, but forgot and only realised when I started making the dinner.  So instead of red onion I used two scallions (spring onions).  The red onion wasn't to be cooked and I didn't think that a raw onion would taste nice in the salad, whereas I was confident that the scallions would be fine.

The recipe suggests marinating the lamb for up to two hours if you have the time.  My lamb was marinated for 40 minutes and tasted fine. 

TIP - If I was to decide to make this recipe mid-week I would probably buy the meat at the weekend, make up the marinade, rub into the meat and freeze.  Then I would lift it out the night before making the meal and leave it to defrost and marinate in the fridge.  Alternatively I would make up the marinade the night before or in the morning, but for me the first option would save the most time on meal preparation during the week.

Cost - This was a bit more expensive than some meals that I make.  The lamb chops that I bought were €5.  The soya beans were €1.50, the peas were 50 cent (estimate), the pearl barley was 75 cent, the mint was 50 cent, the lemon was 25 cent and I have allowed 40 cent for the scallions, dried chilli and olive oil.  This makes the total €8.90 which makes this my most expensive meal to date. 

I would not normally spend so much on one meal for two of us, but a lot of couples spend much more than this on a meal in the restaurant on a Saturday night, so as a one off I don't think it's that bad.  In fact, we'd spend more on a takeaway if we were to get one and probably not enjoy it half as much!

Turkey, thyme and leek meatloaf

One of the recipes on my menu planner for this week was the turkey, thyme and leek meatloaf from the December 2006 issue of the Good Food magazine.  This is another recipe that I have made quite a few times in the past, but I've never tried to work out how much it costs so I am interested in working out how much it costs.  Unfortunately I am not sure exactly how accurate my calculation of the cost will be as I bought the ingredients in Asda when I was visiting my parents house up north, but I think I will have a go anyway and convert the cost to Euro.

Turkey mince is not something that I have noticed for sale in my local shops, so if anyone reading this knows where I might be able to find some turkey mince I'd be grateful if you could point me in the right direction.  My local butcher doesn't sell it.  So, sometimes when I visit my parents I take a trip to Asda to buy some turkey mince specifically for this recipe.

I soften my leeks in a couple of squirts of fry lite instead of sunflower oil to lower the fat content and tend to use dried thyme instead of sprigs of fresh thyme.  Other than that I tend to stick closely to the recipe.  From previous experience I find that smoked bacon tastes a bit better on the top of the meatloaf than unsmoked.

The method of suggests putting the meatloaf under the grill to make the top crisp on top, however, I have found that it gets quite crispy in the oven so I've never bothered with this stage. 

The suggestion at the end of the recipe has tempted me a couple of the times in the past, but my husband has only recently started to eat butternut squash and cranberries so I haven't tried it yet.  I hope to try it sometime in the near future as I think the substitutions suggested sound delicious.

Cost - The turkey mince cost £1.98, the leeks cost £1 and the bacon was £1.  I had an egg, bread and dried thyme in and I've estimated 50p for them.  This brings the total cost to £4.48 which converts to €5.48 according the xe.com.  This feeds my family for two nights along with potatoes and vegetables.  This means that a meal for my family costs €4.20ish depending on what vegetables I serve.

Quick chicken chasseur

I have made this Quick chicken chasseur recipe from the good food magazine a number of times in the past but had forgotten about it until my husband requested it one day.  Previously we have had it with various different types of potatoes - mash, boiled and even chips - and rice.  To be honest, while I am sure it is supposed to be served with potatoes my family seem to prefer it when it comes with rice.  We had it for dinner last week, but I am only getting a chance to write about it now.

It is ready really quickly making it an ideal mid-week dinner to prepare when you get home from work and have to get something on the dinner table quickly.

The can of chopped tomatoes I used didn't have any garlic in them, so I added a couple of gloves of garlic at the start of cooking.  I usually don't bother adding the flour to the recipe and I use bacon medallions rather than streaky rashers in order to lower the fat content of the recipe.  I didn't have any fresh parsley in so I used some dried parsley and I added this towards the end of the cooking time.  When I made this for dinner last week I used two cans of chopped tomatoes instead of one.

Cost - Although I have made this recipe many times before, I have never worked out the cost of it so I am interested to see how much it works out as now.  As I was making it for two people and one child, I only used 2 chicken breasts and 3 bacon medallions.   The chicken breasts where bought on offer for €10 for 12, making the cost of the chicken that I used €1.67.  The bacon medallions were 75 cent - I bought them on offer for €1.50 a while ago and put them in the freezer.  The mushrooms were 99 cent, the chopped tomatoes cost €1.33 and I have allowed 50 cent for the garlic, dried parsley and beef stock cube.

