Lentil and Sweet Potato bake

Originally written 12th October 2015

Lentils are a very under-appreciated food but are a very cheap form of protein that's filling and warming. Because of this, they are an excellent autumn and winter food.

Lentil and Sweet Potato bake

Another filling and warming dish. I made this using leftover sweet potato and butternut squash which I'd roasted previously. I tend to estimate the amount of ingredients I use depending on the size of the dish I'm going to use (the oven dish I used for this has enough for 2 or 3 large portions). If using a larger dish, you could add more onion, carrot, lentils and potatoes to stretch the meal into more portions.
Because I had already roasted the squash in oil and the potatoes and sweet potato were mashing easily, I didn't need to add any butter or margarine, and I prefer not to when I can get away with it, to be healthier.
Carrot and celery work well in this dish because they are cheap, and also they hold their crunch well. But you could switch in any other veg you happen to have. You could also use a tin of kidney or black eyed beans instead of some of the lentils.

ingredients:
1 mugful green lentils
vegetable oil
either 1 large sweet potato or 1 smaller sweet potato and 2 medium potatoes
optional: 1/4 roasted butternut squash
optional: a little margarine or butter to mash with
2 carrots
2 sticks celery
1/2 onion
tin tomatoes
1 large clove garlic
vegetable stock cube + 2 mugful hot water
tomato puree
1 tsp coriander seeds (whole)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp thyme (dried or fresh)
salt and black pepper
optional: small amount Parmesan cheese

method:
chop the potatoes into 2cm square pieces and put into large pot of water to boil
chop the celery, onion and carrots into 1cm chunks. Mince the garlic.
Bash the coriander seeds to let them release their flavour.
put a little oil into the base of a saucepan over a medium heat and add the chopped veg and garlic and herbs/spices. Cook until starting to soften.
Add the lentils, dry, and stir well until the lentils are thoroughly mixed in and coated in the oil and seasonings. Add the tin of tomatoes, tomato puree and the stock cube dissolved in the water.
Leave to simmer, adding water when necessary, until the lentils are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste, and more herbs/spices if necessary.
Drain the potatoes once cooked and mash up. Mash in the butternut squash if using. If necessary add a little margarine or butter, and season with salt and pepper.
pour the lentils and veg mix into an oven dish and then spoon the potato mix over the top. If using, grate a little Parmesan over the top.
Bake at gas 5 for 20-30 mins until starting to brown on the top.

Sausage-tomato-couscous (£1.17pp) and my parents' food legacy

Originally written 25th September 2015

A lot of my eating habits, as with most people, come from my parents. I am very lucky that my parents had a balanced and healthy attitude to food, and so the habits I've inherited are largely healthy (or at least the 'in-moderation' kind). I remember knowing about carbs before I heard about fad diets and before we covered it in school. Carbohydrates were a vital part of your meal, but it was also vital you didn't eat too much. Mum's a type 1 diabetic. Carbs were always carefully measured in our house whether it was pasta, bread, potatoes, rice... I understood what carbs were and how much of the meal they should make up. I always found it weird when friends would have pizza and chips. Didn't they know that was carbs and carbs?
The other thing I thought was perfectly normal was the way that we cooked most things from scratch. Granted a lot of it was a variation on tinned tomatoes + onion + garlic and herbs + whatever is in the fridge, but I was used to meals being made at home and processed foods being rare alternatives when Mum and Dad needed something quick.
And finally we ate a great variety of foods. By the time I'd reached secondary school, I had tried so many different things and so many different styles of cuisine. There were a few things I didn't like, sure, but I would always try. I was not a fussy eater, and I think I largely have my parents adventurous eating style to thank for that. I also didn't think that every meal had to include meat. We ate a lot of vegetarian meals, not only are they normally cheaper, but also yummy!
These days my diet is shaped quite a lot by how expensive things are, but there are a few cheap staples that I've inherited from my parents - Mum's spaghetti bolognaise that bumps out the meat with extra onion and veg. A chinese stir fry base consisting of ginger, spring onions, soy sauce and a little oyster sauce... and finally, the good old tinned tomatoes plus... which is what tonight's dinner is.

Sausages and tomato sauce, served with couscous.

