Cauliflower Cheese and Gammon Soup

Now if I recall correctly, I once saw a recipe at some point for Cauliflower cheese soup and it slipped to the dark recesses of my mind as one of those hmm one day recipes... but when faced recently with the usual dilemma of er what to make for dinner but even more so as I was far away from home and in my aunties kitchen, and a fridge full of leftovers the filed away thought magically resurfaced with a ooh could I try it out? Would it work? Would it be weird.... 

On the Sunday prior I had made a fairly majestic mustard spiked cauliflower cheese but despite our best efforts, there was a tub leftover... that was until Wednesday, arriving home post a long drive and day to the lovely River Cottage clutching my lovingly hand made Apple, blackberry and Goats cheese soda bread and wondering what I could serve with it, the Cauliflower cheese soup idea came back to fruition and a star was born! I think in future I will have to make extra Cauliflower cheese purely to make soup with its leftovers! It tasted so good and was a perfect accompaniment to my bread! Oh and my home made butter!

Lovely leftovers!

Now I think it was gammon, it was either that or a bacon joint, either way it was another leftover that got added!

Making the finishing touches:

Serves 2

Easy

Ingredients:

400g leftover cauliflower cheese

1 clove minced garlic

400ml vegetable stock

1/2 tsp spicy Polish spicy mustard (if not a little more wholegrain-this is presuming your cauli cheese was already containing mustard too)

50g shredded cooked gammon or bacon

S&P

1 tsp oil

mint leaves to garnish

Heat the oil in a saucepan, saute the garlic until softened, add the cauliflower cheese and stock, cover and bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the mustard, then blitz with a stick blender adding the gammon at the very end for a few seconds, season to taste

Serve, garnish with mint leaves if you have some or a similar herb.

As my recipe used up lots of lovely leftovers I am entering it into one of my favourite blog challenges - Fab Food 4 All's Credit Crunch Munch which was born from Fuss Free Flavours!

Pan Fried Basa with a creamy Courgette and Chorizo Sauce

Over the years after many trials and tribulations I have become far more confident with cooking fish successfully, and this time I won the jackpot! I loved everything about this dish, it was dreamt up and fortunately it was a very good dream! The creamy sauce, with smoky chorizo and fresh chunks of sweet courgette works so well with the Basa, a relatively plain, affordable white fish that's ideal for this dish. It was a dish I would be happy to order and eat in a good restaurant!

I tried to keep the dish relatively simple, we had no cream in and as we car share during the week, and B was not home from work yet, so a little improvisation was on the cards! I wondered to myself if I could substitute with a little milk and it worked a treat! By the time it had cooked, and a little flour to thicken it was a really good consistency, smooth and cream like without being heavy or claggy (not often manage to use that word!! I used both dill and thyme in the dish in different stages, partly down to indecision! I wanted the earthy thyme with the rich chorizo but had some lovely fresh dill leftover from a fish pie I made on saturday - in the end I cooked the thmye at the start with the chorizo and then the dill went in to finish the dish. If you can't get any fresh dill I would suggest just use extra thyme leaves instead.

Another bonus is that its also cooked all in one pan so less to wash up! Alongside the fish I made sweet potato mash - always a winner!! Even more so when it involves my beloved Masha toy! If you hate mashing (or have evil elbow joints!) then its a god-send and takes no effort and is surprisingly therapeutic! I've had mine a few years now and wouldn't be without it! 

Serves 2

Easy

Under 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Basa fillets (approx. 260g), halved across the middle

70g chorizo, finely sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 large beef tomato, chopped

1 courgette, halved and sliced

2 tbsp plain flour

Sea salt and black pepper

50g butter

1 heaped tbsp. fresh thyme leaves, chopped

1 heaped tbsp. fresh dill leaves, chopped

200ml milk

Sweet Potato Mash:

2 medium sweet potatoes

1 white potato

Salt and pepper

1) Place the flour on a shallow plate and season with salt and pepper, pat the fish dry on kitchen towel and then coat well in the flour mix (don’t discard the flour mix!)

2) Meanwhile boil the potatoes in salted water for 15 minutes, then drain well. 

3) Heat a tsp of the butter in a large saute pan, fry the chorizo and courgettes gently for 3 minutes until starting to colour nicely, add the tomato and fry for a further 2 minutes, add the thyme leaves and stir through, remove everything using a slotted spoon and keep warm.

