Posh plates for pennies!
3 weeks to the day, our next shop arrived.
I was spot on with our meal planning, food budgeting and even had left over bits and pieces in the fridge and freezer to jazz up this months food plan!
So, as you can see, on the 7th July, our 3 week, 3 meals a day food shop arrived, welcome in the 28th July and hey presto, the next 3 week, 3 meals a day food shop has arrived - this time coming in over £10 cheaper (due to no need for household essentials this time, remember we bought our shampoo, cat litter, toilet rolls etc in bulk at the beginning of the month, so no need to restock just yet)
Also, Asda was out of stock on all free range chicken (hopefully due to high demand as opposed to no demand at all!) so we made do with more veggies and a few clever substitutions - tofu for example.
We started Saturday morning with some waffles, made in the waffle maker, with a side of greek yoghurt and strawberries - sounds fancy? It's not!
Quick and easy to make and cheap too.
Quick Waffle Recipe
200g self raising flour 6p
15g caster sugar 4p
1 free range egg 12p
200 ml milk 30p
A pinch of salt 1p
Total cost 53p - makes 6 waffles
Asda have some pretty great strawberries in stock at the moment, listed as "farm stores" at £1.09 per 300g punnet you can't complain - using just a handful of strawberries comes in at around 30p, a tablespoon of greek yoghurt per person, 3p per person.
All in all, it's a naughty but nice breakfast and a bit of crowd pleaser!
Mix all your ingredients together in a bowl, let them sit for 5 minutes, in which time you can heat and brush your waffle maker with a little vegetable oil, butter, marg, cooking spray, whatever you have to hand, and you're ready to bake.
Pour enough mix in to the waffle iron to press down and fill the shape; bake as per its instructions - usually until you see the steam has stopped emanating and your waffles are done!
Now, let's talk chicken!
Or better yet, how to beat the take away for a fraction of the price, let alone half of the calories.
Here's a great little recipe for my Soy, seasame chicken with egg fried rice and crispy noodles
Chicken Tonight
2 free range chicken thighs £1.20
1 tablespoon honey 3p
1 tablespoon soy sauce 4p
1 teaspoon seasame seeds 4p
A pinch of salt and pepper 3p
1 packet of microwave rice 49p
1 free range egg 12p
1 spring onion 4p
20g frozen peas 2p
Total cost £2.39 - makes 2 portions, as main meal.
£1.19 per portion
Place your chicken thighs in a zip-lock sandwich bag with the wet ingredients, give it a good shake and place in the fridge for half an hour for best results, but if you're in a rush for a quick dinner, a good shake does the job.
Bake in a hot oven (200c) for 25 minutes - but keep an eye on it, as the honey can trick you into thinking it's cooked!
Using your microwave rice, throw into a hot frying pan and get it cooking through, in a bowl, mix your egg and sliced spring onions together, when your rice is nice and hot, stir in your egg mixture and make sure you stir it through to get the "egg fried rice" look your accustomed to.
Add your frozen peas and toss through.
You can of course do this with grain rice, boil it up, and then cool it as fast as you can so as to prevent any harmful bacteria building - rice is an innocent looking harbourer of bacillus toxin when not cooked / cooled properly and reheating it doesn't eradicate the danger - this is why reheating last nights take away for your breakfast is never a good idea, as tempting as it is!
Lecture over - the perks of having a microbiologist of a fiance!
Once your chicken is cooked and looked lovely and golden, toast some seasame seeds in a dry frying pan until they turn golden too, shake them over your chicken and watch them stick - yum!
The perfect change of texture to this otherwise soft and juicy dish is the crispy noodle aspect - really simple - heat some vegetable oil in a heavy set pan, drop in some dry rice noodles, fry until ..... you guessed it; GOLDEN; and then drain on some kitchen roll to absorb excess oil.
Stack your rice on a plate, with your chicken ontop, any extra juices from the baking tray are always a good thing to poor over, then crumble your crispy noodles on top.
Delicious, cost effective, and a lot healthier than your usual take out treat!