(2 portions, £1.17 per person)

ingredients:

3 sausages (tonight's are honey and thyme from my local butchers = £1.58), cut into chunks
tin tomatoes (33p)
1/2 onion (6p) diced
1 carrot (4p) sliced
2 or 3 runner beans (mine from the garden) cut into 2 cm pieces
1 clove garlic, crushed/diced (2p)
(dried) basil and thyme (10p for basil, thyme from garden)
oil to cook (5p?)
couscous (13p for 100g)
stock cube (13p for one veggie cube)
boiling water 160ml
chop veg and sausages.
add to pan and fry in oil until sausage chunks cooked and veg softening.
add herbs and tomatoes and reduce heat to simmer.
boil kettle.
pour couscous into bowl.
mix stock cube well with 160ml boiling water and pour into couscous. Stir well and leave, covered, for at least 5 mins until couscous has absorbed water. Stir/fluff up with fork.

Over £1 per person because of the sausages, but in my opinion worth splashing out on decent meat when you do eat it. This, works well with pasta too, I just fancied couscous for some variety as I tend to eat a lot of pasta. =)

Special Shepherd's Pie - under a fiver

'Special' because I decided to switch things up from my normal way of cooking this dish and use the rest of the creme fraiche.

serves 2-3:
250g lean lamb mince - £2
6-8 medium potatoes, diced - 50p
3 cloves garlic - 10p
1 onion - 16p
1 carrot - 8p
1/2 red pepper - 30p (this I had leftover so not the cheapest option)
about 120g half-fat creme fraiche - 55p
1 lamb stock cube - 10p 
1 tbsp cornflour or 1 1/2 tbsp plain flour - 5p
salt and pepper to season 
Olive oil to cook
stick of dried rosemary - free as I grow my own and it's practically impossible to kill.

Total cost: £3.84, per serving: £1.28

Dice potatoes into half-inch squares and put on to boil.

cook garlic and onion until starting to soften, then add mince and cook until mostly brown.

add the rosemary (minus the stalk), carrot, red pepper, the stock cube and 1/2 mugful of the potatoes' cooking water. Stir well until the stock is dissolved and then sprinkle over the flour and stir until dissolved and thickening.

Drain the potatoes and roughly mash, stir in the creme fraiche and then season well with salt and pepper.

Fill the bottom half of an oven dish with the meat-mix, then spoon the potato-mix evenly on top. Bake in the oven on a medium heat for 20 minutes or until top is browned.

To make it go further:

use a cheaper alternative to the red pepper, such as frozen or tinned peas
add more onion and carrot to bulk out the meat.
Switch the creme fraiche for a small amount of butter or margarine.
Use quorn mince, which works out cheaper, but you may need to boost the seasonings to make up for the blandness.

Spaghetti Bolognaise (fortnight 1, day 1)

Well almost a whole year later I am back!

I was inspired by the blog NeverSeconds to start up my food blog again!

Today is box day, and I got:
large bunch of small carrots
celery
flat runner beans
swiss chard
cherry tomatoes
golden bosc pears
apricots

plus leftover mushrooms, courgette, red onions and a tiny bit of lettuce.

Today I am making Spaghetti Bolognaise!

Having said that, it's a loose resemblance, as you'll see. =)

Ingredients:

• Lean minced beef
• tin tomatoes

• red onion
• runner beans
• courgette
• carrots
• mushrooms
• celery

• garlic
• mixed herbs
• oxo cube
• Worcestershire sauce
• tomato puree
• red wine (I think it was a Shiraz)

• dried spaghetti
• Parmesan cheese freshly grated

Chop all the veg. I always end up eating a few runner beans raw as I go along because they are so tasty! I tend to chop my veg very chunky partly because I'm too lazy to do it finely and partly because I like the texture when I'm eating it.

The carrots that I got in the box were very small ones so I just gave them a good wash instead of peeling.

I tend to use a wok to fry most things because the high sides are convenient. Firstly I cooked the celery, onion and garlic in a little olive oil. Then I transferred that to the main pot.

Fried the beef, drained off the water/fat liquid, crumbled an oxo cube directly to the meat and added the Worchestershire sauce, tomatoes, tomato puree and herbs and then transferred that to the main pot too.

Stir fried the rest of the veg very quickly and then added them to the main pot as well, along with the mushrooms raw and a good amount of red wine.  I don't drink wine at all, so I just buy the small bottles for cooking with.

Put the lid on and leave to simmer for a while, meanwhile get the pasta on to cook.

Serve with spaghetti and some grated (or dried) parmesan cheese. mmmmmmm tasty.

And unfortunately the pears aren't yet ripe, so I finished the meal off with a couple of apricots instead! =)

~ Hannah