Sweet Chilli Gammon Noodles - Credit Crunch Munch

Cooking a gammon joint at home is so easy and can be reclined into many more meals, making it very good value too without compromising on taste. I love using up leftovers and always inventing up new recipes based on what we have in the cupboards and what we fancy eating. These noodles were delicious hot for our dinner but also I am told cold the next day, as B had a tub for lunch the next day and has asked for this again already!

Over the past few years, my own financial situation has changed considerably following redundancies, prolonged ill health, housing costs, petrol costs going up, relationship changes etc... Fortunately things are now a lot more settled, another recent house move was stressful but its a lot cheaper than the previous room so in the long term is worthwhile... I also don't drive to work anymore, so I have cut costs there...However over this time the cost of food shopping during all this has considerably increased and I've been looking at what I spend on food a lot more than before, and have become rather thrifty when it comes to stretching out meals. Now I budget for the two of us, as the house move also meant moving in with the boyfriend, and so the budget is a little more flexible but I always am a firm believer in that if you look after the pennies, the pounds look after themselves!

My gammon joint came from a cheaper supermarket, at £4.99 and has so far done five meals, and there is another bagful in the freezer. I think there might have also been a sandwich or two made as well.. far better value and taste than buying packets of pre-sliced watery ham!

I'm also sending my recipe over to Credit Crunch Munch, headed up by Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food 4 All, and the host for this month is Fish Fingers for Tea

First time around it was simply boiled up with bay leaves, then sliced up and served with a fried egg, potato wedges and courgettes fried with tomatoes in Christmas butter that's been lurking in the freezer! And it was gorgeous!

My poshed up ham, egg and chips:

So Monday night came around, I had just finished two exhausting night shifts and a bit zombie-fied, needing something quick, easy and delicious to eat. Fortunately in the fridge was some of the leftover gammon, a quick rummage through the cupboards found 3 nests of noodles, a courgette in the salad draw that needed eating and half a pepper, leftover from something else. Oh and a permanent stand by - a bottle of Thai sweet chilli sauce! One thing I couldn't live without is garlic and ginger paste - often found in the 'world food aisles' or in specialty shops.

The noodles were gorgeous, full of sweet spicy meaty flavours, this recipe will be a definite keeper!

Serves 3, well

Fridge to table - 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1 tsbp sunflower oil

3 fine egg noodle nests

1 onion, finely chopped

1 heaped tsp garlic and ginger paste

1 courgette, cut into half moons 

180g leftover cooked gammon, chopped into chunks

1/2 yellow pepper, sliced

3 heaped tsp Thai sweet chilli sauce

1 chicken stock cube

1) Cover the noodles in boiling water, add the stock cube and bring to the boil and cook as per packet instructions. Drain, reserving 250ml of the water.

2) Meanwhile heat the oil in a wok or large saute pan, cook the onion for 3-4 minutes, stir in the peppers, courgettes and garlic and ginger paste, and cook over a moderate heat, keep stirring so they don't burn. 

3) After a further 4 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened, stir in the gammon, reserved cooking water and the sweet chilli sauce, reduce the liquid slightly and stir through the noodles, warm through and serve.

Enjoy!