Carrot + Coriander Soup

So I managed to get a cheap hand blender for a £10 to make soups with in the summer, and I have to say... I'm sightly impressed. Other than scratching the bottom of my stock pan off a little, it worked well!
I didn't have any ground coriander in, so it was a bit of a struggle, but the old mixed herbs never let me down!

Ingredients (for 3 meals):
750g of Carrots (or 3/4 of a kg bag) - £0.55
1 Potato - £0.10
1 Onion - £0.08
2 tsp of mixed herbs
Handful of fresh coriander
2 Vegetable Stock cubes - £0.20
Total price per meal: £0.31

1) Chop the onion roughly and add to the stock pot or large saucepan, with some butter. Sprinkle the mixed herbs over as they cook. Continue to stir so they don't stick, and cook for about 10 minutes.

2) Add the chopped carrot and potato to the pan, followed by enough stock to cover all the veg. I found that two stock cubes was enough (about 750ml to 1L), but feel free to use more if you think it's needed.

3) Bring to the boil then simmer for half an hour.

4) Use the hand blender (try not to blend the bottom of your pan like I did!) and blend until smooth, or the consistency that you prefer.

5) Garnish with a handful of coriander and serve.

Potato and Spinach Gratin

This recipe was in a budget recipe book, and to be fair, it does quite well at keeping ingredients to a minimum, and using commonly found and cheap ingredients. I have made a few tweaks to the recipe however, to make it more tasty, as the original recipe I found had too much egg (not nice) and was quite bland. So this one should be better!

I made this on a Sunday, so I had it for lunch and dinner, and had leftovers for lunch the next day. Yes, I was pretty sick of it after that haha!

Ingredients - 3 portions
Half a bag of potatoes (1kg ish) - £0.60
Half a bag of spinach (about 200g) - £0.54
300ml double cream - £0.69
Two eggs - £0.16
Mozzarella - £0.50
2 Tomatoes - £0.25
1 Onion - £0.07
1 Clove of Garlic - £0,03
Price per portion - £0.95

1) Slice the potatoes about 0.5cm thick, and boil for about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, take them out and add to a bowl. Put the spinach in to boil for another 5 minutes.

2) Whilst sorting out the spinach and potatoes, add some diced onion to a frying pan with the finely chopped garlic. Fry in oil for about 10 minutes.

3) Whisk the eggs with the cream, and set aside.

4) Layer the potatoes on the bottom of an oven proof dish, followed by spinach (try and press out some of the water whilst transferring from the boiling pan, with the back of a spoon), some onions and garlic and finally some mozzarella. Repeat the layering again, then for the final layer do potatoes, mozzarella and sliced tomatoes.

5) Pour the cream and egg mixture over, and transfer to a preheated oven at 180c for 40 minutes or until golden on the top.

Chicken and Mushroom Stew

So last year I invested in a slow cooker, which I used a couple of times, but never really got into. This year I'll try, I do prefer actually standing over the hobs and actually doing it in the moment, not waiting 6 hours for my dinner, but we'll see how it goes.
I got to the house and since the original recipe said it takes 7.5 hours, and it was already 2.30pm, I had to make some adjustments, because 9pm is pub time!!

Chicken thighs and legs are so much cheaper than breasts. if you can bear a bit of bone, try it. For stews, casseroles and tagines, they're great, probably go for the breast for curries etc.
The original recipe had wine and fresh basil in, which I omitted, because for me, I'd prefer to drink the wine rather than out it in my dinner! I can't afford to glug it into my meals, so I swapped it for veg stock and used a sprinkling of mixed herbs for the fresh basil. Not the same effect, but I haven't had chance to get fresh herbs yet (apart from coriander which I intend on using later on in the week!)

Ingredients - makes 3 meals
6 Chicken thighs (or legs/quarters) - £1.99
Chopped tomatoes - £0.31
2 Veg stock cubes - £0.20ish
2 Onions - £0.15
2 Cloves of Garlic - £0.06
Punnit of mushrooms - £0.59
To serve: Ciabbatta (or rice/potatoes/pasta etc) - £0.69
Cost per meal = £1.33

1) Brown off the chicken thighs in a pan - I just left it a couple of minutes then turned them over. Once that's done, move them into the slow cooker (if you don't have a slow cooker, put them in a stock pot or casserole dish.)

2) Fry the onions and garlic on a low heat for a little while, so they're soft, and add to the slow cooker/pot/casserole dish.

3) Pour the tin of chopped tomatoes over, and add the two stocks cubes (in water, I usually use a mug for each.)

4) Leave the slow cooker on a low setting for 7 hours or medium for 5 hours/ high for 4 hours. For a stock pot, I'd leave it on a low heat for maybe an hour and a half, and for a casserole dish that can be put in the oven, perhaps 2 hours at 180c.

5) Once those times are up, add the mushrooms, and cook for a further half an hour. Serve with ciabatta or if you prefer rice, pasta or potatoes.

So I have dinner for another two nights this week!

Back to Uni - First Shopping List

So it's been a while, we didn't keep up last year as we were coming up to assignment deadlines and exams. I plan on carrying on the recipes this term! Over summer I bought a couple of recipe books to get the inspiration flowing, but mainly to look at how I could make their recipes more affordable (who needs marjoram anyway?!)

My first shop was expensive because I had to buy some basics, and get some cleaning products. But I was happy I could slip some chicken into the budget this week because I've got to gradually get used to not having meat every day (which we do at home.)
There's a picture of my receipt below, and I'll be writing up about my first meal back at uni in the next post!