4) Add the butter to the pan, melt down over a moderate heat, add the fish pieces in a single layer and fry for 3 minutes, turn over and fry for a further 2 minutes until crispening, spooning over the buttery juices, push to one side of the pan and add the prepared chorizo veggie mix, pour in the milk and simmer for a minute, make a well and sparingly scatter 1 tbsp of the flour mix and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring the sauce constantly until thickened. Add the dill and stir through.

5) Drain the potatoes, and mash, season to taste.

6) Serve up the mash on one side of your plate, with the veggie bits on the other side and gently place the fish on top. Scatter over a little sprinkle of dill leaves to garnish.

My dish was quite frugal and so I am sending my dish into this months Credit Crunch Munch - my Basa was bought half price reduced and my thyme leaves can from my 13p reduced plant! The tomatoes and dill were also bought over by dad so were free to me! This month it was run by Food Glorious Food. It was set up by Fab Food 4 All and Fuss Free Flavours to promote frugal recipes and cooking.

Also I snuck in a lonely, slightly soft tomato and cooked the courgettes all together in the sauce to boost veggie content with minimal washing up! I have entered it in Jen's Food Extra Veg Challenge, created by Fuss Free Flavours and Utterly Scrummy Food for Families:

Last but not least my first entry to Cook Blog Share! This week its held by Sneaky Veg ( I love the name!)

Baked Egg and Potato Wraps

I've been umming and arring over typing this recipe up...on one hand it was delicious..on the other it does not win any beauty prizes! In the end I obviously have if you are reading this far but may I suggest you tweak to your own liking? My boyfriend enjoyed it but wanted meat to make it complete, Saying that I do think a sneaky bit of ham would be most pleasant but for me it was tasty on its own... I think they would make a tasty breakfast wrap too, maybe folded more into a parcel shape to be more transportable. Definitely going to explore that option more as I ate my second one cold the next day and was equally tasty hot or cold!

Overall this dish mostly consisted of leftovers and bargains - I picked up a lot of eggs reduced to 25p and as a result have been making lots of egg-citing recipes! I think August might be an egg free month....! The wraps had been loitering in the fridge far too long but still passable when baked, and the potatoes were left from the previous night. I always like to cook a few extra to help form the next meal, saves time especially on a busy evening!

Talking of busy life right now seems busy but good busy. Its been a hellish few months in all honesty with family, friend and work issues but it all seems to be smoothing over at last, and I hope normality is on the horizon! My blog as a result has been just about simpering along, mainly as I needed to focus my energy elsewhere, plus its also given me some breathing space, I have been blogging so long I think get lost along the way at times, I love making recipes and that's all I want to do and share with you all along the way, and hopefully I will ease back in the blogging saddle.

Serves 2-4 depending on hunger

Ingredients:

4 wholemeal wraps

500g leftover cooked potatoes, diced

75g good quality mayonaise (I love Waitrose's one with extra virgin olive oil)

2 boiled large free range eggs, diced up

2 tsp wholegrain mustard

80g grated extra mature cheddar + 1 tbsp

1/2 tsp Italian herb mix or dried mixed herbs

4 tbsp ready made tomato based sauce (I used a special edition balsamic ketchup)

Pre-heat the oven. Line a 26cm tray bake/ roasting tin and pre-heat oven to 200o.

Combine the eggs, potato, mayo, cheese and mustard.

Lay out the wrap, spoon a quarter into the middle, fold up the bottom, tuck over the mixture and roll tightly, place in the baking tin, tucking in the ends and repeat with the remaining three. 

Spoon over the tomato sauce, sprinkle with the cheese and herbs, bake for 25 minutes or until golden.

Serve with a lightly dressed salad.

Whilst the wraps were not intended for breakfast originally, the leftovers did indeed become my breakfast and this dish would work easily for breakfast, brunch or dinner so I am sneaking in to

Belleau Kitchen's Simply Eggcellent #5 - how do you like your eggs in the morning? round-up:

Also as they used up my reduced eggs, the last of a jar of mayo, abandoned wraps and leftover potato I have put them in Fuss Free Flavours Credit Crunch Munch round-up too, held by Fab Food 4 All this month:

Disclaimer: Happy Eggs sent me a voucher to cover the cost of the Eggs, though the supermarket over charged me and then refunded me more than I had originally paid, so they are super free-free range eggs if that makes sense!