It's now Tuesday 1st August in the Barker-Mills household and because I know Sarah has had a busy start to the week, I'm cooking one of her favourites, something I used to cook when we started dating and something that was actually my audition dish for Masterchef back in 2012
Mushroom Risotto with Red Pepper Puree
200g risotto rice (any short grain rice will do) 60p
20g mushrooms (we have white mushrooms in, I'd recommend chestnut ideally) 7p
1 garlic clove 2p
1/2 brown onion 11p
1 vegetable stock cube 4p
A splash of white wine 50p
A knob of butter 6p
A pinch of salt and pepper 3p
Total cost £1.43 - makes 4 portions; serves 4 as a main meal
£0.36 per portion
1 red pepper 42p
A handful of sad looking tomatoes - I'm using some salad cherry tomatoes 6p
A tablespoon of cream cheese 17p
A pinch of salt and pepper 3p
Total cost £0.68 - accompanies 4 portions
£0.17 per portion
Slice your onion and mushrooms, saute in a pan, cook until soft, but don't colour.
Add your garlic and your rice to the pan, cook the rice until it turns opaque, then add your splash of white wine.
Season with your salt and pepper.
Cook this until the liquid has evaporated and your sure your wine has cooked out.
Begin ladelling small amounts of vegetable stock into your pan, a little at a time, stirring the rice until the liquid absorbs and disappears, repeat until you have used all of vegetable stock mix and your rice is soft to the touch, but has bite when tasting.
Add your butter and stir through until rice is glossy and thick. Let the pan settle, and serve while still warm.
The pepper puree isn't necessary, I only cook it because I like the way it tastes with the mushroom, and it also makes the plate look beautiful!
Roast your pepper and your tomatoes in a hot oven for 15 minutes, once out, peel / scrape the skins away, place in a blender with your cream cheese and seasoning - job done.
If the texture is still quite fibrous, sieve it, warm it, and serve around your risotto in a nice bowl.
So this cute little number cost a total of 53p per portion, which proves it doesn't have to cost the earth to cook up some posh nosh, nor do you have to focus your meals around meat!
More to come this week; keep your eyes peeling :p
I was spot on with our meal planning, food budgeting and even had left over bits and pieces in the fridge and freezer to jazz up this months food plan!
So, as you can see, on the 7th July, our 3 week, 3 meals a day food shop arrived, welcome in the 28th July and hey presto, the next 3 week, 3 meals a day food shop has arrived - this time coming in over £10 cheaper (due to no need for household essentials this time, remember we bought our shampoo, cat litter, toilet rolls etc in bulk at the beginning of the month, so no need to restock just yet)
Also, Asda was out of stock on all free range chicken (hopefully due to high demand as opposed to no demand at all!) so we made do with more veggies and a few clever substitutions - tofu for example.
We started Saturday morning with some waffles, made in the waffle maker, with a side of greek yoghurt and strawberries - sounds fancy? It's not!
Quick and easy to make and cheap too.
Quick Waffle Recipe
200g self raising flour 6p
15g caster sugar 4p
1 free range egg 12p
200 ml milk 30p
A pinch of salt 1p
Total cost 53p - makes 6 waffles
Asda have some pretty great strawberries in stock at the moment, listed as "farm stores" at £1.09 per 300g punnet you can't complain - using just a handful of strawberries comes in at around 30p, a tablespoon of greek yoghurt per person, 3p per person.
All in all, it's a naughty but nice breakfast and a bit of crowd pleaser!
Mix all your ingredients together in a bowl, let them sit for 5 minutes, in which time you can heat and brush your waffle maker with a little vegetable oil, butter, marg, cooking spray, whatever you have to hand, and you're ready to bake.
Pour enough mix in to the waffle iron to press down and fill the shape; bake as per its instructions - usually until you see the steam has stopped emanating and your waffles are done!
Now, let's talk chicken!
Or better yet, how to beat the take away for a fraction of the price, let alone half of the calories.