The total cost of recipe €5.24.  As I indicated I only used two chicken breasts as I was only intending to serve two adult portions and one child's portion.  However, adding the extra can of chopped tomatoes bulked up the meal enough for me to be able to get extra portions from the pan for dinner another night, so I managed to get 4 adult and 2 child portions for this price, making the cost for me (minus the rice) €2.62 which is really good.  This works out much cheaper than using 4 chicken breasts to get the same number of servings.

TIP - As I am trying to give my baby as much of the same food as we are eating I refrain from adding the stock cube until the same point that I add the Worcestershire sauce so that I can give him a little of the chicken chasseur to try.  I then let the pan simmer for a few more minutes before lifting it off the heat and serving.

Broccoli and almond soup

Well, as I said in my menu planner for the week I intended to make some soup for the weekend but the type of soup would depend on what vegetables were on offer in the supermarket.  When I was doing my shopping broccoli was on offer for 35cent for 500g.  I bought two to use for soup and as one of the vegetables that I would serve with the roast beef dinner on Sunday.

To be honest I hadn't ever made a broccoli soup before and had only ever eaten it once when I was kept in hospital overnight while pregnant with my second child.  I liked it and was sure I'd find a recipe among my various recipe books at home.  If I hadn't I would have fallen back on the trusty Goodfood magazine website for a suitable recipe.

As luck would have it I had a choice of recipes for soups using broccoli as the main ingredient.  I decided to make broccoli and almond soup for the simple reason that I had all the ingredients - there are only 4 excluding the seasoning - in the house.  The recipe is from 'The Soup Bible', edited by Debra Mayhew.

The recipe is as follows:-

Ingredients
50 g/ 2oz/ 0.5 cup ground almonds
675 g/ 1.5lbs broccoli
900 ml/ 1.5pints / 3.75 cups of vegetable stock or water
300ml / 0.5pints / 1.25 coups of skimmed milk
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/ gas 4.  Spread the ground almonds evenly on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 10 minutes until golden.  Reserve one quarter of the almonds and set aside to garnish the finished dish.
2. Cut the broccoli into small florets and steam for about 6-7 minutes until tender.
3. Place the remaining toasted almonds, broccoli, stock or water and milk in a blender and blend until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Reheat the soup and serve sprinkled with the reserved toasted almonds.

This soup was really quick and easy to make.  I decided not to garnish the finished dish with the toasted almonds which saved me a bit of money and will make my ground almonds last a bit longer.  I found it quite tasty.  In the future I might use chicken stock instead just to give it a slightly different flavour. 

Cost - This soup was really cheap for me to make owing to the fact that the broccoli was only 35 cent.  I used one and half heads of the broccoli that I bought to make the soup, costing me 53 cent.  I used about 35g of ground almonds which I have estimated at about 85 cent.  The milk was about 30 cent and I will allow 10 cent for the stock cube and seasoning.  The overall cost of the soup is € 1.78 using these estimates.

Crab linguine with chili and parsley

Tonight for dinner I made the crab linguine with chilli and parsley from the March 2011 issue of Goodfood magazine.

Unfortunately when I went to get the linguine from the cupboard I discovered that my husband had been using it instead of spaghetti so I had none left.  I did have some nice tagliatelle in that a friend brought back from a holiday in Italy, so decided to use this instead.

I made a bit of an error as well in that I misread the crab that was needed to make the recipe and only had 200g of white crab meat.  The recipe still turned out well, but I think if I had the brown crab meat it would have turned out a bit better.  If I make it again I will make sure to have the correct crab for the recipe. 
Last Saturday night when I made a meal that required parsley, I got the parsley ready in advance and forgot to add it to the pot at the appropriate time.  This week, I made sure that the parsley went in!

The squeeze of lemon is optional.  I decided to add it as I have lemons left over from the shopping last week.  I love the taste of lemon and parsley together and think they go particular well together with any seafood, but this is the first time I've tried them with the crab.  I actually ended up getting the lemon and squeezing a bit more lemon juice on it as I was eating it as I felt it needed a bit more.  It was really tasty with the extra lemon.  If I make it again I will be putting extra lemon in before serving.

It was really quick and easy to make - definitely one for a night when you need to get dinner ready in a hurry.

Cost - Again this is a bit of a hard one for me to put a definite figure on with regards to cost as some of the ingredients I have had in for a while - like the tagliatelle and wine.  The crab I got was on special offer.  I reckon the meal was less than €5 in total, but if the crab had not been on offer it would have been quite a bit more than this.