Bacon and Cheese Tart

My boyfriend was away on holiday recently visiting his family in South Africa and I found myself alone with a packet of shortcrust pastry on its use by date... Obviously dangerous times cooking for one to be alone with so much pastry, however thanks to calling over to one of besties at work as to whether she would like some planned bacon and cheese tart for her lunch, to which was a yes (and an eventual can I have the recipe please as her hubby liked it too) another friend-colleague also overhead and agreed it sounded rather nice and so two pieces were instantly ‘sold’ and I only had to eat two portions myself…such hardship…!

Its quite a frugal tart meat wise, I used half a packet of ready chopped bacon trimmings so its relatively faff free too! Whilst I cook from scratch this damn cold weather plays havoc with my joints so a little less chopping is welcome! Also the cheese was the end part of a piece bought yellow stickered and the sour cream was leftover too from our beloved soured cream bundt cake, so it was great not to have the guilt of two cakes in one week, plus a good fridge raid too!

The pictures are not great as I didn't expect to like it so much but you get the idea of it!

*You will need a ready rolled shortcrust pastry sheet if you are lazy like me, or measure home made accordingly*

Ingredients:

1x ready rolled shortcrust pastry sheet

300g cooked chopped up bacon trim, fat removed

4 large eggs

1 tsp dried oregano

75g soured cream

30g double Gloucester cheese.

2 tbsp tomato puree

Bring the pastry to room temperature if you are organised (If not spend a few minutes massaging the cracks with cold water!), gently roll out the sheet, and measure to 26cm, trimming off the excess centimetres. (Makes excellent mini jam tarts for pudding)

Gently lower the pastry sheet into a square baking dish – roughly 8 inch pan, using your fingers to mould the pastry corners.

Brush the tomato puree over the pastry base and sprinkle over the bacon pieces

Beat the eggs, ½ the cheese, oregano and soured cream, season with Salt and pepper. Pour over the prepared base, sprinkle over the remaining cheese and bake for 35-45 minutes or until cooked through and golden. 

The tart was really tasty served hot, with sweet potato mash and some fried romano peppers (5 for a £1 in one of the grocers near my dad!) but also worked well cold too the next day for lunch and would be ideal for a buffet style dinner too!

As my tart is very frugal, using ready chopped bacon trim (88p a packet!) plus cheese scraps - you could use any old cheese really - it would be ideal for a quick Christmas time supper or part of your boxing day buffet, without breaking the piggy bank - I have sent my tart over to this months Credit Crunch munch, from Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food 4 All:

Apple, Rhubarb and Ginger Jam

Growing up we were spoiled by my lovely, and sorely missed Nanny J’s home made jams and marmalade's. In fact three years ago today the angels took her under their wings and we all miss her dearly. I have fond memories of wheeling around a trolley full of heavily reduced strawberries in order for her to make a giant vat of strawberry jam and over the years I have made the odd random pickle and jam but too few and far between! 

Last month I picked up some reduced rhubarb for 38p in one shop and a bag of bramley apples for 39p elsewhere and being rather hooked on ginger of late, I decided on a really hot evening to make a batch of jam involving all three ingredients. Fortunately after much stirring it magically worked and set perfectly with no need for fancy jam sugars – apple naturally contains high levels of pectin which helps the jam to set, one less bag to find space for too!

I am really pleased with the results, the ginger is not overpowering it just complements the rhubarb flavour perfectly with a lovely sticky, thick jammy texture. Its great for crumpets and toast! It proved popular after mentioning it on facebook – my spare jars went very fast with requests for more! you will all have to wait for the next Rhubarb season I am afraid!

Ingredients:

440g rhubarb, trimmed and cut to 1cm dice

1 bramley apple, apx 230g, peeled, cored and into 1 cm dice

390g granulated sugar

260g light soft brown sugar

2 pieces stem ginger, very finely chopped

Place everything in a large, heavy based saucepan, add 2 tbsp of water to help get it started. Gently bring almost to the boil, then reduce heat slightly and simmer for about an hour until you have a sticky pan full of jam – if using a thermometer you are aiming for 105o celsius. If desired mash up the apple chunks – I used a potato masher or leave them whole depending on personal preference.

Pour into your sterilised jars. Makes 3 jar fuls. Store in a cool place and refridgerate after opening.

