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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Cream of scallion (spring onion) soup

Spring onions were on offer in Dunnes this week for 45 cent per bunch.  I remembered seeing a recipe for Cream of Spring Onion soup in a recipe book at home, so bought 3 bunches to make it.  I then set about the somewhat mammoth task of trying to find the recipe (note to self - must write down the name of the cookbook I see recipes I'd like to make in so that I can find them easier!).  Anyway, I eventually found the recipe yesterday and set about making it to have for lunch today.

It tastes quite similar to leek and potato soup, so if you like it you should like this.  The recipe is from 'The Soup Bible' published by Hermes House.  The recipe is as below.  I've added any alterations I made in brackets.  The recipe serves 4-6 people and can be served hot or cold.

Ingredients
25 g/1 oz/2 tbsp butter
1 small onion
150 g/5 oz/1.75 cups spring onions, chopped  (I used a bunch and half of the spring onions I bought in Dunnes)
225 g/8 oz potatoes, peeled and chopped
600 ml/1 pint/2.5 cups vegetable stock
350 ml/12 fl oz/1.5 cups single cream  (I didn't use this, so my soup was really just spring onion soup, not cream of spring onion soup!)
30 ml/2 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to season

Step 1

 Method

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add all the onions.  Cover and cook over a very low heat for about 10 minutes or until soft.
2. Add the potatoes and the stock.  Bring to the boil, then cover again and simmer over a moderately low heat for about 30 minutes.  Cool slightly.
3. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor.  (I used my hand blender so didn't need to do the first part of step 4)
4. If serving the soup hot, pour it back into the pan.  Add the cream and season with salt and pepper.  Reheat gently, stirring occasionally.  Add the lemon juice.  (I don't add seasoning.  I put salt and pepper on the table and let each person season their own instead)
5. If serving the soup cold, pour it into a bowl.  Stir in the cream and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.  Cover the bowl and chill for at least 1 hour.
6. Sprinkle with the chopped spring onion greens or chives before serving.  (I didn't bother with this)

TIP  To lower the fat of this recipe I didn't add the cream.  It was still tasty.  The fat content could be lowered even further by using fry lite instead of the butter.

Cost - Again, this is another recipe that was quite cheap to make as a result of the scallions being on offer in Dunnes.  I used a bunch and half in this recipe, so that's 68 cent.  The potatoes I had left over from a bag I had from a previous week, estimated cost 50 cent.  I had a lemon in already as I had bought a tray of 4 for €1 two weeks ago.  I used half of a lemon, so that is 12 cent.  The onion was leftover from a bag I got for 49 cent, so 6.5cent for it.  I've allowed 50 cent for the remaining ingredients, making the total recipe cost €1.86!

Obviously if I had added the cream this would have added quite a bit to the overall cost of the recipe, so omitting it kept the recipe under € 2 as well as lowering the fat.

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

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.

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.

Cheesy leek and bacon pasta

Friday nights dinner is a recipe from my current issue of Good Food magazine (February 2012).  As it is from my most recent issue it is not available on the website, so I will provide the recipe as it appears in the magazine.  When preparing it for dinner I made a few alterations which I will note at the bottom of this post.

Ingredients

1tbsp olive oil

300g/11oz leeks, halved and finely sliced

8 rashers smoked streaky bacon, sliced

400g/14oz pasta shapes

100g/4oz herb and garlic soft cheese

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan.  Add the leeks and 2 tbsp water, and cook for about 10 mins until very soft.  Add the bacon, turn up the heaat and fry until cooked.
2. Menwhile, cook the pasta following pack instructions.  Drain and reserve a mug of the cooking water.
3. Spoon cheese into the leek and bacon mix, adding some of the reserved cooking water.  Season and stir gently over a low heat until melted.  Toss though the cooked pasta, adding a little more cooking water, if needed, to help the sauce coat the pasta.

Per serving - 556kcals, protein 23g, carbs 76g, fat 18g, sat fat 7g, fibre 4g, sugar 4g, salt 1.5g

In my altered version I didn't add the olive oil, I just cooked the leeks in the water.  I used some back bacon that I had in the fridge in the place of the streaky bacon.  For the cream cheese I used some phildelphia light that was in the fridge.  Also, as the recipe is for four I halfed the ingredients.

It was really quick and easy to make, so would be perfect for a night when dinner has to be prepared quickly.

I can't work out how much this meal cost me exactly.  The bacon was €1.50, the pasta was 49 cent for 500g and the leeks were €1.  The phildelphia has been in since before christmas and I cant remember what I paid for it so have allowed €1.  I think this is quite generous as I only used a third of the tub. I think it's safe to say that it was well under €5.

If I make this again it will just be for me and the kids as my husband isn't keen.  He doesn't like cheese and I decided to give it to him without letting on what was in it.  Although he ate it, he obviously didn't enjoy it so I will not be making it for him again.  My daughter and I loved it.