Here's a great little recipe for my Soy, seasame chicken with egg fried rice and crispy noodles
Chicken Tonight
2 free range chicken thighs £1.20
1 tablespoon honey 3p
1 tablespoon soy sauce 4p
1 teaspoon seasame seeds 4p
A pinch of salt and pepper 3p
1 packet of microwave rice 49p
1 free range egg 12p
1 spring onion 4p
20g frozen peas 2p
Total cost £2.39 - makes 2 portions, as main meal.
£1.19 per portion
Place your chicken thighs in a zip-lock sandwich bag with the wet ingredients, give it a good shake and place in the fridge for half an hour for best results, but if you're in a rush for a quick dinner, a good shake does the job.
Bake in a hot oven (200c) for 25 minutes - but keep an eye on it, as the honey can trick you into thinking it's cooked!
Using your microwave rice, throw into a hot frying pan and get it cooking through, in a bowl, mix your egg and sliced spring onions together, when your rice is nice and hot, stir in your egg mixture and make sure you stir it through to get the "egg fried rice" look your accustomed to.
Add your frozen peas and toss through.
You can of course do this with grain rice, boil it up, and then cool it as fast as you can so as to prevent any harmful bacteria building - rice is an innocent looking harbourer of bacillus toxin when not cooked / cooled properly and reheating it doesn't eradicate the danger - this is why reheating last nights take away for your breakfast is never a good idea, as tempting as it is!
Lecture over - the perks of having a microbiologist of a fiance!
Once your chicken is cooked and looked lovely and golden, toast some seasame seeds in a dry frying pan until they turn golden too, shake them over your chicken and watch them stick - yum!
The perfect change of texture to this otherwise soft and juicy dish is the crispy noodle aspect - really simple - heat some vegetable oil in a heavy set pan, drop in some dry rice noodles, fry until ..... you guessed it; GOLDEN; and then drain on some kitchen roll to absorb excess oil.
Stack your rice on a plate, with your chicken ontop, any extra juices from the baking tray are always a good thing to poor over, then crumble your crispy noodles on top.
Delicious, cost effective, and a lot healthier than your usual take out treat!
It's now Tuesday 1st August in the Barker-Mills household and because I know Sarah has had a busy start to the week, I'm cooking one of her favourites, something I used to cook when we started dating and something that was actually my audition dish for Masterchef back in 2012
Mushroom Risotto with Red Pepper Puree
200g risotto rice (any short grain rice will do) 60p
20g mushrooms (we have white mushrooms in, I'd recommend chestnut ideally) 7p
1 garlic clove 2p
1/2 brown onion 11p
1 vegetable stock cube 4p
A splash of white wine 50p
A knob of butter 6p
A pinch of salt and pepper 3p
Total cost £1.43 - makes 4 portions; serves 4 as a main meal
£0.36 per portion
1 red pepper 42p
A handful of sad looking tomatoes - I'm using some salad cherry tomatoes 6p
A tablespoon of cream cheese 17p
A pinch of salt and pepper 3p
Total cost £0.68 - accompanies 4 portions
£0.17 per portion
Slice your onion and mushrooms, saute in a pan, cook until soft, but don't colour.
Add your garlic and your rice to the pan, cook the rice until it turns opaque, then add your splash of white wine.
Season with your salt and pepper.
Cook this until the liquid has evaporated and your sure your wine has cooked out.
Begin ladelling small amounts of vegetable stock into your pan, a little at a time, stirring the rice until the liquid absorbs and disappears, repeat until you have used all of vegetable stock mix and your rice is soft to the touch, but has bite when tasting.
Add your butter and stir through until rice is glossy and thick. Let the pan settle, and serve while still warm.
The pepper puree isn't necessary, I only cook it because I like the way it tastes with the mushroom, and it also makes the plate look beautiful!
Roast your pepper and your tomatoes in a hot oven for 15 minutes, once out, peel / scrape the skins away, place in a blender with your cream cheese and seasoning - job done.
If the texture is still quite fibrous, sieve it, warm it, and serve around your risotto in a nice bowl.
So this cute little number cost a total of 53p per portion, which proves it doesn't have to cost the earth to cook up some posh nosh, nor do you have to focus your meals around meat!
More to come this week; keep your eyes peeling :p
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