I am sending my lovely jam made with my bargain finds over to this months Credit Crunch munch, held by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary created by Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food 4 All

*I place my jars after a good soapy hot wash, in a deep roasting pan full of boiling water and cook them in a hot oven for about 20 minutes, then very carefully wearing gloves turn onto clean kitchen paper to drain. Remember to remove any rubber rings first too- they are not too keen on ovens*

Spicy Chorizo and Egg Fried Wholegrain Rice

Fried rice in some sort of variation is a staple meal in our household. Fitting easily into a busy lifestyle, its also a great way to use up odds and ends from the fridge too! I really hate wasting anything so it’s a perfect mid-week meal and whilst having spare cooked rice is very handy, it also if not properly chilled and stored can harbour bad things that we really don’t need to eat and whilst it’s a bit of a cheat the Veetee rice trays are a great store cupboard standby! Its quick and easy to make a meal using them and most importantly delicious!

Veetee sent me a box full of goodies (along with some stunning rice bowls that have left me coveting the rest of the range, shown in the last image below!) with the challenge to create a meal using either their Wholegrain or Egg Fried rice trays. Brown rice can be somewhat, earthy and rather too wholesome I find but theirs was surprisingly light and very tasty, stir frying in two minutes meant dinner was on the table in under ten minutes! Very welcome after a late afternoon spent baking all sorts ahead of the weekend to be able to produce something tasty and fuss free!

Now its not often I confess that I have bought ready cooked rice, I find rice so simple to cook anyway its really no bother, plus previous ready versions I have found can be a bit unpleasant texture wise and even worse when they have gone cold. However I was very pleased to discover that the Veetee rice tasted just as good as home cooked rice, exactly as it should be. Its also produced safely and so you can trust that the rice is safe to be re-heated. Cooking for yourself is one thing but when serving to friends and family of all ages you have to be certain of these things! I had heard through friends about Veetee's rice products before how good they were, so it was great to get play with them myself!


Spicy Chorizo and Egg Fried Wholegrain Rice

Serves 2

Quick and Easy

Ingredients:

1 x Veetee Wholegrain rice tray

60g Chorizo, halved lengthways and sliced ¼ cm pieces

2 Spring onions, finely sliced – separate the greener bits into one pile and whitey bits in another pile

½ orange pepper, chopped finely

1 egg

½ green chilli, finely chopped

1 tsp coconut oil

S&P

Beat the egg lightly with a pinch of salt and pepper, stir through half the green sliced onion.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan until melted, add the beaten egg quickly swirling around the pan to form a flat thin omelette. Remove onto a chopping board and roll up tightly.

Meanwhile heat the pan with a little more oil if required and stir fry the chorizo slices, spring onion white parts and pepper for 4-5 minutes or until the chorizo has released its lovely oil and the vegetables are lightly browned and stir through the rice and chilli. Heat through, season to taste and toss together for 2-3 minutes and serve in your pretty bowls or one big pasta plate for your man!

Slice the reserved omelette finely and sprinkle over with any remaining spring onion to garnish.

Mr B's serving bowl!

My pretty serving bowl!

As mentioned at the beginning of my post, fried rice is great for using up leftovers and odd's n ends and this took care of two neglected spring onions, half a pack of abandoned chorizo and the last lonely egg from the fridge and so I am sending it over to Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary No Waste Food challenge, held by Laura over at 'I'd much rather bake Than' this month. (You can see my July round-up here).

As my rice dinner was also super quick to prepare and cook, plus it stretches out a small amount of Chorizo, I am also sending it over to this months Credit Crunch Munch, created by Camilla and Helen, and held by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary for August.

Many thanks to Gemma and Harriet at Phipps, and to Veetee for my samples.

Disclaimer: The recipe and images remain the property of Anne’s Kitchen and must not be reproduced without written consent. I received no payment and all opinions are my own.

Thai Turkey with Coconut Coriander Sauce - Random Recipe #36

This months Random Recipe #36 - New Year, New Book was set as always by Belleau Kitchen, was actually chosen by B – he had no idea what he was doing it for at the time but I gave him the most recent cookbook I was given (though admittedly was a slight cheat as I was given this particular book and the ‘Reggae Reggae’ cookbook together but nothing really appealed in there when I had previously looked!) I just simply handed the book over and told him to flick it open to a recipe – and with a slight sigh of relief Thai Pork with Coconut Coriander Sauce was read out! If you just noticed the deliberate change from the title to the reference above then well done – we did switch the meat from Pork to Turkey, mainly as I had bought reduced some Turkey breast steaks, and as the recipe called originally for Pork Fillet which is equally pretty lean it made an excellent and economical substitute!

So the book in question this month … its Rachel’s Favourite Food at Home (by Rachel Allen), and the Thai Pork is also the first recipe cooked from it. Dad gave me the book late last year after managing to source it for I think something like a measly 99p brand new in a clearance shop! I do like a bargain but really lack bookshelf space now (in fact a boxful linger sadly in the loft softly calling at night..either that or we’ve got pigeons!) and now I’ve actually had a proper look through it there are some rather tasty looking recipes including some Fruity Breakfast Muffins that the page just opened on as I got the book out to type it up!

This also reminded me once again (and the second time that week oops) to READ A RECIPE FROM START TO FINISH as we completely cacked up the timings and wasted precious time and energy making it! Dinner was finally served about 9pm! I have written the recipe out to make it easier for those with similar brain programming to me!

Many moons back I attended evening classes for a Thai Cookery course, it had been initially advertised in the local paper as South East Asian Cookery but I think Thai food was becoming popular and there must have been requests made and it was changed to just Thai cookery. To this day ashamedly I note that I have never looked up the difference! I am no expert by any means on Thai cusine and not really sure how authentic this is either but it has all the elements of a Thai meal, and despite our attempts to ruin it piece by piece, it actually turned out pretty tasty and can see us definitely making again.

The original recipe serves a whopping 10-12 so I have scaled it down somewhat to suit 2-3 adults. I also opted for using Gourmet Garden’s fresh herb and spice pastes as er its easier and I had them in! I left out the lemon zest as I er forgot to buy one. I’ve never used lemon zest in Thai recipes before either so wasn’t too concerned missing it out!

Ingredients:

400g Turkey breast, into 1x2cm chunks

Marinade:

2tbsp fresh coriander leaves chopped up

3 spring onions, roughly chopped

½ tbsp ginger paste

2 cloves garlic

Squeeze of lemon juice (I use bottled)

½ tps red chilli paste

½ tbsp lemongrass paste

1 heaped tbsp brown sugar

1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce

1 1/2 tbsp Nam Pla (fish sauce)

1 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

Sauce

1 tin coconut milk (in hindsight next time use ¾ tin)

2 tsp Nam Pla

3 tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves and stalks roughly chopped

S&p to taste

Some of the ingredients!

Method:

This is the bit I we-wrote completely - there are two options for making the marinade– option one is if you have a liquidizer or similar gadget. Option two is if you only have a food processor (I don’t this is how book states it?!)

Option one – whack all the marinade ingredients together in a liquidizer till nicely combined, mix with the Turkey and reserve for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

Option two – In the food processor add the coriander, spring onions, ginger, garlic, lemongrass, chilli and lemon juice, blitz and combine with the remaining marinade ingredients mix with the Turkey and reserve for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

Mmm soo good!

1) Heat a large frying pan until very hot (but not so hot the alarm goes ping ping ping) and lift the turkey bits out of the marinade (a slotted spoon in great here) and fry in a single layer for about 2 minutes, turn over and cook through – should be at the most 3-4 minutes and lovely and sticky and your kitchen smells fab. Keep warm

2) Meanwhile place the leftover marinade in a small pan and bring to the boil uncovered, and boil until slightly thickened, then add the sauce ingredients. (We were a little impatient having mis-read original instructions and added cornflour shh!)  It may well not need much seasoning – the soy and nam pla are quite salty on their own so do check first!

3) Serve the cooked turkey on top of rice if desired and lather a little sauce over the top or on the side. We actually poured most of the sauce back over the turkey to warm through! It most likely lost some marks at this point in the looks department but it tasted great! As you can see we didn't have rice - I used up some leftover chapati's and made a dry sweet potato curry on the side. Garnish with a little extra corinader and spring onions to hide the dodgy colour if you like.

No stake in the beauty contest but wins on taste! 

As I managed to make the recipe more economical by substituting Turkey breast for the Pork Fillet, and it was reduced to a purse friendly £1.78 I am sending over this to Credit Crunch Munch set up by Fuss Free Flavours and held by Fab Food 4 All this month:

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The trio of tasty cheats!

Disclaimer: Gourmet Garden provided me with the spice/ herb pastes for my own review and I was under no obligation to feature on Anne’s Kitchen

Frugal Sausage and Bean Casserole

On Sunday night, after an early start for work and then a few hours on the sofa relaxing when I got back I wanted to make something nice and warming for dinner but fairly easy at the same time.. B was helping fiddle about with the neighbour's car and definitely needed something to thaw him out it was so cold I honestly don't know how he didn't ice up but he was happy getting greasy with oil so that's the main thing! 

I like to pride myself regularly on making delicious meals but without an equally delicious price tag! Yes I love the odd treat like smoked salmon or fine champagne but its only doable on a lower income if you make cutbacks else where. I don’t like cutting back ever on taste though and it has to be enjoyable, if not why bother eating? 

I roughly costed the whole dish, considering I made three healthy portions at about 63p in total. Yes that is in pence! My secret? Always check the frozen and fresh reduced sections at your supermarket! The sausages were Butchers Selection Pork and Herb, I picked up 12 for £1 reduced to clear. The 3 Bean casserole pack was 10p, and got stashed in the freezer without ill effects! The stock pots I have a seemingly lifetime supply of from doing some bits with Knorr over the past few years. The vegetable puree is 'Taste the Difference' branded but I got two tubes for a pound, so works out pennies per squirt, and the handful of pasta shapes despite being utterly cute Alphabet shaped from an Italian deli for the small amount I used also doesn't amount to much. and that was it apart from good old friends Mr Salt and Mr Pepper!

Ingredients:

4 frozen pork and herb sausages

One bag 3 bean casserole mix

1 knorr herb stock pot

1 large squirt roasted vegetable and tomato puree

Handful small pasta shapes

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1) In a large lidded saute pan heat the oil and fry the sausages until nicely browned all over, add the veg pack and fry for a further five minutes. Meanwhile boil the kettle.

2) Add the stock pot to the pan along with the tomato puree, mix well and cover with boiling water Simmer for 20 minutes, covered.

3) The sausages should by now be cooked through and soft enough to cut, either use your spatula to cut into small pieces or remove and slice seperately, then return to the pan along with a nice sprinkle of pasta over. Top up with boiling water and simmer until the pasta has cooked through and there is your desired amount of liquid - great for mopping with bread after!

Sausages are great for dicing up into dishes like mine, stretching out cheaper ingredients at the same time as well as providing a tasty bit of protein too!

------------------------

I am sending my bargain Sausage Casserole over to Credit Crunch Munch for November, over at Dinner With Crayons, which was created by Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food 4 All

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!

Rum & Chocolate Chunk Bread and Butter Puddings - in under 10 minutes!

Like spiced or dark Rum?

Like Chocolate?

Like puddings?

Short on time?

Excellent stuff.

Say hello to my Rum & Chocolate Chunk Bread and Butter Puddings!!

Whilst making dinner the other night, I remembered my lovely B had bought some scotch pancakes reduced the day before (oh how I love a good yellow sticker!) and the mind started wandering.... it wasn't the easiest of wanders... Having moved house last month, half of my kitchen stuff is still in storage boxes, its semi-organised into an old storage unit but not brilliantly accessible either...I nearly twisted my ankle finding the ramekins but was worth the challenge!! Maybe it could be a future task for the Crystal maze?!! I had nothing to hand either to put the cream in but think my mini jam jar's make a novel pouring tool!

The oven in my new kitchen, to put it bluntly is crap. Nothing seems to brown in a hurry, its possibly older than me and as I live upstairs and the kitchen is downstairs, with my wonky knees going up and down every 5 minutes to check on things is not so good! Also dinner was about 15 minutes from being ready so I needed to make something fairly quick and easy.. I had experimented last year with microwave cakes, with some pretty good results so thought why not try with good old b&b pudding! I gave them 3 minutes, but next time I think I will do at 2.30 minutes for a slightly softer pudding..a lot will depend on the dish size and how powerful the zapper is!

Serves 2
Requires grill and microwave

Ingredients

4 scotch pancakes
butter for greasing/ spreading

1 egg
5 tbsp milk
2 tbsp dark spiced rum
1 heaped tbsp milk chocolate chunks (mine were from Dr Oetker. Some may have got hurt during the testing process...)
1 heaped tbsp vanilla sugar + a sprinkle to finish

Pre-heat grill if particularly ancient to medium-hot

Depending on the size of the ramekins, grease them and then butter the pancakes and cut into 4/ 5 pieces, assemble in dish tightly, scattering the chocolate chunks throughout the layers.

Beat the sugar, egg, milk and rum together, pour over the puddings to cover evenly and stand for a minute. Sprinkle over a little sugar

Microwave for 2-3 minutes or until just cooked - use a skewer to test. Transfer to the grill and brown to a desired shade.

Stand for a minute or two before eating - they will be very hot!!

These little puddings were great! Their texture was pretty similar to the more traditional oven baked variety and smothered in cream sauce were delicious!

As my puddings used up cheap ingredients, and were quick to cook I have put them in this months Credit Crunch Munch created by Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food for All and the host this month is Fish Fingers for Tea

Many thanks to Dr Oetker for the chocolate chunks :)

Spinach and Chickpea Eggah (Frugal and Fabulous)

Whilst I love my good quality meat, and of late had been the lucky recipient of some excellent quality meat I can be rather cheap when its comes to cooking. I still spend a fair amount on monthly shop as I like nice things (and tend to also hoard things on special - I have enough teabags and pasta until Christmas I think!) but I do also like a bargain, and this recipe is definitely one of them. Its nutritious, filling and delicious! Perfect hot for dinner, or cold the next day for lunch.

One of my money saving tips is that the chickpeas I always purchase are from the supermarkets 'world food' aisle - I recently got 4 tins under the brand name of Pride, for £1 in Sainsbury's! This compared to their own brand ones retailing at 69p per can! I am really not sure how that maths makes sense.....they still certainly taste like chickpeas..and both say chickpeas on the ingredients.....hmmm...

Last week my dad was coming around for dinner, and due to my shift patterns I hadn't been able (bothered) to go to the shops and instead did the sensible thing of poking around the kitchen cupboards and perusing cookbooks as to what I could make for dinner...... I love veggie food, infact I make it way more than carnivorous recipes but Dad is Dad. And Dad likes meat. But since he admitted to ordering a veggie pie a few months a few months back in a restaurant I have been working the veggie card and my normal anxieties over not serving him meat got put on hold. And I am rather pleased I did. The 'eggah' was soo tasty! And Dad liked it too!

The recipe was based upon a recipe for a Courgette and Onion Eggah, from a readers digest cookbook called 'Healthy one dish cooking' (that is surprisingly excellent - am working my way through it, thus far without disappointment). However I had no courgettes in, but spotted in the small print you could try a chickpea and spinach version.....I knew I had a tin in the cupboard, and a small amount of the latter in the freezer...and a lot of eggs...and the brain got ticking! Now whilst the book suggests two tins, believe me that one is enough! I also added an extra two eggs to bulk up my mixture (I buy trays of free range mixed weight as cheaper) and the one tin was the perfect ratio. I also did a little tweaking to the original recipe and they were very good tweaks!

Primarily I cook nowadays for one, and whilst I love garlic, I am sure my patients on the receiving end do not, so tend to limit its usage. Fresh doesn't keep forever, and some time back a friend introduced me to frozen little cubes of garlic and I was a overnight convert! In lieu of these, I suggest 1-2 cloves fresh garlic, finely chopped.

As mentioned earlier on - it was delicious served warm, with our supper consisting of olives, salad, freshly baked chilli cheese bread and equally great the next day cold for lunch too!

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 large white onion, finely sliced
1 garlic dorit (see abocve)
1 400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained
50g frozen weight of chopped spinach, thawed
2 tbsp + 2 tbsp olive oil (or use a little from the tomatoes)
4 sundried tomatoes, diced up
1 heaped tsp dried italian herb mix
6 eggs
4 tbsp milk
s&p

1) Heat the oil, fry the onion over a medium hot heat to cook through but add a little colour, adding the garlic at the end. Cool slightly

2) Beat the eggs, sundried tomatoes, milk, herbs, a little s&p and stir in the chickpeas and drained spinach until thoroughly mixed. Add the cooled onions

3) Pre-heat the grill to medium hot

4) In a oven proof frying pan, heat 2 tbsp oil, pour in the mixture, allow to sit for a minute, then gently start folding in the sides and folding over - think omelette not scrambled! gently repeat for a couple of minutes until nearly set.

5) Transfer the pan under the grill and cook for a further 5 or so minutes, or until evenly golden brown

6) Cool for a few minutes, then carefully ease onto a serving plate. However, I think my beloved pan is getting old and this didn't happen. If you have the same problem, use a blunt instrument to seperate into slices, then carefully ease out using a spatuala.

I'm also sending my eggah over to this months 'Credit Crunch Munch' held by Helen and Camila, as it such a great dish which is so inexpensive! I roughly costed it at £2.25, so roughly 56p per serving!